Convergys - Bullying In The Workplace

Convergys

Logan, Utah 84321

I was bullied at my most recent job. I'm usually a domestic goddess by day, but recently at night I decided to work for a call center. We didn't need the additional paycheck, but I wanted to get out of the house after 10+ years of not working. I have a lot of previous experience working in retail and in call centers, so I figured it would be a breeze for me to work here.

We had a training class together, and a group of us instantly became fast friends - even if we were all completely different. I NEVER talked about my personal life, other then how many kids I have and how long I had been married. I kept my personal life separate from work. I didn't really feel too comfortable telling all of the employees my entire life story, so I kept it simple. I have two kids (currently one on the way), and I've been married a long time.

I believe this is one of the reasons why I was targeted. There's a lot of ammo for people out there if they know NOTHING about your life. This means they can say whatever they want to about you, without any word but yours to deny it later. Good luck with that! I had a lot of issues denying any of the rumors, and just standing up for myself because...no one really got to truly know me.

I was actually considered the most popular in our training class. I got along with everyone, and made a lot of impersonal jokes. I didn't offend, and I made sure to not piss anyone off. My husband says this is a downfall of mine. I like to get along with people, rather then create drama and cause strife. Especially at work. This one girl decided to change that one day.

About a week before training ended one of the "friends"/"group" decided to start bullying just me. It started with random insults ("stupid" etc), and then progressed into outright cornering me in hallways just to scream at me. My supervisors, HR, and even other training members were all witnesses to her behavior. She was supposedly written up at least 4 times. HR never did anything to her, even with themselves as witnesses.

My trainer even pulled me off to the side several times and told me that he was writing her up, for her conduct against me in the classroom. Apparently he had hears some of her snide comments against me, too. I had heard them but chose to ignore them, as this is a JOB...and I don't care what people say to me.

I mainly believe the reason she decided to bully me is because she is 17, pregnant with #2, unmarried, and living in a basement. She was very unhappy with her life and my husband thinks that she targeted me because she might of been jealous. I am twice her age, live in a home we own, have college funds for our children, and have been married 16 years. She also had an attention whore type of personality. I think she liked being the center of gossip and wanted to do everything in her power to make herself feel better about herself.

Trust me, I spent a lot of time in the HR department the 3rd week into training (technically transition). It was either because she CLAIMED I had said something (once she said that I had claimed our trainer was a drunk??), or because she felt like I just didn't have the skills to be in customer service. Yup. So not only is she insulting my personallity/intelligence, but she is also insulting the way I do my job. She decided to up the anty when she claimed I was calling my trainer a drunk. Which is basically impossible. I apologized to him, and for the rest of the week we had a DIFFERENT trainer (because of her).

When we reached the call floor, she decided to get more sneaky about her attacks. She spread vile and vicious rumors around about me. One thing about call centers? Once a rumor is started, it will NEVER die down. I eventually quit because of all the stress the rumors and her drama was creating. When I quit there were about 10 different rumors going around about me. HR claims they will investigate each rumor, but will never truly investigate. It was also not very hard for me to find out WHO had started the rumors. Every person that approached me, or even if I had overheard someone repeating it - I questioned. It was obvious that she (THE SAME PERSON) was creating these rumors. Yet, HR will claim they cannot prove she started these rumors.

Let's see...I was a coke-head. The worst one was that I abuse my children. She had spread that to everyone whom would listen. It got so bad that when I was on the smoke deck, people were coming up to me...talking to me by NAME (and I had never met these people before), and they were telling me off for my entire break about how I shouldn't beat my children. I kid you not. No matter how much I tried to stop the rumors, and even deny it...I eventually got to the point that I started saying: "If you truly believe I abuse my children, feel free to call CPS".

Don't get me started on the rumor she started about how I wanted to drown my kids...which was a fucking joke, for fuck's sake. We were talking about how our kids are exasperating, and I said something off-color...which I shouldn't of...but they laughed, and KNEW I was joking. She went to HR and then eventually spread around that I REALLY wanted to drown my kids. Sigh.

I was having strangers from the call floor ask me why I was a coke-head. I had CUSTOMERS ask me why I abused my children, because she was talking about me in the background and they could hear it. You name it, she spread it. Even if I had a day off, she was claiming to everyone that I had been fired for some reason or another. I was constantly being bombarded by her crap. It even got to the point that my lunches and breaks were being taken in my CAR, rather then in the lunchroom/smoke deck. I brought a book to read, and didn't TALK to anyone but the customers.

