I might be over thinking, or jumping to conclusions here, but I'm scared!

He has a customer service job where he has to respond to inquiries over the phone.

They've been telling him for a couple weeks now that his QA (quality assurance) score is low, so I presume he's been doing what he can to fix that.

Last night, he told me that he's being told 20 different things by different people with regards to what he should be doing. And that he's not clear on what he should be doing, and feels like they're "playing mind games" with him.

I asked if his co-workers were having the same problem too, and he said no.

Ladies, from my personal observation, I find that when work starts to dick you around like this, it usually means it'll result in you getting fired.

Am I wrong? He wouldn't give me much information about it because he said he didn't want to think about it. But this is how it seems to me.

I work for a large bank and deal with the staff in a call centre. If they are consistently getting things wrong ie the quality side, not doing correct ID procedures etc then this would be brought up with them in their 1-2-1 if they then continue to get things wrong then it would be a dicsiplinary & finally we would sack them.

Your OH needs to speak to his union rep if he has one and arrange a documented meeting where it can be determined what the correct procedures are. He needs to ask for a copy of the correct procedures in writing.

They shouldn't sack him unless he has done the job wrong on a couple of occasions and until they have given him the correct training and opportunity to Change & get things right.

But he needs to ensure that he does get written clarification of the correct procedures just in case they are trying to be underhand with him!

Good luck, PM me if you want any more advice.
x

Thanks for the helpful reply! I am still a bit worried as things don't seem to be getting better, but he's giving me very little information. He says that they say that he's using the helpline too much "even though thats what its there for." They had him listen to other people's calls for a couple hours instead of doing his own job, which apparently pissed him off.

Him and I aren't together anymore, a big part of the reason is because he's extremely stubborn; I worry that this is showing through to them and they may let him go.

Last night, he said that he had a terible day again, and aid it was the 'same shit' but didn't want to talk about it. So I don't know whats hapening exactly.

Do you know anything about helplines or what they mean by overusing them? All I can do is hope that hes going to do as they ask and not blow it there. :/

Yes. We have a 'helpline' for our customer advisors. It's basically a team of people that are very knowledgeable about the products and procedures & the customer advisors can contact them if they are unsure what to do with a particular call/customer.

What will happen is that using the helpline will increase the advisors call handling time meaning that they answer fewer calls over the day on average, which costs money for the company.

Usually the helpline will be mainly for newer staff so that they can get answers to their queries if the team leader isn't around & also so that they don't have to ask other advisors which will impact their call handling time.

How long has he worked for the company? Do you mind me asking which company it is as it really sounds like mine lol. I work for Barclays.

xx

He's actually American (I'm Canadian) and I forget the name of the company, its a large furniture distributor in California that sells over-priced items (a crib for example, could be $5,000.) It sounds like they may operate similar. They have a very large team of people working in their call centre, and according to him, no one else is being told to do things differently the way he is, so I'm a little worried. Since he gives me no more information, I know almost nothing else, except that he's quite stubborn and if he's showing them attitude at all that may not be a good thing.

He's been there for about 3.5 months. I guess they feel that's too long to be using the helpline? How seriously would your company take this sort of error in an employee?

Our employees are in training for the first 6 months lol so 3.5 months would still be classed as a learning curve at that point & they would be given extra help etc which sounds like what they might be doing by having him listen in to another employee. (Men don't take kindly to being told they aren't doing the best job though & if he is quite stubborn he could be taking this 'help' as an issue against him which it might not be.

Having said that our employees are in probation for 6 month period and we can ask them to leave without needing to give any reason within this time, but this rarely happens unless there has been some serious misconduct as the cost of recruiting and training is high so we would prefer to give extra help where needed.

I don't really know much about american employment law though & don't know if it's the same regarding the probation. After the probation period has ended then we have to follow the correct disciplinary procedure that is set out in their contract.

I would say that at 3.5 months that they aren't trying to underhandedly get rid of him as I think they may be able to without reason at that point (you would have to check the law on this though) and that maybe he is just getting confused with the different procedures & being stubborn like you say he can be ( maybe not listening too well - ALL men have this problem haha)

If they are giving him the extra help such as listening to the other advisors I would say they are trying to ensure that he does get to grips with the job, as after all they have invested money into his recruitment and training.

Id really try and have a calm chat with him if you can, explain your concerns & ask him to be more specific about the problems. He may just be sounding off as he's not keen on the job & doesn't realise how worried it's making you.

However if you feel that he is being targeted then try & get him to arrange a meeting with a witness where everything that he is unsure about can be documented & he'll then have proof if they change the goalposts.

It does sound though like he is just maybe taking time to adjust to the job & is looking at their help / advice as they are picking on him (lots of men do this) the amount of male employees that take offence when you have to give negative feedback compared to female is incredible. The women just take what you say on board & try & do better while the men feel like they are being picked on & try to come up with excuses... weird but that's what my experience has been.

Anyway, sorry for the reeeaaallly long reply, best of luck with everything, keep me posted how you get on

xx

Thanks for the very helpful reply! Very interesting how you point out how men tend to take thing vs. women, because he is very much a typical male. He does feel picked on, and like they're playing mind games with him. I will try to get more info out of him when he comes online today.

The probation period he has there is only 3 months, which he has passed. He was given a slight raise and a benefits/insurance package once it was over. You're right - since they've already invested money on him and are offering him help, I doubt they're trying to get rid of him. But if the attitude that I'm getting from him is showing through to them too, I don't think it would go over well. I can only hope he's being polite and cooperative there as possible.

The other night, I laid it to him and said "Look, you have a stubborn personality, you need to get over t, because you need this job, not the other way around. o in this case, they're right and not you. Do whatever they ask." Lets just say he didnt take that too well at all But he did say that he would never jeopardize his job, so lets just hope hes right!

I also asked him to get written clarification of the procedures as you suggested, but he for some reason didn't think it was possible.

I'll update once I know more! Thanks again for all your insight.

No worries hun, really hope it all works out for you. If his probation was 3 months & hes been there 3.5, it's highly unlikely they are trying to get rid of him now, they would have at least extended his probation if they were unsure about him