Ever had a job that you eventually grew to hate?
I have one right now.
When I first started there in 2004, it was a local company called
Access Direct and it was a fun and enjoyable place to work.
It's a telemarketing and customer service center and I do sales verifications for big companies like Wells Fargo, DirecTv, Vonage, Macy's and Bloomingdales etc...
I have to listen to these calls and make sure they adhere to company and client guidelines.
They were pretty laid back when it was Access Direct, but not so much that you didn't take your work seriously.
It struck a magical balance between being fun but also proffesional.
You could dress in casual clothes and everyone there usually had a smile on their face.
For the first time in years, I was in a job I actually enjoyed.
Then
the new company took over.
(I won't reveal the company's actual name)
It's a Florida based company that bought out Access Direct in January 2005.
For most of that year, the new company was still setting up everything and their presence was not really felt.
That all changed beginning in 2006.
Ever seen the movie Office Space?
Where I work is
WORSE than the fictional company Initech.
First, they began by changing the dress code.
We went from wearing casual dress to business-casual clothes.
I had to go out and spend over $200 for new shirts and pants.
Then on Wednesdays and Fridays, they started charging us a dollar if we wanted to dress down.
That may not sound like much, but if you figure the total for all of the employees, it adds up to a hefty sum each week.
They claim that this money goes to charity.
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Next, they instituted a policy where nobody can have anything on their desks.
No pictures of friends or family, no small plants or flowers...nothing.
Your cubicle must appear at all times as if no one sits there.
It's like they wanted to strip away our humanity.
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Then they got paranoid.
They became obsessed with the fact that spies from rival firms may come in and steal their "secrets".
Any documents, papers etc. must be locked up at all times when you're not at your desk.
I can understand why they're doing it, but it seemed to make the tension there rise even higher.
And they're a very "paper heavy" company.
Remember the TPS reports and other mundane useless paperwork in Office Space?
It's just like that at my job.
We're constantly getting memos and other stupid papers put on our desks.
If they'd just take the time to create a simple intranet, we could ditch the paperwork and get all the info on our computer screens.
It could save them quite a bit of money...and a few hundred trees.
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Then the management became worse.
My boss became difficult to work around.
She would switch moods at the drop of a hat. One minute she's nice. The next, she's vicious and mean.
I swear, if she went to a psychiatrist, she'd be diagnosed with bi-polar disorder.
Then other times she'd be really spacy and seemed off in another dimension.
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There's also the problem of the heat in our part of the building.
We work in a pretty big room and recently, they moved the Citibank TSR's over to our side.
There are a lot of people there throughout the day and by the time I come in at 6pm, the temperature there has risen to an average of 80-85 degrees!
Now imagine verifying sales in 80+ degree heat while dressed in business-casual clothing.
The heat is stifling and suffocating.
I have a fan at my desk but all it does is blow the hot air right back onto me and does little to help.
Several of us have complained to the management but they give us the runaround and claim they have no control over the thermostat, which has a lock box over it and happens to be ten feet from the boss's office.
And about those Citibank TSR's...
As verifiers, we work non-stop from the moment we sit down to the moment we get up and punch out.
We're not even allowed to speak to anyone sitting near us.
If we do, we're immediately given a dressing down by the boss.
The TSR's have it easy. When they're not on a call, they laugh and goof around and generally look like they're having fun.
Having to sit there and watch them enjoy their jobs while we work like slaves is very depressing.
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And finally I come to the new policy implemented just yesterday.
Since I started work there, we've always gotten a 10 minute break every two hours. That's the way it's been for years.
Their new policy is now you have to "earn" your breaks.
Yes, you read correctly.
We have to earn them.
The memo I received basically said,
"...company objective that states 4.2% of an employee's staff time should be allocated for paid break time..."It goes on to say,
"
Your paid break time will be awarded based on the amount of hours that you are scheduled daily. You will earn 5 minutes for each whole 2 hour increment of staff time."
At the very bottom it says,
"
Please understand that our management team will be monitoring your performance to ensure adherence to this objective."This is the straw that broke the camel's back.
I hate my job.
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They came in and tightened the screws down on everything and everybody.
And what has it cost them?
It has cost them the happiness of their employees.
I can understand that they're running a business. But implementing policies that seem designed to completely crush our spirits is bad and will only help to increase employee turnover.
Never before have I worked at a place where employee morale is so low.
All everyone talks about is how bad it sucks and how they want to find another job.
And now we have 5 minutes less on break to talk about it.
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Ever had a job that you hated?
