I was recently terminated from my job, 06/06/07.
The discharge states "Employee spoke with customer inappropriately and unprofessionally" - Additionally I signed a termination form dictating in a summarize format of what had happened that lead up to my termination.
Before signing this form, I had requested to speak to someone to review it because some of the information was not entirely correct or precise and was refused this option and told the fractions were not considerable.
I work in a call center. I am the Top Senior Sales Account Executive and I also do Customer Service as well as Training for new hires. I have worked for this company for 3 years including a 6 month probation period. I had taken a call on 06/06/07 from the Customer Service line. This customer called in extremely I-rate regarding his order. His frustrations were taken out on me by yelling and screaming. The entire content of the call was based on the fact that the customer did not receive his shipment within 2 days of being billed, although our policy clearly states delivery time is between 7 - 10 business days. So the entire call was in false setting, as the customer blamed the company, and I personally for his troubles. Finally, after the customer repeated the same situation in different words over and over, and interrupted me during my replies to make him understand the situation, he had finally given up and asked me to track his package.
I replied courteously and gladly tracked his order to let him know the package's whereabouts. I asked the customer if I could place him on 'HOLD' and he said 'YES'. I pressed the 'HOLD' button and placed the phone on my shoulder (as I normally do), and proceeded to track his order. As I was frustrated, I let out a 'SIGH' and under my breath, I whispered to myself "What an asshole" - one minute after this occurred, my QA Advisor came rushing out of my Sales Manager's office to ask me if the customer was placed on hold. I replied yes, and pointed at the button. He stated the customer was not and had heard me make a comment. I finished tracking the order, and got back on the phone with the customer.
The customer confronted me about the comment. First he asked if I had placed him on hold, I said yes, he said "Well, I wasn't, and I heard someone typing, a girl laughing, and someone say 'What an asshole' did you call me an asshole?"
I replied, "No SIR, I did not, and apologized that you heard a comment like that" The customer proceeded to say he was disappointed by hearing such things and demand that something be done about his order and the comment. I continued to resolve the customer's original problem and moved forward to the comment. I advised the customer I would let the manager know about it and apologized again for his situation and troubles. The call ended with me lowering his price and the customer saying "Thank you (my name here), for all your help"
I ran directly into my Manager's office to speak with my QA Advisor and Sales Manager. My Sales Manager just notified me at that point and time, that when they monitor a call, the rep will be unable to put customers on HOLD or TRANSFER a call. I told my manager I was unaware of this and just learned of it now. She said the situation is okay, since the customer left satisfied. I asked in worry of my situation, if the customer were to call back, what would happen then? She replied, by asking me for the customer's account number, so that she could intercept the call, and re-iterated to me, "It'll be fine, its okay, don't worry about it"
I left her office feeling as if the situation was resolved and that I had nothing to worry about anymore.
Later that day, I was called into my Director's office with the Director of Sales & Customer Service and my Human Resource Manager there. They both had heard of the situation and asked for my side of the story. After telling them both exactly what you have read, my HR Manger in her response I felt, negated everything I said, by telling me "You should never tell the customer he is an asshole or say anything inappropriate to a customer" I replied by telling her "I never called the customer an asshole directly, or had any mal-intent to do so. I simply said to myself, What an asshole" She then proceeded to say "This is a SERIOUS matter in which will involve an Executive Decision for Disciplinary Punishment (and with emphasis in her tone) up to and including Termination." She said they would give me their decision by the end of the day.
The end of the day arrives and I am called into the "DEATH OFFICE" as we call it, which is the Sun Room. My Sales Manager and my HR Manager there, they had told me their decision was for Termination. They had me sign the form in which I have stated was not accurate and gave me my final paycheck. I asked my HR Manager "Did the customer call back to complain?" She stated "No, the customer did not" I looked at my manager and asked her why the situation escalated from her office to HR when she had clearly told me I had nothing to worry about. My Sales Manager lied with emphasis stating "I never said that, I never said it would be fine, or that it would be okay, or that it would go no further" With shame in her eyes, she stood her ground with her LIES.
I know for a fact that had they told me that I was unable to place customers on HOLD or TRANSFER during monitoring, that I would of been less careless to relieve my frustration.
Additionally, I was never informed of this problem with the monitoring system. I was also unaware that they were monitoring me. Had the HOLD button worked, the customer would have never heard me. They base the termination on the fact that the customer heard this comment, not the fact that I had said it during monitoring. Additionally, my QA Advisor stated that they did not hear me say that comment directly, but that they heard the customer asking "Did you call me an asshole? Hello? Hello? Hello?" The phone was on my shoulder when the customer was stating this, and this is what they had heard. They did not hear the entire conversation. They only started monitoring me right before I hit the hold button. The QA Advisor even said "We didn't know who said it, and we were wondering who did, until you said something, we just heard the customer responding to the comment while he was 'supposedly' on hold"
I wonder now whether or not I have a case with this information alone?
