Beware of Stream Global Services Part 3

As much as I would like to write about Christopher Roxas, common sense and my heart dictates otherwise. I will write about him when I feel like the time is right. I don't want other people to think that I am using him and the issues about him to gain sympathy for the cause that I am fighting for. We have been treated unfairly by Stream Global Services. That is true and that is what I want people who are reading this to understand.

So let's move on to the topic at hand, shall we?

Let's start with the rest of the story about the FGD with Stream Global Services' Site Director. My sources informed me that one of the agents present in the meeting proposed an alternative solution. Instead of having 55 people go on forced leave, a group of PSG agents will go on leave on a particular week and so on and so forth. This way, no one has to be on leave for a lengthy period of time because let's face it, 30-days without pay would really be a big blow to anyone. Site Director Nem, replied by saying, "If I am a top performer and you will come up to me with that kind of resolution, I will turn my back on you and walk away..." Now that sounds logical. But wait, we're talking about PSG people here. So that those who are not familiar with the PSG family would understand, the PSG folks already weathered a season like this when call volume is very low. Ask any PSG agent, TM, or STM and they would attest to the fact that this already happened before and no one was made to go home for 30 days without pay. An agent present on the FGD even challenged SD Nem to make a survey on-the-spot and see what PSG's top performers has to say about the issues at hand but Nem turned him down flat. Why is that? Is that because he knew that PSG people are united in fighting this directive? If that is the case, then he is right to think that.

To the anonymous follower who commented on my blog, you got my attention. And here's what I have to say about your comments:

"FGD stands for Focus Group Discussion. this is where a select group of people are gathered to discuss something. the reason it's called a focus group is because you only get a sample of the general populace. Anything more would be a town hall meeting..."

Thank you so much for the definition. My point is not about what an FGD is. I am questioning the timing. If a big decision, in scope and magnitude, is about to be handed down to employees, the upper management should talk to the employees first, at the very least, notify them about it. It should be town hall or FGD before the decision and not the other way around. Now, a town hall should be more appropriate, in my opinion, for events such as this.

"...i know its a little off when the issue is about PSG and you have STMs from IPG in the discussion, so i wonder where were the 2 STMs? it would have been much better if they were there, but management had their reasons..."

Having IPG STM's on a meeting for PSG concerns is not just a little off, it's not even close to that because it's just not right - plain and simple. The PSG STM's, for the record, are on leave. So can't the upper management wait for them to come back before handing down this very important directive? Can't they order them back to the office for important matters such as these? No, they did not, because they couldn't care less about who serves the forced leave as long as it gets served! What's the hurry? Inviting PSG TM's would have been more appropriate if there are no PSG STM's present. But no... even the lone PSG TM present on the said FGD was sent out by the upper management. Yes, I agree with you that management had their reasons... and these reasons are what scares me.

"...like it or not, this is a business. the objective is to make money- not to provide jobs. it just so happens that people are needed to make that money. so if we do our jobs, then the business runs. if we do our jobs well, the business earns. but if we do our jobs poorly, then the business loses. The business is not obligated to employ for the sake of employment if they dont earn..."

I don't even want to comment about this. The way you said it actually did more damage to you than it did to me. Can you even hear yourself when you said this? I hope to God you are just an employee and not a call center owner because if you are and you think this way and there are half a dozen of you in the Philippines, then we Filipinos are in a very deep shit! Wow, I really admire your guts! Even Bill Gates (who probably might be thinking along the same line) wouldn't dare say that publicly. Or maybe you're that confident because you're just like one of us, an employee who breaks his back 8 hours a day to earn money to feed our family and the big difference between us is that you kiss-ass!

"...running a business is no easy matter. The people at the top have to worry about how to keep the business earning, or at the very least, running. having to force leave more 55 employees was the best course of action to alleviate expenses, as opposed to shutting down the entire program, sounds cruel, but that's life. from what i understand, 2 reasons for this were low call volume and sub par performance..."

