Canadian Occupational Safety

18 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com using 'kid gloves' when handling them or being nicer to them. Never do they say, 'Oh wow, that was a terrible expe- rience for you.'" It's important to distinguish between a diffi cult customer, which all call centre workers should expect, and an abusive customer. Workers should receive training on how to de-escalate diffi cult situations and do so in practice, but when someone is being abusive, workers should simply be able to say, "Caller, I'm not going to take this abuse. Thank you very much and goodbye," says Neumann. "When you have someone that calls in and makes derogatory remarks like 'What colour panties are you wear- ing?' or 'I hope you get cancer and die,' those types of things, there's no doubt that individual should not have to tolerate that and have the ability to hang up," says Neumann. When a worker is faced with an abu- sive call, managers need to support them, says USW. "In many cases, the supervisor expects the worker to basically sit through this until the call is complete and in some cases, we have heard the worker may get a pat on the back possible for that to happen," she says. "It ended up going to our CEO at the time and he spoke to him and told him we wouldn't renew his policy and we would cancel him with immediate effect. So, we take it pretty seriously." But if this type of situation were to occur in Canada, the USW would like to see it reported to the police, as well as all instances of violent or sexual threats. "I think it's an obligation of the employer because this goes towards a safe environment in the workplace. They have to hand that over to the authorities. You just cannot condone being silent on that," says Neumann. As part of the Hang Up on Abuse cam- paign, the USW will be meeting with call centre employers to "ensure that each and every call centre in Canada" has a policy that lays out the union's recommendations, says Neumann. But there may be some pushback due to the common corporate motto: "The customer is always right." "I understand that every customer is important. I think that's a business model they have. I can understand why: These are people calling in, they are a provider of some sort and the customer is obviously very impor- tant, but, having said that, they also have to take a stand and recognize their employees should not have to go through the abuse that is taking place," says Neumann. Having a strong, supportive corpo- rate culture is key in eliminating the abuse call centre workers endure — something Admiral has fi gured out. "One of our mottos is 'People who like what they do, do it better.' In order for them to like what they do, they need to feel safe in their environment. No one is really going to enjoy their job if they feel they are subjected to that type of abuse," says Cable. "We, as a leadership team, will do whatever we can to make sure they feel safe, sup- ported, secure." This type of work environment is something Ravary would like to see at call centres across the coun- try. She is hoping employers will start making changes so things get better for employees who are dealing with abuse. As it stands now, a lot of people in Ravary's circle experience abuse from callers and, as a result, are depressed, are on medication and need to take leaves of absences. "You kind of just wake up in the morning and you just dread it," says Ravary. "Depending on the day before, sometimes I wake up in the morning and I have to go to work and I start to cry before I have to leave, and my hus- band's like 'Why are you doing this to yourself?' But you make good money and you have benefi ts and you have to think about your family." from the supervisor saying, 'Thanks for hanging in there.' That's inappropriate. That's not a healthy work environ- ment," says Neumann. USW is recommending call centre employers train managers on how to support workers who are verbally abused. Ravary agrees training outside of what managers receive during their orientation or when they are fi rst pro- moted would be benefi cial. "I think not being on the phones you forget what's happening when you're on the front-lines of the phones, so I think it's important for the manag- ers to have training on that more than just once or twice," she says. While Admiral does not have spe- cifi c training for how to support workers who have been victims of abuse, it does have stress management training for managers about how to cope with employees who are stressed in any situation, says Cable. The USW is also recommending call centre employers issue a warning and fl ag callers who have a history of harassing workers. This is something Admiral practices. The company has had situations where it decided to only communicate with an abusive cus- tomer in writing, so no one had to be subjected to verbal abuse, says Cable. And at Rogers, some