Closed customer service lines - npower

Hazzanet

undercover_peon wrote: »

Regarding

"Why not pay overtime"

Why indeed, the approach taken when I worked there was to berate staff to the effect that if the call queues weren't cleared (essentially promising customers that they would recieve a callback and taking their details) then staff wouldn't be allowed to log out.

This seemed to me to be a very good way for management to further destroy morale and build animosity between them and staff.

Sadly I couldn't find anything online to suggest you could legally refuse compulsory overtime.

To me this smacks of bad management; if you have a call centre that closes at 8pm, and on average the remnants of the queue from 8pm take until 8.30pm to clear then in reality, the late shift should be organised appropriately so that there are some staff contracted until 8.30pm.

If you ask people to stay past their contracted hours, this should always be by mutual consent, not 'compulsory'. If that's not the case, then there's something quite wrong.