Teleperformance

I was employed on 4/17/2023. I entered production late June. I achieved top 25 on two occasions and missed scheduling/adherence gatekeeper for bonus by 2% due to my Supervisor providing misinformation and overall lack of concern. I worked really hard to exceed KPI’s and detractor calls were ‘kudos’d’ out to reflect that I provided all QA monitoring expectations on all calls. I was authentic and provided exceptional client experiences which lead to my promotion to SCA (Agent support) late September, I started training in that role for approximately 2 days before being pulled for Product Ready Trainer. Another promotion, late September. I was advised as a PRT that I would provide assistance to the Trainer and teach 1 module a week. I was given a crash course on how to access the syllabus, how to format power point for daily activities and an overview of my expectations as it relates to administrative and HR protocol. Approximately 9/29 I was advised that I would be acting in the Trainer capacity as there had been a staffing change due to another Trainer being let go. It was very challenging but I persevered taking my laptop home to overview the modules so I would be competent to facilitate the class. Luckily for me, the 3 months of client calls prepared me to effectively train a group of 21. I only experienced one HR related issue on 10/07 a concern of a trainee regarding bullying/discrimination. I reported the details to my Supervisor and wrote a statement. I was directed to do a seat moving exercise to eliminate possibility of bullying. The class continued without any interruptions and I honestly could not have asked for a better group of individuals to have experienced the transition to Trainer with having had no previous experience, thorough training or access to necessary tools. I applied for a Supervisor role, mainly because I missed being on the production floor and also because I felt I would make the best impact there. I was offered and accepted the Supervisor role on 10/09, to start on 10/16 and provided an extension to complete the last 2 days of training ending 10/18. On 10/09, I approached my old supervisor from when I was an agent to confirm he would be training me in which he responded that ‘he would help me’, I really didn’t take him seriously and just laughed it off. On or about 10/16, I approached my old supervisor again to confirm that he was training me and he responded that he did not want to repeat himself so he would train me when I had access to me tools which I had confirmed takes 2 weeks. As an agent I was self sufficient so I was able to limit my interactions with this supervisor as he was combative, not knowledgeable, loud and had the tendency to be rude. He also did not show empathy or active listening skills which added to the overall stress and anxiety of the position itself, with me and several other agents. I found that, as I have PTSD, using alternative methods or communication such as Skype and Outlook and/or utilizing knowledgeable sources/intranet resources and tools allowed me to eliminate any unnecessary interactions and manage my overall mental health and well being. I remained cordial and did participate in small chit chat as I did not dislike this Supervisor, I simply didn’t care for his managerial style. When transitioning the trainees to the next phase of OJT, drama inside regarding the incident I reported on 10/09 on behalf of the trainee. To cease any unprofessionalism I had a professional expectation setting with the remaining 20 individuals (the lowest attrition amongst tenured Trainers). I had a one-on-one accompanied by a Supervisor regarding professionalism surrounding the trainee asking another trainer aggressively about details regarding a confidential conversation had with me. I followed with a statement on 10/19 as requested. I returned to the production floor as Supervisor on 10/19. On 10/19, I conducted a Getting To Know You Meeting with my assigned agents. I discussed being a mental health advocate and made my agents aware that they were appreciated, I also emphasized the call flow, metrics, coaching tactics and implementing empathy, restating client concern, fully educating and providing all possible options/resolutions/next best steps and skills I used for better client/agent experience. I stated that I worked at least 15 hrs as an agent and expressed my flexibility to work on off days as precious supervisors did not want to work outside of 9-5/6 hours or make themselves available for OT or make up hours and I also provided them with alternative options for negative interactions with current Supervisor as that was a consistent area of opportunity as it relates to agent concerns regarding their work environment setting the professional expectation that unprofessionalism would be addressed regarding my agents should it be witnessed by me. Shortly after, an agent brought a concern regarding the current Supervisor making an inappropriate comment regarding her wearing a waist trainer expressing that it made her uncomfortable and embarrass and sharing that it was said in front of other agents. Due to my previous experience with HR I advised the agent that she should reach out to HR and also advised that I was not sure that I had an obligation to report in my new Supervisor role. When she expressed that she did not know (about contacting HR) for fear of not wanting to rock the boat and retaliation, I consoled her by stating that I understood and that all too often women/black women were not protected in these types of environments and assured her that HR was in place so that she was not retaliated against. I continued the rest of my day by utilizing other resources to obtain agent stated, monitor detractor survey calls, begin putting agent profiles together to better understand area of opportunity, speaking with WFM to gain an understanding of scheduling/adherence expectation and working with my assigned SCA to format a daily strategy. I expected to have a group of new agents approximately the same time I would have access to my tools and out of a desire to be best prepared and have an effective operating Team system I worked around my previous supervisors disinterest in training me using all other available avenues. On 10/21, I