Teleperformance operate a vendor/call centre for B+L in Portugal and dub it a CoE (Centre of Excellence). B+L are either unaware or complicit in the poor management, service, IT infrastructure and micro-management. The outsourced management at TP are poorly educated and poorly trained. Many have either no practical experience or training in ANY management or supervisory position. This lack of staff development shows in an aggressive micro-management style. Pathological inability to cycle activity and tasks through team members to avoid boredom for staff, increase self-worth and development, and to increase skill redundancy within the team so as to minimise overall team skill level when staff turnover occurs.
Tasks and workload are extremely uneven with 1/3rd of the team taking in excess of 80-100 calls per day (individual) Line 1, 1/3rd taking 30-40 calls per day (Line 2) and another 1/3rd of the team on back office duties or being otherwise occupied by work or non-work related tasks/freetime. There is no cycle of activity between the lines with some members of staff being on Line 1 for over a year and others remaining on Line 2 consistently. There is no level of work difference between Line and Line 2 except that the product is different and requires a slightly different process to enter into a SOP than the other method. This constant line segregation allows 1/2 of the working team to take considerably less calls (average call length 2.5mins) for less overall time whilst the burden of constant repetitive work lands on those workers on line 1. This process creates an unpleasant situation of work inequality with no real business or management judgement behind it.
In addition to the Line 1 rigidity is the balance of workers between the lines. Equal or more workers will occupy line 2 over line 1 with the drop off calls from line being pushed through to Line 2. Which means that only when Line 1 is saturated with calls does Line 2 start to get any additional calls. There are more calls hitting one line over another but the management do not assign the correct resources to manage this effectively when taking into account results expected, ethical working practices and promoting a fair and just workplace.
In addition the working contracts of the staff are unequal with some staff being on permanent contracts, many being on 6 month contracts (renewed or not) and many being on 1 month contracts (renewed or not). To be able to move up through the contracts a person has to request the contract to be changed and it is then subjectively reviewed by the supervisor and manager without consultation or published guidance as to what is required. The explanation of the disparity between contracts was never explained when asked. The majority of Line 1 operators have a 1 month contract. Line 2 operators have a 6 month contract.