I agree that running a business is no easy matter but that's no excuse for enforcing a decision that doesn't take into account your employees' welfare as well as the laws that govern the land where you're running a business. You're talking about alleviating expenses, so let's talk about that as well. You said:

"...with regards to the dell agents from Etel being trained for HP conflicting with the low call volume excuse- this is totally unrelated. stream can only bill the client for the time the SPs are already taking in calls. the expenses incurred for training are shouldered by stream and they cannot bill the client for that. HP doesnt spend a cent to train those dell agents..."

I would tell you that it is directly related. OK, so it's Stream that's funding the training? Let me ask you then, which would cost more money, training a hundred agents for an HP account or paying the salary of the 55 agents who were considered for forced leave? We are only talking about money to be spent for a 30-day period here. Each HP agent who is already on board would cost Stream between P18,000-P20,000 in salaries. Multiply that by 55 and you get P990,000-P1.1M in 30 days. As opposed to how much? Let's say that it will cost Stream about P30,000 per head to train an HP agent, and everyone knows I'm already being way conservative about the amount here. That's already a whooping P3,000,000! More than twice the salary of the agents who would be on forced leave! Alleviating expenses my ass! And damn you for making me look for my laptop's calculator! X( At least eTelecare is doing their damn best to keep their agents employed. Obviously I can't say the same for Stream Global Services' upper management. Sounds cruel? Yes. That's life? Hell, no! There are a number of things that upper management could have done to address the issues but they chose the easy and evil way out!

"...no matter how good a performance a site gives, if there is low call volume, there is really nothing that can be done except to mitigate expenses- hence time off. if this isnt done, then the program would be paying for salaries of employees not doing anything, until the program would have to shut down permanently. in the long run, everyone loses..."

You want me to believe this crap? From what I know, a site that performs excellently is given a good chunk of the call volume. If this is not true, then driving your agents to excellence is simply useless. I agree that if losses are incurred, then there's no way for a company but to mitigate expenses - but time off's and specially forced leaves for an extended period of time are not the only solutions. If forced leaves and layoffs cannot be avoided, then there are rules and guidelines to follow. You cannot just hand them over to your employees simply because you feel like doing it and you believe that it's timely. No, sir, no. The time of kings and tyrants are already over and the last time I checked, Stream Global Services is a company and the Philippines is still a democratic country with a constitution and by-laws.

"...sub par performance is not acceptable for a business is to earn. sub par performance would be okay if making money wasnt the goal (how do you expect to be paid). from what i was told, the performance at PSG is not something spectacular, or at the very least, has alot to be desired. Sure, 6j or kv did win best site for a particular month- but that was just 1 month. Do if for 3 months straight then we'll talk..."

Let me grab this chance to say that I am not in any way flaming IPG for its performance. My purpose here is to expose the wrongdoings of Stream Global Services and if ever IPG was ever mentioned, it was because of how its two STM's behaved during the FGD's for the affected PSG agents. I don't believe that there is an enmity existing between PSG and IPG agents. From what I know, they have been co-existing peacefully and have mutual respect for each other.

We cannot single out PSG or IPG agents for subpar performance. In any environment, there are naturally those who perform better than others. Stream Quezon's 6J did win best 6J site on the planet and though it's something that wasn't repeated, it wasn't so long ago and it just shows the kind of competition that HP accounts have under the umbrella of Stream Global Services. You just have to admit that that wasn't an easy accomplishment either. Do it for three months, then we'll talk? If we're talking salary increase and additional incentives then that's understandable. Can IPG's STM's even duplicate that accomplishment? Have they even been cited for such an accolade? Never.

But we're talking forced leaves here, remember? There WAS NOT EVEN A SINGLE TALK! There was just that cold sheet of paper that the upper management handed out to its poor employees. Oh let me rephrase that... that the upper management slapped on it's employees faces! That is so inconsiderate! If there's any message that I'm sending to HP IPG and even PSG agents in Stream Global Services it's for them to be vigilant. If Stream can do it to "performing" agents like us then there's no way they cannot do it to you!

On my next blog... the dreaded stack ranking and how they cooked up those shitty data!