came in on my day off for an agent to make up time for adherence and to read the employee handbook at which point I learned that I had an obligation to report the incident brought to me by the agent on 10/19. On 10/20, I came in on my day off to work on things I would be too preoccupied to work on during regular shift hours, I was pulled for an HR interview regarding the events of 10/18. I was released after being interrogated about any actions or inactions and advised that there was no wrongdoing on my behalf and that my position was not in question. I contacted my previous Training Supervisor to ensure that it was an applicable concern as it related to protocol in which she confirmed and advised that letsconnect would not be the appropriate party to report to but my new Supervisor would be. On 10/23 at approximately 11 am, the next contact with my new Supervisor. I discussed some negative interactions I witnessed between agents and my old Supervisor also providing her with some of my own experiences and things I witnessed over the course of my 3 months as an agent as well as concerns from other agents regarding ‘hostile/toxic’ work environment and the concern of the agent brought to me on 10/19. I attempted the soft approach with all of my concerns also concerned about not rocking the boat as I was in a new position as well as understanding that my new Supervisor and old Supervisor appeared to be friendly. In addition to that there is an overall appearance of favoritism and bias in favor of my old Supervisor when I was an agent. My new Supervisor stated that agents were manipulative, that I suffered from ‘New Supervisor Syndrome’ and implied that I did not have the ability to separate my peer experience from being a Supervisor, implied that I was siding with agents because we were just peers, generally devalued my overall concerns while simultaneously confirming performance evaluations of my previous Supervisor outlining the same behaviors, asked me why I didn’t like my previous supervisor and defending the scenarios of neglect of agents by not providing support/abusive-bullying-intimidating tone used when speaking to agents/refusal to use active listening skills when agents are addressing client concerns which increased AHT and overall agent frustration/not providing clarification-path reference-next steps when agents are unsure or finding it difficult to understand too call driver topics/providing wrong or misinformation stating that she could not determine the level of one’s active listening and that Supervisors don’t give answers. She did state that she would address the inappropriate comment of sexual nature advising that it was unprofessional. My new Supervisor did not address the concern on 10/23, 10/24 or 10/25. On 10/25, the agent who brought the concern to me went into a special meeting with my new Supervisor at approx. 2pm. At approximately 2:45 my new Supervisor Skyped me asking which agents were in my Get To Know You Meeting. I accessed the Excel spreadsheet I formatted and pulled the name of the agents and also advising that there were also 2 SCA’s that were present in the meeting. She instructed me to send the agents. Approximately 5 of 7 of the agents were not present and I did not instruct my SCA’s to attend her meeting as she only indicated agents. I advised the 5 agents present to go unavailable. Approximately 20/25 minutes later my new Supervisor Skype messaged me to meet her in her office. I waited for her for approximately 10 as she spoke with a Supervisor from another department. This Supervisor, my new Supervisor and my old Supervisor also give the appearance to be friendly. The rumor on the call center floor is that the Supervisor from the other department and my old Supervisor date (and had in the past according to employees who worked there 2 years ago when they were both in the Consumer Vehicle Lending department). The 3 of us met for the meeting my new Supervisor called. My new Supervisor begin to question me about what I discussed in my Getting To Know You meeting, specifically related to what I said about overtime and my saying something to the effect of ‘sleeping with a *slur word* for money and something to the effect of my telling my new agents to ‘not talk to Reggie’, advising me that some of the team did not want to transition under me. I ofcourse denied that I had not said anything to that effect and nothing that could have been taken out of context to support what was said that I said. I stated to her that I did not recall saying the *slur word* and that I wouldn’t say that, I advised that I said that my children were grown, that I did not ‘have anybody at home’ so I wasn’t laying up with no man’ only in the context that I had plenty of free time and would be flexible and available for OT and makeup time and basically my agent need only request and communicate their need, and that I set the professionalism expectation as a way to diminish the negative interactions that witnessed by me, experienced by me and was several other agents concerns. I also stated that I had come to her with the concern and I did not tell any anyone to not talk to anyone. I stated what I preferred only in the context of professionalism from my agents being the intention and making them aware of my expectation as it related to cursing, boisterous acts of frustration or anger which can be distracting to other agents/co-workers. She asked me what was my issue with my previous Supervisor and I stated that I did not have an issue with my previous Supervisor. She stated that I was creating a bias by telling agents to not talk to a specific person and I again, clarified what I said in which context I stated it. She asked me if I see anything wrong with what I said and I stated that I could have possibly not over shared about my ‘not laying up with no man’ also stating that it was not to be taken in the same context of what It was stated that I said. She stated that everyone was saying that I said the same thing and I asked her had she talked to my SCA (my other SCA was only there for a smal portion of the Getting To Know You Meeting), she stated that I did not send her over and she stated that she told me to send my agents. I responded that I was under the impression that SCAs were not