If so, how do I go about proceeding with it?
If not, I do have another situation prior to my termination involving Sexual Harassment which I believe now may have had contributed to my termination.
About one year ago, my Sales Manager called me after work hours and offered me a ride to San Diego. This was a surprise to me seeing as how, one, I never gave her my cell phone number, two, she is my manager, three, this has no relation to work.
I declined respectfully and feeling uncomfortable. I never questioned how she got my cell phone number, only thought she may have retrieved it from our Emergency Contact List, which is not be accessed for personal use other than work relation for emergencies. Since my decline, she has treated me differently. I felt like I had been walking on egg shells at work for the entire year up until my termination. I now feel this may have something to do with my termination. All other HR and Managers I've spoken to about my situation stated that an employee with no negative record who is titled as top sales rep would have only received a suspension but not termination. I was made an example of and possibly terminated for personal reasons by my manager.
To make matters worse, My Sales Manager, The Director of Sales & Customer Service, The Marketing Manager, Human Resources Manager, and COO of the Company are all part of the same AA group. They are all females and friends, none of which became friends through the company but had been friends prior to working there through their AA.
It is highly rumored that because of this close relation, none of these managers are ever to be terminated and have been placed in the positions that they have because of it.
I did not file a sexual harassment claim when this happened, simply because I am a MAN, and my manager is a WOMAN. This type of sexual harassment from what I've read, does not occur very happen. Rarely does a case involve a woman harassing a man and I felt that If I had filed it, it would have been thrown out or laughed at. I was completey embarassed and ashamed of the situation. Plus I was very afraid of losing my job. I have many bills and could not afford to lose my job even though I knew she was making sexual advances towards me.
I also still have a copy of my phone records showing my Manager's cell phone # contacting me on a specific time and date.
All of my friends that have my number, stated they do did not give her the number, nor did she ask. So the only place she could of accessed my number through, would have beent he Emergency Contact List, which was only to be used for emergencies. I know this at least violates the company policy, but what about privacy laws? I've been told by my co-workers she has had a crush on me since I've started working there, so I assume her call was to make sexual advances towards me.
Do I have a case? Do you think this may be relative? If so what can I do!?
Thank you so much for reading this, I really appreciate your time and patience... and your HELP.
The discharge states "Employee spoke with customer inappropriately and unprofessionally" - Additionally I signed a termination form dictating in a summarize format of what had happened that lead up to my termination.
Before signing this form, I had requested to speak to someone to review it because some of the information was not entirely correct or precise and was refused this option and told the fractions were not considerable.
I work in a call center. I am the Top Senior Sales Account Executive and I also do Customer Service as well as Training for new hires. I have worked for this company for 3 years including a 6 month probation period. I had taken a call on 06/06/07 from the Customer Service line. This customer called in extremely I-rate regarding his order. His frustrations were taken out on me by yelling and screaming. The entire content of the call was based on the fact that the customer did not receive his shipment within 2 days of being billed, although our policy clearly states delivery time is between 7 - 10 business days. So the entire call was in false setting, as the customer blamed the company, and I personally for his troubles. Finally, after the customer repeated the same situation in different words over and over, and interrupted me during my replies to make him understand the situation, he had finally given up and asked me to track his package.
I replied courteously and gladly tracked his order to let him know the package's whereabouts. I asked the customer if I could place him on 'HOLD' and he said 'YES'. I pressed the 'HOLD' button and placed the phone on my shoulder (as I normally do), and proceeded to track his order. As I was frustrated, I let out a 'SIGH' and under my breath, I whispered to myself "What an asshole" - one minute after this occurred, my QA Advisor came rushing out of my Sales Manager's office to ask me if the customer was placed on hold. I replied yes, and pointed at the button. He stated the customer was not and had heard me make a comment. I finished tracking the order, and got back on the phone with the customer.
The customer confronted me about the comment. First he asked if I had placed him on hold, I said yes, he said "Well, I wasn't, and I heard someone typing, a girl laughing, and someone say 'What an asshole' did you call me an asshole?"
I replied, "No SIR, I did not, and apologized that you heard a comment like that" The customer proceeded to say he was disappointed by hearing such things and demand that something be done about his order and the comment. I continued to resolve the customer's original problem and moved forward to the comment. I advised the customer I would let the manager know about it and apologized again for his situation and troubles. The call ended with me lowering his price and the customer saying "Thank you (my name here), for all your help"
I ran directly into my Manager's office to speak with my QA Advisor and Sales Manager. My Sales Manager just notified me at that point and time, that when they monitor a call, the rep will be unable to put customers on HOLD or TRANSFER a call. I told my manager I was unaware of this and just learned of it now. She said the situation is okay, since the customer left satisfied. I asked in worry of my situation, if the customer were to call back, what would happen then? She replied, by asking me for the customer's account number, so that she could intercept the call, and re-iterated to me, "It'll be fine, its okay, don't worry about it"
I left her office feeling as if the situation was resolved and that I had nothing to worry about anymore.
