Sunday, June 6, 2010

Beware of Stream Global Services Part 4

The Highly Questionable Stack Ranking
and Nemanja Zec's Betrayal

To be honest with you all, I don't know how to start Part 4 of the continuing saga of Stream Global Services' poorly-treated employees. One thing is for sure, though... this will be Nemanja Zec's day under the sun. He is the current Site Director of Stream Global Services and number 2 on my hate list for what the company did to our brothers and sisters in HP Stream Quezon. Not only did this man approve the directive to give forced leaves to about 55 of our HP brethren but according to my sources, he was also directly responsible for the stack ranking list which determined the fate of the hapless agents.

Let's continue answering Mr/Ms Anonymous tirades:

"...So the question is, were the SPs made aware that not doing their jobs well could cost them their jobs? And if they were, did they take it seriously?"

I am sure that all employees to a certain extent knows that if they did not do their job well, they will be in danger of losing it. This is not only true in the BPO industry but in other disciplines as well. But admit it, even those who commit crimes cannot be terminated or suspended without due process. And this is what's lacking in this directive - due process. These employees committed no crime and yet Stream Global Services are treating them worse than criminals! In fairness to former HP SDM Kurt Andrada and all the fine TM's and agents in HP PSG ranks (I believe that this is true in IPG as well), I'm sure they gave it their best shot! The upper management needed these people to understand and bear with the inconvenience of MTO's and VTO's before when there was low call volume and everyone did their part. Why can't Stream Global Services do it for them this time? I always hear that the relationship between the employers and employees is a two-way street. I'm only seeing a one-way alley here and the flow of benefits are only going the employers' way.

Now let's discuss the stack ranking. To those who are not familiar with the story, the upper management chose the 55 agents who will be on forced leaves from a list of data. The data contains 6 KPI's (key performance indicators) which will in turn determine a particular employee's ranking if his numbers are compared to that of his colleagues. Clear so far? Good! Now here's the problem: the data contained in the list is nothing short of dubious and crappy. Believe me, you will not be able to justify that stupid formula much less defend it to a crowd of angry elementary students! That's how shitty the freaking list is! That is why Nemanja Zec, refused to show it to the agents in the FGD he spearheaded! That is why Nemanja Zec is uneasy discussing it! That is why Nemanja Zec and the upper management said through the new HP SDM that they will need to revise it! That is why this whole forced leave directive sucks big time! And that is why this whole forced leave directive is a big cacophony of LIES AND BULLSHIT!

HP SDM Criselda Fernando said it well in the initial FGD with the agents before they requested for an FGD with the Site Director. As quoted by our sources who were present in the said meeting, "...we will revise (or review) the stack ranking but for the meantime, things will be as it is." Meaning, those who are on the list will be served the forced leaves anyway while the upper management is verifying the reliability of the stack ranking. WOW!

Mr/Ms Anonymous said:

"...i honestly believe that there is more to people than being given numbers based on performance to determine their worth. but this is business, and in business, its all about the numbers. Im all for using stack rank to determine who should go on forced leave and who gets to stay, but for the computations to be hidden, that's just dubious. im not sure about the allegations whether the data was messed up or not, but transparency would be greatly appreciated. keep in mind that these event happened very quickly because it was a business need. management had to act fast and had to act with what data they had, the STMs that were available at the time..."

I'm glad we agree for once - that if there is no transparency in the computations, then the stack ranking becomes dubious. Hence, unreliable. Hence, not a good source of basis to determine who gets affected by an unpopular business decision and who won't. Again, time pressure and your so-called business need does not justify Stream Global Services' decision to hand forced leaves without any prior notice!

"...i dunno if there's some growing enmity between IPG and PSG, with the recent developments and all, but what i can say is this- don't blame IPG..."

I assure you, there is NO enmity between IPG and PSG people and we are not blaming IPG. If some PSG agents commented or even hinted that it was IPG's fault - they were simply being too emotional about all this and I am sure that they didn't mean to blame IPG per se. It was brought about by the unpopular remarks made by an IPG STM who clearly doesn't represent the core values of the people in IPG when he decided to do some grandstanding in the FGD with Nem. If IPG agents and TM's were hurt by my colleagues' remarks about your LOB, I am apologizing in their behalf. We are doing everything we can to stop everyone from hurling unprofessional and personal invectives towards our co-HP employees. We care for our brothers and sisters in IPG. This blog is not meant to flame IPG people. This blog is meant to open everyone's eyes to the injustice being done to the employees of Stream Global Services.