regarded the same as agents and advised I just learned that OJT coaches were also regarded as agents, that I had only been employed for 7 months. She stated she would speak with my other SCA. She then went into 1 of the agents making the accusation that instead of her coming to me, I actually went to her inquiring about the inappropriate comment-that I attempted to coerce her to go to HR, and I stated that ‘black women need to stick together’. I responded with telling my new Supervisor that I brought the concern to her under a soft approach on 10/23 not even wanting to provide names of the involved but just so that it would be on record, that she directed me to provide the names and I recalled the events as they were provided to me by the agent who brought the concern to me on 10/19. I also asked how would I know about the inappropriate comment unless the agent told me about it because I was not around at the time the alleged comment was made and that badge logs and systems could confirm that. I told her that when I brought the concern to her on 10/23 that I also stated that I was reporting the incident because I did not want to responsible for not following protocol should the incident occur again and I also stated that the alleged maker of the inappropriate comment made another inappropriate comment on 10/24 regarding a song that was playing on the loudspeaker likening it to a sex scene and a popular movie in the presence of at least 3 individuals not including myself and that this was not the 1st or 2nd occasion that my old Supervisor had made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature as I worked directly under him for 3 months. She stated that she was going to talk back to the agent and as we were talking that agent knocked on her door. She was asked about her saying that I approached her and the way that I came to know about the inappropriate comment and the agent retracted her story stating that it happened the way I explained but she wasn’t embarrassed or uncomfortable and that she did not want to get ‘Reggie’ in trouble. She also did not have a response for when I asked her what I said about the black woman comment. My new Supervisor restated that the agent wasn’t uncomfortable and the agent said that if she were that she would have told ‘Reggie’ to which new Supervisor stated ‘okay’ then begin to differentiate the difference in inappropriate comments made about a waist trainer and a scenario involving a ‘bra’. The agent dismissed herself. My new Supervisor followed by asking about the ‘black women sticking together and I clarified that I stated ‘all too often women/black women were not protected in these types of environments’ which she stated was a violation of Title 4 also advising that it was not in the employee handbook. I asked her to clarify what Title 4 was and how it related to my statement, which she did not provide me with any. She told me that due to my unprofessionalism I was being demoted, that because I did not have my tools that she was rescinding my offer. I asked if there was anything I could do, restated the context any my motivations for everything I had done so far, I pointed out that I had no professionalism communications and that I just completed an approximately 3 week Training class not having any professionalism issues and that my overall desire, communication style nor intentions had changed. She stated that she hired me because she felt that I was professional but she was disappointed, that she had spoken so greatly about me to her Upper Management just to have to inform them about my demotion. I again asked her to clarify where I erred in professionalism and how I violated Title 4. She expressed that she was exhausted with the whole process and she had other things to do. As we talked, the other Supervisor did chime in and spoke about how me being a peer and now a Supervisor caused me to be bias toward my current Supervisor and agreed with my new Supervisor as it related to my old Supervisor being unprofessional and negatively dealing with agents on the floor, but responded that ‘Reggie is Reggie’. My new supervisor also shared that my old Supervisor, Reggie, has had several professionalism expectations set for him and that those were being addressed also stating that she could not provide me details. During the conversation I also provided motives for 2 specific agents for misrepresenting what I said and defaming my character, their main motivation was not wanting to be moved teams. My new Supervisor advised me that the rescinding of my Supervisor role would remain and advised that I would be going back to Agent status. I feeling overwhelmed, disappointed and defeated asked to have my 8am-6:45pm Monday-Thursday schedule reinstated and she stated that that would not be a problem. I excused myself, leaving my new Supervisor and the Supervisor from the other department. I sat at my new desk humiliated for a moment then went to go smoke a cigarette. I don’t recall if it was when I was going to smoke or after I came back when I saw my old Supervisor, the other Supervisor and the agent enter the new Supervisors office. When I came back from smoking I approached my new Supervisor and asked if I could leave for the rest of the day and take the next day off using my PTO for mental health reasons. She approved and instructed me to send her an email so that she didn’t forget. It was approximately 2.5 hrs before the end of my shift. After I got off I contacted one of the SCAs from my old team to blow off some steam and she advised me that the agent had also mentioned the inappropriate comment to her expressing that it was embarrassing and made her uncomfortable and asking her what she should do in a detractor coaching session with the agent. The SCA stated that the agent said it in the presence of a training SCA and if I needed her to confirm that information to my new Supervisor that she could do so but she was hesitant to because she had brought concerns of her own to the new Supervisor regarding my old Supervisor and they were never addressed. We continued to talk and just let off work related steam. The following day, 10/26 while on PTO for notated mental health reason, I asked her for contact information for higher leadership which she provided me, she