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Unfair Discipline for Reacting to Abusive Customers

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  • 10-19-2016, 02:17 PM
    lawfacts
    Unfair Discipline for Reacting to Abusive Customers
    An employer that runs a call center is expecting that its employees maintain constant calm, even though they are frequently dealing with irate customers. Employees are forbidden from suggesting that a customer calm down, or that they stop shouting. Employees cannot respond to name-calling. The employee is supposed to sit there and take it, and has no way to shorten a call when a customer keeps ranting, which can mean that on top of everything else the employee's productivity goes down because they're completing fewer calls. Can an employer really require employees to absorb that level of abuse without reaction, and discipline or fire employees who react?
  • 11-17-2016, 08:24 PM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Unfair Discipline for Reacting to Abusive Customers
    Yes, an employer can require a superhuman level of calm from its employees. There is nothing unlawful about unrealistic expectations, or punishing an employee for failing to meet those standards. The employer probably should consider implementing some mechanisms to help employees who are dealing with ill-behaved callers, but in a call center setting this may be what the client wants them to do when its customers call.
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