For 6 miserable months I worked at Telatron. It was easily the worst job I've ever had. First off, Telatron requires all customer service reps to work 6 days a week, but they don't tell you about the 6-day schedule until you've accepted the job and shown up for training. Even working 6 days, it's nearly impossible to get a full 40 hours.
The dress code is draconian. Women are required to wear skirts or dress pants and pantyhose are required for both. Knee-high nylons were not allowed, although I wore them every day. I dare one of the supervisors or witchy HR girls to check if I'm wearing pantyhose! Although I think Diana in HR probably would check if given a chance.
I can understand having a dress code, because even with the code, some of the trash they hire come to work dressed like ho's anyway. But come on, pantyhose with dress slacks?
If a rep needed to use the restroom, that time was docked from their daily 15 minutes of break time. The women's restroom is not up to code. The stalls are so tiny that my knees would be pressing against the door as I sat down, and I'm average height, 5' 5". One of my coworkers had some bladder issues, so she needed the restroom more often than most. This poor girl never got to eat lunch because her 15 minutes of daily breaktime were all used for restroom breaks.
Sure, Telatron provides their own little cafe for meals, and the prices are quite low. So is the selection of food. Now keep in mind that employees have a total of 15 minutes of breaktime daily and bathroom breaks are deducted from that 15 minutes also. Once we signed out of the computer, the clock was ticking and we had to leave the building and walk across the parking lot to get to the cafe, then stand in line for the food, and sometimes wait for the cooks to prepare more food. That might leave 5 minutes to wolf down a few bites before we had to get back to our seats and punch back into the computer before our 15 minutes was up. If anyone was late getting back to their desk, time was deducted from their paycheck.
Shortly before I started working there, Telahell got auditted, but nothing out of line was found. That's because the third shift employees had been told earlier to clean out a bunch of trash. Well, that "trash" was the paperwork that would have proven Telahell's illegal practices. When the auditors asked where those records were, they were told that they had been destroyed in a flood. A flood? Oh really? