I don't like corporate monopolies but I needed to pay the rent, so I got a job at Time Warner Cable in the fall of 2012. My job title was Technical Support Representative. To a lesser degree, I was happy to be working for the company that produces Real Time with Bill Maher. Insight Cable Company was recently bought up by Time Warner Cable. The transition from Insight Cable to TIme Warner was happening gradually as I started working there. One thing myself, and many other employees, were concerned about was the number of people getting fired. It seemed like one employee would lose his or her job every two weeks. A co-worker approached me and told me she was interested in starting a union. She and I began talking to workers to see if they were interested in forming a union and we got a good response.
One complaint employees had was that we had a very stressful work environment. Employees were graded based on how many calls we took per hour. Every call we took was recorded, including what we were doing on our computer screen. I felt like that was very invasive. Management could see every little thing you were doing, like a prison! Employees at Time Warner Cable were getting fired on a dime. The kinds of things people would get fired for were; putting a customer on hold to use the restroom, not making enough sales, missing an extra day of work, and getting complaints from customers. Every time employees got up to use the restroom we had to deduct that amount of time from our breaks.
I contacted the Communications Workers of America and we began talking about the steps that needed to be taken to officially start a union. I was excited because I have worked in customer service for six years, and I have never seen a union of customer service workers. Management at customer service companies often takes advantage of this and bullies employees by threatening them with termination. Management was very callous and pretentious towards employees' mistakes and were hyper critical of people's performance.
One time I saw a co-worker in tears after being coached by her supervisor. Employees at Time Warner Cable were constantly under the gun of losing their jobs. Sometimes getting coached by my supervisor felt like going into the interrogation room at the police station.
I was fired from Time Warner Cable in February of 2012 for getting customer complaints. I disputed the issue with human resources and they didn't do anything about it. The day I was walked out of the office I was sad that we didn't get to start a union at Time Warner. I was also happy that I didn't have to go into that miserable place another day. If you have Time Warner Cable you can boycott them by switching to Direct TV or cancel your cable all together. There are many alternatives for internet and phone as well. Another thing you can do is file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau when Time Warner raises their rates or treats you unfairly.
This can be done online very easily at www.bbb.org. This damages the businesses' reputation and is like a credit rating for businesses.
Large corporate monopolies require large scale resistance. The people, united, can resist Time Warner Cable's unfair treatment of workers and jacking up of prices for customers.
Viva la Revolucion!
One complaint employees had was that we had a very stressful work environment. Employees were graded based on how many calls we took per hour. Every call we took was recorded, including what we were doing on our computer screen. I felt like that was very invasive. Management could see every little thing you were doing, like a prison! Employees at Time Warner Cable were getting fired on a dime. The kinds of things people would get fired for were; putting a customer on hold to use the restroom, not making enough sales, missing an extra day of work, and getting complaints from customers. Every time employees got up to use the restroom we had to deduct that amount of time from our breaks.
I contacted the Communications Workers of America and we began talking about the steps that needed to be taken to officially start a union. I was excited because I have worked in customer service for six years, and I have never seen a union of customer service workers. Management at customer service companies often takes advantage of this and bullies employees by threatening them with termination. Management was very callous and pretentious towards employees' mistakes and were hyper critical of people's performance.
One time I saw a co-worker in tears after being coached by her supervisor. Employees at Time Warner Cable were constantly under the gun of losing their jobs. Sometimes getting coached by my supervisor felt like going into the interrogation room at the police station.
I was fired from Time Warner Cable in February of 2012 for getting customer complaints. I disputed the issue with human resources and they didn't do anything about it. The day I was walked out of the office I was sad that we didn't get to start a union at Time Warner. I was also happy that I didn't have to go into that miserable place another day. If you have Time Warner Cable you can boycott them by switching to Direct TV or cancel your cable all together. There are many alternatives for internet and phone as well. Another thing you can do is file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau when Time Warner raises their rates or treats you unfairly.
This can be done online very easily at www.bbb.org. This damages the businesses' reputation and is like a credit rating for businesses.
Large corporate monopolies require large scale resistance. The people, united, can resist Time Warner Cable's unfair treatment of workers and jacking up of prices for customers.
Viva la Revolucion!