In a program called Tough Call the ABC's Four Corners has exposed widespread management bullying, punishing performance targets and relentless monitoring of individuals’ time and movements in Telstra.
These are issues that members in Telstra - and many other CPSU workplaces - have been campaigning around for many years. We are encouraging members and supporters who have seen the program to post a comment below.
These are issues that members in Telstra - and many other CPSU workplaces - have been campaigning around for many years. We are encouraging members and supporters who have seen the program to post a comment below.
128 comments:
My two bob's worth...
Given the enormous potential for workplace issues to disrupt a workplace and the regularity with which they occur (human beings are innately querulous ), I've never been able to understand why in the (Australian) public service context, the Government hasn't introduced a workplace ombudsman with powers to conciliate, arbitrate and determine all manner of disputes ranging from: " I hate the perfume she wears" to " my boss is a bully"!
This is more universal than just Telstra
I will be watching tonight the 4 corners program. As they describe the employees in the call centre, it sounds similar to my position at the abc.
Because we used to be 2, but now there is only one in my dept, since the move, I have to call into the head office and report that i have arrived to work. Phone them again when i go to the toilet, when i get back from the toilet, when i go to lunch, when i get back from lunch, when i go on afternoon tea, when i go to the toilet, when i go home.
Not only do i have to call them, which to some extent i understand because i have to transfer all calls to them when i am away from my desk as i work on reception and handle enquiries. But they log my movements which gets reported to my boss. So if i am a minute late back at my desk, management knows about it.
I don't see middle management, clocking off and back on when they take extended lunch hours to go to the pub, or knock off early, or go to the beauty salon to get a facial or a hairdo at the hairsalon during the day.
Double standards, they will be with us forever.
regards
Anna
I used to work at Telstra and was also bullied.....I left and found other opportunities, taking my life was never an option!
Thank you for the tip….I heard the comments on the radio news this morning – the response by the Telstra Management was incredulous…..
One of the big arguments you are going to get re this business -
If employees don't like the pressure they can always leave.
The problem is - they go into it believing it is a simple job and as time and pressure increase.
Many feel that to "fail" at such a simple job is to fail indeed. Not an easy mindset for the young.
Some young people will push themselves determined to make a go at it to the point they feel emotionally incapable of bailing out as they feel hopeless and lacking in confidence to forfill the demands of another job, based on what is perceived to be barely acceptable performance targets for Telstra.
As a Police officer with 30 years experience and suicide intervention training - I watched first hand as my strong minded 24 year old daughter battled with being suddenly made to feel inadequate as a Telstra Call centre employee - in her first real job since completing a University Degree.
On learning of the dynamics at play - all the warning bells went off and I strongly urged her to resign. What an immediate transformation - Now she actually enjoys working with real job expectations and human staff, not to mention better money for the better conditions.
Who needs bloody Telstra!!!
I'll be watching the 4 Corners program tonight. It's good that this issue will be in the media again and hopefully the message will get across to employers who bully that it's wrong. The sad thing is that bullying will always be around whether it's in the workforce, school or home.
I don't need to watch 4corners first to give you feedback.
I am continually frustrated that it is the number of calls we take that is important (opening statements & greetings and security checks, offering Direct Debit, advising of On-line Members Services and closing statements and farewells by rote take precedence over actually addressing the reason for the call in the first place) and content is not as important. The quality of the call is way down the ladder in importance.
I have even been advised by a Team Leader to take that extra call per hour and forgo some of my quality score ( I constantly get 95 to 100% quality in my calls) and have been advised QUALITY ONLY HAS TO BE 80% minimum to meet targets.
I personally find this mentality extremely difficult as I am a perfectionist and believe if I spend that extra few minutes on my call and resolve the members issues(first call resolution) the member will be much happier and the next time the member phones will not be too upset to have to wait a few minutes extra to get through if they know they will get the service they expect.
You might wish to add my comments to your huge list of dissatisfaction you already have.
Thank you
Raelene
My partner worked at Telstra, been there for 30 plus years and was a loyal solid contributor during that time, with little or no sick leave etc.
However, the past couple of years at Telstra became a nightmare for her with ridiculous targets being set, harassment and all sorts of bullying.
At first I did the male thing and said all modern work is difficult and demanding, don’t take it personally and comply with what the managers want.
I have since discovered, in her particular case it was not about performance, I believe it was because she was on a higher rate of pay due to being a long term Telstra employee, and they harassed her, leaving her in tears after work.
In the end they won.
Not a bad effort, her confidence has been trashed and her faith in work, and self-esteem in relation to getting another job affected.
Well done to all the Team Leaders there, you’re a gutless bunch, you cant even understand what your targets mean, but you don’t mind using them to destroy people.
It’s ridiculous to expect when people call to check their bill or have a complaint to expect someone to sell them another product.
“Hello Welcome to Telstra, how can I help you”
Well you can give my partner her life back, you morons.
I got out of Telstra in 1998 for reasons associated with this issue.
The new computor system had just come in, (jobs allocated to a technician in a van). This gave the management the ability to measure a technicians work rate for various activities.
After the first month the figures came out to me. I was the Manager at the time. The figures told me my good workers had performed badly and the not so good or inexperienced guys had performed well.
I was gob smacked and spent the weekend (in my own time) extracting the data myself and taking another look.
It turns out the figures provided to me were wrong and were not at all accurate in measuring the guys performance.
I emailed my Manager to give him this information.
The reply came back;
"It you want to be a number cruncher let me know and I'll find you a job in Head Office. It is not important if the figures are correct. What is important is that the blokes get a kick up the arse."
I could not live with myself working as a Manager in this environment. We had a barney; I got a package and the rest is history.
I still have contact with some of the guys. It is no bettter today. They just manage by using underhand tactics to make the stats look good.
Regards
This kind of thing is slowly progressing throughout the public sector particularly centrelink and as more and more agencies move to call centre type environments. I am from Veterans Affairs and the new Veterans Service Centre will be the departments future call centre type environment with no doubt similar kind of monitoring, rostering etc.
Regards
My mother worked for Telstra for several decades, and before retiring almost 10 years ago she had already personally witnessed how Telstra management treated a coworker who was suffering depression and panic attacks: micromanaging, nitpicking at her performance, impromptu "counselling" sessions with two supervisors that lasted more than an hour at a time ("we're not leaving this room until...")....finally the poor woman's condition got so bad she had to be hospitalised. She never returned to work. Neither of the managers was ever punished despite formal complaints about their behaviour - in fact one was later promoted.
My mother is a Telstra shareholder, but far from being "what she's asking for" as a customer, the declining quality of customer service means she is currently looking at changing providers.
As others have said, bullying is widespread, but there is something nasty endemic in Telstra's culture that pre-dates Trujillo, Workchoices and even the Howard Government.
I am increasingly disgusted by grossly overpaid managers, CEO's etc demanding more from their much, much lower paid employees, demanding more and more from them as seen in tonights 4 Corners. As a Telstra CDMA customer I thought that Telstra getting rid of a good safe and adequate network was bad enough. I now know if I had rung them about changes they want to impose on the charges etc of the CDMA service I would have had a sales talk. I am considering going to another phone provider, but they may also treat their employees and customers badly. I notice the Government also complains about Unions but don't comment on the millions being paid to Executives.
Maybe Telstra should be nationlised again, returned to us who owned it once, AWA's abolished and some control on Executives salarys.
A very well balanced report. I am a Telstra employee. Many of the truths presented on 4 corners are absolutely correct.
Thank you
Hi There
I’m appalled at what I have just seen on Four Corners. I am not surprised with the American influence within Telstra.
Shock horror today my Mobile Telstra pre paid mobile phone failed & when I rang the Operator
1: I noticed she was stressed
2: She could not help me & gave me an excuse which did not make sense
3: but was keen to tell me she could help with any other service she could provide.
Me I wanted my phone fixed.
AWA’S have to go.
My husband and I have just watched the 4 Corners documentary.
It mirrors what is happening at the Australian Taxation Office.
Big question for you (before I bin my Telstra Pre Paid)
What are the Others Like , OPTUS, DODO, VODAPHONE & The like??
I watched 4 corners and thought John Roland dodged all the questions asked and to make matters worse Telstra are adding more targets that have to meet for our bonus instead off 4 measures it will be 7. I think all the bosses including John Roland and all Team Leaders should get on the phone for 3 months and see how they go and change the goal post for them. When will Telstra wake up that all the good staff leave and the one's that do dodgy things on the phone get promoted. It's about time the public knew how bad it is to work for Telstra and how we rip them off and are made to sell at all costs.
Watching the 4 corners report tonight about Telstra made me feel more uncomfortable in my job at Centrelink where I see similar pressures emerging. A common response in leadership meetings re staff who struggle with the on going changes and demands is if they don't like it they should look elsewhere. Key performance indicators including number of completions and time frames are a constant pressure for all staff. An unsympathetic response to those who struggle with changes in their roles both ethically or operationally is becoming far too common.
As a former Telstra Technical Manager (PTTO2) and Administration
Officer (AO6) of some 33 years the programme reflected bullying at Teltra which I believe commenced some 7 to 8 years ago and with successive American CEO's has become alike to Germany post 1936. The extreme result for two employees sadly was fatal. Now I am working in a call centre @ ATO. The next moves, who knows, as more and more is asked of employees.
In 2006 I was an inaugural employee of Telstra's shiny new Zephyr Sales Centre in Darwin.
I remember the being very excited and optimistic about my future inside the telco giant as I began my 6 weeks of training with 85 other unsuspecting sheep.
Not all that glitters is gold however and my time with Telstra ended 7 months later.
I can recall the pure feeling of relief as I sat on my couch that afternoon and I processed the thought that I would not be required to physically present myself and jump through hoops in that place ever again.
Whilst in the employ of Telstra, the business channel that the inbound customer service call-centre’s fall under had its name changed to "Inbound Sales", a term which by its very etymology i have a problem with.
Prospective employees are lured by the respectively 'large' salary and systematically interviewed under the guise that they are in fact applying for a "Customer Service" position. They quickly discover in the first 48 hours on the floor that this could not be farther from the truth. A call centre employee realizes quite early in the piece that they are contractually required to use “Exceed”, an extremely scripted sales methodology. “Exceed” is touted to be the key to meeting Telstra’s self-proclaimed “Customer First” policy, and the implementation of this method is monitored in a draconian fashion. Under Telstra’s “Personal Best” program 60-70 calls are recorded for each employee each month and a random selection of these is selected and monitored for “coaching purposes”. It should be noted however that this not only involves audio but video (screen recording) also. A score is given on how well you conform to Exceed and the general consensus is that a sales rep’s job security and indeed worth as a human being hinges on this score.
The rolling out of comparative statistics is utterly relentless. It comes in waves. You simply must find that magical blend of customer service vs. $$$ per logged in hour (VOS) or you *will* die.
Back in the real world however; ferocious sales-target based customer-service does anything but encourage "customer first" policy. A situation that really only serves to damage a company in the long term.
In the end I had absolutely no job satisfaction whatsoever. Myself in conjunction with other free thinkers saw much hypocrisy and witnessed many tears as people walked out of the centre in sheer desperation, vowing never to return.
