Telstra is set to close its Grafton call centre – because people don’t want to work there. That at any rate appears to be the implication of statements by Telstra itself.
Some 108 employees will be affected by the closure which would see functions relocated in Brisbane and Melbourne.
Asked by the ABC for the reasons for the move, Telstra Country Wide Executive Director Sue Passmore insisted that it was not about cost cutting but about “giving us the capability to provide a workforce and the customer service levels that are required of our company.”
In other words, it is getting hard to recruit people to work for Telstra in Grafton.
A former employee at the call centre, Christine Daley, suggested why.
“I just think there is a lack of support for the workers in a call centre,” she told the ABC. “The stress level is absolutely amazing.”
“Once upon a time, to secure a job at Telstra was the bee’s knees, it was a prestigious level of employment…But unfortunately now (with) bullying in the workplace and expectation levels ridiculously high, I think people are a bit scared.”
Passmore didn’t deny the problem.
“Over the last three years we have certainly looked at expanding that workforce,” she said “and unfortunately we cannot get the workforce in that environment.”
“It takes us around 3 months to train a person to manage the call centre environment and most of them move in and out of those call centres over short periods of time….For us to be able to maintain that type of environment, we need to work in larger centres in a city area.”
In other words the city provides more fodder for a work environment which creates high levels of employee churn.
Wouldn’t it be better – and more socially responsible – to address the problem at source by creating a decent working environment?
A community campaign to save the centre, supported by unions, local government and both sides of politics, is now underway.
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