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cuntvalet posted:Tomorrow is the first day of no 15 minute breaks. Does your company have a bonus system, if so I know a fun way for the CRA to destroy them in painfully fun ways.
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Jun 25, 2012 20:34
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sbaldrick posted:Does your company have a bonus system, if so I know a fun way for the CRA to destroy them in painfully fun ways. No bonus system yet. It's just a new call centre so who knows? So...there are rumblings of wanting to start a union...the idea was started by a co worker who is a somewhat friend of mine. I feel pressured to support the idea but I have no idea what I should do. It all feels like a tech support mafia to me...sigh.
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Jun 26, 2012 03:32
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cuntvalet posted:No bonus system yet. It's just a new call centre so who knows? Are you under a contract or considered "at-will" employment? I would check your laws on what an employer can terminate you for. If you unionize and only get a small group to start they would likely just fire everyone and replace you.
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Jun 26, 2012 03:36
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Yeah, if your state is a "right to work" state (basically: "gently caress you, employee"), they'll just shitcan everyone under a certain threshold. If you decide to move forward for real, keep it quiet until you have a lot of support.
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Jun 26, 2012 03:39
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Not a lawyer, but for a wee bit of clarity: Right to work means you have to right to take on a job without having to join the union, if there is one. At will employment means the employer or employee can sever the relationship at any time for basically any reason that is not illegal. If you live in an at will employment, right to work state, you're probably hosed. Any new employee won't have to join your union. Any union members who agitate for change will just be fired and replaced with people from the legions of unemployed out there. Basically you'd better have every call center rep in your company a confirmed member before management finds out, and even if you do it's still probably going to amount to almost no leverage.
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Jun 26, 2012 03:52
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He lives in Canada, no such thing as "right to work" here. You can always get a doctors note for stress related issues or just get up and start taking a piss. If they bitch threaten them with the labour board or Human rights tribunal and watch them poo poo themselves.
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Jun 26, 2012 14:30
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sbaldrick posted:He lives in Canada, no such thing as "right to work" here. You can always get a doctors note for stress related issues or just get up and start taking a piss. If they bitch threaten them with the labour board or Human rights tribunal and watch them poo poo themselves. Yeah I was gonna say I wasn't sure what Canada was in terms of right to work, etc. I know that washroom breaks are gonna sky rocket for everybody but at orientation the company basically said that when we switch our phone software to washroom break, we only have 8 minutes of that (for the whole day) before they begin considering it "unproductive aux time" and may not pay us for said time. As for the union thing, I definitely will not be the straw man who gets burnt for it as an example. I'm not signing until I know a lot of people are behind it. While I said im on good terms with the person whose starting it (and thus, feel obligated), he's the sort of person who finds a reason to get angry and talk to management every other (if not every) single day. He gets physically abusive to his desk if he has a bad call so honestly, I'm not sure this will go over well. Also, I may not like my job but I do like getting paid. Id rather not get tossed during my probationary period for conspiracy to unionize but that's just me...
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Jun 26, 2012 15:02
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There's a good union topic in A/Tot right now. Unionization for call centre workers is a pretty good idea though.
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Jun 26, 2012 16:32
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I finally got moved to the dialer team today  no more calls! And even better is that I am now more or less a business analyst which can lead to much greater positions within the company and beyond.
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Jun 26, 2012 17:30
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It's getting pretty bad in our department. We're not a traditional call center, we work at the corporate headquarters and deal with angry customers about everything. We're seen as a dumping ground for other departments, and it shows. In the past month, I've seen 20 people from our department leave. Not get fired, just straight up quit. From my original training class of 15, we're down to me and three other people. There's a real feeling of isolation, a feeling of desperation. You walk past people in the hallway, and everyone's talking about updating their resume, applying for other departments, having interviews with other companies. When a job opened up on a non-customer facing store support line, they received 47 applications from our department, we only have about a hundred people total.  And queues are even worse. Yesterday our hold time was 20 minutes, with 12 people in queue. It hasn't been this bad since holiday.
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Jun 26, 2012 21:17
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cuntvalet posted:Yeah I was gonna say I wasn't sure what Canada was in terms of right to work, etc. The second they stop paying you for taking a bathroom break, call the labour board and walk into HR tell them, walk up to the Manager/Owner and tell them. Watch them poo poo themselves.