It should be noted that the attrition rate of staff in a Telstra sales-centre is amongst the highest in the industry, nationwide. This of course is not of concern to Telstra as the laws of corporate business dictate that for every 1 self-respecting employee who leaves, there are 4 more doe-eyed lemmings to take her/his place. Hence, there is no need for human resource procedure to reform.
The point I personally find most amusing is that recently Telstra began to pose the question to staff in their exit interviews; “what is it that Telstra could have done to have avoided your resignation?”
I do wonder why this question needed to be asked.
True Telstra is running a business to profit it’s shareholders… but, so is Google - and last I heard their employees were as happy as Larry.
Most of the original staff @Zephyr have left, and we now enjoy good personal relationships at the same bar we used to head to every Friday to verbalise our stresses from inside the machine that is Telstra. It is unanimously agreed:
Life inside Telstra, even for the strong, is a daily struggle for base-level performance indicators and a constant exposure to the frustrating triple standards internal bureaucracy. A place where 5% of your gains are recognized but 100% of your shortcomings are brought to account. Ultimately, Telstra’s one aim is to train and mould you to use your language to convert billing queries into dollars. To systematically apply a mock-‘sincerity of concern’ in an effort to dupe inbound callers into believing that they in fact wanted to up their spend on Telstra’s products & services.
To quote the beautiful parting words of a fellow Telstra colleague, and now good friend, who left long before I did; “I forgot exactly how much of a child you get reduced to inside a call centre and I know that I simply can’t continue to operate as if I were a battery hen with a masters degree in pseudo-psychology but void of moral code.”
Telstra would do much better if they could indeed dispense with employees altogether and simply develop the robots, I’ve absolutely no doubt that the day this technology is remotely viable, we will see it occur..
I do doubt however that Solomon Trujillo would part with his hard earned bonus to fund it.
As mentioned above, I made many a friend inside Telstra. We still to this day bring up our stories, albeit in satire, of what some consider to be a traumatic experience that we all have in common. Anyone interested in further comment or question is welcome to contact myself on the address below.. Caine M
empathogenesis@gmail.com
i would like to say that i am a 2nd generation telstra employee and i should have learnt from my fathers experience but i had to learn on my own.
Now i am struggling to come to grips with what the company is doing to its employees!
My father resigned due to stress because of a particular person who he worked with was constantally bulling him and he just couldnt cope, and almost lost him in the process, he is now still unemployed almost 10 years on, and nothing has changed! I have been bullied buy staff, both managers and team mates alike, been told that i am not good enough by management and still they get away with it regardless of what you do or who you turn to for help.
Good bye equal opportunities, hello dictatorship,
Much of the Australian Public Service must be similiar, i.e under resouced, over-managed and plaged with stress. The proposed Child Support Agency AWA's appear to indicate that additional individual performance monitoring will be on the cards - along with more work than most humans beings are capable of achieving, and the every month targets that accompany it all.
We have had to put up with a bully team leader for two years at Centrelink. Unfortunately when we complain to management, they try and make excuses for innapropriate behaviour. The bully is left thinking they are permitted by management to do as they please without any supervision or accountability. And now the bully has the approval of management to continue the victimisation, bullying and harrassment of staff.
After watching the 4 corners report i wanted to cry. I am currently working for Telstra in a qld call centre. In a way i feel a sense of relief to know that the way we are treated has now been put out there, but i also feel disgust and ashamed of myself for still working for such a horrible and unfair company that i once loved but no longer believe in. Over the past 11 months of my employment i have been put down, talked down to like im not worth anything, been singled out and patronised by the team leaders and management at our centre. I am one of Telstra's top performers and i feel a real connection with Sally Sandic. I am also one of the first staff members who had no other choice but to sign an AWA! I have won multiple awards, I always get top scorecards (even though i am one of only a few) and i am on nearly 65,000 a year. I have dozens of commendations from happy customers that nobody else had even given them the time of day to help. I have never made so much money in my life...
I am also now suffering from anxiety, and depression and I dont know what to do.
Dosn't ,make sense does it? I am a strong believer in common sense and i am now aware Telstra is a company that serverly lacks it!
Earlier this year a good friend & work collegue was fired infront of me at her desk. She was sent an email informing her of a meeting which she attended and 1hr later was fired, 2 days before her 6month end of probation and was given no reason. She was escourted out of the building screaming and crying infront of everybody. I was so upset that i actually had to put my customer on hold while i regathered myself. How Proffessional! This also happened to 3 other employees in my team. Just about to leave home that day i was sent the same email. I was hysterical. Tears rolling down my face I aproached my manager and asked what the meeting was about, Only to recieve a cold answer quoting, "u need a witness". I went home devestated, I vomited all night long, had severe headaches and anxiety attacks. I was hospitalised for 3 days and then was on stress leave for 2 weeks. I was about to be fired for no reason what-so-ever, just because they could. They didnt care about my 2 year old daughter, They didn't care that after 15 hard years i had just bought my first home and i had a morgage to pay.
After returning to work after two weeks of stress leave and countless medical certificates to prove this i was told there was no longer a meeting and that i had passed my probation! Ever since i have suffered the consiquences and been severly mistreated.. I have approached management. I have looked them in the eye and told them how i feel. I have told them what they are doing is wrong. I have taken this further and reported this to the EEO Officer. I have given them proof of conversations that have happened, witneses that have seen what has happend. I have seen their own EAP listenors which 'John Rolland' recommended, (which are completly useless). All of this has got nowhere but a conversation in the managers office in which i was told that i should put all of this behind me and start afreash!
Why dont i leave?
Easier said then done. I have nearly left so many times only to think of my daughter and the life i want her to have. I finally have a yard for my children to play in...
Why not get another job?
This is the thing.. This is why I believe Sally Sandic put up with her job for so long aswell.. The amount of money i am getting.. I have never made that much money. I would have been lucky to even recieve half of that.
I know that money isn't everthing and i am at the point where i just can't do it anymore. I have to think about my health and my poor fiance that has had sleepless nights while trying to console me. But what about my house, what about the dreams i have for my family.
You will never know what its like unless you are in that situation. Like i said, easier said then done. My family comes first but i am nearly at that point where i just dont know what to do.
There is 2 people in my team remaining which started with 14. I am one of them.
I just want to be treated with respect.
I believe that what I witnessed on 4 Corners tonight about Telstra exactly mirrors what is going on at Centrelink where I work. The bullying, the continually asking an employee "How do you think you can improve your performance?" no matter how hard or long or fast or clever one works. It is well known that some managers will repeatedly ask for a 10% or whatever improvement each quarter, with the assumption being that if employees can reach x number in their KPIs, then let's ask them to strive for 1.1 times x from now on. People are starting to get wise and are leaving in increasing droves, the sad consequence being that the knowledge, experience, and expertise goes with them, and the public wonder why their queries meet with 3 different answers from 3 different people. Yet as another commentator said, there are always new innocents queued up to apply enthusiastically for the vacated positions.
But back to Telstra: I too would like to know what the experience is of individuals working at Optus, Dodo, Virgin, AAPT, etc. Only tonight I received a call from a Telstra call centre trying to entice me back there with my landline account. I believe that in the end, only the lost dollar makes any impression on those people, and so I will be refusing to return to Telstra, stating, as nicely as possible to the call centre staff member when he rings me in two days, that it is because of the cynical, bullying approach of the corporate executives at Telstra, and not potential money saved, that I am refusing to come back as a customer to Telstra.
J.
Be mindful not to target Team Leaders too much. They are often the meat in the sandwich - trying to do the best for their staff and they get the fallout from above. Likewise when they are following those orders from above and getting the fallout from their teams when they deliver the message. Centrelink is possibly the worst for this and team leaders are the scapegoats for Managers when there is feedback and also the whipping boys for the teams. Stress related leave is increasing as is turnover despite the lip service paid to workplace bullying and harrassment by CEO and National Managers there. Most complaints don't see the light of day as they are stopped at local level and with a culture of reprisal and fear (perception becomes reality for those who perceive) few are willing to step forward and say anything.
I have just seen my Team Leader take several weeks leave and not back yet. She is supportive and great but the workload and pressure on her was enormous trying to deliver management directives. She became physically ill with really serious conditions due to stress. We weren't even told she was sick and not to contact her at home so she thought we didn't care and was quite upset at not even receiving a card from the team.
Are all Call Centres going this way in the Public Service? Is Telstra teaching Centrelink? Sounds like it. After all - look at the money Centrelink must pay Telstra every year for their services.
CPSU - MEDIA - keep educating the public and hold accountable those who treat their workers like machines. Even machines need servicing and maintenance to keep productivity up.
I work in a Telstra call centre and we are under the everyday stress of meeting targets...We have now been informed that if we put in for December, January and Feburary holidays, we won't know until October if we have been granted them. They are saying that if they decide to have training in any of those months,there will be no holidays granted at all..This company is supposed to be Family Friendly...what a lot of rot. They don't care about their employees and after giving years 19 years of service to the company I feel very empty and hate coming to work..
I caught the program last night. A few observations having been a person who has worked in a call centre that being what was United Energies electricity line and faults line.
To be able to gage if the targets were un reasonable it would have been good to have known what they are. Many thought the targets we had to reach were unreasonable I found them dead easy. As to mentioning disciplinary action for not meeting them. Every job in the world has disciplinary action if your not doing the job. To judge I would need to know the targets. 4 corners did not give me that opportunity or I missed them. So if anyone knows them it would be good if they can post them.
As to the driver committing suicide because he had a gps system in his truck. I would guess it was a bit more than that.
To be honest the part that worried me was the ex team leader not when mentioned the names used on the course. I have heard people called a lot worse in every single job I have ever had. But when she said she felt unable to comfort a worker who was obviously worrying. To me that was her fault. No matter your training if a team member is in distress you help them. You don't need to do it in front of everyone or mother them. But she could have taken her for a coffee a walk. If Telstra has put out a rule that employees in distress cannot be comforted then to me that is extremely stupid.
The rest I would need to know more details. The girls may well have had other problems if not why the suicide 4 weeks after?
Overall as sad as the cases are the story was one sided and in being one sided I found myself a person not to jump because of emotive triggers wondering what isn't being said.
The so called management 'style' (or lack of) displayed in the 4 corners documentary is appalling. Unfortunately it is mirrored in the Aust Public Service Department I work for.
I watched the program last night and I could identify with many of the bullying practices that have crept into the agency I work for.
It is really detrimental to achieving in the workplace when you feel you are continually being assessed (with the expectation that they actually want to find you not achieving at an effective level - therefore you do not get your increment and also cannot apply for postings overseas). I believe (from my own experiences and that of others) that management interferes and tells supervisers to give certain staff a lower rating than they deserve – basically because they aren’t prepared to lie for the organization or they just give good advice about what management wants to do (and it is often contrary advice). This is our role as public servants to advise management and the minister to the best of our knowledge and we should not be punished for doing so. Supervisors seem to be asked to bully staff in a similar way to the Telstra leadership program suggestions.
