Moderators, please post this for discussion.
AGENTS MANDATE LIMITATIONS:
According to the job specification, FRO agents are not social assistants, nor social workers. Their main task is to enforce provisions in the court orders that pertain to child or spousal support. In other words, they are collection agents, just like other collection agents working for banking institutions for example. Collection is a very technical process that may be carried out according to the training, the resources and tools provided to the agent.
What happens at FRO is that enforcement agents are under huge pressure from both clients and management to also act as social workers, legal advisers and many times, as clients’ babysitters. There are tons of mad clients out there who need assistance of a different nature, which FRO agents are not mandated nor trained to deal with.
Management, however, wants us to assist with any problem that clients may arise on the phone. So we find ourselves dealing with some lunatic behaviors without the option to not even terminate the call even when the client becomes insulting to us and that's what happens when clients can’t solve their FRO unrelated problems. Some clients use discriminatory remarks especially when the agent has an uncommon name or an accent, no matter how clear and eloquent his/her language is.
FRO managers never listen to agents when a call is escalated because these managers are so unfocused and unqualified. They are scared of escalations because it means to them calling the client back, which they don’t know how to handle. They don’t have the professional or moral courage to pick up the phone and tell the clients about FRO’s mandate and agents’ enforcement limitations.
I have not heard of any manager at any level who stands by the agent when an issue is escalated because the client has been abusive. In fact, they ask the same agent, who’s been abused to apologize to the same client and provide direct line for future reference!
So here are some questions:
Why don’t managers follow up with the clients who abuse agents on the phone? In other OPS services like MOH, there are signs that warn clients from abusing clerks.
Why doesn’t FRO work on ways to educate clients on agents mandates and limitations by posting memos in thefro.ca
Why do managers continue to download escalations on agents and get away with it?
If FRO wants its agents to become social workers, why don't they provide proper training by professionals in this field and change agents' titles?
By a group of agents.
FRO is too political. Management will never stand by agents against clients, no matter what.
ReplyDeleteI guess this is a serious topic. Even since Sharon van Son was at FRO, most projects they work on were geared towards how to please clients and prevent escalations to the OMB office. The numbers of escalated calls and the wait time have always been the main focus for management. There has never been a project on how to protect the dignity of agents when they happen to speak with mad clients.
ReplyDeleteFRO is the only job I know of where reps are on the phone 6 hours a day to deal with the most shocking stories in the Canadian society. So, yes, it would be appreciated if management acknowledges the sensitivity of our job from inside out.
Why can clients escalate calls to managers and get the follow up they ask for, while the poor agent who’s been called names by clients can do nothing but listen and end the call politely. We must have the right to management follow up with improper behavior of some clients.
Of course, managers don’t understand what it means being on the phone. When they listen to calls, it’s for monitoring and intimidating purposes only.
It would be interesting to get the clients involved in this and see what they have to say about us complaining about their attitudes. Maybe they're not aware that we are indeed unhappy with them being ungrateful to the efforts and the extra miles we go for them.
ReplyDeleteI’d say even the Ombudsman and MPP offices must join the discussion. It’s time the other side knew we have issues as well, and that we’d be serving better if we see some respect.
ReplyDeleteWhy should I start the day with someone swearing at me because he/she has a personal problem with the ex. It just doesn't make sense.
That's our life at FRO Mandy! People swearing at us all the time. There should be a change in the current policies.
ReplyDeleteBut clients are sometimes right to get irate. Take for example when there's a problem with the system itself and we can't access the cases, management still wants us to continue taking calls instead of changing the 1 800 phone greeting to advise the clients that there's a problem, so they won’t have to wait 20 minutes for nothing.
Again, managers are not part of the frontline. Why should they care?
I was bothered by an email sent to us recently by the new acting manager Kathie Persaud. She was picking on the VDT time and when it should be taken, bla bla...
ReplyDeleteI mean, are we ever gonna have a manager who really thinks of the wellbeing of the frontline staff? Why doesn't she work on a project to reduce the number of calls for example or come up with something new? I was really disgusted with the email and I thought i'd share my thought with you.
I hope this is clean enough for you to post this time.
ReplyDeleteI was bothered by the same email and I did call Kathie the many names she deserves. She should really slow down. I know she's trying to push her way through, but by time time she becomes a manager, nobody will give shit about her.
Let's support our members on the intake competition grievance against Sylvia and her pathetic behavior and discrimination.
ReplyDelete