Parting shots for the center…

Since Yesterday was my last day at the call center. I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I also didn’t hesitate to use my exit survey to let the center know what I think of them and they poor way the center is managed. Here for your enjoyment is my letter that criticized just the tip of the iceberg. I promised a friend who reads this forum I would post it here for his reading enjoyment. Everyone take enjoyment with it as well. Every word here is true and just a peek at how badly run that dump is. Since I have zero intention of going back, I didn’t just burn the bridge… I nuked it.

When filling out the exit survey. I came across a section that asked me what changes that could have improved my experience with the company. In the mood to be honest and I mean brutally honest, I submitted the following answer. I post it here out of fear that management will be too lazy to read it and afraid to hear the real problems that are going on over there. Bon appetite…

Peter

I feel that morale was a serious problem on the floor, which is to be expected when dealing with such a large number of employees. But management’s handing of this was poor, unorganized and lead to a lot of hostility and bitterness from employees on the floor. No one felt they were capable of doing better things, and most didn’t because favoritism was and still is a large problem. When people who have been here for over two years are passed over for a position on a specialty team for someone who has been here for less than six months, you know there is a problem with favoritism. This kind of blatant bias is what led me to consider looking for work elsewhere, because I didn’t think management was fair or impartial when recruiting for higher positions. Because guidelines for moving up kept shifting and changing, it was hard for people to work and earn their chance to move up in the company. I happen to know a lot of people who left the company because they became frustrated with their inability to move up despite exceptional stats and above average performance evaluations.

Speaking of performance evaluations, the current rating system for quality is highly flawed and another cause for the center’s poor morale. The system lacks the ability to move up and make goals for improvement. There are only three levels one can achieve: Misery, Mediocrity and Excellence. This presents a massive problem because Excellence is a very hard grade to attain. According to team leaders I have spoken with, an excellence is rarely given out and a call has to be absolutely perfect to merit one. On the other end of the spectrum, a misery is easily achieved because there are actually guidelines that merit an automatic grade of misery if committed. That leaves the middle ground: mediocrity. This word is supposed to cover the entire gap between the absolute worst and absolute best calls taken by any given agent. Does the person who even made this system even know the definition of this word? According to dictionary.com, the definition of mediocre means to do a job that is and I quote “rather poor or inferior”. Let me give you a few examples of calls that were graded a mediocre and were not excellent:

1) I spoke to a TL about a call that I took during a scorecard, and during our interview she said that I had taken a call that could have qualified for an excellence but didn’t. The reason for this wasn’t the quality of service provided to the client. Not only was the issue resolved, but the client left the call with a high opinion of the company and their services. It was not my attitude that caused the call not to score a high mark because I was kind and very courteous to the client at all time. The reason why I was denied excellence despite having one of the best calls of my two and a half years here in the company: dead air. Because there was a 30 second pause while I was checking SVP to see of the modem was back online, I was denied the score that the call rightfully deserved.

2) On another occasion, I took a call in HSI where the client asked to have some work done with her television services. I apologized to the client and informed her she had come through to the wrong division and offered to transfer her immediately. The client agreed and was transferred rather promptly to the correct division. I spoke to my team leader regarding this call, because it was monitored. According to this TL, the call was a moment of excellence and was going to be given a grade until I made the transfer. Even though I was polite, kind and a true ambassador to the company, I was denied an excellence because I cold transferred the client. The reason why I cold transferred the client is because at the time the North East market had removed the transfer number from Cleo and left us with a number that only allowed cold transfers (the 74158 auto number). At the time we were forbidden to make warm transfers, and even though I showed the TL the handout that was given to use that specifically said we were not allowed to warm transfer, I still didn’t get the excellence cause I should have done it anyway. This TL basically told me that in order to obtain the excellence, I should have ignored the new guidelines and went against the client’s wishes.

Here’s my question: because these calls were a sliver below excellence, do they deserve to be labeled mediocre? Were these calls poor and inferior? Both of these calls were officially rated moments of mediocrity, but does that mean I’m a sub standard worker? My handle time for the year is under 450 seconds and I scored Quality Plus on the last two PA evaluations. Does mediocre fit the bill when describing my performance? I don’t think it does and this is the problem with the quality system. Being called mediocre everyday is very upsetting, and is another reason why people eventually get fed up and quit. Would you stay at your job very long if your boss came by your desk everyday and called said, “You’re doing a mediocre job!” I don’t think you would, yet this is the kind of mental abuse that workers here on the floor have to put up with all the time. My own therapist calls this work space unhealthy, and sites this abuse as a prime reason why so many choose to leave despite the high wages and more than generous benefits.

