Another one bites the dust.

I see we've lost another team manager on the second floor. That campaign must have some sort of record now. Over the few months that they have been running they have lost a lot of team managers.

Greg. Went within days of the campaign starting.
Sarah. Moved into real time CMS watch.
Alan. Was moved on to the campaign against his wishes and promptly went looking for a new job.
Alina. Moved down to Alans' old post so possibly doesn't count.
John. Apparently sacked.
Rafferty. Moved down to being an agent.

And just a few days a go we had Aaron, who was an external candidate, leave after just a few weeks saying this was not what he signed up for.

Team managers come and go like any other group of employees but to have around 50% turnover in 9 months is shocking. I had one of these former team managers, Alan, explain to me while he was still here that he could not do his job in anything like his thirty-seven and a half hour working week. He said it took between forty-five and fifty hours. Now I know this is not because Alan was a slacker. Quite the opposite he was a hard grafter and in my, totally unqualified, opinion he was operations manager material. The other thing I have gleaned is that the team managers spend a lot of their time not managing their teams and instead dealing with large numbers of customers and dealing directly with the client too. What's more is I understand that despite it being impossible to do their job in their standard hours they are not able to claim overtime either. I don't suppose anyone is going to cry at two or three hours here and there but ten hours a week every week? No wonder they drop like flies.

New Late Policy

Right after I last posted there was an announcement to the site that the late policy was to be revised. As of a few days ago we are no longer getting paid for being late. Previously you could be up to two hours late and still get paid for it. It should come as no surprise that having little penalty meant there was no great incentive to be punctual every day. Obviously as per my previous post if you were regularly late then you could expect to be warned and eventually fired but for the occasional "shall I run for the bus or finish my breakfast?" moment. Then it comes as no surprise that some people would be catching the next bus.

Now we are, apparently, going to be docked pay for every minute we are late. This is a good move and I congratulate Sitel for taking the common sense route. The flip side of this is that if we're stuck late on calls then as you can dock our pay by the minute now we expect to be paid for every minute late we have to stay through no fault of our own. It has to be a two way flow.

Do as I say.

... not as I do.

Now here's a subject that may appeal to one or two of you. Double standards. I was reminded of this a short while ago when I was the lucky recipient of a late form. Let not make any bones about it. I was late and I couldn't really put my finger on why I was late so I  made up something vague about transport issues. If I fail to turn up to work on time just a handful of times in six months my manager will probably invite me to a disciplinary hearing where I run the risk of a verbal warning. This is all very well and good and I must say that in general I approve of the companies late policy.

What rankles is the way it's not enforced across all employees. I have personally observed a team manager being late around 10 days in a month and this was by no means an exceptional month for him. Thus if this lateness persists (and it did) then he should find himself up for dismissal in less than six months. Actually what I suspect would have happened is that on receipt of his first written warning he would have started setting his alarm clock fifteen minutes earlier and thus the disciplinary process would have achieved it's aim.

Similar stories can be told about absence and quality/quantity of work etc. right down to the mundane questions like 'just how many smoke breaks have you been out for today?'

Some people might like to jump to their defence and say management deserve a bit of slack because of the extra responsibility they have. That doesn't wash with me I'm afraid. They take the extra pay and thus they should be expected to live up to the same standards they set for us. Leading by example is one of the first principles of management in my opinion.

Charity Stuff

So here at Sitel Exeter we have just handed a big cheque to Hospiscare. This year we're raising money for the Devon Air Ambulance. Now there's a charity you hope you never see in action. :-) Both worthy causes I'm sure.

We also took part in Comic Relief as one one of the callcentres taking donations for the live fundraiser show. Apparently people at all levels from agent to ops manager were involved and it was a good night.

It's nice to see the company getting involved in this sort of thing.

Suggestions please

I need some suggestions for something to go on my hat to make it taste better. You might ask why I'm eating my hat? Well it's because I was wrong about Phil. Despite my prediction that Phil had fallen on his sword (voluntarily or otherwise) for the problems they've had down on the second floor it seems he is back.

It looks like I put two and two together and made seven.

The agent forum returns

So the agent forum is to be revived.

The meetings are a good idea in principle. If the Site Director or someone on his behalf is prepared to listen to the concerns of the staff that is a good thing. The idea falls flat when nothing comes of the meetings and they become just a talking shop. I got a real sense that under the old SD they had become just that.

Obviously there are times when the management at the agent forum will be quite within their rights to nod politely and note down agents comments then do nothing. A good example of this is when some agents complained that Redbull had been withdrawn from the cold drinks machines. This is not a big deal when there are around 5 shops within five minutes walk that sell energy drinks if that's your preference.

On the other hand there are some very real agent concerns at the moment that might get lost in the day to day running of the site. An example might be why on earth is it so hard to keep toilet roll in the toilets and paper towel in the kitchen areas?

I'm looking forward to seeing if anything comes of this round of the forum.

It's Saturday and I have a hangover.

Well not me personally but as all employers do Sitel Exeter from time to time has a lot of people call in sick on a Saturday morning. Usually just after pay day. You employ a lot of 20-somethings and this is all but inevitable. The problem is that Sitel do not make this any easier for themselves when some of the management are out in the same bar as the agents and are partying as hard as anyone.

Take Keith for example. Keith is getting quite a reputation as the biggest party animal in the building. This is an eyebrow raising revelation when you consider in the office he is a pretty quietly spoken person. I can personally vouch for Keith being a hard drinker. A good example is when the company attended the South West Contact Centre Awards and he had been far too hungover the next day to work. To be fair to Keith almost all the Sitel attendees got pretty well smashed the last two years.

Stories that persist around the office:

• Keith getting falling down drunk regularly.
• Keith vomiting on an agent on account of how much booze he had drunk.
• Keith missing buses back home
• Keith taking a female agent to the Jurys Inn for sex.
• Keith spending huge amounts of money (I heard around £300 in one night once) in the watering holes of Exeter. 

Keith you're my new hero :-) I hope your woman doesn't mind your drunken antics.

Back to the original point then i.e. Agents calling in sick after going out and drinking. It's a bit hard for the company to call foul and take an agent into a disciplinary hearing when one or two of the rising stars in management are showing less restraint than the people they are trying to straighten out. This is not what management experts like to refer to as leading by example.