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posted by takyon on Wednesday August 31 2016, @06:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the demerits-incoming dept.

An Anonymous Soylentil 'Connor the Kicking Cog' writes:

Under two months ago I started working at a massive incumbent telecom company in their regional call center. From the start it has been a draining experience. The orientation lasted two days, alternating between how much the company loves us, especially veterans, and how unions are awful things. The first real day of training included a bunch of inane policies such as:

  • In the first 90 Days no time off is allowed, even sick time, unless it was brought up during the interview process.
  • During the 90 Days, missing a day of work for any reason causes a demerit which is given as a "verbal written warning".
  • During the 90 Days, two demerits goes to "final written warning".
  • During the 90 Days, three demerits is an automatic firing.
  • At any time being more than 10 minutes but less than 2 hours late is a half demerit.
  • At any time being more than 2 hours late is a full demerit.
  • Time off can be used to counteract a demerit, but only if incurred after 90 days.
  • Demerits incurred during the 90 Days do not "wash off" but the warnings do, and the threshold increases before warnings start.
  • You cannot be promoted or make a lateral move before one year of service. This is repeated endlessly.
  • You cannot be promoted or make a lateral move if you have any warnings within the last six months.
  • If promoted after a year there is another new 90 Day period where no time off is allowed. Even if you have more than a decade of service this policy remains.
  • The company does not hire for many positions from the outside, so you must do one year in a lower role before being considered. This is true even if you have done work at that level or even higher elsewhere.
  • The shift you accepted during the hiring process cannot be changed for one year.
  • If you change your shift after one year, you must wait another full year before you can change it again.

Call centers are regimented things, but these policies are so worker-hostile I am surprised staff turnover is not an issue already. The training completed before the 40 day mark, but was longer some time ago, yet the 90 day period remains.

Thankfully another company has hired me and all background checks have cleared so I will be departing from the soulless mega-corporation. Being a professional I would prefer not to needlessly burn bridges, but I am not going to give the customary two weeks notice. Based on the above policies I believe it is likely I will be immediately escorted out should I do so without any compensation for the two week period. Does anyone reading this believe they would "recoup their investment in training me" by keeping me on for those two weeks?

Is it worthwhile to state in my resignation email that these policies were major motivating factors in departing as soon as possible? Or would such an email only be cathartic for me at best? Or even a risk at worst?


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mechanicjay on Wednesday August 31 2016, @07:56PM

    by mechanicjay (7) <reversethis-{gro ... a} {yajcinahcem}> on Wednesday August 31 2016, @07:56PM (#395824) Homepage Journal

    Add to this: employees too often abuse sick leave. Hung over? Call in sick. Had an argument with your SO? Call in sick. Prefer going to the pool? Call in sick. Need to study for your final? Call in sick.

    If you're a company who has separate Vacation and Sick time pools, sure you should probably pull vacation time instead of sick time for "Fuck work" days. I'd argue that being cotton-headed and nauseous from a bad hangover is a legit sick day. Regardless, time off is a legit part of compensation. If your company gives 10 vacation days and 5 sick days, they should be staffed to the point where they can still operate when ~6% of the company is out on any given day. If not, that's poor resource management.

    If you're one of the Soul-suckers who puts all time into a central Paid Time Off pool, (Then dings you 8 hours when the office is closed on a Natl. Holiday), fuck-em.

    Sorry, vacation time is one my pet peeves. Especially employees who don't take their vacation due to some weird sense of loyalty to their company. To which I say to them, how did it just feel to gift $(hourly rate x hours forfeited) to the company this year? Some better companies will pay out at the end of the year for unused time.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by meustrus on Wednesday August 31 2016, @09:23PM

    by meustrus (4961) on Wednesday August 31 2016, @09:23PM (#395867)

    Especially employees who don't take their vacation due to some weird sense of loyalty to their company.

    It's important for everyone to remember that "the company" is mostly a collection of employees, most of whom are subject to the same time-off policies as you. When you don't take your vacation time, you cultivate a workplace where others are expected to do the same. Since "others" is "other employess", which is the rest of "the company", when you don't take your time off, you are actually hurting "the company". Especially when you consider productivity boosts from everyone being happy and well-rested.

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