Back to the stack ranking. I was able to obtain a copy of the data used to determine HP PSG's stack ranking. How I got it is not important. Suffice it to say that I am not alone in my crusade and there are many people providing me with data and information so that I can share it with you all. Let me take this chance to say that I believe that Archie Oberio has nothing to do with all this. He was one of those who prepared the data but I have reason to believe that the formula wasn't his. I know Archie personally and if you know him too, you'd know that he doesn't have the heart to be a part of this unpopular directive. You see, everytime I ask around about who came up with the formula, a name always springs up - and it's your name Nemanja Zec, you scheming bastard! You have no business sitting as Stream Quezon's Site Director! You sold us out to eTelecare!

How you came up with a formula that weighs CSAT (customer satisfaction), DSAT, FCR, TPR, RevGen and HWCSAT equally is beyond me. Maybe it's only fathomable for someone with a deranged mind such as yours. In almost a year of HP's existence in Stream Quezon, those numbers were NEVER computed like that! And where the fuck is attendance in the formula Nem?! How can you ignore such an important stat?! Maybe your mind is clouded in your hurry to remove 55 agents in the soonest time possible that you weren't able to think straight! Admit it, man, you weren't really trying to manage the queue... your intention was to remove 55 HP PSG agents and it really doesn't matter who the fuck was on the bottom of that messed up stack ranking, you bastard!

What, are you also ass-kissing to please Mr. Jojo Reyes and his equally devilish co-executives? I'm not yet done with you, Mr. Site Director and you as well, Mr. Jojo Reyes (Stream Global Services Area Manager)! You, sir, occupy the number one spot on my hate list! Shame on you, people! Shame on you and may you both suffer the same or hopefully worse fate than my wronged colleagues!

Until my next blog!

Goodnight HP peeps. Never give up! The Lord sides with the oppressed. He will smite our enemies for us! :-)







17 comments:

  1. I've been through the Labor Code over and over... and for the life of me.. There is no entry about or regarding the possibility or legality of having people go on forced leave...

    I'd really like to know what the labor arbriter had to say about having people go on forced leave.

    Is it legal?
    Where is it in the labor code?

    This is information that is a very powerful tool that can be used for or against both employee and employer.

    I would really want to know, Rathalos.

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    1. illegal ang forced leave.
      illegal din na ayaw ipakita ng management or.client yung proof(malamang edited/doctored) sa mga agents nila. After all sinabi nila open door policy sila diba?
      di pwede mag terminate kung walang internal investigation ginawa ang company at wala mapakitangblegit proof. Hindi legit proof ang piece of paper na kaya i type lang ng 10 mins kung papaano maging stack rank nila. Nakakatawa kasi ang alam ko sa stack rank eh cummulitative yan. Ibig sabihin on a certain amount of time makikita yung progress ng employees. At pag.di umabot di basta pwede ipa.forced.leave diba may company code.of conduct na nagsasabi if under par ang performance jg agent odi dapat may mga coaching sessions ginagawa sa mga agents at dapat may.formal notice.na.kailangan.ipirma yung mga agents that they are aware na bumabagsak sila. I know coz Im somehow connected with the labor dept both locally and.internationally. One of the managers has already encounfered me... even questioned my credibility with my labor status... natawa nalang yung arbiter at yung mga staff coz they told me na.that stream manager obviously doesn't know she/he is.messing with. I google lang family namin.kita na agad. Haha, di pwede ipag yabang na manager ka ng call center coz.in the international arena.of.business they dont give a damn.

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  2. To that person that commented to the blogger to just accept what happened to those 55 poor agents:

    YOUR BRAIN IS FUCKING MESS UP!!!! I can clearly sense that your one of those kiss ass people that makes stream global services sucks right now! How dare you state for those 55 agents to just accept their faith!

    Am not directly affected on what happened but I really am angry & disgusted because of those malicious comments. I am one of those 100 dell agents who got transferred to hp and I’m also following this blog to be updated…

    My sentiments to those agents & I pray for them to win this case…

    “Just accept it. 55 agents are lucky they still have jobs, even if they didn't care enough to perform before.”