Later that day, I was called into my Director's office with the Director of Sales & Customer Service and my Human Resource Manager there. They both had heard of the situation and asked for my side of the story. After telling them both exactly what you have read, my HR Manger in her response I felt, negated everything I said, by telling me "You should never tell the customer he is an asshole or say anything inappropriate to a customer" I replied by telling her "I never called the customer an asshole directly, or had any mal-intent to do so. I simply said to myself, What an asshole" She then proceeded to say "This is a SERIOUS matter in which will involve an Executive Decision for Disciplinary Punishment (and with emphasis in her tone) up to and including Termination." She said they would give me their decision by the end of the day.
The end of the day arrives and I am called into the "DEATH OFFICE" as we call it, which is the Sun Room. My Sales Manager and my HR Manager there, they had told me their decision was for Termination. They had me sign the form in which I have stated was not accurate and gave me my final paycheck. I asked my HR Manager "Did the customer call back to complain?" She stated "No, the customer did not" I looked at my manager and asked her why the situation escalated from her office to HR when she had clearly told me I had nothing to worry about. My Sales Manager lied with emphasis stating "I never said that, I never said it would be fine, or that it would be okay, or that it would go no further" With shame in her eyes, she stood her ground with her LIES.
I know for a fact that had they told me that I was unable to place customers on HOLD or TRANSFER during monitoring, that I would of been less careless to relieve my frustration.
Additionally, I was never informed of this problem with the monitoring system. I was also unaware that they were monitoring me. Had the HOLD button worked, the customer would have never heard me. They base the termination on the fact that the customer heard this comment, not the fact that I had said it during monitoring. Additionally, my QA Advisor stated that they did not hear me say that comment directly, but that they heard the customer asking "Did you call me an asshole? Hello? Hello? Hello?" The phone was on my shoulder when the customer was stating this, and this is what they had heard. They did not hear the entire conversation. They only started monitoring me right before I hit the hold button. The QA Advisor even said "We didn't know who said it, and we were wondering who did, until you said something, we just heard the customer responding to the comment while he was 'supposedly' on hold"
I wonder now whether or not I have a case with this information alone?
If so, how do I go about proceeding with it?
If not, I do have another situation prior to my termination involving Sexual Harassment which I believe now may have had contributed to my termination.
About one year ago, my Sales Manager called me after work hours and offered me a ride to San Diego. This was a surprise to me seeing as how, one, I never gave her my cell phone number, two, she is my manager, three, this has no relation to work.
I declined respectfully and feeling uncomfortable. I never questioned how she got my cell phone number, only thought she may have retrieved it from our Emergency Contact List, which is not be accessed for personal use other than work relation for emergencies. Since my decline, she has treated me differently. I felt like I had been walking on egg shells at work for the entire year up until my termination. I now feel this may have something to do with my termination. All other HR and Managers I've spoken to about my situation stated that an employee with no negative record who is titled as top sales rep would have only received a suspension but not termination. I was made an example of and possibly terminated for personal reasons by my manager.
To make matters worse, My Sales Manager, The Director of Sales & Customer Service, The Marketing Manager, Human Resources Manager, and COO of the Company are all part of the same AA group. They are all females and friends, none of which became friends through the company but had been friends prior to working there through their AA.
It is highly rumored that because of this close relation, none of these managers are ever to be terminated and have been placed in the positions that they have because of it.
I did not file a sexual harassment claim when this happened, simply because I am a MAN, and my manager is a WOMAN. This type of sexual harassment from what I've read, does not occur very happen. Rarely does a case involve a woman harassing a man and I felt that If I had filed it, it would have been thrown out or laughed at. I was completey embarassed and ashamed of the situation. Plus I was very afraid of losing my job. I have many bills and could not afford to lose my job even though I knew she was making sexual advances towards me.
I also still have a copy of my phone records showing my Manager's cell phone # contacting me on a specific time and date.
All of my friends that have my number, stated they do did not give her the number, nor did she ask. So the only place she could of accessed my number through, would have beent he Emergency Contact List, which was only to be used for emergencies. I know this at least violates the company policy, but what about privacy laws? I've been told by my co-workers she has had a crush on me since I've started working there, so I assume her call was to make sexual advances towards me.
Do I have a case? Do you think this may be relative? If so what can I do!?
Thank you so much for reading this, I really appreciate your time and patience... and your HELP.
