Call Center Game Costs Developer His Job

[oldtaku]

Anyone who makes an honest game (or talks publicly) about their call center job is going to get fired. Because the reality is never flattering to the company, the customers, or the workers. It certainly doesn't help if you're working for a big evil bureaucracy.

 

[snekadid]

I think the important thing here is that the creator took his anger and frustration and turned it into something constructive instead of getting depressed, self destructive or going postal<I have trouble handling tech support for people I know without screaming, working call center is my hell>.

I wish Gallant the best of luck in his future endeavors.

 

[LordLundar]

Actually, that's only true in America. In Europe we have job security which prohibits employees from being fired at random. I would have thought that job security would be a lot tighter in Canada as well, at least compared to the U.S. Then again, even if it is, ministers have a tendency to use their privileges in unsavoury ways. The upside of democracy is, of course, that if a judge were to determine that this was a wrongful termination, Minister Shea can kiss her job goodbye.

It's true in Canada as well, which is where this took place.

Actually no. It does require a breach of the employment agreement that the employee signed at some point to be fired.

In this case, the setting of the game probably wasn't generic enough and could be construed as "revealing confidential workplace procedures" which would have been used in his dismissal.

 

[theheroofaction]

Gotta love the modern workforce.

"One of our employees hasn't completely merged with his desk chair?! He must be removed before this scourge spreads!"

I'm gonna buy his game. No idea if it's any good, but this guy deserves support

Or public servant makes a game insulting the people who pay his wages.

Someone complained about their job? Shocking

Irony is that this game never would have been a story if his employers had just rolled their eyes & ignored it

That actually seems to be the norm, the attempts to deny things like this always always get more attention than the thing they're trying to stop does.

HR never understands how PR works

I believe there's a name for this tendency, but I have no idea what it is.

 

[Atrocious Joystick]

I wish the best for this guy. I really do. I hope he goes on to work in the field he dreams about working in.

But you also can't really be surprised if you get fired after demeaning your employer and more importantly their customers in public. Besides, millions in the western world are unemployed and either on government handouts or living off of savings or the genorosity of family. Whine harder.

 

[Mid Boss]

I worked at a call center for about a month. It was called a call center but really it was thinly disguised telemarketing. I scammed little old ladies for a living. I'll explain.

OK, say you saw a late night commercial for Time Life's Country Music Collection. You call in to order it. It was my job to take down your information and sell it to you.... then it was my job to try and push what we called "Up Sales" on you which was things that had to do with what you called in for. Other Time Life CD collections, a collector's box, etc etc.

THAT wasn't the bad part. The bad part came after that when we had to try to sell you what they called "APO"s

These had nothing to do with the product you called in for and were ALL SCAMS. Yes they sold a legitimate service, but it was crap, and once they had your credit card number they would never stop charging you their monthly fee. No matter what you did to stop them. You could even have their charges be blocked through your bank etc. They change the name of their company every two months so the charges will go through again. The only way to stop it was to cancel your card and get a new one.

Selling APOs was what determined your employee performance. The only people patient enough to listen to all the Up Sale offers then the APOs, AND be gullible enough to fall for them, were often little old ladies. My co workers had the "Little Old Lady" thumb up to signal they had a little old lady on the line which meant APO sales and their job was safe for a little bit longer.

I lasted two weeks before walking out to my car to get my lunch.... then just got in and drove off.

 

[sapphireofthesea]

I wish the best for this guy. I really do. I hope he goes on to work in the field he dreams about working in.

But you also can't really be surprised if you get fired after demeaning your employer and more importantly their customers in public. Besides, millions in the western world are unemployed and either on government handouts or living off of savings or the genorosity of family. Whine harder.

I hear the logic alot, but it just plays into the hands of the cruel. The usual thing is 'there are 100 people wanting your job, so work 10 extra hours'. Demanding something better is not in and of itself wrong and is actually extremely positive. If employers could they would have one doing the work of 2 or 3 and have done in the past. Because of labour movements this is no longer the case and more jobs have opened up and the conditions improved as a result.

So complain about valid things (and call centers are anything but decent places without un-needed stress (my father worked in one for 2 years, I know well enough from him). It is time more people spoke out so standards improve.

* Not having a go at you specifically, just the general position your words reflect.

OT: I wish him well and hope he can find a better work environment in the future. I am also interested in knowing the specific grounds for his dismissal and whether they were legally right.