    How can they be lucky if yes they still do have what you call a “JOB” but they’re not
    getting anything out of it? Stream should’ve just terminated them so that they will have an option to look for another JOB that will provide them and their families’ money and food on their plates to survive within those times. 30 days is freaking hell long to be trap in a position that they can do nothing about. How can you be so sure that those agents did not care enough and sweat their butts off to hit HP metrics just only to find out that they will be losing the source of their income at the end of that unfaithful day?!? It’s easy for you to utter those despicable comments because you’re not in that position, maybe because your confident enough that this will never happen to you because you’re kiss ass BIGTIME!!!

    “I read it to give the other side of the story that you choose to ignore”

    And I believe that you’re the one who’s ignoring the blogger & the 55 agents side of this issue (maybe because you really are a full pledge bosses ass kisser). Haven’t you checked the other parts of this blog?? Then I will just state this again SOME OF THOSE 55 AGENTS ARE THE REAL PERFORMERS OF 6J!!!!

    The method of elimination that Nem & those other assholes did is fucking rubbish! Stack ranking my ass!! Don’t even know how formulate solutions that will benefit both the company and those poor agents! Yes we are also aware of how those assholes did the stack ranking!

    By the way just so you people know, because I believe the blogger have mentioned us on the other parts of these blog. Just to set the info straight we are not floating agents from Libis and I believe that all of us came from pbcom. Dell is NOT pulling out from e-tel/stream, they're just having a low call volume right now so instead of laying off some of the tenured people, they let go of the 3 wave that is on training right now.

    Some of us are tm’s & l2’s but I think that’s only 5% of the whole 100, the rest are all newly hired (including me).

    And for those hp agents on the floor (because on time I heard one of my co-trainee talking to his friend that is a tenured HP agent. They said that they are angry at us because we are the “replacements” of those 55 agents that is on FL) please don’t hate us.. We have nothing to do, nor even not aware on what’s happening until last week. We are grateful that HP accepted us but also disappointed because what we’ve applied for is to be with dell account.

    The whole Shaw 6j trainees are with you guys in your crusade. Sue everyone that is responsible to what happen to those poor 55 agents!! We’re all with you ALL THE WAY!!

    BPO MANAGEMENT SHOULD TAKE CARE OF IT’S AGENTS BECAUSE IF NOT FOR US YOU’RE OUT OF BUSINESS! WHAT YOU’RE EARNING, EATING AND SPENDING ARE ALL BECAUSE OF OUR TALENTS SO DON’T ACT THAT WE OWE YOU OUR ASSES BECAUSE WE ARE THE ONE’S YOU’RE PUTTING IN THE FRONT LINE. IF NOT FOR US THERE WILL BE NO TM’S, SDM’S, SITE DIRECTORS OR WHATEVER SHITS YOU CALL YOURSELVES!! IF THERE ARE NO AGENTS, THERE WILL BE NO ONE TO MANAGE! OR BETTER YET TRY TERMINATING EVERYONE THEN PUT YOURSELVES IN THE FRONT LINE THEN LET SEE IF YOU WILL BE ABLE TO RUN YOUR BUSINESS PROPERLY!

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  3. To the commenter above:

    Very well said. Thank you. I think I have always been clear that we have no issues with the former Dell agents up for training for HP Stream Shaw. Our battle is against Stream Global Services. So there. :-)

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  4. Name 1 person who shouldn't be on the list. Show the stats and show they really belong. I have yet to see/hear one person that deserves to be off the bottom 55. All I hear is about the resigned one who is #1.... bring it up to Fernando and see what she does.

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  5. and really, you're in a better position with a job and. Go look for another job with SGS still on your resume and say you got on forced leave because of call volume looks sooo much better then "I got fired/terminated" think about it. It's a better alternative.

    Last about the stack ranking. For the PBCom folks, you should know that Etel is/was all about stack ranking and performance management. Stream wouldn't know the first thing about perfomance management. Look what happened to Dish... what a disaster. Yeh, that's kissing ass for you.

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  6. @ Anonymous A - Our main point here is that the forced leaves served on the HP agents is illegal and unmerited. The stack ranking being dubious is only secondary.