I have always worked hard and have always been found effective and now I am so unhappy with the supervisory skills (or lack of them) that people in our agency have and particularly my recent supervisors (who are typical of the new young managers who don’t care whether the work is done but whether it looks like it has been done and the quality issues only relate to whether he/she looks good for the next promotion or posting). They don’t stay long in a job – they move on to bigger and better things leaving a mess behind them – basically they move on before anyone realises that they really didn’t achieve anything of substance.
As a manager myself, I have been considered soft if I try to help someone achieve better performance in an encouraging way (the best approach for that person) and then because I have been very strong but professional on a young pretty staff member who was basically taking credit for other peoples work, lying to many of us and stating she only wanted to do …… not what I as her supervisor wanted her to do, I have had the middle class white men not supporting me and pandering to her every wish. This has happened twice with 2 very attractive young women who seemed to get positions purely by flirting with the “boys”. I have actually been asked by a HR person with regard to one did the very Senior Executive Officer have a “crush” on this person.
There are so many instances of favouritism and bullying in this agency – I am told it is because we have a small number of staff with high rewards (postings). It is also because we usually get people who are not trained in HR as our personnel officers.
I am sick of the unfairness in the system, feel as though the gains that were made in the 1970s for women have been lost and I never know when and where the next hatchet will come from. I am just glad I am coming to the end of my career in the next 10 years rather than starting out.
I would rather my name not be used if you put this up as life is tough enough already.
I watched the program on Monday night, and all the stats sound all to familiar. I recall a time shortly after I went back to work for a "large Government Dept" after having my first child.
My child was constantly falling sick (as they do when they go to day care and mix all their germs together) and I was working three days a week part time. I was having to take off about two days a month due to my son being ill and I always had a certificate for this from my sons doctor. The pressure of being a new mother, returning to work where I was under the constant surveillance of my superiors and having a constantly ill child was a lot to deal with.
I was disgusted when my team leader at the time told me my husband should take time off work to look after our sick child. Call me old fashioned, but I consider myself the primary caregiver to our children and I am lucky enough to have an extremely supportive partner.
My husband has his own business and works on his own, so when he doesn't work he makes no money to say nothing of the fact that he is the primary bread winner, my daily wage is nothing in comparison to his, the idea that the primary bread winner should not work when my child is ill costs money, he loses wages, we still have to pay the $55.00 a day for the day care to keep my sons place secure, and it would cost the company my husband is contracted to money as they would have to pay another company to deliver the goods.
Why do you ask did my team leader suggest this? She had taken a small piece of information I had told her during a meeting (I told her my husbands business was doing very well) and she used this information to try to decide my families personal decisions, I was appalled.
From this I learnt to never tell them anything personal as they will try to use it against you. I later received an apology from that team leader as she became aware she had crossed a line. I felt betrayed by my employer and my Prime Minister as I thought I worked in a Family Friendly Environment. If there is such a thing as a Family Friendly Environment prove it to me otherwise its just terminology.
Now I am about to return to work after my second child and I am lead to believe by colleagues that the stats have now been relaxed and the focus has been directed towards customer service, which should always be the focus. Now this should improve work related stress and make my work environment should be a much more pleasant place to work but I will reserve my judgements for after my return.
Keep Up The Good Work
I was profoundly moved by the story last night. My heart went out to Sally and Leon's families. We simply cannot - we must not - let these tragedies pass without action.
However, I was enraged by that evil bastard John Rolland. His oily, glib and self-righteous performance personifies all that is wrong with the management style that has been gradually emerging in the Public Service over the last decade. (notice how he stops blinking when he lies or is confronted with evidence of his lies?) Personally, I would just love to meet him in the carpark.
Bullying is not now not only a standard tactic, but is an approved management technique. The nasty and offensive labelling of workers who do not toe the ideological line is commonplace. Management cowards rely on intimidation and fear to draw attention from their own failures and inadequacies. Initiative, personal judgment and a willingness to suggest improvements used to be attributes of a valuable and dedicated employee.
Now, however, they are seen as threatening and disruptive characteristics of a "non team player" - ie someone to be "shot" (using the charming and sensitive language of Telstra bosses). Humiliation and ridicule is also commonplace. There is a nasty little practice in this age of email communications. Over the top rebukes from middle management tyrants for minor infractions are emailed not only to the poor employee, but copied to other employees, senior management and a host of others in childish attempts to maximise the embarrassment to the employee concerned. And that is called positive and effective management? The employee concerned is expected to respond positively?
It is getting worse by the day. For example, the 'Turned up and Tuned In" system currently being sold by the HR despots encourages managers to harass and pester employees who are sick at home. They are encouraged to shame ill employees back to work. All couched in smarmy management-speak, of course.
It amazes me that management sees absenteeism as somehow being due to the employee being dishonest, lazy and uncommitted. What an appalling arrogance. Absenteeism is a sign of dissatisfaction or unhappiness in the workplace. When is management going to realise that most of the dissatisfaction and unhappiness is being caused by their own cruel, impersonal and outrageous practices? Perhaps more to the point, when are the employees going to realise that the upturn in management bullying and intimidation directly corresponds to the downturn in union membership?
I, like most Australians, consider Joe McDonald's buffoonish style of unionism as a form of thuggery and just plain criminal. In fact, no better than what management is up to these days. But maybe - just maybe - he needs to be let off the leash for a while....
Laurie
Was that Telstra guy for real? Very clever at avoiding the hard questions from the interviewer re the deaths of the two employees.
That management style was sounding very familiar to a previous workplace I used to be in - and I did suffer depression due (in a large part) to the stress of the manager and her dictatorial management style.
Fortunately I have an excellent boss now!
Regards
Tanya
Hi CPSU,
I am not a member but I'd like to submit some comments nonetheless.
As an ex-call centre worker watching the Four Corners program last night sent shivers up my spine. I have worked in 5 different call centres over 5 years in various industries. I always believed they were not healthy places, but compared to my horrendous experiences, Telstra seems to take the cake. I would go as far as to say they are evil. The Telstra director that was spouting the rehearsed responses of the company line made me feel physically ill. Of course call centres are "not for everyone"… the missing point here is that they're "not for anyone" also! If they're not healthy, then they're not healthy. Unfortunately some people feel compelled to stay in these jobs out of desperation for a job. Ultimately if its not a healthy workplace, then why isn't the government outlawing these practices?
Wouldn't it be great if there was a mass exodus of workers from Telstra call centres as a result of that program? I'd encourage people to not sacrifice their health for the sake of a job. Get out of call centres! Send a message to big corporations like Telstra. After all, where would they be without these workers? What if they didn't turn up one day?
I know first hand about sacrificing your health for your job - and I'll never do it again. I believe that the stress I endured from working in an ATO call centre for 9 months was actually a factor in my diagnosis of Leukaemia. When I recovered (& now in complete remission) my doctors recommended that I not work in a call centre environment again. The ATO had no choice but to redeploy me into a regular desk job. In some ways I owe a lot to my illness - it finally got me out of call centres!
I have so much more to say, but I think I'll leave it at that. Needless to say, I am happily out of working out of the call centre industry now - and haven't looked back.
Cheers,
Deborah
So this is what a Telstra re-structure is all about? The demonisation of workers for the beckoning of the mighty dollar!
I watched with total disgust at the bullyboy Telstra spokesman, who, with expressionless face and blank staring eyes devoid of any feeling whatsoever, say, with unrestrained arrogance that the jobs were not, and I quote: "for everyone". Perhaps what he should have said was: "For anyone".
My challenge to him and to his superiors, for all who put the workers in this mess, is for them all to work in a Telstra call centre under the same conditions under the same pressures and under the same pay scales that they expect the Telstra workers to perform under for a period of three months where the standards are increased in the same way and fashion as what they (or at least Telstra) now expects of their workers.
If they default on the required standard, they undergo the same "coaching course" that the workers would have undergone had they not met the required standard. If they then not meet the required standard after a qualifying period, they face the sack - not only from their call centre positions but from their substantive managerial positions. Seems fair to me.
Perhaps then we could really find out who the dragons, submarines and especially the savages really are!
Any takers? I strongly suspect not!
Regards
Emanuel
A very telling programme … an indictment of what is occurring in many places. And what inflammatory language to use regarding your staff! The person quoted must've been a member of the US gun lobby. And his apologist was equally bad, merey describing his words as "colourful", and how the culture wasn't really like that in Telstra! Oh, and how people who disagreed "just didn't get it". I think they "get it" only too well.
Fancy - and I thought it was about team work and supporting each other.
I had similar weasel words quoted back to me, virtually word for word, a few weeks ago when I queried why our team is being "micro-managed" and individual stats kept and quoted back to us weekly re our "performance" - it's not bullying, it's "helping our staff achieve".
And they say unions are passe and not needed in our modern economic wonderland?
Ladies and gentlemen, It's Time.
Saw the programme last night Stephen,
Very sad. The trouble is, they will not acknowledge that what they are doing is dangerous to people's health and well being. They will not see it as bullying. Here in DEWR, they go on about doing things the DEWR way! If my source was correct, as at a year or two ago, the DEWR staff turnover was around 14%. If I were a share holder of a company with that level of staff turnover, I would be looking for a complete change of management. As a comparison, the for profit aged care sector is approx 8% and the non profit sector, around 4-5% turnover. A colleague asked a question about this at a consultative committee meeting or similar venue. The HR manager of the time told the meeting that if people couldn't fit into the DEWR way and wanted to leave then DEWR was better off without them!
After viewing the Telstra item, I wonder how many other government agencies are pursuing the same policies under this government?
I am aware that the DEWR way is not regarded highly by other agencies. I went to a one day conference a few years ago. The senior staff member from DEWR was introduced to the gathering as being from 'the Dark Side' to the Darth Vader music from Star Wars and the DEWR staff member took it in good part. It was really very humorous, but shows how DEWR is viewed by others. DEWR has moved much further to the right since then too.
Regards
I was a bit disappointed with the program. Suicide is obviously a very extreme response, and I felt people would be able to dismiss the effects of those kind of work pressures on people who weren't vulnerable. They have to have been vulnerable, because otherwise there would be many more people harming themselves.
It would have been good to chase up the Telstra guy's line about "we recognise the call centre environment isn't for everyone" - who is it for, then? People who feel they don't deserve to be trusted, valued or respected at work? Of course different types of jobs suit different types of personalities better, but how were the others affected? There was a bit of discussion of the effects on others, but it left me with the feeling that these two people hadn't coped, not that it is impossible for ordinary, committed workers to cope with the increasing demands, pressure and bullying environment of Telstra call centres.
In both suicide cases they did a profile of the victims before they told the viewer that they had suicided in an attempt to have greater impact. I consider a more appropriate angle would have been to emphasise that these people were obviously sick, but work is often something that keeps people going and that it is not just the money that people go to work for.
Posing the question of "what makes people happy?" Feeling like they are a valued member of a team. Feeling satisfied and proud of ones own workmanship, and valued by the employer is known to be a great motivator, and people who like their boss will go out of their way to make extra effort if they feel it will be appreciated by someone who actually cares about their employees. Clearly today's management style has forgotten this, something the new IR laws and government policy seem to encourage.
Regards,
Owen
work in Centrelink and since its creation there has been a systematic process of weakening the individual's control of their job. There has also been an attitude developing in many managers that if a staff member feels negatively towards such things as high workloads, customer aggression and lack of control, then perhaps Centrelink is not the place for them.
