Complaint Review: Prostaff - Nokia - Tampa Florida

I began working for Nokia Mobile Phones through ProStaff's on site office, around April of this year (2005). Things started out great, I was able to keep my piercings in and get paid a base rate of 10.75 an hour, plus health benifits and a great shift differential.

I began training, and things didn't seem quite kosher. We were being trained on ONE phone, mind you Nokia has about 500 phones (INCLUDING VER2PHONES). We has 3 trainers, Mike, Jorge and Rosa. Mike and Jorge were great! They explained things thouroughly and answered all the questions we had. Rosa.. now that's a different story. She spoke broken English, and appeared like she didn't know what the hell she was talking about.

She trained us on a program called Flex - a documenting tool that we use to document every call that comes into the call center- Because she was such a horrible trainer (who was constantly over emotional and paranoid that the class didn't like her, that we didn't talk to her and we were being rude, which we weren't), Jorge had to take an extra day in training to go over Flex with us once again.

We were instructed in a program called Primus as well - this thing is a joke! Granted, there are a lot of hard working, wonderful people out there that are in no way responsible for the fretful thing that this program has become. It's all about what the company wants, and not the needs of the workers right? Primus's answers were absolutly GARBAGE!

When it started to get better, they put rules in for the deparment that handled Primus to make it a piece of crap again. I and almost every representative on the floor was complaining about it for months. Was anything ever done? No. Why? Because the development team doesn't want to get off their a** and do anything about it. They think they're the upper echelon of the company.

I digress. I began dating another representative on the floor early on while I was working there. We hit it off well, and because we were in different departments there were no conflicts of interest. We even brought it to HR so that they would know. Shortly after, a floor manager by the name of Mike C., who I had only talked to once or twice in passing, pulled my boyfriend aside and said to him; and I quote "Don't date her, she's slept with everyone in the company, she's a s***k."

My boyfriend, out of loyalty to me, came and told me. I decided to bide my time and wait to go to HR. I soon forgot about it, my fault really, I should have reported it when it happened. Reguardless of that, I had NOT slept with anyone (well aside from my boyfriend) in the company. And who the hell was he to say anything about me anyway, he didn't know me!

Months later, because new shifts came out - I ended up on this son of a b***h's team. Murphy's Law right. I still didn't talk to this man, I had nothing nice to say to him. Matter of fact, I never even asked him a question, I always asked my Team Leader.

Anyway - the last hurricane that we had, it brought inclimate weather - I felt nervous about driving over Florida's Courney Camble Causeway which is a concrete bridge in the middle of the water. No I didn't feel comfortable about driving on a bridge in high winds, as I assume most people aren't.

I asked Mike if I could please leave early because I didn't feel comfortable having to drive an hour over a bridge in the weather. He didn't respond for over a half and hour - while the weather got worse. Finally he said no.

I reiterated that I was not comfortable driving home and I would take time off without pay or a tardy (leaving early and getting a penalty for it.) I didn't ask. I told him that I was leaving. Which incidently, a company wide memo had just been emailed to us telling us that we could leave during inclimate weather that all we had to do was tell our manager.

So I tell my manager, and he says no. Meanwhile he had let 3 other new reps go home for the same reason. I asked him why not, he thinking he was a big shot pulling a powerplay on me said "Because I said so." I walked back to my desk and packed all my belongings and went home.

On the way home, Mike called my boyfriend's cellphone and told him to tell me that if I quit to leave my badge. No, I didn't quit. But they did fire me for leaving.. When I asked why, they said it was because of the manner I left. I asked what manner that was and he said it was because I slammed the door on my way out. Right - heavy winds and I slammed the door. But whatever.

The next day was my day off and I called HR because I knew that b*****d would say that I quit, when I didn't. Of course, he went to HR and said that I quit. They told me to call back tomorrow to explain myself. I called back the next day and spoke with an HR rep by the name of Chad for quite some time, and let everything out.

Told him how mike had called me a s**t, etc..etc...etc.. he asked if he could talk to my boyfriend about it, to get more of the story. I said yes. This was over 2 months ago... AND NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE AT ALL. No one has come to see my boyfriend and no one has reprimanded Mike.

As far as I'm concerned this company is sh*t and I'm getting a lawyer for Sexual Harassment, Slander, Defamation of Character and Emotional Distress. F**k you Nokia.. Burn in h*ll.

EX Nokia Employee

Clearwater, Florida
U.S.A.