Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Are you freaking kidding!?

It was January and an entire office was told that all their hard work and dedication to the job was worth nothing. Their job would end in June.... They had been replaced by less expensive employees that were harder workers and could take more calls in a day. The employees were told they were obsolete, outdated and of no further use. They were told to start looking for employment elsewhere.

Hearts were broken, tears were shed and tables were karate chopped. Resumes were honed, interviews were sought and a daily dose of Monster was recieved in hundreds of email accounts. People began to slowly accept their percieved lack of value and accept there job loss. It was a long process and for some, a stressful one. However, it was finally June, and they had two weeks left. Acceptance had long since been attained and people began to eagerly anticipate the end.

That was when the company began to realize their plan was not so perfect. The new cheaper employees were newer and cheaper! How could this be?? How could they get what they were paying for??? These employees were not at the quality they had expected them to be at. These employees were not at all like the employees they were firing. They needed more time!!! So they put their tiny lizard like brains together and they came up with a solution. They could ask the tortured employees who were about to be laid off to resign their soul to the devil. They could say: "Hey! We would sure love to have you stay until October! Would you do it if we decided to extend the time?" However some people were not exactly the "toe the Line" kind of players and management said "Lets not ask those people. We do not want people who reacted to being laid off by having trouble getting to work on time, being less patient with irate customers or those that didn't jump when we said too. So we will ask some employees and not others and ask the ones we ask to keep it a secret and the ones we don't like will never know! We are the most geniusy people in the whole world. We are fantastic and no one will think we are the scum of the earth because we are unthinking and unfeeling hypocriticizers!"

So one by one they brought people in and one by one people left disgusted and most people said "NO YOU SANCTIMONIOUS A-- CLOWNS!" Some found themselves over a barrell where they would accept the offer if it was officially given so they could provide health care for loved ones. The offer was made so late that most people have done too much to prepare for not working here that there would be no way they could make it through another 4 months. Most people feel completely bitter and that the question is at its base nothing more then a violation of the ethics the company preaches. A lot of people feel that 6 months is a long time to torture people over percieved performance, call volume, after call work time and having to work Saturdays when there was no future in it for them and these people could not imagine prolonging the torture. Some people asked for an incentive to be offered to offset the inconvenience this would cause. Some were stunned that after all the crap they went through, getting adjusted to being someone the company found lacking in value, that they could not even fathom coming in the next day let alone until October.

Then there were those that shouldn't know. The undesirables that were never asked. Guess what, WE KNOW. The one thing you did well at this call center was create a sense of community. We share the ups and downs and there was no way this would be kept quiet. The sure audacity of the company to make this offer 2 weeks before they were about to let us go and 6 months after they announced that we were irrelevant. I think the general consensus is one I do not want to type here but it can be summed up in two words. The first word is four letters in length and starts with F and the second word is 'OFF!'

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

My friend you are took kind to them! It's bad enough as you say but then the pitting of one agent against the other. "Did you say yes?" As if they are some kind of monster if they did. I point this out because I asked someone in this manner then realized that it is no fault of their own if they did say yes. How horrible has this place become. I still liked it here until this final straw. Even if I had been one of the ones asked to stay I would have to say no because of this very situation.

Richard Jennings said...

Whenever somone gets laid off they panic...I know. But then its just time to get another $100K job, there are thousands of these jobs posted (literally) so dont be shy.

http://www.realmatch.com
http://www.monster.com
http://www.simplyhired.com

The chinese word for crisis also means opportunity!

Anonymous said...

Who the hell is Richard Jennings???

Anonymous said...

That's what I wanted to know, lol.

Edie Spencer said...

Are you kidding? Seriously?

Seriously?

Seriously?

OMG. Now, I know that God and the ancestors are truly on my side. I cannot believe this sh*t. And what makes it worse is that the managers themselves are participating in sort of petty, Berholt type play where people are pitted against each for a job that ultimately can be yanked away from them. No consideration for years of service, no consideration for children and spouses (gay or straight) and the rearrangements they had to go through. No consideration for people dignity or pride.

I simply cannot believe that these people (NW) think that all of workers are as venal as they are.

Amazing.

Unknown said...

Anonymous... I never believed this was a good place to work but I thought it was a decent place. Everything that has happened since the layoffs is disappointing and has taken the company so far below used car salesman in my humble estimate of their integrity it is not even funny.

Richard Jennings... Thanks for the tips. Just the other day I got a 100K job offer from WHOISLYINGTOMEABOUT100KJOBOFFERS.com

Robert... Exactly.

Nancy... Word. Power to the people!

Edie.... Yeah, tell me about it.The nerve of a company to try and do this is completely unbelievable. I started laughing hysterically. I could not imagine a larger slice of Hell exists in this world then actually working another 4 months for this company.

Unknown said...

Richard,

So..... what is the Chinese word for crisis?

Mike