Centrelink tends to select managers who hold the view that workplace design and operation is their perogative and if staff don't like it then they should leave.
I would not say that it is as bad as portrayed in Telstra by the 4 Corners program however, it is bad enough for there to be a fairly high incidence of psychological injury.
Part of my duties includes interviewing people who are claiming unemployment payments - there is a regular flow of people who have left employment who have related that they experienced similar bullying and otherwise unreasonable conditions in their employment from a variety of industries.
My own 2 children who have recently entered the workforce have experienced employment conditions that a reasonable adult should not accept. Unreasonable hours without a break, low pay, being paid cash (no tax deducted, no super), irregular hours etc.
The conundrum across all of these situations is that people are not willing or are afraid to stand up for themselves or join a union to do it for them.
It seems to me that we are headed for a society where people are rendered powerless or paralysed into powerlessness and the boss will rule despite the kind of horrors exposed on 4 Corners.
I hope that unions including ours can be more proactive about tackling these problems instead of seeming to be invisible. I know that it is hard but a way must be found to empower people to stand up for themselves.
Obviously for the 2 Telstra workers who took their own lives they felt powerless and despair and union strategies to empower failed for them.
Perhaps we should ask the likes of John Howard what strategies he thinks these workers or their unions should have employed to protect themselves. I might write to him directly.
a truly concerning program of life in a large organisation - the sad part is that if unfortunately won't be unique to Telstra.
The comments by management about a dictatorship and staff as submarines etc were very worrying
I am a union member working for Customs.
I have watched 'Four Corners' yesterday, and I hope that everyone has watched it who thinks AWA are a good thing. Two high achievers took their lives. What chances have the little people. None.
Good Morning Mr. Rolland
(Telstra spokesperson)
Last night’s edition of Four Corners was the last straw
We are taking our business elsewhere - after 35 years a Telstra customer.
Are your toilet breaks monitored?
I’ll bet they are not.
Your cold, steely, heartless responses to legitimate questions sent shivers up my spine.
My Wife and I sat there during the program without a word spoken for 45 minutes.
Stunned.
God help Australia and the workforce and protect us from sick, draconian experiments like yours and, and protect us from this Government with its vile AWA experiments, should it be returned-
How can you sleep at night?
You all should be ashamed.
A disgrace to fairness
A disgrace to Australia. A disgrace to your Mothers.
Work practices that are symptomatic of extreme Management failure.
Bill Thorman.
well i didnt see the show but i dont need to see the show to know what the workplace is like as i have worked for telstra for nearly 4 years when i first started it was great but then the need to make sales increased the call demand increased, the billing systems changed, i then started to suffer from depression, stress and anxiety... i have witnessed several people being fired, walking out on the job, i am a supervisor and when new people come out onto the phones there are a few of us who have to help them out and some of them stay until lunch adn not come back some leave after the first day some stay for a week, we will get say 15 people on the phone starting and then by the end of there 3 month probabtion we have 4 left. The pressure is unbelievable, you dont get given time off the phones you have to log off to go to the loo, but i will get one thing straight you DO NOT HAVE TO ASK TO GO TO THE TOLIET, you need to take approx 8-9 calls per hour to meet your call handling time and need to sell at least 3-4 broadbands a day to meet your sales target by the end of the month, the hard part is the sales as people do not want to be sold too, and also most of the calls that you get are people that already have broaband and how can you sell broadband to someone who already has it, wants to cancel it or has gone to another isp or who has dial up and doesnt want to move to anything else because they get it for free from there employer and so on..... also then a majority of people that are telstra customers arent rich people they are with telstra because its the only company they know or they are the older generation who refer to telstra as telecom or pmg still or the only company that will give them a phone line because of a credit rating and so on, not all them are millionaires and not all of them can afford broadband, sure $29.95 is cheap but then if you have a family of four they cant afford $59.95 for unlimited they want cheap and then they cant afford that becasue they are charged excess charges for going over their limit, it is very hard to sell teh product, but on the other hand the brand sometimes sells itself. the pressure is not the call handling times or teh fact that you have to meet a certain call quality standard because they should come naturally to you once you get the hang of it, the sales is the problem, people dont like being called at dinner time to talk about broadband they dont like being inturrupted while feeding their baby or bathing their kids or trying to get ready to go out and so on, also people that call you up normally have a dispute and they are angry or upset with their service and once you fix that they are so relunctant to buy, so the pressure needs to be taken of the sales i knwo for a fact that one of my collugues is in the sales team and they have to sell 100 broadbands a month, thats 8 a day they have to sell and they only get 2% of the sales call traffic and most of those calls the custonmer has pressed the wrong option because they ahte talking to the computer and want to talk to human, its hard to sell, the whole focus is sell sell sell and that pressure gets peopel put onto promance processes where if they dont meet their targets 3 mths in a row they get a warning then if they dont meet it again they get the string pulled tighter then dont meet it again and its goodbye..... thats the hard bit because we can try so hard to sell and not make one sale becasue people dont want it enough to buy or cant afford to buy it or are scared of the technology. i believe more emphasis needs to be placed on sales targets alone..... i believe we cant all take every type of call traffic, at the moment they have us taking broadband sales, broadband and dial up billing, dial up sales, residential phone billing, prepaid dial up traffic, and cancellations, reactivating services and transferring services to another residence thats a lot of traffic to handle for one consultant and the pressure can be too much trying to concentrate on everything at the one time!!! and sometimes this can all happen in the one call!!!
on the other hadn teamleaders do not need to be blamed as they are just the messengers adn a majority of them dont like the targets as much as the next person but they have to do it, thats what you are paid to do.....
my opinion is if they want to make more money why dont they stop paying the ceo $10 million a year to sit on his arse and boss people around they could easily drop that down to lets say $1 million he doesnt need $10 million a year. this way it will save jobs, the more poeple working there the less call traffic there will eb to take for individuals and the less pressure there will eb on everyone as it can be delegated to more enmployees to carry the work load and make everyone alot happier!!!
The bottom line is the need for these jobs is only growing and if we can't make call centres work in Australia we will lose them to foreign countries.
I suggest that currently though, the price is too high if staff feel victimised by management.
I would suggest that the union could be more active in providing guidance on how performance management should be run, especially in high workload environments.
After watching the 4 corners story last night, I can now see that I was not going crazy when I thought that my position at a Darwin based Telstra call centre known as Arafura was a job that provided poor treatment of staff and unrealistic expectations. It seemed that we were meant to be puppets and I was meant to perform and succeed in at all costs!
I started there back in November 2005, fresh out of year 12 (in fact when I started at Telstra I was still finishing yr. 12 exams etc) and when the AWA was passed under my nose, I have to admit the $$$$ jumped out and my jaw dropped. I read my 20 something page contract with the rest of my fellow trainees and our center manager. However I noted that when it came to things like sick leave and other such conditions they seemed to be breezed over and we were assured things that did not seem to match the written contract. An example; "well obviously if you need sick leave and you provide a doctors certificate you're covered and it would be paid".
However I was to learn the hard way when I fell ill with tonsillitis early on in my employment (had never ever had before) and my medical practitioner told me quite bluntly that I would need at least a week off to recover so that it wouldn’t get worse. I had my sick certificate and was home drugged up in bed, and even went back into work for 2 days training in the Exceed Sales Program as it was “an opportunity that won’t come up for at least another 6 months”. All was good and rosy until my pay was about half of what it should have been and ONLY once I had approached my team leader, was I told that I would not be getting the sick leave paid because I was still only in probation! It was at this point I almost decided to leave then and there, as I felt I was not even respected enough by my ‘superiors’ for them to come and have a chat to me before the processing of my pay had gone through!
The Exceed Sales Program is designed to use a format of what to say when trying to sell something to the customer, and an attempt to sell must be made on EVERY call. Even when the customer is calling for a complaint or in an irate state because of a billing issue or tech appointment issue. HOW to do this I will never know, because I decided to deal with the problem or query at hand and ONLY if a customer seemed interested or open to talking about anything else would I even dare go there!
In regards to the sales targets, I feel like Telstra were completely off the mark with their expectations of sales consultants. To give a rough idea of this I will show what our targets were:
Feb 06: WB 8 BB 8 OLB N/A
June 06:WB 15 BB 12 OLB N/A
Aug 06: WB 24 BB 15 OLB 3
Dec 06: WB 60 BB 9 OLB 5
Mar 07: WB 68 BB 8 OLB Nolonger SPU
WB -Number of customers who switch back to Telstra from other providers
BB- Broadband
OLB- Online Bill (easy to sign customers up to, however then the cust had to register in order for sale to go through & if you didn’t spend at least 3 minutes with customer to walk them through they could have gotten confused at any stage – hence was taken off as a SPU)
*SPU – Sales Product Unit
The main reason for these changes were that in August our centre changed from a “Move” center where we mainly dealt with home connections and move of addresses with the odd broadband sale, and a transfer back to Telstra from another provider. Then we became “Reach Out” a centre where our primary objective was to get people to come back to Telstra. I believe that it was the ‘Winback’ component that is the main cause of concern with the centre. As well as the lowering of AHT (Average Handling Time) – which meant if a customer rang in with a billing issue we then had to resolve that, sell them something quickly, hang up and move on. And as mentioned previously, there are instances where it is simply wrong to try to sell something to someone who really doesn’t need what you’re offering anyway! No mater how well you use your ‘Exceed Language’ to try and convince them! As for the utter BS John Rolland used that ‘emotion is not played upon’ I would then ask him why customers are put under groupings to decided which way is best to tackle a sale to this particular individual. The categories were; Friends Fun & Fashion (aimed at young females aged between 16 – 25ish), Professionals (mainly males 18 – 26 up with hi tech), family safe keeper (the family oriented aged between 25-40). Included in these packages were ways in which to get through to these people in order to make your sales.
And at the end of the month, if the numbers on the scorecard didn’t add up to the magical number needed, you went down the path of verbal warnings about “Non acceptable sales performance”. Then (if were lucky enough) down the path of PICM where you are pulled this way and that, handed documents to sign under immense pressure. I know for myself that I started questioning whether or not I wanted to work for such an AUSTRALIAN ICON when they weren’t even giving staff a fair go!
The nail in the coffin for me, came down to the bullying tactics that I started to receive, mainly from a temporary Team Leader who had no idea of his actual position. He seemed content with telling staff what to do and lecture us about taking ownership, but not actually being a role model to this effect. I had an EEO issue with him where harassment was committed, and although he admitted to being wrong, refused to apologize- ALL I WANTED! The center manager stepped in and still did nothing for me, so at the end of 18 months I can safely say I am glad to have escaped Telstra! I am glad that I am the stubborn person that I am because I may not have stood up for myself as much as I did whilst there and may have succumb to the brainwashing that is Telstra. I got tears in my eyes when I heard the story of Sally & Leon; because it made me wonder…what could drive a person that far that they felt they had no way out….now I know TELSTRA COULD!