It was really sad. I went from having a lot of friends, to having everyone in the call center just attacking me. If I wasn't being cornered everyday, I had people sitting next to me going: "So, I heard this..." UGH! Eventually, it just became too much. HR never did anything about it. Not even after I quit.

I lasted 4 months, and now I am refusing to ever go into such a workplace again. The kicker? After I quit, almost all of my original training class quit as well. She had switched her target to them after I had left. I still randomly hear stories about whom she is bullying. To this day, HR is trying to place the blame on me. HR even went so far as to ask the witnesses about MY personal life..."Is she happily married?" I mean, really? That's no one's business, and why are they even asking that?! How about, you deal with the crazy chick and I get on with my job? What does my personal life have to do with some chick cornering me in a hallway and creating a hostile work environment? She even admitted to cornering me multiple times to HR, and HR did NOTHING.

PS. Don't ever say "hostile work environment" at a call center's HR. They go WAY out of their way to DISPROVE it, rather then deal with the situation at hand. They try to make it seem like YOU are making everything up, just in case there is a future law suit.

Update: 6/2/13

My brother is currently working the night shift at the very SAME place I used to work at. He has informed me that ALL of the HR department has been completely swapped over, as in they removed everyone to a different location and brought in a brand new HR department.

I re-applied at Convergys, as the bully is no longer working there and they changed their policies about bullying.  I was asked to do come in for an interview, which I later declined. So, looks like they are still interested in me working there...even if I'm not.

After I quit working there, I was still getting calls from the original HR department for about 4 months. They were trying to "pin" this issue on me. HR is not really your friend, or at least this one wasn't. They aren't there to try to resolve conflicts. They are there to make sure the company is NOT sued. If they can't "prove" (which I proved over and over) who is doing what, they pick a target.

I was their target. They investigated my personal life, they investigated HER personal life...etc. They spoke to many friends that I STILL speak to about ME, as a person. It was obvious that the HR department had chosen her side. In my mind, it was because we are in a very LDS community and she was an unwed mother...with lots of home issues. They felt sorry for poor pitiful Tia. (I had even given her a lot of my old baby stuff to her, before she had done this)

The sad part is that a day AFTER I quit, SHE quit. So, if I had lasted just one more day...I would have been fine. I re-applied recently, mainly because I wanted to see if my file was bad...or whatnot...like, I wonder if I could go back to working there? Just curiosity type of thing.

My entire training class wound up quitting because of her antics. She started a lot of witch hunts while in the HR office. Anything from: "I saw two people holding hands in the parking lot!", which was actually against the rules for this job...to "I heard she smokes pot" about another friend, which caused an additional drug test. It was a LOT of added drama that NO ONE needed or wanted. If she felt that a certain rumor wasn't gaining enough attention, she'd start a new one.

Never once did HR ever consider that she was just a drama whore. They soaked up everything she was saying, and treated her like GOLD...while the other 15 of us, dealt with the consequences. When I was avoiding the confrontations, she was slowly picking up on other targets. Eventually, almost everyone had had it because of her.

Surprisingly enough, we all still hang out. WITHOUT her presence.  We all talk on a normal basis. Her? She found some shitty boyfriend, and doesn't work anymore - at all. She lives off of social security. Me? I work three jobs now, for kicks...and I enjoy it all. I've never had another problem like this with any of my co-workers since.

Here's a note to future HR representatives:  If someone is being cornered in hallways, and the bully ADMITS it...you should fire them on the spot. We are a no fault state. YOU CAN FIRE THEM!! If they threaten to hit someone in the workplace, you should fire them. If they are creating this much drama, you need to fire one of them.

NEVER will I put up with this treatment again. My only saving grace was this: I repeated to myself everyday I walked in or dealt with a new rumor - "I am here for my kids..." That is the ONLY reason I didn't just punch her in her smug little whore face.


Update 10/21/13:

My brother has also seen first hand a lot of the drama at Convergys. He works at the actual call center, while I work at home. He got himself switched to night shift because he was tired of all the female drama. None of it involved him, but he definitely wasn't going to be putting up with it. After just a week doing the original shift I had, he was ready to quit because of all the High School garbage these girls do.

(Though lately, night shift is having a flood of some of these high school girls from day shift...and he's not really happy. Neither are the team leaders. There's been a lot of drama involving a group of them lately. He's just happy he can sit in a corner by himself and no one bugs him.)

