Are these two statements really that bad?

[sld72382]

Statement 1:

This happened a while ago. I was chatting with another co-worker, and we had a lot of availability. In other words, we were slow. My monitor went into standby between calls - that should tell you something (They are set to go into standby every 15 minutes). I look at my co-worker and say, "you know there's a lot of avail when your monitor goes off before you take the next call!"

One of the managers hears this and says, "you better not let the floor manager hear that otherwise she'll woosh you right out of the department!"

Statement 2:

One of my co-workers were complaining that after 2 long calls, he was getting pounded with 3 minute misdirects while everyone else was standing around on avail. I simply told him, "Just so you know, when they see you've been on long calls and your handle time is getting high they'll purposely misdirect calls to your phone from the switchbox, so you only have to spend 2-3 minutes on them before transferring them to the right place, the whole purpose is to bring your average handle time down and make the numbers look better. I thought it was bullshit when someone else told me, but then it happened too many times to be false."

Of course one of the managers heard it and said, "I don't give a shit and actually agree with you, but don't let the floor manager hear that because she could consider it grounds for termination."

The question is, why would both statements be a considered a fireable offense? It's not like they were designed to undermine the center or anything.

[Crazeyal]

Because they can't officially DO that, you have no proof that they are, and if upper management finds out about that, YOUR BOSS gets screwed. The best thing to do, is to fire anyone who even MENTIONS it. Bet people shut up quick!

[Jester]

The question is, why would both statements be a considered a fireable offense? It's not like they were designed to undermine the center or anything.

Oh, good lord. Well, let's see.....beyond the obvious "if it makes sense it's not allowed," you also have the fact that not all management does things on the up and up, and people have been fired (and worse) for doing things that, to those of us who are logical, are not all that bad.

Myself, I have had not one, but TWO horrible, horrible bosses. My adventures with Shit Weasel have been well-documented, but I really haven't talked much about his predecessor in my life, Cocksucker. Let me tell you a little bit about Cocksucker. Cocksucker would often make up various "rules", often on the fly. One such arbitrary thing was, one day (after I had long since quit), he decided that alternating seating among servers' stations sequentially was the most important thing for the hostess to do. This may seem logical to a degree, until you consider the fact that not every section is actually equal. My roommate, for instance (who was working that night) had a section that had only six-seater tables. So, the upshot of Cocksucker's brilliant new managerrial policy was that Roommate got all his six-seaters filled with parties of two. And then, when the restaurant started getting more busy, and they started getting parties of 4-6 coming through the door.....well, they had nowhere to put them. Another brilliant move of Cocksucker was to one day decide that anyone who worked there, be them fulltime or part time, had to work at least 3 shifts a week, every week. Which meant that some good employees that had other jobs and just worked there 1 or 2 shifts a week, like my Other Roommate, were forced out of a job. We believe he did this JUST to get rid of these people, as they had been there awhile, were good at their job, recognized that he was not good at his, and were not always shy about saying so. There are many reasons we refer to him as Cocksucker, and many more that we celebrated when he finally was removed from his position this summer and left the island with his forked tail between his legs.

My point in all this is that there are many people out there in management that do things that are not right, are not ethical, are not legal, but they do them and get away with them. And their wrong actions are often condoned by the higher ups, sadly enough.

And when I finally open up that bar I want to open up in Phoenix or Mexico, managers like this? Will not only not be hired, but might not be allowed in the establishment at all.

[lordlundar]

The question is, why would both statements be a considered a fireable offense? It's not like they were designed to undermine the center or anything.

Because the floor manager's afraid you'll back stab her. She's gonna have to justify these situations and is going to blame someone else. Coming up with proof that contradicts her accusations is going to get her in trouble, and she can't have that. She'll use the justification that it is undermining the center (because she is the center) and fire you for it.

[Emrld]

on statement one . . . .
You were announcing that you did not have enough work to do . . .not that it is under your control to make the phone ring.
In business you keep your employees busy . . . if they are not able to stay busy or find ways to be productive while being paid with company money, then staffing cuts and scheduling changes are made.

So while your statement was not out and out wrong or able to be taken as offensive in any way . . .it makes you the prime target as the first person to be involved in a change or cut.