One correspondant to this discussion has suggested that John Rolland ought to be put on the phones to take calls in the call centre. If he performance in his interview last night on Four Corners was any indicator, his call handling stats would be blown by his tendeancy to pause for just far too long as he considers and concocts the spin (LIES!) required before he speaks. I wonder whether he'd be branded a dragon or a savage and then "verballed" for poor performance. Actually, perhaps he has already faced that today from Teltra's PR team. LOL!
Your Rights At Work are worth fighting for!
What advice can the CPSU offer to assist people who want to move their business away from Telstra? It would seem inadvisable to go from the 'frying pan into the fire' if other providers are no better.
My opinion is that I don't want the future for my children in Australia to look like what happens in the US today! Disgusting!
The story from 4 corners was quite interesting ive been following this story since the first report on the young girl taking her life. The similarities are astounding between the upper management of centrelink and telstra ,the do all attitude has never worked and never will .People are not robots and coming from the upper management way of thinking if we cant do the job we should step aside to let in someone who can .Now what happens when the new staff come in, dont stay because its not worth the hassel and the stresss ,so we get left with more work that no one wants to do and less morale because the load is to heavy .Just look around Centrelink as an organisation and see how many employess take medication for stress or alike ailments ie depression or anxiety tablets .i think they will only listen if we all strike and leave the big wigs to man the counters and see how long it takes for them to have a day off or even some stress leave its afunny thaught but it will never happen because they wouldnt work in an iron lung .......no wonder so many people have left and our productivity is down because all the experienced people have left due to pressure of the job and the ones we replace can be taught quick enough or dont stay long enough to be.
My comments:
I was aghast at Telstra's merciless & bean counting human relations & resources policies & how they treated their staff like 'machines'. If Telstra continues with this staff manipulation, it will fall over & cost them huge $'s in re-training, lost productive time & compensation. My opinion of Telstra has certainly spiralled downwards.
I am not a Telstra customer & after watching the 4 Corners Program, I have promised myself I will never be one.
As a staff member who has suffered bullying in the ATO workplace, I could truly relate to the deteriorating & incapacitating general & mental health of the Telstra staff who suffered from these insidious workplace practices.
I consider the insight into Telstra's staff management policies highlighted by the 4 Corners Program will do irrevocable damage to Telstra.
Cheers,
Helen
I was an over achiever in Telstra for 2.5 years, more than proving myself as a star performer.
I basically resigned from Telstra in December of last year for management bullying reasons. I felt that there was no other option. It got to a stage that I no longer looked forward to going to work.
Unfortunately, I did not get to see the 4 corners report.
Hi Stephen
It is interesting to note that the staff at the Stellar Robina Centre carried on today like the Four Corners program did not happen last night. The threat of instant dismissal was obviously working.
Interesting coincidence that the manager of the centre announced his resignation today. (see attached letter to the staff.)
Everything mentioned on the program is accurate but toned down from reality. In the last seven years, a good job has been converted to a sweat house geared to intimidate and strike fear into desk staff, supervisors and management.
The concerning issue is that the current senior management of Telstra seems hell bent on squeezing the life blood out of the organisation until dry. It is sad because the asset is largely owned by Australians and the perpetrators will escape in the end with a handsome bonus.
Further it was shown the day the Government signed an agreement with the opposition telecom provider to fill a serious gap in Broadband technology caused, we assume, because Telstra bosses couldn’t get their own way.
This email has to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.
Couple of BIG problems here.
(1) Government decides public sector has no business 'running a phone company' (even though it's actually running a piece of infrastructure vital to Australia's security, business environment and community cohesion).
(2) Then competition comes in. In the form of a company owned by the Singapore government.
So privatised Telstra has to compete with a foreign government owned company. One that is quite happy to employ workers in low wage countries. Coming second in the race to the bottom means share prices will drop and share prices are the sole barometer in a listed company. That inevitably means telstra call centre workers are competing with counterparts in places like Bangalore. And we can see the results on programs like 4 Corners last night.
This was always the inevitable outcome of (1) and (2) above.
This program was absolutely correct.
I worked at 2 Telstra call centres (sales and faults) and the management policies made me understand how Nazi Germany happened...
'just following orders!' to intimidate and bully.
And that Telstra yes-man creature who presented the official response, was vile.
H.R.B.
I am employed by Medibank Private in back office processing area in State Headquarters. We are monitored in a similar manner, by the use of computer based timers and the telephone itself...breaks etc. I guess it would not be surprising that the current management come from Telstra call centre back ground
I watched the 4 Corners program on Telstra's bullying culture on 18 June 2007. It eopecially resonated with me because I recently had to leave a job because of sustained bullying from a manager. Unlike the Telstra team leaders who undertook that appalling training, my supervisor was self-taught but many of her tactics were similar: isolation, erosion of workers' confidence in their skills, micromanagement...
I was outraged by Telstra's orchestrated bullying tactics.
I also felt slightly ashamed to be a minor shareholder of Telstra, having bought T3 shares.
Now, I was wondering, is there a way of giving my proxy to the relevant union when the next AGM comes around? I would also like to donate the paltry dividend I get from Telstra to any charitable fund assisting the families of people whose relatives committed suicide, partly as a result of the oppressive work culture they had to endure whilst employed at Telstra.
Please, let me know if either of these options are viable, and who to contact.
Thank you
After watching the 4corners program I was not surprised with tactics being using by Telstra in the call centres. Having been subject to these same tactics in call centre for Telstra I eventually managed to promote to another area of Telstra which has now been taken over by another department, the changes are happening at an incredible rate more jobs to go consolidation of existing jobs which is more calls and more training required to do the jobs of those people who are going to lose they jobs.
The new position I accepted I thoroughly enjoyed when I first got the change, but with the constant harassment to perform better and more, it seems you can never be good enough.
More is always required on every call you could have done it better every time, you wonder what you are doing, you think you are doing the best job you can.
There must be some fairly dramatic changes about to happen in my area of when you have 3 team managers leave and other staff resigning at an alarming rate.
I am not under performance based pay I suppose you could say I am lucky working under an award for salary, but when you look at the salary and the wage rises that awarded under the enterprise agreement did not even keep pace with inflation I might make more money directing traffic.
(Sols vision 1 number 1 voice multi skilled staff, everyone does the same job its only a matter of time before they insert the silicon chip into their employees.)
I used to work at Telstra when conditions were wonderful. As outsourcing began so did the change in Telstra. I left and found better employment as I was financially in a position where I could, unlike many people who depend on Telstra's pay to survive.
My daughter was in the position of team leader at Telstra, having risen through the ranks from technician to fault dispatcher to management when she went on maternity leave 4 years ago. Sadly the baby died. She was told to get back to work as her leave was no longer classed as maternity leave and Telstra then withheld her sick leave on a technicality. She had no option but to return although she was in no condition to work. She was told if she had problems to get 'help'. The way she was treated was criminal. She stepped down from team leader to a lesser paying position so she could cope with the pressure they put on her. Incidentally they back paid her sick leave after her return to work, it had been used as a tool to ensure her prompt return.
Apart from losing her baby she had developed a muscle condition that was disabling. After fighting for years with management she has eventually left as she had become medically disabled and still Telstra refused to accept she was unable to work. They withheld all long service and holiday pay on her departure for reasons unknown. Again after a long drawn out process it was paid, as they had no legal reasons for withholding it. The added stress she was put under was unnecessary and she too was pushed to the brink by the bullying and the scorn management stacked upon her. They treated her like she was concocting the condition; although she had medical evidence and the effects of her illness is quite visible.
The old Telstra has certainly gone and has been replaced with a company moulded in the eastern culture.
Australian ancestors fought for the excellent conditions that are now eroded. I would never go back to work there and would encourage young people to look elsewhere for employment. I am saddened for the conditions young people are forced to work under at Telstra and other large companies with the same environment.
I sincerely hope they are held responsible for the loss of the life of Sally Sandic as I have seen first hand through my daughter what the current Telstra is capable of.
Carmen: you are a decent person
Bullying is rife throughout most of the workplaces that I work in as a temp.
I am frustrated by the inablitly of many managers to work in any other way. Many of them do not know another way. It is how they learned in the abscence of any real training, it is also a reflection of the pressure and bullying they suffer to bring the job in in riduculous time frames and with minimal resources. Cleaning is a classic example.
A further development that is really disturbing is the fear workers have around reporting or standing up for their rights in relation to this pressure. Good on you CPSU Telstra. It takes a lot to make a complaint re Bullying and Harrassment. Congratulations on your courage and keep up the good work.
I hope you are considering a penalty on Telstra under Section 55 of the OHS&W Act. Unfortunately money seems to be the only language that big corporations understand and a $10,000 penalty under the Act might make them consider some new workplace practices.
How ironic that the ABC run a 4 Corners on workplace bullying. It's the only workplace I have acutally experienced it, where now I work for Telstra and see no signs at all.
The ABC should do a on it's own Staff's Morale. Pretty Low in alot of quarters I believe.
WHY ARE WORKERS SO UNHAPPY AT WORK
The Four Corners Program would be no revelation to many workers. There is a a general unhappiness in the workplace. But why? Under the Howard Government's program of Workchoices, now called Workplace Reform, we are all supposed to be at our happiest, making choices, getting ahead, achieving targets, being paid bonuses, feeling the best job satisfaction we have felt in years.
But it is not happening! The Telstra workers are not alone. It does not matter who you ask, the complaints are pretty much the same. I have talked with teachers, nurses, call centre workers, factory workers, building workers and they all say, that their workplace is miserable, or at best somewhere they tolerate to earn money, but the job satisfaction is gone.
Its all about productivity targets that must be met by managers, who have their eyes on a bonus and their personal career enhancement.
Selfishness and self centredness is the name of the game!! These managers live in their own land, talk their own language, but rarely visit the workplace or have any idea what is going on at operational level.
It was interesting in the Four Corners Program that the Telstra Managers interviewed did not seem to know what was going at workplace level.
Moreover, the culture was to discourage first line managers from "mothering" their distressed employees!
In this employer dominated working world of Big Brother type language, that means don't show your workers any human feeling, even if they are in severe distress.
Human feeling, compassion, understanding, tolerance have no place in the current ruthless drive for profits. Workplaces in Australia are being driven down by employers and big business to third world standards, so that we compete with third world costs.
Employees have no choices, they have no say in the workplace, unions are being pushed out the door or being kept off the premises..
And this is only the start of what is to come if the Howard Government is re-elected this year.
Once re-elected the employers will be given a free for all, because it will be at least 3 years to another election.
They will be allowed to do their worst - AWAs, de-regulation, no unions, no union fee deductions, pay and conditions cuts.
It is worth taking note of the clauses in the AWA issued to Telstra workers, that 10% of their salary would only be paid contingent on the employee meeting their ever increasing personal productivity targets. Shades of what is to come!!
The union movement have thrown in their lot with the election of a Labor Government, and we all hope Labor wins, but even if they do, the employer agenda will remain. The Unions must organise. This is the fight of their life, for their life.
I have only just join your union but I would like to put my hand up to help in any way to improve the working conditions at Telstra call centres.
I have been a Telstra employee for under six months and I have already been put on anti depresants because of work.