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Jun 27, 2012 14:36
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sbaldrick posted:The second they stop paying you for taking a bathroom break, call the labour board and walk into HR tell them, walk up to the Manager/Owner and tell them. Watch them poo poo themselves. And then tell them that counts as a bathroom break tehehe.
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Jun 27, 2012 21:00
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Jeoh posted:There's a good union topic in A/Tot right now. Unionization for call centre workers is a pretty good idea though. I feel sad that my old call center crushed two unionization suits and three lawsuits against them. God, I hate them so much. I hear they've only gotten worse since I left, too. V Texas appears to be both. Hooray. Aerofallosov fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Jun 29, 2012 |
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Jun 28, 2012 01:29
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Loving Life Partner posted:Yeah, if your state is a "right to work" state (basically: "gently caress you, employee"), they'll just shitcan everyone under a certain threshold. Please, everyone, stop confusing at-will employment with right-to-work.
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Jun 29, 2012 02:40
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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:Please, everyone, stop confusing at-will employment with right-to-work. Given the US use right to work in place of at-will everyone is aware of it. It doesn't matter either way as no province in Canada would get away with it.
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Jun 29, 2012 14:27
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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:Please, everyone, stop confusing at-will employment with right-to-work. Yeah I do always get those mixed up 
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Jun 29, 2012 14:38
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sbaldrick posted:Given the US use right to work in place of at-will everyone is aware of it. It doesn't matter either way as no province in Canada would get away with it. No we don't, they're two entirely different concepts, as was explained on this very page. At-will employment means that you can be let go at any time, without cause. Right-to-work means employers can hire scabs/nonunion workers and you can't stop them. OK, thanks. RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Jun 29, 2012 |
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Jun 29, 2012 23:23
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Also I'd argue that right-to-work is pretty much irrelevant in this context because while I think there are a couple unions for call center workers they're uncommon and ineffectual anyway.
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Jun 29, 2012 23:25
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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:Also I'd argue that right-to-work is pretty much irrelevant in this context because while I think there are a couple unions for call center workers they're uncommon and ineffectual anyway. In pretty much every other case you're right, but the company I work for is CWA for all it's call center employees and it's actually an extremely strong union. They just have the benefit of having been around forever, so it's not a newly unionized shop. The other side of that is that if contract negotiations aren't going well, it can make a lovely stressful job even more lovely and stressful
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Jun 30, 2012 14:09
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This union thing is getting crazy. Remember how I said I felt bullied into being a supporter by a fellow colleague/kinda friend? They're meeting today, I made the excuse that I'll be busy and can't make the meeting. However said friend (oh hell, his name is James, it's a common enough name) wants me to run for union rep because he thinks people would elect me in a heart beat. I just want to quietly go about my work and hope things get better, that's all. is that so much to ask?Part of me wants to submit an anonymous report to management but why bother? Maybe this will be good for something. Also, somebody wrote a letter to the editor about the way things are going at work. It probably would have garnered my support but the person is bitching about how even of your test scores were good, you could be terminated if your floor performance sucked. Well, duh! Isn't that common sense?
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Jun 30, 2012 15:21
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My center doesn't have any 15 min breaks. It's not required in Wisconsin to give employees any.quote:Wisconsin law does not require that employers provide brief rest periods, coffee breaks, or meal periods to adult employees, although the Department recommends, at Wis. Admin. Code § DWD 274.04(2), that employers do so. Also, starting last week we moved from using avaya to using net term. By doing so, instead of just doing one project (inbound or outbound) it is blended. I might take 3 outbound calls, and an inbound call comes in that I have to take. This is also blended with caller id calls, which are the devil. What they are is that our dialer will call someone 3+ times a day, and when the customer answers nobody will be there. They get frustrated and call the number back (usually a local number to them) and they get us. We then have to try and upgrade their services. Fun times!
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Jun 30, 2012 17:12
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cuntvalet posted:This union thing is getting crazy. Remember how I said I felt bullied into being a supporter by a fellow colleague/kinda friend? I like how you want things to get better and then turn right around and consider ratting out one of the very few things that might actually make things better. Is this union rep thing one who interfaces with the public, management or both? Because you really need a union rep who can do those things, not one who is 'electable'.