    So you only know about the agent ranked 1st? Let me tell you about the agent ranked 2nd on that list: That agent only has one KPI data available out of the 6 KPIs to be measured. The fact that he was 2nd overall with big "N/A's" on 5 out of 6 KPIs is beyond me. So there.

    The agents DID bring this up to SDM Fernando. She promised that the stack rank will be revised. Up to now, we have yet to see a single letter from a revised list. But even if they do that - that will not justify the forced leaves handed out to the affected agents.

    She referred the agents to Site Director Nemanja Zec - the story is in my blog. That's whay SDM Fernando "did."

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  7. @ Anonymous B - See my comments for "Anonymous B" under comments on this blog's Part 6.

    I agree with you, though - Stream wouldn't know the first thing about perfomance management. That is so true!

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  8. nope selecting who should go and who should stay is not "all about the numbers" my friends. If that were so then we might as well have robots for managers. Theyre (managers) there to make decisions (on this case: who would stay and who would go) based on... a lot of things. Performance, behavior, attitude even personal and professional biases. You would know if you were a bit higher up. Radical as they might sound to the little people like us below, its really what managers in any organization do. Alas they are only doing their job.

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  9. Dear commenter, you are right. :-) And that's exactly why I wrote this blog - so that these people in the upper management will do their jobs correctly.

    Remember, the selection process is but only secondary in this issue. The main issue here is how this mandate/directive was carried out. The manner, the timing, and the legality.

    The management was clear on their bases of selecting who would go on force leave, anyway. And the "other things" you mentioned are not included, unfortunately. They based it on Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) and nothing more. That's right out of the Site Director himself. Attendance wasn't even a criteria - let alone attitude and biases. :-)

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  10. Continued: This is why I say the management folks need to do a better job on hiring people that are truly qualified for those positions. They are currently bringing in more people from Costa Rica and Salvador to help that site in Nicaragua and let me tell you, they themselves can tell you that management sucks. Just in the sprint program this is what they have: Maurice which he got caught and had to be spoken to because he threatened several agents and also sleeps with the agents, which Rick didn't mind but that is a no no in any work environment. Then they have this girl Tina that all she does is smoke cigarettes and talk about girl stuff or shopping yet she does not know much about call centers she is just a good friend of Gabriela, figured why she got the job. I can go on and on about management, oh and the latest incidents that my Nica colleagues mentioned. Several team managers protested in this program US Cellular because they just found things unfair the way they are running. So several of them just resigned because they said they can't take more of the BS, something about this guy named Jorge Porras that they promoted him to being a senior team manger just because he is good friends with Rick. They say Jorge Porras was brought in as a favor from someone from another call center so his girlfriend begged Rick to give him a supervisor job. Which he got without even looking at recruiting dept. to see if he was qualified for the position. The client US Cellular wanted him out immediately because he didn't know crap, but Rick brought in guess who, yes more Filipinos to help save that program, but they didn't appreciate the Filipinos. And yet just because of knowing Rick they promoted him, so that's why several are protesting, resigning and can't take it anymore because of decisions like that and yet he is being way over paid for what he knows in the call center industry. I think what Stream should do is just do a clean up on site. Bring in more professionals from other sites to operate the site in Nicaragua until they can train and have professionals that REALLY know what they are doing, to run the site. Unfortunately if they will not do a clean up and get rid of all the trash I do not see a future for Stream in Nicaragua. But its a plus for us Filipinos because they can always bring back the centers to us where we do know what we are doing. So as you can see folks there are issues everywhere with Stream and that is just one of the countries that I decided to speak about. There are several centers here but yes I have to agree, Stream is the crappiest.

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  11. Well guys, sa Clark panalo yung mga na FORCED LEAVE. Kaya for sure panalo ang mga kapatid natin na 55. Wala sa Labor Code yan kaya Go! Go! Go!

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  12. I agree with you an alot of what your saying, i work for stream, and it almost like a slavecamp created by hitler, the higher ups do shit for a show of power, and our contract covers their ass to fire us whenever they want with NO REASON, we are just pee ons, but its the only place in my area that has jobs for shmucks like me, i have a trade and there is no work for me in cape breton, so i have no choice but to work there, on top of that im with sirius xm in that building and as if stream isnt corrupt enough, sirius xm is one of the most crooked company`s ever! i would never get involved as a customer, i dont even use the free subscription i have for as long as im with them...