I cant afford to leave as much as I want to because my husband is on a pension a we wouldn't be able to live. So if there is any way at all I can help change these conditions, please let me know
This was an excellent report. It demonstrated exactly what the heirachy of organisations with large call centres, such as Telstra are all about. Having worked in a few call centres myself, both large and small, and lets face it, there are a lot of us that have at some time or other, I have experienced both good and extremely bad environments. We all understand that organisations must have monitoring tools in place for the varied roles that their staff do, both business and personnel related. However, these tools should not be used to victimise or pressure staff under the guise of 'good or responsible business'.
The usual reaction I have witnessed or experienced in places I've worked, when someone was having difficulty coping or worried about their targets, is to 'counsel' them. In other words, a 'performance management' strategy. They are not interested in the person as a person. You are bum number 94 on seat 94 in front of computer 94.
As for the comments of the Team Leaders, I totally understand and sympathise with them. In my opinion, again based on my experience, they are nothing short of 'brainwashed' into dehumanising their staff and in turn, themselves in the process.
You would think with all the time, expense and effort that goes into recruiting and training staff that they would be doing everything resonably expected to retain them.
Overall, I think the arogance of organisations such as Telstra who obviously project the 'you should be grateful to be working for us' mentality, have got it completely wrong. They should be grateful to the masses that choose to work for them, despite knowing that one little look of displeasure could lead to a whole new set of problems.
Regards,
Meredith
Hi all I currently work for Telstra in the call centre environment in a regional centre. Four corners has hit the nail on the head. Our workplace is getting harder as the bar keeps changing all the time. I have seen a bully team leader in action. I have seen others walked out for not meeting KPIs. This has occured even though these people have worked in the centre for a number of years. The turn over of staff is in the thousands in the years I have been there. I only remain there for the money and jump through their stupid hoops in order to stay employed. This proves to be very stressful. Sol and his American mates should be made accountable better still ship them off back to the good old USA -WE DONT LIKE THERE BULLY BOY TACTICS HERE IN AUSTRALIA. To watch John Roland and listen to his comments was like listening to a politician perform. I too am sorry for the 2 families when will it ever end. There needs to be an independent body come in and straighten things out from the top down.
thanks anonymous
PLEASE MR BLOG AUTHOR DO NOT POST THIS IF IT CAN BE TRACED AS I MAY WELL LOOSE MY JOB AS WELL!!!!
I previously worked for Telstra Bigpond, I can tell this company is a joke to work for. When i first started 4years ago it was great as targets were achievable across the board keeping up good morale and attrition rates were low. However when telstra assigned Sol Trujillo as CEO and his little Amigos, everything changed, targets were ramped up to over 300% which in turn created a high amount of pressure and stress on staff as people were not achieving as they did previously and were threatened with PIP's which are now known as PICM Process which created unwarranted stress on staff.
Also the inclusion of 20% Risk Salary dropping peoples salaries by as much as 10,000 per year
However i feel they are purely trying to turn this company into a american managed format ie less pay high unachievable targets i feel Sol and His Friends should give up and go
I walked out of work today and after 13 years, I don't think I can go back and do what they want...
One very good thing about this report was that everything they brough up was true. I could relate to all of these behaviours by Management at work. Continual monitroiring at this level and being made to feel that you are never doing a good enough job causes high levels of stress and makes the workplace a very unhappy place to be and creates low moral. Hopefully this report will encourage Telstra to rethink it's attitude and behaviour patterns and realise that people work and perform better in a happy, non threatening environment. When I joined Telstra (13 years ago) I was a customer service consultant and now I am a sales consultant. I have seen many changes over the years, some good and some bad. Hopefully the issues which have come to light in this report will help to improve our workplace in the future.
Below is an excerpt from an e-mail sent to the floor at the Telstra call centre I used to work for.
"We had 20 agents log in late yesterday.
We had over 13 hours of unproductive time. This equates to:
$18 129 in lost sales
10 contracts
94 customers not serviced.
If anyone wants to write a cheque to Sol for $18 000 I'm sure he'll be happy for it to be rounded down."
We also regularly received e-mails with the subject line "Hall of SHAME!" naming those who did not meet their targets or who had too much unproductive time. These e-mails often asked us to judge our colleages asking "how do you feel that ..... has taken an extra 3 minutes on their break and YOU have to carry their workload?"
TELSTRA, WELCOME THE THE HALL OF SHAME!
Feed back on program - I can relate to the sentiments expressed by the workers placed under pressure in Telstra.
Simplistic targets for productivity have been adopted in Centrelink without consideration of the overall job desciption/requirements. Stress is being placed on workers in order to meet unrealistic targets. I am all for accountability - but in the scramble to continually increase productivity in order to justify wage rises unrealistic targets/KPIs/productivity are being placed on workers.
I watched with interest - and a good deal of alarm - the Four Corners program on Telstra.
I have never come across such a cold, heartless, domineering, do whatever to crush the workforce, senior manager. He was better than a politician in that he never answered a single question put to him by the interviewer. Complete and utter disdain for the interviewer and for the employees. It is a great shame that Australia has been sucked in by the aim of maximising profits at all costs - particularly at the cost of the employee - that is so dominant in the USA.
It is clear that Telstra management are totally ruthless, heartless, and have no compassion or consideration whatsoever for their employees at the grass roots level. While management wallows in their fat bonuses, the employees who do the work suffer.
Sadly, this seems to be the philosophy of management these days - outcomes driven with no regard for how the goals are achieved or at what price the sacrifice on the part of the grass roots employee.
Question: What's the difference between Telstra and Centrelink?
Answer: 2 suicides...everything else is virtually the same
Terrific programme.
Angelo
It was an interesting story. I felt the Exec. Director interviewed was one of those 'psychopaths in the work place' as he didn't seem to show much empathy at all.
In Centrelink, very little is done about bullies, specifically National Managers. There is quite a turnover of Executive Assistants due to the adverse treatment they receive from the NMs but complaints fall on deaf ears - generally with HR siding with the Senior Executives. Such a pointless exercise complaining with little done that EAs leave Centrelink or request a movement out of the area. One NM I worked for before going off on anxiety/stress leave had 8 EAs in the two years after I left him!
And Telstra won't be any different. The old saying "there's always another in the queue to take your job if you leave".
I watched 4 Corners last night and everything they were saying certainly rang true. Telstra Media Watch had a notice on yesterday’s Telstra News titled
“Concern that Four Corners will mislead the public on Telstra” I wanted to give them feedback about thinking that Four Corners was spot on, and John Rolland certainly would not have enhanced Telstra’s image with the public one bit (Did he blink - at all - the whole time?).
Anyway, guess what? They aren’t accepting feedback. What does that tell you?
Yours in unity,
Irene
I am very sad for those people. I am instigating bullying/harrassment action where I work and feel that if they do not do something I will resign. Fortunately I am a
public servant and there are redress of wrongs procedure to go through.
the fact that as workers we get manipulated to sacrifice 20-30% of our pay is of grave concern....especially if some of our products are not as good as they say they are....some demands are definitely unrealistic
a couple of months ago I gave authorization for the CPSU to put me onto an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement...I wonder if issues like this will be addressed
also the absence of a rostered day off...which we are not entitled to under the present AWA
not all of the program was negative towards Telstra....I have no problems with GPS in cars, vans and trucks...... if the call centre operator knows where a delivery could be made or a service repaired then I see this as good service ....and Exceed training does base itself on needs and emotions and has helped with my work
I must admit ..the word savage was new....I did not like what I heard ....which is the kind of worker which might be on profile
Thank for the story
Thank you for the heads up about the Four Corners program.
How sad for those people to be put under such continual and relentlessly increasing pressure for sales and timed outputs.
Even worse to resort to suicide – no job is worth death over living.
Is this the way of the future for all?
Let’s hope it’s not and that we can all as managers and workers keep a human side, rather than the obvious cold hearted management style portrayed by some managers and the ‘drone’ mentality expected from workers.
I am about to complete a Masters in Health Service Management this week and if I ever feel myself becoming dehumanized then it’s time to get out.
I certainly don’t want to have a management style such as that shown.
I can’t imagine going to work and not being in a democracy, not having any rights and should I or other staff dare to speak out then I/they get the underperformance management threat.
Management can get things wrong, they are human too but I think they are going too far and need people to give them the reality check- apparently suicide is not enough as they don’t seem to have listened, what did the manager say ‘it was other problems in their lives’, talk about denial.
They need to take a good hard look at themselves, I know I will after that to make sure I’m not heading in those footsteps ever.
I don’t want my children to grow up in that world either, that’s not living that’s inhumane suffering.
Kind regards and thanks for showing what not to be.
Stephanie
This program absolutely disgusted me. Two of Telstra's "high achievers" committing suicide is an indictment on the organization. My feelings on the Telstra representative were that he was a cold fish, more concerned with Testa's bottom line rather that the people help the company achieve this. Where are we heading with views & workplace practices such as these?????? We need to remember these people were human beings first & employees secondly.
Marie
As a former (then) Telecom employee in the 1980s, all I can say is nothing has changed and the the real problem today is management's pathological belief that people want to be sold sh*t, even when all they want is for their phone to be working.
Telstra, since the early PMG days, has always had a poisonous, bullying workplace culture and the 3 years and 9 months I spent there in the early 1980s was the most miserable time of my life.
I vehemently talk young people out of applying for jobs there whenever I get the chance.
There's nothing new in this story, but the faces involved.
If that guy from Telstra who was the main interviewee, was my boss I think I would be in Jail now!!.
Its typical of what happens when you bring in performance reporting. The Public Service Performance model isnt much different and if you look closely at how things are done, whilst not so severe, there are still similarlities between what happens at Telstra and what is starting to happen at various Departments throughout the public service.
The CPSU needs to be very careful of how this development progresses. (Performance reporting)
I did indeed watch the programme and was disgusted. My Uncle Chris McGrane was at one time in his Union career the Secretary of the Postal Workers Union, he is now dead but he would not be pleased with how Telstra is now working. I feel for all the workers need some support.
The only way we can protect workers is for the Labour Party to come into power in the Federal area.
Iam a government worker and hope never to see such bully boy tactics in my area of work
Thanks
What an eye opener - I once worked for a govt service agency with similar type internal peer pressures. Hearing the Telstra team leader referring to her fellow "co workers" as savages etc was pretty frightening - kinda makes you understand how a feeling of being an absolute outsider can filter into the consciousness of workers. And the concept of shooting out those not performing to the required levels - chilling - even in abstract.
It was a particularly enlightening program, given the current IR laws, that the monitoring means continued upping of "achievable" targets to obliterate every moment of one's own "time", and the open and very blatant warning system for those not achieving the targets.
If ABC journalists are interested in workplace bullying they only have to look within the ABC itself where management has condoned this sort of thing for years.
I've got to say that I work for Telstra and love it. I am so sick of the media attacking the company.Why didn't they interview a broader cross section of people so they could get a real view of things? And by the way, if I didn't like it, I'd leave...
I thought the 4 corners program was very interesting. I hope Telstra senior management take note and out of these 2 tragic incidences do something to ensure it never happens again.
I was astounded to hear the names the Telstra team leaders were told to refer to Union delegates & employees who do not perform "savages" "dragons". How is this going to produce a positive work environment where people are respected?
