HORRENDOUS EXPERIENCE WORKING IN CUSTOMER CALL CENTRE

[clearlycuriousCath]

HI there i am another newbie to this forum but not a newbie to diabetes type 1 40 years and counting!! I was just wanting to find out if anyone here had any experience of working from home as a customer sales advisor with a national call centre. Personally i have had a horrendous experience since starting my new employment in Sept 21. You are quite literally on the clock from the minute you take your first call to the minute you leave. You are allowed exactly 30 mins for lunch if you are lucky and have 2 15 min breaks one in the morning and one in the afternoon. You are expected to work a variety of shift that can start as early as 8am and can finish at 10pm. I am on a 40hr contract. It has been horrendous because you cannot have a main meal in 30mins well i have found it unachievable. If you start work at say 11.30am you do not finish until 8pm you have a 15min break at about 12.15 then you have your so termed lunch break at 3pm i have seriously tried to make these shifts work but for me they do not my blood glucose control is all over the spot i have put on weight since starting in the job as you are literally tied to your desk. I have tried approaching my union Unite but they washed their hands of the situation saying that Call Centres hold all the aces with regards to working conditions and that i was to get out as soon as i could which i am trying but no success so far. Have tried approaching my team leader but she is more concerned with us achieving our 50 calls a day. I even approached 2 Operations Managers and for a while they have given me early shifts a mixture of 8.00 9.00 and 9.30am which have been slightly better but they were on the short term and i have noticed that as of 15.01 i am back on late shifts 10.30 and 11.00 and 11.30am shifts. My Operations Managers are aware of why i have asked for predominately early shifts i get the feeling that they must think you can say goodbye to Diabetes after a month oh if only how little they know or understand!! I just do not know where else to turn to i cannot just walk out as i need like everyone else the money to survive. How do they get away with it? Is this just not discrimination by the back door? Thank you for taking the time to rad this and i am so so sorry about my rant any advice would be most appreciated. Cath

 

[Lily123]

HI there i am another newbie to this forum but not a newbie to diabetes type 1 40 years and counting!! I was just wanting to find out if anyone here had any experience of working from home as a customer sales advisor with a national call centre. Personally i have had a horrendous experience since starting my new employment in Sept 21. You are quite literally on the clock from the minute you take your first call to the minute you leave. You are allowed exactly 30 mins for lunch if you are lucky and have 2 15 min breaks one in the morning and one in the afternoon. You are expected to work a variety of shift that can start as early as 8am and can finish at 10pm. I am on a 40hr contract. It has been horrendous because you cannot have a main meal in 30mins well i have found it unachievable. If you start work at say 11.30am you do not finish until 8pm you have a 15min break at about 12.15 then you have your so termed lunch break at 3pm i have seriously tried to make these shifts work but for me they do not my blood glucose control is all over the spot i have put on weight since starting in the job as you are literally tied to your desk. I have tried approaching my union Unite but they washed their hands of the situation saying that Call Centres hold all the aces with regards to working conditions and that i was to get out as soon as i could which i am trying but no success so far. Have tried approaching my team leader but she is more concerned with us achieving our 50 calls a day. I even approached 2 Operations Managers and for a while they have given me early shifts a mixture of 8.00 9.00 and 9.30am which have been slightly better but they were on the short term and i have noticed that as of 15.01 i am back on late shifts 10.30 and 11.00 and 11.30am shifts. My Operations Managers are aware of why i have asked for predominately early shifts i get the feeling that they must think you can say goodbye to Diabetes after a month oh if only how little they know or understand!! I just do not know where else to turn to i cannot just walk out as i need like everyone else the money to survive. How do they get away with it? Is this just not discrimination by the back door? Thank you for taking the time to rad this and i am so so sorry about my rant any advice would be most appreciated. Cath

Welcome to the forum @clearlycuriousCath,unfortunately the ignorance surrounding diabetes is an issue everyone faces. Are you on a pump or MDI (Multiple daily injections)?

 

[clearlycuriousCath]

Hi there Lily 123 nice to meet you i am on an insulin pump 11 yrs plus suppose i just wish businesses better understood the challenges we face on a daily basis but i suppose it is a dream and as far from reality as you can get. All through my working life i have faced prejudice one way or another it would just be nice for once not to have to fight to be understood. What is your experience?

 

[Lily123]

Hi there Lily 123 nice to meet you i am on an insulin pump 11 yrs plus suppose i just wish businesses better understood the challenges we face on a daily basis but i suppose it is a dream and as far from reality as you can get. All through my working life i have faced prejudice one way or another it would just be nice for once not to have to fight to be understood. What is your experience?

I don’t have any experience of prejudice at work as I’m still in school. The way I think of it is that every time I correct someones incorrect assumption about diabetes it’s one more educated person

 

[Lucyr]

If you’re on a pump you should be able to just bolus as and when you eat, so shouldn’t need to eat at fixed times unless hypo. Have you checked your basal and bolus ratios are still correct of whether they need to be adjusted?

