This seems weird, right?

sleepingbeauty825

My hubby works tech support in a call center. They do phone conversations and chat conversations. Apparently, no one likes to do the phone ones because it takes longer to close cases and for them, closed cases are what is important.

So, some people, instead of answering calls, just do not log into the phone system at all. Their numbers are ridiculous, but it puts others out because that's more phone calls for them. The company has issued an "on call" cell phone that each team member supposedly has to take with them home and answer, should it ring overnight.

This phone ONLY rings if no one is logged into the phone system, not if there is a queue. The person who has the "on-call" phone answers it, gets the customer's name and email address, then sends an email to the office saying, "Log into the phones and call X customer back." It's a pretty short job, I would think each call lasts only a few minutes.

But here's the thing, the phone rings ALL.NIGHT.LONG. H was up five times last night answering it, when the call center he works at is 24 hours. There are ALWAYS people there, and they should ALWAYS be logged into the system. So H is getting up in the middle of the night, all night long, with no further compensation. They say it is part of his job. Well, IMO if he was salaried, they could say that but he is hourly. When he's off, he should be off. He should not be getting phone calls at all hours of the night, waking me and my child.

This has been going on for a week now, and supposedly his turn with the "on call" phone is over. I swear to jeebus if he comes home with that thing, I'm going to flush it down the toilet.

Bashert628

I would turn off my phone. Once he's off the clock, he's done. If they don't like it, they need to compensate him.

Hot Sauce on a Stick

You can Google labor laws in Utah, but if he's hourly, that's OT.

Also, those slackers needs to log in and get over themselves. I work in a call center and I take phone calls without the luxury of "chat conversations" and I haven't died yet.

MexiCali

HotSauceonaStick:

You can Google labor laws in Utah, but if he's hourly, that's OT.

Also, those slackers needs to log in and get over themselves. I work in a call center and I take phone calls without the luxury of "chat conversations" and I haven't died yet.

THIS!

jojoh1008

That sucks. I don't understand why they make it mandatory to be on-call but not for those who are working to be logged on. It sounds like a waste of time and company $$.

I would definitely check on the labor laws in your state. Also, in the employee manual it should say exactly what "type" of employee gets paid OT or not. For ex., at my company it's non-exempt and exempt.

bobbyme

Part of my job is supervising the tech support call center at the university I work at. We have software that allows us to see which representatives are logged in and their status, and the amount of time they go "not ready" and how long it takes them to answer a call. That sounds like it would be a lot better solution than letting people not log into the phones.

Seriously, the taking home of the cell phone is garbage and if I were your DH, I would ask for compensation.