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  13. Basura ang "Stream Quezon!!" Lalo na yung HP K.K.V. Na ngayun ay P.I.G. nalang ang natira. sumama pa nang pumasok mga taga etel na sila Ana"Suyod" Orca(The Killer whale)at mga bagong trash artist na wala ng ginawa kundi humalik sa mga paa ng mga taga etel. and i thought stream took over etel?...WTF happened? daming nag reresign.. halos every week may mababalitaan ka na umaaalis. may darating pero siguro di alam pinapasukan nila. dati ang basic nasa 18k ngayun 13k nalang. tapos kunwari expanding. yun pala mass lay-off-ing. ganda pa ng stream nun. ngayun para nalang syang cheap call center na puro mga low grade employees nalang kumakagat. good beginnings. bad ending. WARNING Sa lahat ng gustong pumasok dito. Try nyo sa ibang account wag HP. daming feeling dun.

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  14. Wow. I've been reading through these blogs and I see I'm not the only one that hates the corruption behind closed doors in this company. I'm not in Quezon, nor do I work in the HP or Dell accounts, but I am a SGS employee and I see a lot of people (in my center) getting canned or passed over or just treated like shit because of how management "likes" them. Yet, I sit close to many people who are constantly using idle codes to avoid calls. Nothing ever happens to them. Why??

    I have a medical condition and I sometimes have to use personal codes (all on file from my family doctor). Soon as the shift bids come up, they turn to stack ranking, and because my personal code is a bit higher than the 10 or so people that sit around me, even though a lot their other stats are lower, I always seem to be the one getting stuck closing the queue because of my attendance stats (Once again, they have all my medical info on file). Are there any acceptions in this stupid company. When I question it, I always get an excuse like 'We're looking into it' or 'Check back with us'. I've seen waiting months just to get an answer and get tired of asking. I know there are a lot of sick people in the world that have to pay bills (myself included) and a lot of them do get treated fairly. But in my center, I see a lot of favoritism amongst certain employees and they do whatever they want with no consequences while people like myself get dumped to the bottom of any list.

    Yes, I'm fully aware that if you don't like your job, look for another one. And trust me, I have been. But when you live in a town that there's barely any work besides a call center, it's a tough task. Leaving one call center and going to another is just not going to happen. And with current medical conditions, I can't just up and leave and move halfway across the country feeling like this. So for now, I guess I'm stuck with the rest of the ones that get passed over.

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  15. I worked there once. Turned in my 2 weeks notice and then they fired me the next day. Told me I'd been going on chat sites during work. Despite the fact that I would routinely see managers on MSN on a regular basis, I assured them that I hadn't been. They assured me they had evidence of it collected and motioned to a piece of paper on the table. I assumed this motion to the document meant i was allowed to see it right? As i reached for it the woman that was the head of HR at Belleville Stream Global Services reached out and stabbed me in the hand with her pen drawing blood. I clasped my hand asking her what the hell she was doing. I then asked to see the evidence against myself and she said "there is profanity in the documents and we refuse to let you see them". I demanded to see the evidence against myself and said that I would report her to the HRDC and call her head office. Following this she motioned to my former manager to escort me out of the building. They yanked my ID off my head without even asking for it, grabbed me by the arm and somewhat forced me out the door. when i got there my belongings were half in a plastic garbage bag on the floor and various items of mine were missing. I asked to go to my desk to get them and they refused. So to recap, I was fired for no reason, when i asked to see the evidence i was assaulted, i was denied to see evidence against myself, i was physically assaulted on my way out the door, and i was robbed. Stream Global Services is a deplorable company and the way they conduct themselves in a professional manner is disgusting in my opinion.

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  16. Yes, stream global really sucks..from the first time i was interviewed there on Libis, Quezon City, the atmosphere i felt is not very good and professional, i was initially forwarded to a fat guy with really unprofessional ethics on how he spoke on company rules and regulation with emphasis on the bond just in case you didn't finish the allotted 7-9 months training whether involuntary (like poor performance and absences ) or voluntary...I doubt with this syndicated company they will only push you to be considered as a poor performer within you're training to make you pay the bond...this is how the HR make unscrupulous money out of you..so I never get back !...Be warned by Stream Global Syndicate Guys !

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