 

[Windy]

Hi clearlycuriousCath, does your firm have anything like an occupational health team? If so, can you arrange to see them or phone them to explain "how diabetes works" and get them to encourage your managers to let you work safely at home by also managing your diabetes. They have a duty of care to you as their employee to provide a safe working environment, even if you're working at home. It's no different them making reasonable adjustments to accomodate your need to manage your diabetes than if they had to put in a loop for a hearing impaired staff member in their building, or putting in a ramp for a wheelchair user.

Is there a different union rep you can talk to? The one you spoke to doesn't sound very helpful at all. I'd be phoning their headquarters and explaining that you're not happy with the response you've had. The union rep should have found out what you need to do to manage your diabetes, and then gone to your managers and said it needs to happen so that they can support their employee and not thumb their noses to the Equality Act, which I presume you'd be covered by (I'm not a lawyer, your union would have to advise. They should have access to legal advice).
There's some information on the main diabetes UK site for employers which I hope your firm would be able to take on board. Can you get a letter from your GP to say that you need to be able to plan your insulin and meals so that you can manage your diabetes? Or phone the Diabetes UK helpline?
Your employers sound terrible to work for. I hope you manage to get something sorted or find a job with a much nicer work culture.

 

[clearlycuriousCath]

Hi there Lucyr thanks for your advice yes i know that i can adjust my pump but i think i find it ackward as you never know when exactly you are going to go on your break it just depends when you pick up your last call so giving insulin can be a challenge i am eating then giving insulin which can lead to me having hypos i do not have the opportunity to plan ahead work out what i am eating and to adjust accordingly. Once your lunch is finished you are back on calls with limited opportunity to treat hypos. Only have 10 mins all day for comfort breaks. So cannot even use that time.

 

[clearlycuriousCath]

Thank you Windy for you kind response i am defo contemplating approaching my union rep again i feel so lost at the moment and literally unsupported at work which is not helping my diabetic control i would hate to have to get my HBA1C checked at the moment gosh knows what it would be. I am planning to phone the Diabetes Care Line tomorrow as thank fully i have a day off work just to see what they can advise if anything. Thank you again for your advice it is most appreciated

 

[Lily123]

Hi there Lucyr thanks for your advice yes i know that i can adjust my pump but i think i find it ackward as you never know when exactly you are going to go on your break it just depends when you pick up your last call so giving insulin can be a challenge i am eating then giving insulin which can lead to me having hypos i do not have the opportunity to plan ahead work out what i am eating and to adjust accordingly. Once your lunch is finished you are back on calls with limited opportunity to treat hypos. Only have 10 mins all day for comfort breaks. So cannot even use that time.

Sorry but I have to question the “limited opportunity to treat hypos”. Are your managers saying this without knowing the possible consequences of not treating a hypo?

 

[Lucyr]

Hi there Lucyr thanks for your advice yes i know that i can adjust my pump but i think i find it ackward as you never know when exactly you are going to go on your break it just depends when you pick up your last call so giving insulin can be a challenge i am eating then giving insulin which can lead to me having hypos i do not have the opportunity to plan ahead work out what i am eating and to adjust accordingly. Once your lunch is finished you are back on calls with limited opportunity to treat hypos. Only have 10 mins all day for comfort breaks. So cannot even use that time.

I get a short for lunch at sometimes unpredictable times too, as soon as the last call finishes I put the meal in the microwave if it needs reheating, and test, bolus, then eat. With a short lunch break you need to have the meal prepared in advance so that it just needs microwaving, or just needs eating if cold, and make sure you already know the carbs so you aren’t wasting lunch breaks calculating them. It’s also a good idea to make your lunch be something you know isn’t too spiky on your blood sugar when you know you won’t be able to prebolus.

For hypos, make sure you have a bottle of sugary liquid on your desk at all times so you can just drink it as soon as you feel yourself going hypo. However, if blousing after eating is making you hypo then it sounds like either your basal or bolus is set wrong. Taking the insulin after eating should not make you low, going low means you are taking too much.

 

[Inka]

Thank you Windy for you kind response i am defo contemplating approaching my union rep again i feel so lost at the moment and literally unsupported at work which is not helping my diabetic control i would hate to have to get my HBA1C checked at the moment gosh knows what it would be. I am planning to phone the Diabetes Care Line tomorrow as thank fully i have a day off work just to see what they can advise if anything. Thank you again for your advice it is most appreciated

I worked in a call centre once and it was awful. People don’t understand the non-stop nature of it. Like you @clearlycuriousCath I have a pump, but I still had hypos and hypers. It was very stressful.

What I did was quote the Equality Act and say that my employer had to make reasonable adjustments. For me, this meant that extra time was added for the diabetes. I don’t know about you but we had special codes we had to put in, including a code for a ‘comfort break’ ie having a wee. I was given an extra neutral code that I could put in to temporarily halt calls while I dealt with my diabetes eg did a blood test or bolus or ate a quick snack.

The timing of lunch was an issue in case a call came in, but I usually tried to pre-empt that by Making Busy just before my lunch time so that I could pre-bolus and eat at the right times.

If you keep going low, your basal might be wrong. Call centres are stressful and sometimes stress can make you low as well as high. Ultimately I found another job, but in the meantime hold them to their word about shifts, seek reasonable adjustments, and speak to Diabetes U.K. Good luck!