Hi all!

Most of the topics for the past few months have been rather dry discussions about software use and math. As it's been almost a year since I left my job, I thought I'd post my departure letters for your edification and/or education. - JRM

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5 November 2008

TO: Site Leader, Operations Managers

Re: ******* Production Issues

Hello Team,

I would like to take this opportunity to express my frustration and dissatisfaction with conditions on the production floor.

As you are aware, morale has been declining for the past year. This collapse is not due to pay, nor scheduling, nor the nature of the work. It is not because of the quality of agents hired, nor is it due to a lack of staff maturity. Absenteeism is high, attrition is high, recruitment is low, and it is due to a lack of professionalism on the part of the project.

When first employed in 2005, my role was clear: I was to work with customers and other agents to resolve issues and provide quality customer service. I would be supported by other agents and departments in this. Supervisors would help me improve my skills and everyone within the ******* project was dedicated to providing the best service to our client and our customers.

This is no longer the case.

Agents are not treated as professionals. We should be viewed as experienced customer service representatives and qualified technical support staff. We should be respected as skilled professionals. In fact, agents are never treated as anything more than a head for a headset and a bottom for a seat. Agents are never thanked for their work. Agents receive no positive feedback and we are never thanked for our contributions. We are the backbone of the company and the key revenue generators, yet no one is concerned with our actual work. As long as performance metrics meet service level agreements, no one cares if issues are resolved or appropriate action taken. We have no resources, no access to information, and our support all have differing policy manuals. This leaves us with no understanding of our duties.

Agents are told to take calls and to keep them for a certain amount of time. What the agent is to do with the call has become a mystery. We are not to hang up, we are not to transfer, we are not to use hold, and we are not to be rude. Otherwise, we are on our own. We can not resolve issues; we do not have resources. We can not escalate concerns; we have no methods. We have become a system for call routing and generating ticket numbers. Agents are no longer skilled professionals. We are call disposal machines.

Agents are expected to coach themselves, on their own time: scorecards and monitors are posted to PPM web where they auto-complete, agents are told to complete training courses without using coaching time, and team meetings are non-existent. In order to make numbers fit, meeting agendas are circulated for sign off. Agents are frequently presented with answer sheets for course evaluations, simply so the tests will show complete. Classroom training is a perfunctory review of information followed by the obligatory sign-off sheet. The paramount concern is the checkmark next to the agent’s name. Agents are left to their own devices to absorb such information.

We exist in isolation. We have no contact with our teams; team chats, when available, are so restrictive that one feels no sense of connection. Meetings with our supervisors are rushed and uninformative. Communications from any higher level are threatening and humiliating. Policy is designed as if we are children or inmates - it is continually assumed that agents will misbehave. Threats of termination are used to enforce everything from security policy to the wearing of footwear. Agents are ignored, belittled, marginalized, and blamed for every failure. We are discouraged from behaving like human beings and we are treated as if we are something less.

Management’s practice of thrusting responsibility onto the rank beneath has created intolerable working conditions. To be an agent within the ******* project is to be continually frustrated and aggravated. The working conditions on your production floor are horrible and, despite repeated attempts to address these issues, the Operations team remains oblivious and unresponsive.

Upon review of your performance, I find your work unsatisfactory and your conduct unprofessional. As a consequence, I have decided to terminate our relationship. Effective this date, you no longer have a position as my employer. However, should circumstances change in the future, please feel free to re-apply.


Kindest Regards,
Jeff Rose-Martland

Hi everyone!

Today, I terminated ******** as my employer. They were simply underperforming and the repeat incidents of unprofessional conduct had become too much. ******** did not respond to coaching and so I was left with no option but termination.

I want to say that I very much enjoyed working with all of you. You are a great bunch of people and you are all very talented.

I especially want to thank you ****, for all your hard work. You were exactly the TL that I needed and you are responsible for keeping me for an additional month. If things had gone different, I would have been proud to continue with you.

I also want to thank ************** for supervising me, and for putting up with the difficult agent I can be. On a similar note, thanks to all the floor leaders for working with me and not against me.

And to you all: you are fabulous and wonderful people and you are all very talented. I wish you the best for the future and I know you’ll go far.

Thanks for the memories,

Jeff Rose-Martland

An amusing and actually useful resignation letter.

It took me 3 days to write; the first two drafts containted a whole lot of unprofessional language and rantings. The Enemployment Officer who approved my claim said it was the best resignation letter he had ever read.

I had hoped that this letter would have helped the the-new site leader to impliment changes, but it doesn't appear so. My wife still works there and not a thing has changed. Then again, I've discovered that the issues are not particular to that site, but are endemic across the entire industry. Even in these formus, you can see the fundamental issue: total focus on systems and models and stats, total lack of regard for the humans involved.

At the core of the contact centre industry, inbound or outbound, customer care, employee care, or emergency services, is the communication and interaction between 2 human beings. Users demand it. Agents struggle to achieve it. And management, through insisting that numbers are met, is preventing it. As long as this industry insists on operating from mathmatical models and trying to force humans to behave like numbers, the industry will ultimately fail.