I've been working for Nucomm, a big corporation that runs call centers in economically depressed parts of Ontario. It's a part time job in Cobourg, paying $10 and hour, so it gives me pocket change after talking angry customers through to a solution. It's not the kind of job I want to spend much time at, because everyone who calls me is really pissed that they can't connect to the Web.
I'm the guy who answers the phone when you call Rogers or Cogeco about why your computer's DSL connection on the cable network doesn't work. It's a contracted out job, and Nucomm has the contract for now.
I have a lot of experience dealing with pissed people over the phone from when I worked in a call centre for major municipality answering the phone when people called about not having their garbage or blue boxes emptied on collection day. They paid me $30 and hour, plus benefits and expenses - but that was in another life.
I work shifts at Nucomm, mostly weekends and evenings. There's not a lot of people trying to surf the Net or send E-mails after midnight, and there's a geek who loves the night shift, so he gets most of the overnight time. I wouldn't want to work all night like him, so I count myself lucky by default. But I've been feeling really hollow lately, and I wondered why.
It turns out that an economist has figured out that us part-timers are not only at risk for health problems, we are actually poisoning the world too. We who hold part time jobs, it turns out, really are hazardous to every one's health.
Until I read this article, I had no idea that I was likely causing my girlfriend's yeast infection by working! I thought it came from my sleeping around with the single mothers in town!
So, I've been trying to persuade my fellow workers at Nucomm to either go full time or quit. I figure I need the job there myself to help pay for my daily expenses. I kind of like having a warm place to sleep and being able to buy a coffee and doughnut instead of walking the back roads picking up beer bottles. So I need the job, and it's all I can get right now.
But if I can't talk enough of the part timers at Nucomm into quitting, I'll have to start twisting the arms of folks working at Tim Hortons into quitting or going full time. And who hires all those women working at Timmy's? Do those Hortons uniforms only come in one size, and they have to hire to fit the fat pants, or is it the other way around? Anyone know a good union organizer?
I'm the guy who answers the phone when you call Rogers or Cogeco about why your computer's DSL connection on the cable network doesn't work. It's a contracted out job, and Nucomm has the contract for now.
I have a lot of experience dealing with pissed people over the phone from when I worked in a call centre for major municipality answering the phone when people called about not having their garbage or blue boxes emptied on collection day. They paid me $30 and hour, plus benefits and expenses - but that was in another life.
I work shifts at Nucomm, mostly weekends and evenings. There's not a lot of people trying to surf the Net or send E-mails after midnight, and there's a geek who loves the night shift, so he gets most of the overnight time. I wouldn't want to work all night like him, so I count myself lucky by default. But I've been feeling really hollow lately, and I wondered why.
It turns out that an economist has figured out that us part-timers are not only at risk for health problems, we are actually poisoning the world too. We who hold part time jobs, it turns out, really are hazardous to every one's health.
Until I read this article, I had no idea that I was likely causing my girlfriend's yeast infection by working! I thought it came from my sleeping around with the single mothers in town!
So, I've been trying to persuade my fellow workers at Nucomm to either go full time or quit. I figure I need the job there myself to help pay for my daily expenses. I kind of like having a warm place to sleep and being able to buy a coffee and doughnut instead of walking the back roads picking up beer bottles. So I need the job, and it's all I can get right now.
But if I can't talk enough of the part timers at Nucomm into quitting, I'll have to start twisting the arms of folks working at Tim Hortons into quitting or going full time. And who hires all those women working at Timmy's? Do those Hortons uniforms only come in one size, and they have to hire to fit the fat pants, or is it the other way around? Anyone know a good union organizer?
