Alice in Government Land, Part V - new horizons

Upper Management with the federal government is always far off in some other part of the country, in a fantastical place that operates under different laws, different logic and different perceptions. No one there knows much about what workers like me do, and nothing they do affects us within many months of them doing it, if ever. Their memos, sent out at least a couple times a week, either seem irrelevant or senseless, as if they were speaking another language. I have learned to delete them without trying to read them.

But since Wanda, our wonderful manager, announced her retirement in November, two of the senior managers above her, Bob and Ann, have come to our call centre twice to discuss their vision for the future. Their first visit was timely because things seemed to be going off course for some time. Two years ago we had over 50 employees in the pension side of the call centre where I work and now there are only about 30. We assumed this had mostly to do with the ruling Conservatives' austerity measures, given that they have imposed a hiring freeze. In their eyes, the only good civil servant is one willing to die for them, i.e. in the Dept of National Defense.

But in November, the Bob & Ann show swung by to clarify that our attrition was something more personal than that. There are 4 call centres for the pensions in western Canada and territories region, about 60% of the country by area and 30% by population, and the powers that be have decided that smallest call centre in Regina (about 20 employees) and ours (formerly the largest) will close.

The reason given was that neither of them are connected to processing centres. They say they want us to be cross-trained for processing work so that we have more variety and so they don't need to lay people off in the slow periods. But that makes no sense since our slow period in late fall is so short that no pension call centre staff are laid off anyway. I brushed off their presentation as a guise to hide the fact that the ruling Conservatives want jobs shifted to areas where they are popular, and Vancouver has never elected a single of their candidates to office. Not to worry, they assured us, because no one will be let go. They said they would wait 10 more years or more if necessary until only a handful of us remain before closing it completely. I will likely be retired in five years so I decided not to trouble my head over it. Besides, the Conservatives are unlikely to stay in office much longer and any decisions they have made will be wiped away by the next ruling party.

But Bob & Ann were back today to give a second presentation. They have been given the green light by Ottawa to open an Employer Call Centre (ECC), a one-stop shopping site for employers, something that has been badly needed for many years. They have not been given any monies for it so they are hoping to steal employees from both the pension and employment insurance call centres to staff the new centre and accelerate the demise of other two. What services the new ECC will provide is quite uncertain at this point, but that doesn't stop Upper Management from wanting to begin training next month, even without prepared training modules.

I like serving seniors and the disabled, as I have been doing for the past 9.5 years, except for a brief 9 months that I was seconded to help EI, but sometimes it seems too stressful and repetitive, especially in the January to May period when there is never a break between the calls. It will only get worse as the number of employees shrink.

The new call centre is a wild card. The job description will be changing monthly for the first couple years as services are added. No doubt it will be frustrating and confusing at first, but the first staff getting in at the ground level will be listened too and will be given the chance to shape what the call centre does, which is certainly not happening at the pension call centre. There will also be chances for advancement and choosing preferred specialties. I need some fresh air, a reason to look forward to going to work, to shake my head and laugh with incredulity--more than I do now, that is. If it all goes sour, I could still return to the pensions.

As soon as I left the Bob & Ann show, I sent an e-mail to my Team Leader to express an interest in being involved in the first training. I have been grinning ever since.