I’m not blaming anybody; we were staffed such that during an acute system outtage, breaks took a backseat to answering calls. If we had a bigger budget, then management could approve hiring more agents and they could have predictable break schedules. But we didn’t, so there’s where management’s expectations become relevant. And I have no idea if the guy took a break after the crisis…I said he was welcome to. If that makes me a prick then so be it. I think the fact that you can’t understand this makes you a whiny bitch, and I’d be VERY surprised to hear that you’ve ever moved past an entry level position.
I saw that as a given. It never occured to me that it would be otherwise.
Maybe I’ve always worked for the good guys…
zwaldd - I’m with you on this one. Keeping on top of 150,000 or so users and all the systems they’re using to keep money moving in North America is just more important than getting outside for 5 minutes for a smoke. Could it be a coincidence that nobody on my help desk smokes, and that we all understand it’s all about keeping things running and not about the almighty break? FWIW - we’re all “exempt” salaried employees - no overtime, but decently well-paid and a nice pile of benefits for our troubles.
Oh, and never mind 14-hour days without overtime. When a mainframe system driving terminals on the teller lines across the country goes down, somebody has to stick around and fix it. And someone has to stick around to re-assure the panicking tellers and branch managers that we know about the problem and that there is a workaround so the customers can leave happy, if delayed slightly, as things are manually processed on a slower system. When you’ve got a bank full of customers, “Jerry’s on break” is not the right answer.
I’ve been both a manager and a trainer, the latter in a call center. Surprise, fucker. You suck at guessing games.
There’s a big difference between not agreeing with your shit and not understanding it. I understand just fine you had no problem trying to dick your worker out of his break because your bosses were a bunch of greedheads who weren’t interested in staffing their call center properly. That you’re just now getting around on your, what, fifth post on the topic to claiming that the guy was offered the remainder of his break after the “crisis” (calls in queue for an extra couple of minutes, while not a good thing, does not constitute a “crisis”) leads me to think that you didn’t actually offer it. If you had been a decent manager, and there was truly no option other than asking the guy to cut short his break, what you would have done was go to the guy and say “Hey, I know you’re on break, but we’re getting slammed. If you’d please get back on the phones I’ll make sure you get the rest of your break after we’re through the peak.” And then, when you were through the peak, walked up to the guy and said “hey, thanks for doing that, I want to make sure you get the rest of your break now.”
I also understand perfectly that in some cases management (of which, as a supervisor, you were a part) are more interested in bodies in seats taking calls than making sure that their front-line people get the time away from the phones that they need, have earned and deserved. I’ve been lucky not to work for fuckers like you. My bosses wouldn’t have considered asking someone to cut short a break. I’ve worked in a half-dozen call centers in four different industries and in none of them did management have any trouble scheduling regular breaks for workers. Your bosses’ refusal to adhere to a predictable break schedule speaks to the shittiness of the bosses, not the shittiness of the workers. That you’re continuing to defend a shitty business practice tells me that you’re a bullying shitbag.
Holy shit. This made me laugh out loud and now the cleaning crew up here at work wants to know what was so damn funny. 
Yeah, I know…then I should’ve sucked his dick. Just what I suspected…whiny bitch. Suggestion: leave the supervising to us pricks and we’ll leave the whining to you bitches.