Both of these calls provided above are prime examples of what is wrong with the system. Monitoring is unbalanced and thus stacked against the person taking the calls. Monitors seem to go out of their way to avoid handing out an excellence as with the two examples listed above, and don’t hesitate to hand out miseries right left and center despite the chance there may be a perfectly good explanation for what happened. I’ve had over half a dozen miseries overturned because the person monitoring the call neglected to consider guidelines and demarks when evaluating the call. I got a misery from quality because I transferred a call to the corporate line and refused to troubleshoot. The reason why I did this was because the account in question was a corporate account. We have always been told never to troubleshoot a corporate account and to always transfer. So I was given a misery for following the rules, and mistakes like this are common. I fought the misery and it was rightly overturned, but there are many are afraid to challenge the system out of fear they would lose favorwith management and stick out as someone who complains (despite being right about the issue), thus lowering any chance of moving up within the company.

Attitude and morale makes a world of difference when trying to run a good floor, and the current attitude being projected by management who run the HSI/CDV projects and floor is poor and unhealthy. Many on the floor seem unwanted and expendable, thus not welcome and undervalued. The easiest way to look at how a company treats their employee would be to look at how they are treated during the holidays. Christmas is a prime example. It’s a time when good cheer and good will is supposed to be spread among all men and women. What did HSI do to celebrate the holiday in 2005? Nothing. Not a single thing. No even a card to wish their employee a good holiday and a happy new year for them and their family. Compare that to the other divisions on the floor who give out freed 30lbs turkeys to their people, and treat their employees like gold. I’m not saying our project should go out of their way to match that, but to do nothing was completely unprofessional and without class.

It’s a fact that turnover likely costs this company millions in lost income because they have to retrain and reintegrate new people into the floor almost year round because of high attrition. The reason for this cannot just be the job, but is the fault of management and their inability to curb low morale. People are made to believe they are not worthy and incapable of doing a good job. It’s hard for them to improve or work to improve performance if the PA system keeps changing every six months, thus making it impossible to set goals. People are made to think they do nothing but a bad job because the only time we hear from our TL or managers is to be told off when we are making a mistake or seriously messed up. When all the stuff you hear is negative, people cannot help but feel depressed, unwanted and all of a sudden people are quitting or going on a multi-month sick leaves for stress. When there are so many people walking out on the job, this cannot be blamed on the people because we are all having the same problem and then walking out. A strong suggestion would be find out why so many people leave, and try to change that and curb attrition and then you wouldn’t have to keep recruiting so much.

I already provided prime examples to why morale is low (the blatant overuse of the word mediocrity and an unfair rating system) and suggested that something be done to change the system. Just changing that word to “Average” would do a world of good to the system, or add other levels to the system. Make it a five or six level system so that instead of making excellence a bar that is too high to jump up too, give the employees a ladder they can use to climb their way to it. It’s a small thing but it would make a world of difference. The only people stopping moral from going up is management. It seems too much for them to consider and maybe that is the real problem. They are in charge and thus responsible for everything, including how employees are treated. If they are unable or unwilling to make employee morale and how people on the floor are treated a priority, then they should be replaced by someone who will. If not, you can sit back and watch more and more good agents walk off the floor and never come back.

The novel I just posted is an honest opinion and just a sliver of what I have observed over the last two and a half years. Despite my complaints, I really hold no hard feelings for those who I worked for. While I had my moments, it was a good experience but I think more needs to be done and I hope that my comments are not taken personally and used to help others on the floor who deserve better. The last thing I want is for someone to snap under these conditions and do something that will hurt people. I’ve seen and heard people on the floor get so mad that they’ve made threats of violence and sometimes it’s hard to tell of they are serious or just joking around. You guys have the power to make this place a better and more productive center, but need to curb the “me, me, me” attitude that dominates the floor. It’s a harsh look out only for # 1 and screw everyone else mentality on the work floor right now, and I doubt that is the kind of workspace you want to promote. I’m not trying to be negative, but hope that these words because action to make this place live up to its potential.

Two and half years ago when I first y-connected and heard someone take a call for the first time… I was given sound advice from the person I was connecting with. She told me that the job was easy and that with time and practice you would know the system and be under the 600 second expectation in no time at all. I was told the hardest part of this job wasn’t taking the calls, but having to deal with management and the system. I thought she was kidding, but it turns out she was right. Management is what makes this job tough, and unless they back off and work with the people on the floor instead of against them, attrition will always be a serious problem. I really hope that by bringing it to your attention and being fully honest will help work towards a solution that will assist the company and benefit all involved.

Thank you and good luck with future endeavors.

Sincerely,
Peter