this happened several years back and is what ultimately led to me leaving the call center world after 10 years of mostly general enjoyment, it’s going to be mostly a point form as there really isn’t too much of a conversation:
the background: i’d worked at this particular call center for 5 months and 29 days at this date (Early January) (this is important and i’ll come back to it) i’d volunteered for pretty much every position that came up, and was trained in billing & tech support for every department we has, as well as trained as a night shift person of which there was a limit of 5 people at any given time.
it was about half way thru my morning when my team lead came over and said he wanted to speak with me, i was taken into the manager’s (basicly my bosses bosses boss) office and was told i was being terminated. the manager acted like he was doing me a huge favor because the client (we were subcontracted so when i say client i mean the business we work for not the customer) wanted a formal investigation and charges laid, but the manager convinced them to just terminate me, i was shown the evidence of my “wrong doing”. apparently, in early September i had written a note on a customers file stating (yes it was all caps) “THE WORST FORM OF REJECTION IS WHEN YOUR HAND FALLS ASLEEP WHILE MASTURBATING”. i protested slightly and put forth several points to which the manager yelled at me calling me a lieing sack of shit and told me to get the fuck out of his office( giving no indication he even cared about my protests at all)(and being extremely, in my opinion unprofessional for a man in his employment position) the entire time wearing a very large shit eating grin. i was then escorted to my desk to retrieve my things and promptly escorted off property by my now former team lead. fast forward a little bit and i am now applying for Employment Insurance, at which point they deny my claim initially because i was “fired for misconduct”(*important), which i then protest, the EI people conduct an investigation, find that my claim is in fact valid, due to “suspicious circumstances” (basicly their investigation found that it couldn’t be proven beyond a doubt that i was the one who wrote the comment) and i get employment insurance for a couple months while i search for new work.
this story is a bit short and vague because i honestly lack any real proof that this was a set up, and only have my gut feelings to go on, but also because i wanted to present all the facts that are hard to present in a story format… so, the facts:
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thru-out both training and all the while i was working there it was continually expressed and stated, and stressed that while yes, any notes or internal comments related to a customers account were accessible to them, they had to request it from the corporate legal team, it would then need to be processed and a transcript would be mailed out to them in 4-6 weeks time, and this was also a very rare occurrence (they often a-kinned it to being stuck by lightning and winning the lotto on the same day kind of rare). but yet the customer had requested their entire previous years notations on the 2nd of january (remember i was fired january 11th) so not only should i have stayed in doors at the local casino instead of coming in to work that day, the request was also expedited, processed, rush mailed out and the customer was able read 9 months worth of calling in at least once ever 2 weeks to find this 1 exact comment in less then 9 days.
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this comment had apparently been on the account for over 5 months at the point it was discovered, meaning there were literally dozens of other employees who saw it, including (according to company policy) my team lead( who should periodicly review all notes/calls from new highers to ensure quality assurance) ,AND this particular call involved a supervisor (tier 2) who had left notes immediately after this particular note, meaning that this tier 2 would have seen it. but yet, it went entirely un-noticed for 5+ months?
- the computers were not on a time lock and it was actually frowned appon by higher ups to lock the computers when you walk away from them, so as such the ability for the computers to lock was disabled, and the only way to “lock” the computer was to sign out of it, which effectively signed you off the phone system/off the clock which then caused control (the people who monitor call flow/call control, scheduling, and make sure people aren’t over on their lunch, or spending too much time on a call/on call finish) (which was against several security policies we were legally required to follow) -on top of this all of our log-in information was public access for higher ups. what this means is that ANY team member could have easily accessed my computer any time i was signed in, OR any teamlead/manager..(wink wink) could easily log in and pretend to be me on the system.
- the system was editable*- one a note was placed on a customers account it could not be changed, edited or removed- EXCEPT by those in a management position.
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- given the evidence presented already i believe i can argue that having a formal investigation would have been in my favor, where-as not having an investigate worked in the favor of my manager/the company as the varies policy/legal rule-breaking by the company can’t be discovered if there is no investigation
- the fact the company pushed so hard to attempt to deny me employment insurance is actually bordering on illegal. where i lived at the time, any employee can be fired, or quit without cause, reason, or 2 weeks notice, and still be eligible for employment insurance (at 6 months is when the EI board will look at why you no longer have a job and then grant or deny EI based on that reason, so, being fired generally wouldn’t get you EI ) this means that the company had no legal right to inform EI why i was terminated and even less legal right to push so hard against EI (EI was in favor of granting my request, while the company had attempted excessively to stonewall they at every turn to ensure that my request was not granted)
- i found out later after i was terminated that the company is actually known for a rather high turn around (higher then normal call centers) and the most employees are terminated under “suspicious circumstances”
- the manager that fired me was basically the owner (he didn’t technically own the company, but he was the highest up the chain that it goes)…… it’s fun that he happens to be the one who fires me instead of, you know, my team lead, or our HR rep, or any number of other people between me and him (granted he could be the one to fire me because of the client breathing down his neck to make sure that HE’S the one to do it, but still, that shit eating grin just screams “SET-UP” and he acted like he wanted me to know it was a set up and there was nothing i could do about it)
those are the key points i can remember from the whole ordeal, like i said it happened 5+ years ago and i’ve since moved on in my life. i unfortunately have no real power in this matter, i can’t file any kind of investigation,i’ve checked, there is nothing anybody can do. so i guess it ultimately boils down to my word and the companies word (not that they’ll comment about it )
i will say however that i am by no means a 100% golden boy in any of this. i will admit to “writing” the comment* BUT! not on the customers account. it was a funny meme i had read while browsing reddit and had shared it (in the form of a picture) to a colleague via our internal chat program that is in NO WAY related to customer accounts and the only people that have access to these chats are internal employees only, not even the client has access to these chats.
the whole ordeal left a sour taste in my mouth and turned me off of the passion of call centers. and that stupid shit eating grin. i wish there was some type of karmatic justice in all this, or i could say that there was later an investigation, or they got caught doing the same thing to other employees after my departure, but AFAIK (i’ve moved out of the province 3 months ago and haven’t really kept tabs) they are still fully operational and still pulling underhanded tactics to get rid of employees they don’t like or don’t feel like giving benefits to. (they have a 95% turn around of less then 6 months in the 2 lower positions: meaning that 95% of their front line, team lead, and supervisor(a.k.a. teir 2) employees either quit or are fired. and the higher up positions are “internal hires” meaning to become a controller, HR, etc etc, you have to impress/kiss their butt/brown nose the bosses. )
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