Unless you've actually experienced working in such an environment, you have no idea.
At the beginning of the day: "The company didn't think there would be as much demand, so they didn't provide enough bums on seats to deal with it."
At the end of the day: "The company didn't think there would be as much demand, so they didn't provide enough bums on seats to deal with it."
The idea that staff are just killing time before they go home is absolutely ridiculous. In actual fact, some of those staff will be looking at the boards and the number of calls waiting while thinking "do I take another one before I knock off and risk being stuck with a difficult call that I won't be paid any extra for and could potentially miss my bus/train home with no other means to get back other than forking out for an expensive taxi out of my meagre wage?"
Please think before making such silly assumptions.
Oh it was to bring some a little humour to something which actually really grates on me - from seeing it with my own eyes in an earlier part of my career. So, yes I do very much have an idea. I have worked in such environments before; so I know exactly what I am talking about.
At the beginning of the day, the amount of staff who were in the kitchenette having a cuppa was ridiculous when, in fact, the phone lines had opened to customers. As for the end of the day, said staff were waiting by the clock in/out machines at 4:58/4:59pm - ie before the phone lines closed at 5:00pm.
So I have not made “silly assumptions” when, actually, I have direct experience of such a work environment. I appreciate that many workplaces are exactly as you describe; however, my past work experience shows that, conversely, there are examples of customer care teams which don’t actually care.