A friend told me a story regarding this agent who was termed from a company because he apparently peed in a mineral water bottle during his shift. I was amazed at this story, not to mention grossed out. Picture this setting: Air-conditioned surroundings, multiple agents talking rapidly because of the queue, and then this brave young man suddenly stands up from his seat, pulled out his thingy, and then disposed himself right there and then in the middle of the operations floor. One would ask why this act of crudeness? Why wouldn't he simply go to his superior and ask himself to go to the little boys room? The answer is plain. A big plain NO. Most of us know that sometimes when the firing of calls are way beyond our control, our team leads would deny us that right to have our wee wee breaks. But the question is, why did this prevention cause this agent to push himself to rebellion and do this needful thing?

I believe that one wrong act can possibly be provoked by another. Let's say this agent is a veteran one (the ones who have been to so many call centers already and has been tenured long enough in the business to do something crazy and unlawful), but despite how aggravating a persons behavior is, this agent wouldn't have done anything beyond his self if someone did not fuse his temper. So he went to his team lead, asked politely to pee, and then this supervisor answers in a rude manner: "No, you stay in your seat and wait until your shift is over so you can go to the bathroom!" In ancient times this would have been cruel, and not to mention demeaning to ones sense as an employee. So all hell broke loose, as well as his thing in his pants and did the deed right there and then.

I once was a agent and never have I encountered such harshness. And now that I'm a supervisor too, I would never deny an agent his right to go to the bathroom despite the queue. I know that a team stats is fair competition, and the harder you press on your people to meet the goal, the better your scores would go up. But isn't this situation way too much? His act of disgracefulness would have caused his termination and I wouldn't disagree on it. But things could have been prevented easier. He wouldn't have lost his job, and the team leader wouldn't have lost his respect and vice versa if the entire situation was handled properly and fairly.

I wonder sometimes why other supervisors would value their numbers first beyond anything else. I remember a colleague telling me that agents are people too, they are not only digits that make a team perform. But I guess people vary, and once or twice we have encountered managers who see us only as a graph inside their heads. They smile politely to your benefit, but when you unconcsciously commit a mistake, they are the first ones to hang you at town aquare.
Just like this team leader. She has termed most of the agents who do not perform on her team. She thinks that they are the reasons who pull the stats down so she takes them out of the game. Wouldn't it have been better to focus your attention on non-performers and help them out of their weaknesses? But no. Nothing else matters for her. Only the numbers and her promotions. No wonder she doesn't have any friends.

I know not all of my agents like me. But I try to be fair with what they come up to me with. Besides I was an agent too before, and a team leader who doesn't believe in you and trust you makes the entire workplace a living hell. (Not to mention the difficulty of filing approval for Vacation Leaves).

So wherever that agent is right now, I can't help but be somehow proud of him. Although I know what he did is entirely uncalled for. There is just a lesson to be learned in all this, no matter what position you are in you have to know how to respect each other. And to that team leader slash terminator, I hope one day she learns to handle her team in a personal aspect as well. I mean you don't have any more friends, so if you keep kicking people out, there might not be a team left.