Listening to hysterical people crying/dying/yelling on the phone for 12 hours per day? It's an extremely emotionally taxing job
But no more so now than it has ever been.
I think the issue is that workers are now told to take care of their mental health, and doctors will issue letters for mental health issues more so than ever in the past. The call-takers have generous leave benefits and they take advantage of it. In 2020 Local 873/8911 signed a contract with more generous short-term leave clauses and permissions. 3/4 of the workers in this profession are female and a large portion of them are not the main breadwinner in the household. So they get 75% of full pay in the first 26 weeks of medical leave and between 50% and 75% of full pay when off on various extended medical leaves beyond 26 weeks.
Women are also far less likely to accept or want overtime, and that becomes a problem in an organization relying on more overtime right now, and employing 75% females.*
The union also became stand-alone (Local 8911) recently and has been calling for a near doubling of staff. So there is likely some politics too.
A recent Price Waterhouse Coopers report commissioned by E-Comm 911 found that the organization is relying on overtime and staff missing breaks to meet service levels. It suggests that 125 full-time call takers be hired on top of those 153 staffers currently working.
https://www.ecpbc.ca/secondscount/
* US study:
Women value time away from work and flexibility more than men, taking more unpaid time off using the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and working fewer overtime hours than men. When overtime hours are scheduled three months in advance, men and women work a similar number of hours; but when those hours are offered at the last minute, men work nearly twice as many. When selecting work schedules, women try to avoid weekend, holiday, and split shifts more than men.
https://scholar.harv...e_gendergap.pdf
Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 December 2021 - 06:59 AM.