Communication Solutions and Firing the Fat Guy

Communications Solutions and other Springfield, MO Call Centers: Legalized Sweat Shops

 

I watch the decline of the city I live in, Springfield, MO. Crime is up. In fact, in a recent survey, Springfield was ranked the most dangerous city in the United States based on crime per capita. It’s not just one list either. All over the internet using crime statistics, Springfield is consistently ranked as one of the most crime ridden cities in the United States per capita, and even the Chamber of Commerce has acknowledged this adopting campaigns that hope to shed Springfield in a better light. The truth is local business owners like Communications Solutions is part of the problem.

Communications Solutions is one of the many call centers that have popped in Springfield in recent years like a plague. In fact, call centers have become a revolving door of despair as local residents attempt to make a better life for themselves as call centers promise so much more than what they deliver. The turnover rate is high as the only two assured conditions these call centers deliver is unneeded stress and low pay. Oh sure there is the promise of commission, but through intelligent call routing (which another Springfield call center set up at the old airport, Expedia, admits to using) and the constant changing of metrics, commissions are rarely paid leaving even the most successful employees with little reward on payday.

Communications Solutions represents billion dollar telecommunication companies like Century Link, Verizon, Savvis, and Direct TV. Phone reps are pressured every day to push sales as team leads often interrupt phone conversations of already irate customers who are calling over billing matters demanding H.S.I. (high speed internet) be pushed upon the customer whether they need it or not. Customers often ask the phone reps why there is so much yelling inside the Springfield call center. Here’s where the problem starts.

Communications Solutions puts such unachievable demands upon their reps that commission is rarely paid out. Employees work in this stressed environment for barely above minimum wage, and many figure out quick the commission rewards that were built up during the interview process and training, are inflated to keep your butt in one of their seats. Most people begin figuring it out in the first week as they are undertrained and never ready to handle the complicated client software. To make matters worse, the turnover rate is so high, many team managers barely have more experience than the reps taking the call as many of them just walk away if a question is too hard. There is obvious favoritism displayed on the floor as these team leaders are mostly young attractive women.

So throughout Springfield in call centers like Communications Solutions, local residents go to work in a dirty call center where they are underappreciated, over stressed, and under paid. Communication Solutions starts their employees out at $7.65 an hour for the first three weeks and move them up to $8 an hour thereafter. You can literally watch hopeless, desperate people quickly learn the system is stacked against the commission potential through technology like intelligent call routing and intentionally confusing metrics and watch the demeanor of an entire city begin to fall as the low wages create poverty and desperation that eventually drives up the crime rate. I believe we are seeing that take place in Springfield, MO, where wages are so low, that the city is reflecting its decline.

Think about this. You can go to the Mall and sell candles and deal with less stress for the about the same rate of pay that these call centers pay. Considering the stressful and dirty conditions, call centers like Communications Solutions are nothing more than legal sweat shops. Our once clean and safe city is starting to see the real impact of doing business this way and treating employees in this manner. Springfield is on the decline and the abundance of low-paying call centers like Communications Solutions that have sprouted up like weeds in our city is proof.

Since the proof is in the pudding it is clear to see how Communication Solutions and call centers like this one are a pariah on a community like Springfield that once thrived.  When the lines between what is morally right and what is ethically wrong are blurred, the standard to which we view humanity is often times distorted.  Are there still great careers to find in a town where the average household income of 4 is making less than $30,000 a year?  That question has to be determined as more call centers that are violating basic federal labor laws are taking over.  These violations from Communication Solutions would include classifying workers as “volunteers” for setting up systems off the clock prior to their shift.  Communication Solutions also threaten to withhold earnings from employees should they not meet certain performance criteria.  According to FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) passed in 1938, this is clearly a violation.  FLSA states the following:  

The FLSA applies to "any individual employed by an employer" but not to independent contractors or volunteers because they are not considered "employees" under the FLSA.^[19] Still, an employer cannot simply exempt workers from the FLSA by calling them independent contractors, and many employers have illegally misclassified their workers as independent contractors. Some employers similarly mislabel employees as volunteers. Courts look at the "economic reality" of the relationship between the putative employer and the worker to determine whether the worker is, in fact, an independent contractor. Courts use a similar test to determine whether a worker was concurrently employed by more than one person or entity; commonly referred to as "joint employers". For example, a farm worker may be considered jointly employed by a labor contractor (who is in charge of recruitment, transportation, payroll, and keeping track of hours) and a grower (who generally monitors the quality of the work performed, determines where to place workers, controls the volume of work available, has quality control requirements, and has the power to fire, discipline, or provide work instructions to workers).
In many instances, employers don't pay overtime properly for non-exempt jobs—including when they don't pay an employee for travel time between job sites, activities before or after their shifts, and activities to prepare for work that are central to work activities. If an employee is entitled to overtime, the employer must pay them one and a half times their "regular rate of pay" for all hours they work over 40 in the same work week.  (Source from Wikipedia.org)

This stands to reason as to why these types of establishments are cancerous to a city of desperate individuals in search of living the American Dream, and being able to properly care for themselves and for their families.  As consumer reports would phrase it as “buyer beware”, employees that are seeking employment with Communication Solutions beware as this company does not live up to its namesake. 

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