But, I was even more astounded by Greg Winn's comments that Telstra is a dictatorship and if people don't want to take part in Telstra's transformation (which I am not against), then they will be dragged or kicked out (words to that effect). How can someone so senior in the company - Sol's right-hand man, speak in such a derogatory manner about Telstra's employees?
Well done 4 Corners, its time that the public knew what went on behind closed doors in Telstra.
I am absolutely ashamed and disgusted to work for such an organisation and am actively looking to leave.
What kind of a culture are we breeding where $1 million dollars in sales by 1 person is just not good enough.
My heart goes out to the families of the 2 people mentioned in the story, nothing will bring back their loved ones, but if we can make management and the public see what life inside Telstra is really like, then maybe some good can come of this.
hi team, i'm one of the many being bullied at telstra. thank you for all your comments. it gives me strength. and thank you to the abc for objectively documenting what gives in a 'Dictatorship', where middle-management bullying is encouraged coz you're a 'slave' who's gonna get 'shot' soon enough. Oh, and a fully privatised Telstra is no-longer part of the public sector...
I thought the situation was incredibly sad. However, I don't think Four Corners did an adequate job of pinning the blame on Telstra. In fact, it came across like they were trying a little too hard, and it was a bit sick that they were trying to exploit the deaths of those two people. From what I've witnessed, Telstra used to have some of the most pleasant call centres in the country, but now it simply has fallen to the same level as anywhere else. I guess that's competition for you.
- Andrew
its all true every bit of it: they squeeze you dry, mess with your head then make you redundant! Then they treat the Industry Partners like crap but they're casual and will do anything. Unfortunately the only way to change its direction is to mass sell off your shares - yes? I don't think so its the new Greed is Good- good onya MUM & DAD investors you've created this
I'm a team leader who has been given great training on how to bully people its called LPP- attrition is good for the business especially if we don't have to pay redundancy.
don't back Telstra
I used to be so proud to work for Telstra. I now try to avoid telling people who I work for. I have worked in their call centres now for 13 years. It was extremely pleasant back then, but became progressively sales driven some years ago. As anyone can appreciate, changing a behaviour you have used and been commended for is difficult. I cannot force myself to emotively convince people to buy products, and I refuse to. I don't rely on EXCEED to make my targets, I use good old fashioned customer service. It served me well before & continues to do so today. My customers greatly appreciate it too. Only management, who are usually people with no minds of their own, seem to think they have all the answers. Most of them in my centre have no idea on how to do our job and it seems that higher management don't think they need to know. The last few team leaders were 2 weeks into their probation and were given team leader roles because they said the right things during a new coaching program being rolled out. (Although I can say on a happy note that this new program was cancelled very quickly when employees completely revolted against it.) How they are expected to coach and lead us is beyond imagination. But then their idea of coaching and leadership is bullying and intimidation. Definitely not to lead by example.
After the show aired, they were certainly focused on damage control. They still would not admit that there was a problem though. This too many of us would be a step in the right direction. We were only told that it wasn't John Rolland's problem and that about his pathetic responses, "They cut out so much of his answers and made it sound like they wanted it to." The old saying, if it smells like manure then it is manure, rings true in this case.
I do hope that some good will come from this floodlight that is currently illuminating all the bad things about Telstra. I do love my job and the customers I deal with. It would be nice though to extend that feeling towards my management team also.
I watched this programme. I found it to be accurate and a true reflection of the situation at Telstra. It made me feel very upset and saddened to hear of the second suicide.
When I attended work on the Tuesday there appeared to be some sort of reaction with management- am not sure genuine or not. Staff obviously were discussing it at length. Most of us could identify with the issues raised in the programme. In all honesty if it were not for my age (62 in August) I would have left Telstra such a long time ago.
I have seen many of mycolleagues be intimidated, then put on a pip. They have paniced, looked for another job and subsequently left. All the wealth of experience from these people who have been at Telstra for many years has just walked out the door. They have felt so threatened and insecure about their job. They have mortgages and school fees etc. For me I do not have these problems but because of my age feel my options are so limited. I had planned to stay for another couple of years when I could retire but I do not feel confident that I will make it. So far I have managed my targets but they increase all the time. I am constantly stressed.
I am a part timer and as such miss out on a lot of training. These issues have been raised but nothing seems to be done.Other part time staff feel the same.
Most staff related to the 4 corners programme. On theTuesday I had feedback from customers also about the show. They couldnt believe that this was the situation and that the workplace was such a terrible place.
One female colleague has also been questioned about toilet breaks. She was asked when attending a pip process whether she had a medical problem????
Thank you for your support. I hope I can stay a bit longer until I need to leave.
Why do all Americans love guns and shooting things, including staff...?
Aa a current Telstra employee I'm starting to feel the pinch myself. Like Sally, I'm also a top performer; I've been working there for nigh on 7 years now. Back in "those days" things were easier; a lot easier now.
I even got rewarded for great performance and became an appointed Team Leader and within 6 months of that things started changing in the company. I guess it started with Ziggy at the helm I suppose but communicating the ever increasing targets to my staff were yet another quarterly ritual.
Team Leaders get an even more raw end of the stick. You've got to be able to take a lot of crap as a TL. The targets are *given* to you and you need to get your team to meet them or else it's *your* head on the block. The difference is if fellow TL's meet the targets and you don't then you're obviously not as good-a TL as them. So can they get someone better? No. Team Leaders and Store Managers are quitting big time; they're just walking out in fustration. Area Managers for the Store Managers are just relaying the targets too but are the ones controlling the reins really. The targets come in and down the pipleline they go. Should the targets increase the response from management to management is "well, that's what's set so you need to deliver". It sucks.
Now I'm no longer a TL. When the company restructured and got rid of a lot of us (actually, increasing the TL to Consultant ratio to cut costs) Telstra redeployed me back to another call centre rather than make me redundant. Sure enough, I was a top performer again - boy oh boy the stress level dropped! Now I can start the feel the pinch. As one of the countrys top performers I'm only scraping Sales and VOS targets (I maintain that the calls I am getting that there are no viable opportunities on) and whilst I'm scraping theres *heaps* of staff I work with who aren't anywhere near me. Guess what's going to happen to them? Yep, they'll be gone after the TL turns on the pressure tap (but again, only because they have to).
So what am I to do? I'm kind of stuck because I'm only quite a good wicket pay-wise with Telstra and should I find an equal job elsewhere, I will be jumping ship too. Yes Telstra, you're going to force your best sales performance staff out of your own company due to stress.
I'm not sure what staff you're looking for Sol/JR but if I'm not it then you can damn well keep cycling the staff until you find some sort of weird electronic robot like the old ANZ call centre ad on TV that can do it for you.
Well done to 4 Corners; putting the 2 deaths aside for the moment you surely did your full research and it was a very objective piece.
I hope it's not left here either; this is just the tip of the iceburg.
Should a national strike be called I'll be putting my hand up (I don't care if I'm an AWA either!)
In light of the recent Telstra Bullying at the call centre in Tasmania, nothing is new.
In 1997 I left Telstra under the same conditions, although a little different given they HAD to move approx 10,000 employees because of the looming Telstra float. There tactic then was a payment system to managers at Telstra Australia (approx $300.00 per head) to give workers the flick taking the redundancy package and go.
I have kept quite about this for a long time because there was alot of nasty business which involved bullying and creating lies about workers, making a very disgruntled workforce, with incredibly low moral.
There is constant bullying happening in Telstra call centres I have experienced it and witnessed it in at least 3 different centres I have been into. I have even heard of people being docked a days pay when the wanted to go the funeral of their co-workers. It does seem to be getting a little bit better in my centre at least but it should not be happening at all.
We all deserve to be treated as human beings but unfortunately due to the nature of the industry I cannot see any major changes happening anytime soon.
a couple of us have made our own little broaches at work out of paper. I’ve got a dragon, and there are a few ‘savages’ and submarines wondering around too.
The Telstra communication to staff after the program stated how disappointed Telstra was with Four Corners, nothing was said about the treatment meted out by management, just platitudes about how Telstra values the individual etc. It’s not much of a revelation for Tesltra staff that Telstra are so intransigent..
We had a couple of senior managers last year attempting to swipe our RDOs and told us to ‘get the message or get on the bus’, i.e. do what your told or nick off. After a big arm wrestle with these managers we won the dispute and two of these senior managers ended up taking a bus trip of their own down to Centrelink (or its corporate equivalent).
A an old school friend worked for Telstra. She did pretty well, reached manager level and set up a call centre. Her reward? She was sacked and then re-hired on contract. AWA's have nothing to do with democracy - "choice" in this instance is yet another weasel word. For more insight into psychopathic management practices, read Chang & Halliday's biography on Mao …
"D"
Yes I watched the program & was disgusted that John knew the terminology of suck words as "savages", "dragons", etc. He avoided the questions which didnt surprise me & I was disgusted that he is my senior managers in mobiles! What is going on with this company? What is Sol the "Xenos" thinkking?! My deepest sympathy to both families. No i wont be taking my life but im very unhappy working there. Once upon a time I really enjoyed my team leaders & workplace. The reason I stay is the money & great work mates. All team leaders & seniors can get lost. I have no respect towards them & the targets are terrible & are not achievable. They want us to fail so they can sack us! Telstra can GO TO HELL!
Telstra has failed us the workers!
Its time to close shop Sol!
I cried at my desk after reading those comments. I am actually contacting Telstra to cancel my home phone, 2 mobiles and bigpond
-I will find another provider.
I wanted to say that I hope all my fellow staff members now understand why we need a stronger CPSU with greater membership.
All these scare tactics by the Coalition party around the unions gaining the upper hand under a Labor Government - I just say, please.... bring it on.
People forget how much we have gained from strong unions and quickly dismiss the importance of them in today's workplace.
The situation in Telstra bears out the reason why unionism is still as vital as ever.
(I wish I could put my name to this - but I work in an Agency where this kind of free speech is considered subversive. I pay my union dues and support the union in every other respect).
Hi
I still currently work for Telstra but no longer in the call centre enviroment ( thank god). All I can say is its pretty much spot on! Thats what it was like. John Rolland never had any personality and now it appears he also has no spine.
I am not surprised but am very affected. Not surprised - because Telstra senior management decided a long time ago to be ruthless and drive out the union/s. They did not succeed but they are still trying - pack of worthless ideologues.
I feel guilty having a phone subscription with Telstra. But is a boycott the answer? This company seems to have a long history in Australia and I don't know if we would be helping the workers' campaigns by having nothing to do with this company.
Still, I think I will be changing my phone arrangements very soon.
I totally agree with what was aired on the 4Corners programme on Monday night. I have worked for the big T for 9 years, the first 6 six in a call centre & I must say I would rather starve than go back to a call centre. I don't know if people realise this sort of behaviour by management is happening all thru the company, it's not just isolated to the call centres. I don't if any of you other Telstra workers out there have been informed of the new policy has just put out where you must stay within current business unit for a minimum of 2 years b4 you can apply for a position within another business unit. To be ALLOWED by your Centre Manager to firstly apply for another position & then attend the interview you must get their approval signed off. Is this another way Telstra has decided to get rid of people??? I think so. At the end of the day it all comes down how much Sol & his side kicks are going to be able to line their pockets with to take back to the good ol' US of A. I reckon they should all be sent back now, and let Australians run this Australian company. I have just over 12mths to go to get my long service, then I'll running for that door out of there as fast as I can.