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Jul 1, 2012 16:29
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Buried alive posted:I like how you want things to get better and then turn right around and consider ratting out one of the very few things that might actually make things better. Is this union rep thing one who interfaces with the public, management or both? Because you really need a union rep who can do those things, not one who is 'electable'. Frankly, I'm tired of hearing about it and being pushed into being a founding member or whatever the case may be. I'm not signing on to anything until I know that many people from the centre have already signed on to it. I've been assured that I can't lose my job from being a supporter, but frankly, I'm not so sure. As for "ratting" them out, would I actually? No. Do I wish I could sometimes? Sure. As for the rep thing, James believes it needs to be someone electable. I think there's way more involved than that. I'm not sure I like that he's the driving force of this, when this is a guy who becomes physically violent towards his desk/belongings the moment something doesn't go his way. Beyond that, apparently our company has decided that instead of paying us on set days, they're going to pay us bi-weekly, which is fine. Allows them to be a little more accurate with pay time when we're stuck on a call past the end of the day and what have you. I don't mind/care. But apparently this change is pissing off everybody and their little dogs too. I'm not sure what exactly it's going to accomplish but apparently we're going to get paid small amount(six days or so) to tide us over until the next pay, then that 6 days won't be on it. It's a bit confusing. On a happier note thought! (I know, this is the rant thread, but meh)... On Friday I was just not feeling it. I was in a lovely mood and all, then I got a call from somebody who got the newest Samsung phone and couldn't set up his email. We struggled with it until I realized he probably didn't have his data on. Got that set up, and pretty much went above and beyond, setting up his whole phone for him, then he asked how he could get a hold of my supervisor to tell them what a great employee I am and how I made him feel important and special.  With my luck though, I'll get amazing feedback, then they'll bitch at my AHT spiking because I took an hour on that call to ensure he'd be happy with his phone.  Call centres, man.
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Jul 1, 2012 16:55
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Let me start off by saying we're doing some calls for a government organisation, and so we have a shitload of info on everyone we're ringing. Coworker was looking for a specific person by name, person's dad picks up and says "No, gently caress off." before hanging up. Now, co-worker doesn't like this so calls him straight back. Then this happens (paraphrased): The gently caress are you ringing me for you loving gently caress! Mate, there's no need for you to be this rude, I'm looking for your son, is he - You're a loving oval office! Look, is he there or not. I will come to your house and and shove my dick down your throat! I highly doubt that. I will loving find you! Well, considering you live at *address* I'm more likely to come to your house and shove my dick down your throat.Silence before dipshit hangs up again. He told the supervisor after it happened, was laughed at and told not to ring back if someone hangs up again.
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Jul 2, 2012 12:48
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I wish I could say something like that and have my manager laugh. I got pissed at someone being a giant dick and hung up on them and it had to go to an HR rep and have a decision and blah blah blah, and overall they decided to give me a verbal warning.
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Jul 2, 2012 14:16
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The closest thing I've ever said to that was on a call one Friday afternoon at like... 4:45PM. This lady called in and was freaking out that OH MY GOD she didn't have internet for two days! And why wasn't she getting internet?! So we did some trouble shooting (Grudgingly - she nagged at me EVERY. SINGLE. STEP). Turns out it was a no sync and she'd need a tech. They'd probably get to her on Monday (While they DO do some Saturday visits, it's rare and given the quality of your average CenturyLink tech...). A shitstorm ensued. She screams and goes off on me. She had her kids that weekend! How was she going to entertain her kids!? What would they do!? What could she do?! How could she POSSIBLY keep her kids entertained without the internet!? And boy I was a loving horrible person, what was she going to do!? So I kind of just automatically replied, "Well, you could try paying attention to them." A long silence followed. Oh god. I knew it. I was going to be fired. But at that point, it was a sort of hope, too. Firing meant freedom. She just quietly hung up after that. I still put the ticket in for a tech to be nice, but boy. I felt ... strangely neutral about it. A part of me felt guilty and a part of me felt like I really only spoke the truth. It was just horrifying how the words shot out of my mouth like some sort of sarcastic breath weapon. And yes, my supervisor chuckled slightly but did give me a warning. Aerofallosov fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Jul 3, 2012 |
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Jul 3, 2012 03:37
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Korgan posted:Words: I find giving the computer screen the double bird is the best that I get.