 

[Atrocious Joystick]

I hear the logic alot, but it just plays into the hands of the cruel. The usual thing is 'there are 100 people wanting your job, so work 10 extra hours'. Demanding something better is not in and of itself wrong and is actually extremely positive. If employers could they would have one doing the work of 2 or 3 and have done in the past. Because of labour movements this is no longer the case and more jobs have opened up and the conditions improved as a result.

So complain about valid things (and call centers are anything but decent places without un-needed stress (my father worked in one for 2 years, I know well enough from him). It is time more people spoke out so standards improve.

* Not having a go at you specifically, just the general position your words reflect.

OT: I wish him well and hope he can find a better work environment in the future. I am also interested in knowing the specific grounds for his dismissal and whether they were legally right.

I am all for strong unions and demanding fair treatment and a good work environment. And I do think it is disgusting how whenever the economy takes a downturn society turns to the unemployed, the working class and low level service employees and go "You know, if only you had it worse this would all be fixed."
The social democrats had a slogan once "Gör din plikt, kräv din rätt." It pretty much translates to "Do your duty, demand your rights". I think that is a nice slogan.
Do the job you have been hired to do, show up on time, respect your employer and your career whatever it may be. But then demand to be treated with equal respect in return, full pay for all hours you put in, no obligatory or de facto obligatory overtime unless your job absolutely requires it (law enforcement, healthcare). Employment is a two-way contract and you're not being given a handout. You do a job and get paid for it. You and your employer have an agreement, he is not your king.
Of course, you need a strong union to act the bully if the employer refuses to play ball for that kind of policy to work. Strong enough that it can fuck up shit for work places not directly connected to it.

I just think that defaming your employer for no reason but "I don't like my job" is poor work ethics and that should be discouraged as much as poor employment ethics.

 

[Aeonknight]

I don't need to play his game, I've already lived it.

That being said, a game like that is more or less "work trash talk" being put into tangible form for all the world to see. It's never a good thing for a companies' image for anyone working in said company to publicly announce "90% of my customers are idiots!", so they will sever all ties immediately.

The last company I worked for sued an employee for slander for posting crap about his day on his facebook. the company before that? There was a video posted on youtube about some guys messing around in the operations room at an airport. A company logo was spotted on the tail of a plane in that video, all people shown in the video were fired immediately, even the guy who said "c'mon guys quit screwing around."

Both true stories.

 

[Farther than stars]

Actually, that's only true in America. In Europe we have job security which prohibits employees from being fired at random. I would have thought that job security would be a lot tighter in Canada as well, at least compared to the U.S. Then again, even if it is, ministers have a tendency to use their privileges in unsavoury ways. The upside of democracy is, of course, that if a judge were to determine that this was a wrongful termination, Minister Shea can kiss her job goodbye.

It's true in Canada as well, which is where this took place.

Gallant's job is gone for good either way, though. Even if the court decides that the termination was wrongful, they won't reinstate your lost job. Even if the employer wants to take you back, the court won't let them. The only punishment for wrongful termination in Canada is that the company has to pay the former employee damages.

Well, that coupled with the support he's getting for his game is at least something. A lot of people don't get even that much.

 

[HellsingerAngel]

It's Canada Revenue AGENCY not Authority

This. So much this.

OT: It seems odd that things like The Royal Canadian Air Farce, Rick Mercer Report and This Hour has 22 Minutes are working for the CBC, yet someone working for the CRA can't make fun of them through a video game. Interesting stance...

 

[Voulan]

And the great thing is, their firing him for his 'offense' has now put it on the map. Well done, you just made his game get popular attention.

Somehow, I don't think he's going to regret this in the future. Good luck, sir!

 

[Beautiful End]

Hats off to this guy. I'm not even allowed to say where I work because...well, let's just say that it's a company so powerful and worldwide known that it probably owns a million lawyers, no kidding. They would sue even a lowly employee like me. But if I could do a game, or just share my stories with people in the shape of a game, it would be awesome.

Best of luck to this guy.

 

[RicoADF]

Wonder if there's a wrongful dismissal case there. Unless he specifically named names you've got to wonder exactly what he's been fired for, it's not illegal to complain about your job after all, nor is it illegal to publish works of fiction.

All employers have the right to terminate your employment at any time for any or no reason. It's in every contract ever made, although people tend not to read those for whatever reason and then get annoyed that it gets pulled on them.

Anywho, wrongful dismissal is only relevant in cases where what the company did is in violation of the law or the contract. Unless this guy can prove that the company is firing him on the basis of discrimination, or his unwillingness to commit an illegal act at their order, etc, then there's no case to be had.

That depends where you live, a lot of places have laws against being dismissed for no good reason.