Your Call is Important to Us - Part I

Welcome to The Coal Mines

Some months ago, I heard briefly on the provincial news that the province of New Brunswick was planning on putting a goodly sum of money towards “improving the image of working in call centers”. I kid you not. I heard on CBC radio news – twice. Then the story disappeared, and I have not been able to find any mention of it again. I suspect it was shoved firmly somewhere under the broadloom when the howls of laughter erupted.

The province of New Brunswick has, over the last decade, been promoting itself as a leader in the call center industry and they are all over the province. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have been pumping vast amounts of dollars into wooing the companies that own these call centers into their respective provinces and they have much to offer: fewer statutory holidays, an educated workforce, lower wages, and labour laws that might fall into the category of a religious experience because they are so holey. Oh, and did I say lower wages?

Now, I don’t have anything against call centers, particularly since I work in one myself. For the most part, though the job is high stress as all jobs in call centers are, I like my job: the pay, while not stellar, is not bad, I have a great benefits package, and of course, there are bonuses. My co-workers are a great bunch of people, and there is great camaraderie all being in the same boat as it were. I have hours that suit me, since I am not a 9 – 5 person by nature. Most importantly, the management is pretty decent and we are treated like people, not just “bums in seats”. The surroundings are pleasant, and the coffee is good. I could do without the up-sell aspect of it, but you can’t have everything.

However, I also don’t kid myself: Call Centers are the coalmines of the 21^st century, and not all of them are created equally. Generally, one stands a chance of better treatment in an “inbound” (support) center, than an outbound one (sales). Also, there is an exponentially better chance of job stability if the center is actually owned by the company for which it provides the services, rather than one that lives from contract to contract from any number of businesses.

I freely admit that as far as call centers go, I am far more fortunate than many of my counterparts in other call centers. For example, a lot of them will offer good benefits packages; however, I suspect that they offer those packages knowing that there will be very few of their employees that will ever benefit from them. They will never benefit from them because the working conditions are so abysmal that no one ever stays long enough to collect them. Or the company won’t be around long enough for anyone to collect. For example, I have heard of one place that you are only paid for the time when you are on the phone/ready to take a call. If per chance you have to take 2 minutes outside of your regular break to run to the bathroom for a pee, it is docked from your pay. Heaven help you if you have that extra cup of coffee in the morning or a very weak bladder.

Can companies get away with this? Yup. In New Brunswick, they can

Now, as I have said, not all call centers are created equally: There are those who do in house sales/support for the company that owns them, like say UPS. While I cannot speak to the working conditions in most of them, one thing is certain, when you leave work one day, you can be pretty well assured that your job will be there the next day, barring, of course, being fired. This is not the case with certain call centers that live from contract to contract. Case in point: one day fine day in August, 375 people were at work, up-selling, cross-selling, working for their wages and bonuses, just an average day toiling in the mines. Then, without a word of warning to anyone, Connect North America folded up its tents and disappeared into the night. The next day, these same people arrived at their place of employ ready as much as they could be for another day, and the building was locked, dark, and silent. The only information was a sign taped to the door saying they had all been laid off, and would be contacted.

When last I did hear, the former employees received the wages that they were due, however no severance.

Can businesses do that? Yup. In New Brunswick, they can. Thanks to a loophole in the labour laws big enough to sail a Tall Ship through, Connect North America could give their employees no notice of any impending layoff and no severance. To add insult to injury, the company did not even have the courtesy to have the separation slips ready for the people who were unceremoniously disconnected from their jobs. As bad as New Brunswick is for labour protection, Nova Scotia, home of the Michelin Law, is even worse.

Eastward Ho!

Over the last couple of years, what with shrinking oil supplies and the recent unpleasantness in the Middle East, anyone with half a brain (with the possible exception of Ralph Klein, but I digress) could see that the price of oil would skyrocket. Further, as soon as the price hit over $60.00 per barrel, the oil sands would become very, very viable. As a result, people are heading westward in droves for greener pastures in the land of black gold

People from the Atlantic Provinces have been “going down the road” for employment for decades. However, this wholesale migration of the people leaving for the west is unprecedented in the history of the Atlantic Provinces. The reason for this is twofold and simple:

• Jobs
• Money

This has been the cause of some concern in the respective legislatures as the workforce haemorrhages westward and we are now, apparently, in the grip of a labour shortage. The Premiers of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island has been making pilgrimages to Alberta to woo back their native sons and daughters. I am told that in Fort McMurray everywhere you look these days there are billboards urging Maritimers to “Come to Life.”

Now, given that the employment opportunities here in the Maritimes have not changed greatly in their absence, this does beg the question “Come home and do what?” In Fort McMurray these days you can make close to $18.00 per hour just pumping gas. If you can actually do something, your salary goes up exponentially, albeit with a much higher cost of living. Even with the astronomical cost of living, Fort McMurray and oil country is still the proverbial pot of gold.

In essence, our good premiers are asking people to leave jobs where they are making good money to come home to good jobs that don’t exist, low paying jobs that do, and Dickensian labour laws, where your employer can legally treat you like crap.

Yes, people are burning up the TransCanada to move back here. Not.

Yes, I’ve heard the promises that have been made about the future here. Forgive me for being cynical, but promises and $1.50 will get you a double-double at Timmy Horton’s. You won’t see anyone coming back until those jobs are actually here and not one moment before.

While we are at it, let’s take a look at this “labour shortage”. As I look around, there is a whole pool of workers, experienced, qualified and knowledgeable that can’t find jobs. Furthermore, these people are settled, not likely to “go down the road” and still they are unemployed. What is wrong with this picture?

They are over 50. Let’s face it, 50 is not the new 30 when you are looking for a job

They expect to be paid according to their knowledge and experience. The irony is that a lot of these people are the ones companies laid off when they found they could get younger people to do their jobs for less money. The same younger people, incidently, who have left for pastures anew.

In my opinion, as long as there is a huge pool of unemployed experienced workers, and Neanderthal employers can afford to drive away young people like Melissa Strong, there is no labour shortage. I strongly suspect that what is meant by “labour shortage” in this context is “we have a shortage of twenty-something’s who will work for peanuts and shut up.”

Bah.

Go West, Young Woman, Go West

Melissa Strong graduated on the Dean's List from the Electrical program at the New Brunswick Community College.

Now she can't get a job here because she can't pee standing up.

One potential employer dragged his knuckles over and told her straight out:

"He said: 'I'm not having a 20-something-year-old girl running around here getting the attention from all the guys and creating problems with their wives and problems with my wife. So I'm not hiring any women,'

Dude, if your marriage is that shaky, I recommend immediate intense counselling or divorce.

What I find to be most appalling is the fact that he said it in the first place, and second, that he saw nothing at all wrong with saying it.

Bear in mind, there is supposedly a labour shortage here in the maritimes because the labour force is hemorraging out of the Atlantic to the West in record numbers. This is apparently particularly so in the area of the trades. Believe me, attitudes like that of the git above aren't helping the situation.

Also, other women in the trades warned Melissa against speaking out or complaining because if she did she would never work in the province. Well, since she decided to leave, I guess she decided she had nothing to lose anyway.

Women in the trades have had a tough time of it, and Melissa expected some for sure, but not this blatant, as it is the 21st century after all. While she may not be free of sexism in the west, having a trade that is really, really in demand does grant one some FOAD leverage.

Good Luck, Melissa, Bonne Chance!