My wife used to work in a number of different jobs that involved call center like activity, and she felt that the only way she could really do her job well was to buy and bring her own headset to work every day. Of course, that didn't help entirely with ancient switching systems.

Call center work is a pretty thankless profession, it seems. Either you're calling people who don't want to hear from you, or you're talking to people who are calling you, already with *"a good head of steam."