Call Centre Workers Want to Feel Safe on the Job

Is “the customer always right” if they become abusive? What if they act inappropriately?

Michelle Dey works at a call centre. The frequency of problem calls varies. It could be one a week or three a day.

“One gentleman called — he wasn’t identified as a client — and he asked a lot of intelligent questions,” said Dey. “But he kept asking the questions and asking me to repeat my answers because he said it was hard to hear me over the bubbles in the hot tub. So he was sitting there pleasuring himself during the call.”

Dey’s been in this line of work for 20 years. Verbal abuse and threats are part of the job.

Women in particular receive sexual comments during calls. “I’ve had clients ask what colour panties I’m wearing,” Dey said.

And workers whose first language isn’t English have a hard time from customers who use racial slurs and criticize their language ability.

It’s hard for employees to hang up on problem calls because some call centres have policies against it. Hanging up could mean losing their job.

The Telecommunication Workers Union, part of United Steelworkers, is behind Hang Up On Abuse, a campaign to make work better for call centre employees. They want employees to have better supports and the ability to hang up on abusive calls without fear of repercussions. They also want employers to have a better flagging system to filter out problem callers.

There are about 175,000 call centre workers in Canada.

Bad calls ‘come home with you’

When employees complain about a customer, responses by managers vary.

Toronto resident Michelle Ravary, another unionized call centre employee, has heard all of the following:“Why aren’t you at your desk?”

“Why can’t you finish your call?”

“Let’s work on ways to try and overcome this so you can keep the call going.”

Ravary says there is a counselling line available for employees if they need it.

Dey at her Vancouver call centre says employees are allowed to have a water break if they get a problem call, but there’s no debriefing. Venting to nearby colleagues is especially frowned upon because a caller might overhear.

“Some days you can handle it better than others,” she said. “But it can all pile it up. It affects how you interact with other people, and in some cases, it can lead to depression.”

It’s easy for the things people say to “come home with you,” Ravary said in Toronto.

She’s worked as a call centre employee for 16 years. She’s been told to “get a man on the phone,” and once, a male customer said, “I woke up from a wet dream and I need some help finishing off.”“Sometimes you come home and you take it out on your kids,” said Ravary, a mother of three. “Sometimes you wake up in the morning crying and you don’t want to work. But I need the money and I need the benefits. I’m carrying that responsibility.”

Dey copes by going to the gym regularly and making sure she takes a walk during lunch.

“You’re really handling the situation on your own,” Dey said. “You really have to do your own thing to be able to cope. The company won’t do that for you.”

Both women want more awareness brought to the problems they face and support Hang Up On Abuse’s campaign. The campaign wants call centres to have a zero tolerance policy where all violent or sexual threats are reported to the police. The campaign is also reminding employers that harassment in the workplace is illegal.

“We want employers take this seriously and side with their workers,” Dey said.

You can read Hang Up On Abuse’s petition and sign it here. If you’re working in or have ever worked in a call centre, you can add your story to many other submissions here.