We lost several redhats who have been demoted according to Cingular law and now its impossible to get any help. They are not happy according to their own statements. The team leaders are now throwing their weight around much harder than when it was just att wireless. Where i used to get a couple of monitors a month, now under cinugalrs plan, im monitored several times a day in some cases. Ever since Cingular has become ou slavedrivers, our condition has done nothing but stagnate and deteriorate.

I would have believed that under Cingular we would get some sort of raise in pay from the "so called" largest company in the US for Phones. What did we get? Little to no overtime at all ever. Forced training and rendundant plans for change. How c...
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Agreed! Cingular has got to be one of the worst employers ever, but seeing as we're not actually employed by them, they just make the rules, it makes complaining to a superior pretty much useless.

There is no support at all for reps; this is ridiculous because with the daily changes its even more important to HAVE support. At our center, now the Red Hats "walk the floor," which basically means when you need help you ahve to put up your hand (yes, like in elementary school) and WAIT for one to come over to you. And if you want to escalate, a red hat has to come and sit beside you and give you de-escalation tactics before giving you "permission" to transfer to the de-escalation team.

Well, I for one and NOT doing it. Thats ridiculous. ...
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Ok well our redhats are doing the exact same thing in our centre. But now we have much much less support and hlp. Now i Dont care anymore. I credit for everything, no matter how much or how absurd. I was told trust and adjust one time and that was it. Every call, to get it done with, i throw gobs of cinuglars money at them and they go away. I'm for sure the credit leader since ive been working here. I give away on average a couple hundred per day im here. Ive hardly ever denied a credit.

And you know, change can happen if you want it to. Go and print of flyere and post them in your breakroom, ask reps what they thjink and redhats as well with the policy chanes and speak to your leaders if possible. You Canadians and AMericans give up the...
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Your intentions are definitely admirable, however, many of the operations in Canada are outsourced (like mine) and if we were to unionize, the t hird party or the client would simply pack up and leave, much like that Walmart store in Northern Quebec (I think thats where it was).

Well that does not stop reps from taking some initiative in the workplace and demanding better conditions. Even if we do not unionize, the aspect of having an office voice to get action done against this steamroling cinuglar plan is neccesssary. We need to publicize our concerns to all the reps of every centre and get some unity among our people. Right now, we just all independent lapdogs for Cingular. Combined we could be one unified being able to think for ourselfs and demand change

Good point! It is hard to go to work everyday with the feeling that nothing you can do will change anything, and that nobody really cares about your opinion. It'd be great if we could do something; but then again i dont want to get fired, I'm already on a CAP 3 for call avoidance. (Damn call traces - I Aux shuffled like twice and got a CAP 3).

I give credit out like crazy too. I figure if you try and stand your ground and FOLLOW policy they'll escalate and then get their credit anyways. Might as well. Besides, you've probably notices with the new monitors, that theres a 0% section for policy and procedures, so sure, I'll make the customer happy on every call, and not follow ANY policy; its not like I'll fail!!!! Oh no, coaching!!!!

Just remerber the worst thing they could do is fire you. Your already on a CAP but they would have to have some gall for firing you for speaking out. If I got fired, there is 3 call centres just in this mall alone and they pay the same or better for the same work.
The only problem is i am in school so i cannot affrod time for training.

Thats true, its not like they give references anyways. But there isn't a lot of options for employment where i work, especially since I dont have a car and work is close.

But that isn't really an excuse. I guess I just have to muster up some courage and do something. Thanks, buddy!

hey Red, are you in Edmonton? If so, can I get some alternate call centre location info from you? I want to go down to part time and according to my TL, McVergys doesn't do part time anymore, so I'm trying to start a list of downtown call centres. I hear there's an answering service centre around here somewhere too. Mucho thank you, and sorry to bother you if you're not in edmonton.

To clarify.. Are you looking for other call centre jobs other than Convergys in Edmonton?

Yup. No Convergys. I mean I wouldn't mind seeing what the Mill Woods location is like, but the commute there and back every day would suck. So I'm looking mostly for downtown, non-Convergys call centres. Everyone who's left my centre seems to be going to Dell, but I haven't heard of many other centres. I know there's a message centre around here somewhere, though, and I've love to apply there. Or Telus 411 directory assistance or something.

Yeah, I'm leaving for Dell sales myself. There's also Telus, TD bank. Blue Cross, Epcore and I think Canada Revenue is hiring too.
Lots of places.

You may want to ask Convergys about becoming unionized cuz in the cingular world they are unionized. You have to remember that cingular is paying Convergys and convergys pays you guys what ever you want. So I think that it is Congergys that's dipping into your pay and that is why you guys dont see the extra $$

Just as the same as if you were working thru a temp/employment agency.

Just my little 2 cents 🙂

johnsonlr96 said:
You may want to ask Convergys about becoming unionized cuz in the cingular world they are unionized. You have to remember that cingular is paying Convergys and convergys pays you guys what ever you want. So I think that it is Congergys that's dipping into your pay and that is why you guys dont see the extra $$

Just as the same as if you were working thru a temp/employment agency.

Just my little 2 cents 🙂

Only problem with that theory is this Convergys own a chunk of SBC---->SBC owns 65% of Cingular Wireless.Its basically the money stays in house, its like the Ford Division paying the Mercury Division, its all with the same big corporate banner.

If it was not for the fact they ...
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Do you think that is why Cingular employees don't really care about their jobs because they do feel so secure? I'm not trying to start a controversy. I was just curious.

Ya I do.