I also forgot to mention in my original post that I was PHYSICALLY cornered in the hallway SIX times by this girl.  She PHYSICALLY pushed me TWICE.  Not only was I being harassed via her comments and rumors, she was physically assaulting me as well.  There were plenty of witnesses to the cornering by JUST her, and even then HR would do nothing about it.

I DO work at home for Convergys now.  I cut back on  my three jobs, and work parttime from home.  I consider it "fun" time.  If I ever get tired of it, I'll quit or put in two weeks notice.  I have been working for Convergys again for about 6 months now.  It's really enjoyable to not put up with the drama.  Hell, my eldest kid acts better then some of the people that work on the call floor.

Our original training class STILL hangs out together, minus evil teenage bitch, and we have a complete blast.   15 of us do NOT like her  AT ALL.  Goes to show you, I'm not the only one who has an issue with her.  I feel really bad for 5 of them though.  At least 5 of them became her target after I was no longer available to attack.  Two of them quit because of the rumors she was spreading about them.  The other 3 were being cornered by her too, and she made up a lot of FALSE HR reports about all five of them.  Boy, the stories we have all shared about her.

She got hired at another call center about a month ago, and was fired due to her conduct.  (I'm unsure of the entire story, but I heard she tried to create drama there - or insulted someone too much - and was instantly fired.)  After getting fired from there, she now works at Wendy's part-time.  Goes to show:  a tiger really CAN'T change it's spots. 

The current HR department (from what I hear), is fantastic.  There was an issue with a guy and girl pretty much having sex on the call center floor, and HR went total "I will kill you if it happens again".  There was some older women attempting to bully a younger girl, and they even nipped that in the bud too.  I don't know any of these people personally, it's just stories I've heard.  Remember, I work from home.

PS.  Before I stop updating this post: The rumors she started about my beating my children or REALLY wanting to drown my children?  Well, that wasn't the first couple of rumors she even attempted to start.  That was just the main one that stuck in people's minds.  Her original "start" of her bullying was the insults.  She was on the verge of being fired because of everything OTHER people had reported her for saying to/about me.  When she started the rumor about my REALLY wanting to drown my child, the ONLY reason it stuck was because random people BELIEVED it about a RANDOM stranger they had never met.  She hit a gold mine.  Don't even get me started on her cornering me for the first time.  She actually had the nerve to shove me into a wall, in front of my trainer, and threaten me...all because I sat in "HER" chair.  Not even her desk (which is all unassigned), but her CHAIR...yup.  All over a chair, that was exactly the SAME as everyone else's.

I think she was just LOOKING for a reason.  It didn't matter what I said or did, she was LOOKING for ANYTHING to attack me on.  It just so happened that HR bought it hook line and sinker.

As per the comment below that I have addressed:  It wouldn't of mattered if I was talking specifically about my children.  In this little girl's mind, she was Queen Bee and god forbid you get in her way.  SHE WILL TAKE YOU DOWN.  /roar  It was very obvious by the time I left, that she was stuck in high school.  She was an immature little girl, who was unhappy with her life...and looking to take it out on MANY other people.  I was NOT her only target.


Update 1/10/15:

My brother worked night shift for about 2 years.  He eventually quit.  Apparently there were a lot of issues with the night shift team leaders, random bullying (not against him), people getting arrested, and requiring them to sign a sales contract.

The kicker for him was the sales contract.  When you are originally hired by convergys, you are told you will not be required to sell anything.  Which went really well for about 2-3 years., until some higher up decided to change that.

Night shift doesn't get many calls, unless there is an outage.  Maybe 15 calls a night?  Maybe.  They were requiring night shift to make 10 upgrades (sell 10 things) to 10 different customers in a WEEK.  That's is almost impossible for night shift.  During the day shift, it'd still be hard...but not as much.

Eventually, no one was making their goals and were getting reamed for it.  My brother tried to stay on target as much as possible, but you can't really SELL an upgrade to someone that is already pissed off that their service is out (during outages).

Now, he works from home too.  He works on their PayPal account, same as me.  I still work parttime at home, and have a stellar record.  I am one of their best agents.  I also still hang out with and talk to my original training class.  We get together once a month to have fun.

The original bully from this post?  She was later arrested for child neglect, her children taken away (she has 2 now), and couldn't keep a steady job for longer than a week - IF she was working.  She was fired from MANY places, due to her attitude/conduct.  She was recently arrested for assault on another co-worker (not surprised), and had to repay the victim for repairs to their car (she keyed it and broke some windows).  So, she hasn't changed.  She also still looks like a druggy bitch.