Could the Union please investigate this new 24 month rule regarding apply for positions in other business units.
So much for Telstra having respect for their employees. I don't think so!!!
How sad that we have not learnt anything.Why are there excuses for how this poor girl took her own life.We need to understand that people perform better when they get given respect and human compasion.What we need to understand is what we do and say makes a difference.We must take responsibilty for the actions that we take and the effect it has on others, how do some people sleep at night I will never understand.rip.
When I watched the program all i could think about was "that is me". I think the Telstra executives should take a long walk off a short plank. Centrelink is the same way now. I just got fired for "poor performance". I had just lodged a formal grievance about 7 hours before I got my marching orders.
I have had opportunities taken away from because of an ongoing illness I have, given a formal warning in my first few weeks of telstra, excess call monitoring and constantly told I am not good enough. My particular call centre has in my opionion a dishonest management team
I know of 2 other close friends of mine that committed suicide one of them at work at telstra. the thing is that yes Telstra is a hole of a place to work but you have to remember there is more to life .... but it is hard too when they demand more and more of your time and they do not care about your concerns. and then they just bacically harrass you if you have good ideas to help or take the ideas themself to keep them in a job.... I know the managers are getting the kick from up above... but maybe they should remember where they have come from. I have worked in Telstra for over 12 years second generation both my mother and father work for Telecom/Telstra. And I have seen a lot of changes going on.... but please just all managers remember it is all about the Staff without the staff you have no one to answer your calls to bring you in the record profit margins every year.... and with out the Staff you will not be able to give yourselves the HUGE salary increases every year while older staff wages are stuck.
MANAGERS in all call centres need to remember that we are all in the same boat and try and support your staff not to follow the telstra motto of beatting them into submission
I watched the four corners program. I wasn't surprised by what I saw given Telstra's track record in this area.
The trend in workplaces these days is that managers will try to get away with whatever they can, & the bottom line is what drives everything. Unless individuals & groups of working people can stand up in an organised fashion against perceived unfairness & insulting behaviour, nothing will change. Remember, team leaders themselves are under pressure to push staff to achieve unrealistic targets & there are many who are prepared to suck up and kick down
It also makes me doubt the much vaunted recent figures on the unemployment rate much of which must have been compiled using smoke & mirrors otherwise it is difficult to understand, that if there are so many jobs opportunities around, why any intelligent person would tolerate such disgraceful behaviour on the part of an employer.
Cheers
I will be changing my telecommunications supplier quick smart - I urge people to do the same.
I missed the Four Corners program but this has long been an issue for Telstra Call Centres. I worked at a call centre for two (2) years and provided technical support to Bigpond customers. I am interested to know if only Telstra run call centres have been looked at because the centre I worked at was sub-contracted out to a company called Teletech Int.
They had the same procedures such as docking your pay for toilet breaks and were taken to the industrial relations commission in the past after they docked a pregnant women's pay for going to the bathroom too much.
It was explained to us at the beginning that that the contract between Telstra and Teletech Int was based on meeting targets. If the targets were not met Telstra got a discount, so they had a motive to set unrealistic targets. Luckily I was only there whilst I was finishing uni and have now left.
Kind Regards,
I have also worked at Telstra and found the selling side of the work not to my liking. The idea was to make a sale each time a call was received, whether the customer was calling regarding a fault, bill enquiry, whatever. I lasted about 6 months, won a couple of trophies for sales, it was all about sales and sales only. You were supposed to handle each call within a specified time – which was difficult, as some calls required more time spent sorting out what the problem was, or how someone was going to pay their overdue Telstra account, your supervisor/team leader was looking over your shoulder all the time. I worked for Telstra when the other American was in charge, he was instituting the same practices at that time so these practices are not something new in Telstra they have been steadily creeping in for some time. Telstra and I came to the parting of the ways when I went home from work one night and never came back, I rang and told the supervisor I was not coming back and that was that.
Thanks
Patricia
Watched the program. Glad I'm not a direct Telstra customer. Society, through the cultures we must adopt in our work places in order to keep our jobs is becoming ever more inhumane. Surprisingly many studies are relating poor health and performance to work place practices, that's not working smarter it's just stupid. We are really getting good at ignoring the signs right in front of us and letting bullies from overseas telling us how to do things. When did we become the 'push-over' country? Until now we have been riding the wave of those who fought for the conditions we are now rapidly loosing. It seems to me that the ride is nearly over, and unless we make a stand our children are going to be left high and dry.
All I can say and confirm is the Four Corners report was a true and accurate discription of how Telstra is treating there staff. John Rolland's body language and look in his eyes was enough to convince anyone with a brain that he was just a spokesmen for Telstra's spin. When will someone in Telstra wake and realise that this form of bullying and management technique is wrong and is having a dramatic effect on employees mental and physical health. It just reinforced my belief that Telstra is only wanting more and more money for less pay to there employees and the erosion of benefits to employees. In time Telstra will pay a very big cost for this type of management technique, its profit and the reputation will be NIL in the public's eye and also the shareholders.
To Stephen Jones.
Sir,
It's about time the ACTU, or even CPSU, started a media campaign showing the good that unions do, why they are still relevant, and explaining to the public that unions are the members and delegates on the ground, and that "officials" are only called in if a matter cannot be resolved by delegates and members at the workplace.
Recent examples of the good stuff:
James Hardie asbestos issue.
Beaconsfield mine collapse.
Campaigning for rights of workers who have been made redundant, or their jobs moved offshore, SINCE the introduction of Workchoices.
Much as it pains me to say it, "officials" like Joe McDonald from the CFMEU are like the Prime Minister ---dinosuars from a long time ago.
Particularly unfortunate to have to say that, given that I was a CPSU delegate at Centrelink Berri for over 4 years up to sept 2003.
The ads being run by the ACTU re Workchoices have had an obvious effect, as measured by the Government hysteria, and the "fairness" test.
Obviously, some of these ads are still worth running, but some positive stuff is now needed, as well as exposing unfair work practices of employers, like Telstra.
Curious as to who the current ACTU secretary is. Fairly low profile at the moment, whoever he or she may be.
Also unfortunate that Greg Combet chose to leave the position to contest a federal seat at the coming election. I don't begrudge him the opportunity, however his decision may actually harm the chances of Labor, and dent the ACTU advertising campaign, if the current government can run an effective negative campaign.
Which brings me back to my first point pretty much.
Thanks for your time.
Chris
I worked for Telstra for 7 years.
The phrase "catch the vision or catch the bus"was bandied around, so...
I caught the bus!
Luckily for me, the lessons I learned in how NOT to manage a team have served me well and my salary as an STL at Telstra was a pittance compared to what I earn now - AND I get to go home with my integrity intact!
My advice to anyone unhappy with their position - look in the career section of the paper - it's never too late and other companies will recognise your customer service talents!
Sadly Telstra came relatively late to this kind of monitoring, as it's been occurring in the private sector for about 12 years now. I'm not defending the co. but it does fascinate me that Telstra is considered public property. You'd never see this kind of article about say the local gas company. But the screws have definitely turned since the yanks arrived and Sol has started to enforce his agenda. Nothing is good enough. Meet your targets and they get raised. I'm on an AWA and can supposedly negotiate my wage. After a chat to my manager, being rated the highest in my centre, winning numerous awards and getting the top pay rise, it was cancelled out by 4% inflation. Thanks Telstra. Really glad I made the effort. Sue
I joined Telstra 3 years ago and was only given an AWA to sign (no choices) i was also told that if i joined the union i wouldn't make my 3 months probation. added to that there is no sick leave entitlement under the AWA its at the discretion of the line manager so they often don't pay it forcing staff to take annual leave instead- its like a JAIL!
I worked for Telstra for many years until the late 90's. It was a good place to work until the Howard Government came to power and replaced the Telstra board. After that the Telstra management were considered to be extreme by many workers. Telstra workers rights and conditions were successively eroded and Telstra management were brainwashed into giving workers a hard time. Telstra employees were selected for promotion based on their willingness to take a hard management line. Consequently, many experienced people left in droves when redundancies were offered. The result is a Telstra which seriously lacks experienced people and is almost de-unionised, so Telstra management has achieved the Governments aim.I have heard that those remaining in Telstra employment are for the most part dissatisfied with their lot.I am glad I gave them the flick, after 24 years of public service.Telstra management have a lot to answer for.
Telstra's workplace practices are a disgrace and the use of AWA's completely unfair - you've just lost a lifetime customer. I hope whoever is responsible for your disgraceful state of affairs is sacked - of course if they're on an AWA it should be pretty easy.
Not nice knowing you,
Matt
Recently I returned from a 2 week stress leave as I currently still work in a call centre. I unfortunately knew Sally & became friends with her. Before she left Telstra I received a transfer to another centre, a few weeks later I lost contact with her not knowing what happened. When the news was released in April that she ended her life I was shocked & upset. All that time I never knew as the centre she worked in kept it quiet. Since then it hasn't been easy & my performance dropped which in turned received pressure to pick up my performance. Well I ended up on the PICM (Performance Improvement & Conduct Management). Due to a recommendation from my doctor I had to go on stress leave. Understandably I've lost the motivation in my job & faith in Telstra. I'm currently trying to find a new job......
No big surprises here. Take a public utility, make it compete with larger, multinational businesses and then turn it around to be interested only in dividends and share price instead of probity and fairness.
Don't use their services, sell your shares. Let them know what is unacceptable.
Bah, there's nothing new about that 4 Corners story. I worked for Telstra back in its Telecom days and it was just as much a bullying workplace then as it is now, and from what old timers I worked with back then said, was just as bad in the PMG days. The place has always had a culture of bullying.
Despite the appalling treatment of Telstra raised in the Four Corners program, the silence from Federal Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey has been deafening. The same Joe Hockey who gets so mortally offended at a trade unionist swearing on a building site has failed to utter a single word of criticism about Telstra management, or to investigate the workplace bullying and unfair targets.
The autocratic micro management policy favoured by Sol Trujillo at Telstra is contrary to any effective modern business principle or theory.Any company that encourages a 50-70 per cent turnover rate in staff at its call centres is courting disaster particularly in terms of customer service.The institutional bullying inflicted on staff thru high and ever increasing targets and then placing those staff who fail the targets on a disciplinary process which recquires 12 consecutive monthly scorecards at a pass level or face dismissal is surely an industrial relations travesty.Why is Joe Hockey not investigating? Could it be that Work Choices is actually responsible for this state of affairs.As a call centre consultant I would also like to draw attention to the fact that the jobs of team leaders in these call centres are protected even though presiding over an absurd 50-70 per cent staff turnover rate.Some criticism has been directed towards the suicides of Sally and Leon's as being an extreme response-Telstra repeatedly implying that personal problems must have been the cause but this does not take into account the huge numbers of staff who have left stressed and depressed.As for the criticism that you have the choice to leave-this is difficult in country centres with low employment and is not an option in cities where micro management and autocratic bullying policies are becoming commonplace in industry ie banks,centrelink,govt departments such as tax and other call centres.
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