Telstra Employees/ABC SHOW: "Four corners" (1 Viewer)

[fernando]

Did anyone watch this show on abc? If so what are your thoughts about the pressure being held upon these particular Telstra employees?

 

[Aryanbeauty]

Re: ABC SHOW: "Four corners"

Telstra is an embarrassment for Australia. It should have been broken up ages ago.

 

[Josie]

Re: ABC SHOW: "Four corners"

I haven't watched it, but from what I've heard of it it's just like any other call centre situation, ie very stressful, deadlines, ever increasing sales targets, monitored calls, etc etc.

 

[fernando]

Re: ABC SHOW: "Four corners"

yeah.. it's pretty frkn awful that such pressure can play a part in driving one to committing suicide. =(

 

[Josie]

Re: ABC SHOW: "Four corners"

I used to work in a call centre (for Optus). I found it too stressful, so I quit. I don't understand why you would stay in a position like that, unless you're supporting a family of four and a mortgage or something (not sure about this one, but the last one was a young lady certainly not in that position)

 

[banco55]

I guess four corners was bound to do an anti work choices episode before the election given the sympathies of their staff.

 

[fernando]

Re: ABC SHOW: "Four corners"

I used to work in a call centre (for Optus). I found it too stressful, so I quit. I don't understand why you would stay in a position like that, unless you're supporting a family of four and a mortgage or something (not sure about this one, but the last one was a young lady certainly not in that position)

Yeah that's what i was thinking.. why couldn't she have just quit? Obviously she had the brains to get just as good of a job somewhere else. -shrug-
How long did you work in the call centre for?

 

[jb_nc]

I guess four corners was bound to do an anti work choices episode before the election given the sympathies of their staff.

I'm sorry... You don't find what Telstra made their staff do abhorrent? Managing every minute of their time and putting them under that much pressure a few were bound to crack?

Not even the director they interviewed could sit straight and defend what they were doing.

Glad to find you could manage to accuse the ABC of bias.

 

[banco55]

I'm sorry... You don't find what Telstra made their staff do abhorrent? Managing every minute of their time and putting them under that much pressure a few were bound to crack?

Not even the director they interviewed could sit straight and defend what they were doing.

Glad to find you could manage to accuse the ABC of bias.

I think calling it abhorrent is a bit of an exagerration. I thought the bit about the pregnant woman was idiotic on a number of levels. But there are a lot of shitty jobs and shitty bosses out there. I don't think they made out a causal link between that girl offing herself and her work at telstra either.

If you take any given abc documentary program 99% of the time they will take the leftwing position.

 

[jb_nc]

If you take any given abc documentary program 99% of the time they will take the leftwing position.

In this case they were investigating what Telstra did themselves. They made the AWAs, they made the rules. I guess one could say (as put famously) reality has a left-wing bias.

But by all means, go ahead and name some other specific programmes produced by the ABC which have a left wing bias.

 

[Iron]

But by all means, go ahead and name some other specific programmes produced by the ABC which have a left wing bias.

the einestein factor

 

[jb_nc]

the einestein factor

station close on abc2

 

[Iron]

weather report (westerly breeze my eye)

 

[christ_ine]

I watched it. I quit in November from a call centre just like that (for Telstra as well, ha!) but here in Sydney.

The job sucked, and by the looks of it, still does.

 

[banco55]

In this case they were investigating what Telstra did themselves. They made the AWAs, they made the rules. I guess one could say (as put famously) reality has a left-wing bias.

But by all means, go ahead and name some other specific programmes produced by the ABC which have a left wing bias.

Foreign Correspondent has more then its fare share of anti-Israeli and anti-American stories and media watch isn't exactly impartial.

 

[Stott Despoja]

Foreign Correspondent has more then its fare share of anti-Israeli and anti-American stories and media watch isn't exactly impartial.

Discussing issues that are largely ignored by the regular news bulletins and the mainstream press in general is hardly indicative of a left-wing, anti-Israeli and and anti-US bias. In fact, it has been my experience that the Foreign Correspondent programme does its best to investigate each issue in its entirety, or more appropriately that the journalists and producers talk to as many stakeholders as they can within time and budgetary constraints.

 

[Serius]

Re: ABC SHOW: "Four corners"

I used to work in a call centre (for Optus). I found it too stressful, so I quit. I don't understand why you would stay in a position like that, unless you're supporting a family of four and a mortgage or something (not sure about this one, but the last one was a young lady certainly not in that position)

Funny you said that, my dad used to work in an IT centre and was supporting 4 kids and a wife. On top of that he was earning almost twice as much as he should have been because of seniority and he had been working their so long, so they were trying to pressure him to quit. In the end they got rid of the entire call centre and moved it to sydney. He said it was the most stressful job of his life and its the reason he never answers the phone when hes at home.

 

[Josie]

Re: ABC SHOW: "Four corners"

Yeah that's what i was thinking.. why couldn't she have just quit? Obviously she had the brains to get just as good of a job somewhere else. -shrug-
How long did you work in the call centre for?

I worked there for a year. What can I say, the pay was pretty good. But it just got too much in the end.

Funny you said that, my dad used to work in an IT centre and was supporting 4 kids and a wife. On top of that he was earning almost twice as much as he should have been because of seniority and he had been working their so long, so they were trying to pressure him to quit. In the end they got rid of the entire call centre and moved it to sydney. He said it was the most stressful job of his life and its the reason he never answers the phone when hes at home.

See in that situation it's understandable, if you're supporting a family, and it *does* pay well.
Although I found the opposite in pressure to quit- they have such a high turnover, anyone who is mildly good at their job is given all sorts of concessions and begged not to quit. I got promoted, but it still didn't help.
And yeah, I don't answer the phone unless I absolutely have to. At my last place we didn't have a home phone, and I didn't answer my mobile unless I knew who was calling.

 

[Serius]

Re: ABC SHOW: "Four corners"

well the way he put it, all the up and coming young fellas were better at the job and the only reason he was keeping up was because of his experience. They could have been using a fresh out of uni guy who does almost as good a job for half the price.

 

[loquasagacious]

Re: ABC SHOW: "Four corners"

I work in a telstra call centre and love it, the works interesting, I work hard and get rewarded for it. I do overtime because I choose to.

Targets and deadlines are a fact of work where ever you go, a business has got to make money and in a call centre that means meeting call volumes with an ammount of resources that allows a profit. So that means keeping call time down and keeping calls per agent up. Fact of life, don't like it quit.