also sent screenshots of Skye conversations with the agent that outlined that the incident occurred, that the agent also brought the concern to her and also exposing that the agent lord to my new Supervisor without my request. I contacted Upper Management via text just asking that they reach out because I felt that the bias, favoritism, retaliation and certain ethical issues that I witnessed over the 5 days of my being Supervisor that effected the call center and the contract as a whole. In 2 hours, I received a call from the Site Leader (who also appeared to be apart of the same friend group as my new, old and the other Supervisor), informing me that I was ‘suspended indefinitely’ pending the 1st HR issue being investigated. I argued that I had spoken with HR in an interview on 10/20 at which time I was told that I had no additional issues and that my job was not in question, a meeting that she was also witness to. She continued by advising me that my Demotion Statement submitted to HR was being reviewed and she asked me if I contacted the client. I advised her that I had contacting Mr. Smith because I did not trust anyone in the facility to address my concern without bias including her, that there was no HR personnel and had not been for quite sometime and my previous experience with HR was overwhelming, most especially my interactions with Ms. Rivera a virtual HR representative. She stated that it was against company policy and I asked her about the open door policy. She then restated that I was suspended at which point I asked her about my pay. She advised that should the investigation conclude I could come back then I would receive back pay for all hours worked. When I asked her a timeframe she stated that she could not provide me a time frame and instructed that I not contact ‘the client’, that I was not allowed on company premises, and that I could speak to her or HR via the letsconnect platform. I sent proof of the defamation and inappropriate comment of sexual nature having taken place to my new Supervisor, I reached out to letsconnect with multiple statements with no acknowledgement of receipt for incidents that occurred between 10/07-10/23 regarding the initial incident and for my own issues, having only recieved acknowledgement for my initial demotion statement on 10/25 having sent approximately 16 statements with additional information, witness statements and developments and not having received a phone call for HR interview to discuss my side and any supporting evidence on my behalf. On 10/30, my new Supervisor contacted me to advise that I was terminated for gross misconduct. Understanding the depth of that statement, I was furious and hurt and I felt that I was being taken advantage of. I advised me now ex Supervisor that I had contacted the EEOC and an employment lawyer and gave my overall discontent with the decision being made. I expressed that it was retaliation and an intimidation tactic as I also expressed in previous HR statements. On 10/30 I also received 2 separate emails from HR one termination letter which included a statement that I contributed to the toxic work place environment and another citing that I violated company policy but also with a statement to advise that my claim was being escalated to Corportate HR to ensure neutrality. I received a call from a Corportate HR representative on 11/02 and upon speaking to her she advised me that the evidence and investigation did not retract my termination and advised that it was because I violated company policy. When I asked what company policy she stated that my receiving the screenshots to clear my name and as evidence of defamation and motive resulting in my demotion that because I received them I violated clean desk policy. I advised that I was not at work since 10/25 and asked how that made me in violation when that information was only to support my claim and the SCA also stated to them that she took the screenshots as protection and proof for herself should she need them and was afraid that they would be deleted. She stated that there was a 0 tolerance policy and due to that and my violating company clean desk policy that I would remain terminated. She did not address any of the inappropriate comment incident or details regarding that, she did not ask me about the unprofessionalism and statements claimed that I made, she did not ask me about motive or any information that would support why any of this happened, she did not reference my profile that did not have any infractions or disciplinary actions. When I addressed my concerns of the alleged maker of the comments still being employed and the agent who maliciously defamed my character despite my outstanding performance and countless accolades/promotions/positive feedback, she stated that she was not going to discuss other employees. I stated to her before releasing the call that I had filed a claim with the EEOC, SC human affairs and had located a lawyer and that there should be a 0 tolerance for bullying, intimidation and retaliation.

I thoroughly enjoyed my role as an agent in the role of Client Service Advocate and learned so many great ways to communicate difficult scenarios with my day to day client interactions that I had a desire for everyone to be successful as well. All in all — I want my job back and I want to reclaim the professional character that I had prior to this domino effect of events. I will be contacting the ACLU and OSHA as well because toxic work environments although not unlawful should not be tolerated. I am a 42 year old woman and I don’t appreciate the message that it sends to all employees that they can neither initiate a protected activity nor participate in one without the possibility of being demoted, harassed, retaliated against and/or terminated. Understanding that Teleperformance is an at-will employer, it does not have the right to strong arm their employees and act unlawfully. As many times as I’ve been the recipient of sexual misconduct in the workplace and have too felt intimidated by the mere thought of reporting it on my own behalf, as a Supervisor I had the obligation to do so per Employee handbook. I almost wish it had happened to me and it was my own report for the trauma and loss that I have endured through this process.