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Jul 3, 2012 05:18
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I hung up on a guy this week. He asked me whether making a claim would cause his rates to go up. Boilerplate question, boilerplate answer (there are many factors that determine your rates, we cannot determine what your new rate will be until your next renewal period, at which time you can blahblahblah). He didn't accept the answer. Then I said, "Sir, that's how insurance works. If the underwriting department thinks your claims history makes you more likely to file claims in the future, then your rate will increase." He didn't accept this, got rude, and asked to speak to the underwriting department. "Sir, customers cannot speak to the underwriting department. Even I can't speak to the underwriting department. Besides, they would be going off of incomplete information, because your policy isn't up for renewal yet." At this point, he demanded a supervisor or another department. I told him that nobody would be able to answer his question satisfactorily, because his question doesn't have an answer. He called me a liar, so I hung the gently caress up. If I hadn't hung the gently caress up, I would have shouted, "What do you think we are, you bitter twisted old fuckwit?? fortune-tellers!?" and THEN hung the gently caress up. So I think I chose the lesser of 2 evils. I am so loving burnt out on this poo poo. I goddamn hate old people, stubborn old people, stubborn and stupid old people, but most of all stubborn stupid old people who live in loving Jersey. I have transferred off calls without saying a word for weeks now, just because I didn't feel like talking. Not even a single write-up. I really think nobody there gives a poo poo. As long as I pull down perfect claim QAs (and I do), nobody bothers me about my phone shenanigans. On one hand, I feel like I really want to get fired because I will finally be goddamn free. On the other hand, I have debt. fml
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Jul 3, 2012 07:02
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Aerofallosov posted:So I kind of just automatically replied, "Well, you could try paying attention to them." I think anyone who has worked in a call centre for any length of time has a story something like this. My favourite was overhearing other employees final frustrated outbursts as they had one of those calls. You can't hear any of their call but you can sure as hell hear that statement where they've finally been driven insane. "Do you understand what bottom left means?!" "Listen, we're going to be here all day if you don't start listening to me, are you going to start listening to me?!" "No one here told you that, if they had then I'd have found and killed them by now!" and one of mine: "I'm here to give correct answers, if you want merely convenient answers, then why not just make something up?"
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Jul 3, 2012 07:12
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One girl I was managing came out with this gem: "Well if you hadn't spent all your money on booze and cigarettes then you'd have plenty of money for formula for your baby. It's not my fault you can't work out what's important and what isn't." I just made a "simmer down" sort of gesture and left it at that - anyone that's worked collections has had that sort of call, she just said what we've all thought while on them. Telling her off would have helped nothing. I once had a customer tell me "You're acting like Jesus and you're trying to... To kill me!" To this day I have no clue what that was about.
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Jul 3, 2012 07:48
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martyrdumb posted:I am so loving burnt out on this poo poo. I goddamn hate old people, stubborn old people, stubborn and stupid old people, but most of all stubborn stupid old people who live in loving Jersey.
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Jul 3, 2012 07:52
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martyrdumb posted:I am so loving burnt out on this poo poo. I goddamn hate old people, stubborn old people, stubborn and stupid old people, I was sat down yesterday if I was burnt out. I said yes. I was asked if I had begun looking for employment elsewhere, and I also said yes. I probably should have lied and said no. But I just don't care anymore.