customers have been banned from calling in. "While rare, there are instances where we've blocked customers from calling our call centres because of repeated inappropriate interaction with agents. It's something we take seriously and monitor closely," says Garas. Admiral has also denied repeat abusers use of its services — some- thing that USW is also recommending. "In those extreme cases — and those typically tend to be the more aggres- sive or racist — we wouldn't want that kind of customer on our books any- ways. So we have, in the past, either cancelled or refused to renew them for that reason," says Cable. One example of this was about 10 years ago when Cable worked in the Admiral offi ce in the U.K. A very dif- fi cult, aggressive and racist customer threatened to go to the offi ce and physically harm a staff member. "They were a couple hundred miles away but it was still technically using 'kid gloves' when handling them or being nicer to them. Never do they or being nicer to them. Never do they Caller, I'm not going to take this abuse. Thank you very much and goodbye. Congratulations to the following OHS professionals who have recently been granted the Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP) ® Professionnel en sécurité agréé du Canada (PSAC) ® designation. The BCRSP is a self-regulating, self-governing organization accredited by the Standards Council of Canada to ISO 17024 (Personnel Certification Body) and by BSI Management Systems to ISO 9001(Quality Management System). Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals/Conseil canadien des professionnels en sécurité agréés 6700 Century Avenue, Suite 100, Mississauga, ON L5N 6A4 905-567-7198, 1-888-279-2777, www.bcrsp.ca Babatunji Adebayo CRSP Kayode Adeyemi CRSP Richard Ainsworth CRSP Pamela Allen CRSP Amanda Armstrong CRSP Jules Arntz-Gray CRSP David Badger CRSP Robert Barrie CRSP Christine Baurenschmidt CRSP David Beriault CRSP Jordy Bouillet CRSP Edwin Allan Boutin CRSP Rachel Bredin CRSP Julie Brockman CRSP Craig Bryant CRSP Jennifer Buxton CRSP Eric Campbell CRSP Timothy Carmichael CRSP Ian Carter CRSP William Carter CRSP Craig Clarke-Lamb CRSP Paul Collier CRSP Martin Cuffe CRSP Arnab Das CRSP Rommel Dela Resma CRSP Dennis Delgado CRSP Jennifer Denesyk CRSP Cindy Derksen CRSP Gaetan Desrochers CRSP Graeme Drysdale CRSP Michael Dufour CRSP Joshua Dwyer CRSP Tanwani Ebenezer Akum CRSP Amal El-Nahas CRSP Ugochukwu Emuka CRSP Sandra Excellent CRSP Ibe Ezuma CRSP Laura Lee Farmaner CRSP Charles Fehr CRSP David Frank CRSP Glen French CRSP Barbara Fuller CRSP Amy Gabriel CRSP Maren Gamble CRSP Lissa Gaudet CRSP Praveen George CRSP Christina Germann CRSP Perrine Giraudeau CRSP Juliet Goodwin CRSP Rowen Gork CRSP Nishant Gupta CRSP Jennifer Hapke CRSP Jody Harris CRSP Joanne Harte CRSP Apinder Hayer CRSP Christopher Isaac Hill CRSP Jeremy Holden CRSP Karen Louise Hunt CRSP (Robert) Jeff Hunter CRSP Holly Hurley CRSP Sharon Inkster CRSP Sevil Ismayilova CRSP Maurice Kamel CRSP Deepak Singh Kanyal CRSP Michael Karsten CRSP Brad Kerrivan CRSP Mark Kieley CRSP Tyler Kirkpatrick CRSP Warren Ko CRSP Nicole Kurash CRSP Hussam Labib CRSP Melissa Ladd CRSP Bruce Laing CRSP Meghan Lambert CRSP Sharla Langley CRSP Wayne LeDrew CRSP Laura Lee CRSP Natasha Lloyd CRSP Rose Marie Lloyd CRSP Kristen Lockyer CRSP Carl MacKinnon CRSP Alison MacQuarrie CRSP Conor MacSweeney CRSP Paul III Richard Manguelle CRSP Tina Manning CRSP Zareen Mauthoor CRSP Jason McDonald CRSP Brandilyn McDougall CRSP Donald McInnes CRSP Nicole McLaughlin CRSP Julian Mercer CRSP Said Mohamud CRSP Yaroslav Moisseyev CRSP Dallas Morris CRSP Nusratullah Mughal CRSP Martin Muyomba CRSP Terrence Myers CRSP Jude Obiesie CRSP Ryan Obleman CRSP Daniel O'Brien CRSP Emmanuel Ogbeide CRSP Seun Olaoye CRSP Erik Olexa CRSP Linweal Ollivierre CRSP Fadi Osekrie CRSP Tara Ostrosser CRSP Maksymilian Ostrowski CRSP Mark Palman CRSP Robyn Parada CRSP Ariel Parent CRSP Dipaliben Patel CRSP Shrikar Jagdishkumar Patel CRSP Meagan Patterson CRSP Darcy Phillips CRSP Matthew Pope CRSP Warren Prochner CRSP Christopher Reynolds CRSP Colin Rink CRSP Jason Roach CRSP Holly Rothlisberger CRSP Jeremy Ryan CRSP Laura Ryan CRSP Tyson Scheffler CRSP Matthew Seely CRSP Kristy Shilka CRSP Raeleen Sutton CRSP Darby Tchir CRSP Justus Tegha Dunghu CRSP Tyler Thornton CRSP Tammy Trainer CRSP James Tuovila CRSP Kristie Turner CRSP Samantha Van Tighem CRSP Cornelius van Zyl CRSP Doug Vantour CRSP Roshan Varghese CRSP Paul Verge CRSP Janine Welch CRSP Root Wendimagegn CRSP Ashley Whiteway CRSP Rodger Willcott CRSP Neil Wilson CRSP Candice Wingerter CRSP Gary Winter CRSP Derek Wold CRSP Michael Wuensche CRSP Jennifer Yetman CRSP Nicholas Yu CRSP Frank Zappone CRSP Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals BCRSP_NewCRSPAnnouncment_Oct2016Examination_COS Magazine.indd 1 1/14/2017 2:02:55 PM

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