They won't go the extra mile alot of the times because they don't care because they are so protected. Of course this doesn't apply to all union orange reps. But far to many do apply.


Unions do nothing but protect the weakest link in the chain. The company get stuck with the bad employees that they can't easily get rid of. That reduces quality and customer satisfaction. Which cause the suits to get pissed off and get more demanding with the reps. Which causes the reps to get pissed off reducing morale and quality of work in the centers. Which reduces quality scores and customer satisfaction. Which caused the suits to get pissed and get more demanding with reps. And so on.

Its a vicious cycle.

Yes!! I was wondering if someone was going to mention that.
Somewhere in Quebec they packed up and left as soon as the union went through.
They've done that to countless other cities all over Canada and the US.
Also McDonalds shut down 2 locations in Montreal (can't remember when) just after the union got the vote, and in one case had the nerve to open another restaurant a block away from one they just closed within a month, and they hired back all the employees that were against the union.
It's sick how these companies operate.
I work in a vendor site and it's incredible how anonymous this place is. We could be in any building in any city in North America. What distinguishes us from all the others? Nothing, really. If we aren't going t...
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Well, nobody listens to the dough scream when you're making noodles. Or something like that. It would be real easy to run down the road screaming. It's not my fault your friggen support systems are such crap that it takes me two minutes to look up a number. It's not my fault when I follow the CSP instructions to the letter and later find out they were "almost" correct. And, oh joy, they're keeping the silly Edge points to flog us with for another year. Plus last week I had some new sup go all urban-macho on me for wearing a hat when I was off the clock, off the floor, and walking out the door. So yes, I can see your perspective. However, having been in unionized work places before, I can tell you that they are NOT the answer to all of your w...
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Yeah, I'm really not sure at all how a union works, but I work for Convergys (which is hired by Cingular to do their customer care), and live in Canada, and I've never heard of a unionized Convergys, but I could be wrong...................Its just hard to feel like nothing you do or say will amke much of a difference - to Convergys, let alone Cingular. I don't think I've ever even met or talked to an ACTUAL Cingular employee (except on the phone or in here). It makes it really hard to know where you're supposed to start.

ihatecingular said:
Yeah, I'm really not sure at all how a union works, but I work for Convergys (which is hired by Cingular to do their customer care), and live in Canada, and I've never heard of a unionized Convergys, but I could be wrong...................Its just hard to feel like nothing you do or say will amke much of a difference - to Convergys, let alone Cingular. I don't think I've ever even met or talked to an ACTUAL Cingular employee (except on the phone or in here). It makes it really hard to know where you're supposed to start.

Convergys hates hated unions with a passion, they won't allow them on any of their sites premises, they are always 2-3 different unions on the sidewalk off site,trying to...
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how bout we all just slack off - so if everyone's doing crappy work they can't jsut pick on one person???? Then they might come up with some incentives for us to actually work.... ^_^

Well, most outsource call centers/companies (in my experience) have you sign an agreement to NOT try to bring in unions. I believe either I Hate or RedCC mentioned the contractor'd leave; That's exactly what would happen if a work stoppage happens, since that'd violate the contract between the outsource company and the contracting company...

ooh I'm going to go to HR and ask to see all the stuff I signed. I'd love to know if a non-union clause was part of it. Then I guess they really could fire us for unionising.

yeah, I know I signed one at Sykes (used to work there before Cingular)...

I hav previously working in a unionized call center here in canada its not all that it make it out to be I started at Convergys in July of last year and i'm making only 10.82/hr and i gross almost as a friend of mine who works in that call center and she has been there for almost 4yrs, and then you can get all the in fighting between members of your executive and then some may even be "in bed with the company" then you also have to pay union dues witch make your cheques even smaller due to union dues

I've worked at a few companies with a union before and loved it. A few dollars off of every pay was nothing considering the pay was about 2.00 more an hour then comparable locations, raises were higher. Wages were adjusted for inflation meaning about 3.5% increase every year aside from regular raises.
But really I work at Convergys now... they would not accept a union, they would rather pull out of my area and go somewhere where somebody is willing to get paid less. There are always people looking for work somewhere.

Why do you want to get unionized in the first place? If it's because the job is unenjoyable and/or you're getting paid not as much as you should, quit then. Getting a union created just to get more money will not result in a positive outcome.

If however, you're wanting to unionize because there are Labour laws being violated, unfair terminations and/or procedures in place in the centre, or just general unfair treatment on the whole then try as hard as possible to do so.

I'll tell you something, I am looking at getting 1 of 2 new jobs, one paying $16/hr. and the other $19/hr. Either one will be better then $10/hr. This blows and I am going elsewhere, this company can shave it's a$$ crack and shoot itself in the head for all I care.

NOT ALL Customers, but the few, can shove their stupid problems up in that area as well. All the nice customers can have wonderful lives, just the stupid, bitchy ones can shove it.

Where you going Link? Can I come with?!

One place is with Sasktel, so only dealing with upset Canadians... which is rare. The other is unknown, my sister just came to me and told me this so I gave her my resume.

$10/hr + good benifits with convergys is not so bad.... Considering what we do can be considered as unskilled labor 😲 😳 😕


Or I should say that they hire unskilled labor. Obviously handling customers can be considered a skill 🙂

I know that I am alot more skilled at Custumer Sevice now after 1 yr then I was when I was first hired.


Unions SUCK! No place for Unions in todays society. Plenty of jobs out there. Don't like your employer? Quit. Get a new job like Link! And soon myself 😁