A study of Australian contact centres has revealed an important difference between the reasons why agents leave their jobs and their managers' perceptions of those reasons.

Change of life circumstances such as relocation or family changes aside, agents and managers both put lack of career opportunities at the top of the list, but while 60 percent of agents cited stress as a first or second factor in leaving, only 8 percent of managers ascribed that importance to it.

Both groups identified the same causes of stress, including include dealing with customer complaints, poor relationships with other parts of the organisation, inadequate information systems, insufficient training and schedule adherence (insufficient time between calls and too much time between breaks).

-Imagine if we were measured the way agents are," James Brooks, managing director of Genesys Australasia challenged his audience at the company's user conference in Melbourne. -This level of control is extremely stressful for agents," he added, reporting that one agent said -I'm just like a dog on a leash."

He also noted that some causes of customer discontent -- such as frustration caused by excessive hold times or interactive voice recognition systems -- are caused by management decisions.

Managers have unrealistic expectations and fail to understand what it is like to be an agent, he said. Eighty percent of agents believed management did not appreciate how stressful the work is.

Perhaps that's not surprising, because Brooks said the study showed that half the managers spend less than five hours a month talking to agents. He recommended managers should get on the phones to experience the strain for themselves.

The study was performed in June 2003 and involved interviews with 80 managers and 25 agents.

Copyright © 2009 CBS Interactive, a CBS Company. All Rights Reserved.
ZDNET is a registered service mark of CBS Interactive. ZDNET Logo is a service mark of CBS Interactive.