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Jul 3, 2012 21:38
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JackRabbitStorm posted:I was sat down yesterday if I was burnt out. I said yes. I was asked if I had begun looking for employment elsewhere, and I also said yes. I probably should have lied and said no. But I just don't care anymore. Why do managers ask us this? Also, an update about the HR shenanigans. HR actually asked me to call them, and I used skype and a freeware voice changer to call them. She seemed really nervous during the phone call when I was talking about specific things that managers had done. The week after that, corporate HR flew in to visit us. They randomly picked 25% of the call center for a "feedback session," and I haven't found anyone who was included in this session. :\ I wasn't picked for the group feedback session, so I asked for an individual session with HR. I noticed after the session that my manager suddenly found a ton of calls where I had made little mistakes, began talking to me about how I needed to pick up the slack, etc. I wasn't surprised, but I felt really scared. I hate this job, but I don't intend to quit until I pay off my car and build up significant savings, and have some part time work lined up. As lovely as this job is, losing my car and moving back in with my parents is much worse. I talked to the HR person, and she just seemed out of touch. She didn't seem aware of how things are run, with the breaks set months in advance and the lack of bathroom breaks. She didn't know anything about what we're scored on. She asked specific questions about things that had been called in on my anonymous phone calls, but she refused to guarantee my anonymity, so I didn't know what to do except make neutral statements. Fortunately, I had an unrelated medical issue that I also talked to HR about. I just mentioned that flexible breaks could be good for everyone, because some people have medication that makes them dizzy or drowsy if they haven't had a chance to stand up and walk around. I mentioned to the corporate HR person that I was on medication that made me dizzy, because I was trying to show that this could totally happen to actual people. Unfortunately, HR just totally missed the point, and apparently I'm supposed to have my doctor fill out a medical accomodation so I can get walking breaks. I was told my manager would be informed about my requesting a medical accomodation, and that afternoon the hostility from my manager immediately stopped, and she started acting friendly again. So... I think my manager is assuming that I was asking a lot of questions about some medical issue. Not that that would stop them from firing me--I've heard about a cancer patient getting fired when the chemo made it too difficult for her to concentrate. Urgh. The manager that quit coming in after I made one report has also come back, and nothing at all has changed. I feel annoyed, but there's just nothing to be done until I quit. At least I feel slightly less hopeless now.
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Jul 4, 2012 00:21
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Is the term 'valued customer' code for 'loving rear end in a top hat of a human being' with your call centers too?
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Jul 6, 2012 03:47
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Boomer The Cannon posted:Is the term 'valued customer' code for 'loving rear end in a top hat of a human being' with your call centers too? Like the lady who yelled at me yesterday because she waited on hold for an hour and no one picked up? WHILE THE MESSAGE SAID WE WERE CLOSED DUE TO THE HOLIDAY!? THE WHOLE TIME SHE WAS HOLDING? I did call her a valued customer before I sent her to the customer service department, actually.
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Jul 6, 2012 05:17
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Boomer The Cannon posted:Is the term 'valued customer' code for 'loving rear end in a top hat of a human being' with your call centers too? That or "you were too busy slamming the caps-lock key to include any useful identifying information like, say, your name". Occasionally it also means "I am bulk-processing a whole bunch of the same things today and this is a copy-pasta email"
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Jul 6, 2012 10:30
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Somebody on my team used to interject "you're a very important customer" whenever he had the urge to say "you're being a complete loving rear end in a top hat", but he wasn't so good at changing the tone or delivery, so it led to some really classic overheard moments.
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Jul 6, 2012 12:31
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Well, I think I just started an interdepartmental war (Okay, not that bad). Basically my service in my small town is poo poo. There's a problem with the signal fluctuating in our node, which affects quite a few people. It happens the exact same everywhere, not just for me. Working for the tier 3 support has it's bonuses, this is one of those times. So I moved, called in TC, had maintenance done. Well, I went and got married so I haven't really been at home to call back in. I finally asked a lead what the best thing to do. He scheduled a maintenance work order, which skips a regular technician from coming to the house. The dispatch department rejected the call, giving some bullshit excuse. My department leads (3 of 4 of them) got pissed. A few emails later, contact to my department director, I got my maintenance work order. I like to pretend, because it makes me feel good that the leads were getting pissed in my favor.
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Jul 6, 2012 14:52
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We got a group of FNG's coming in at the end of the month, 30 or so doe eyed newbies fresh off the street, most don't even have call center experience. They think if they hold their nose and work the floor for 6 months, they'll get their foot in the door and be able to transfer to a graphic design job or whatever the gently caress they think they learned in college. I just want to walk up to them and say "If you remember everything they taught you in training, you'll last a week. If you forget everything they taught you, you'll last a month. Welcome to the suck."
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Jul 6, 2012 16:10
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Boomer The Cannon posted:I take it 'The Golden Girls' has been ruined for you too? Oh god. Back when I used to do liberal fundraising via phone, we had a campaign in Florida that we worked, and it totally ruined what is one of my favorite guilty pleasures.
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Jul 6, 2012 19:40
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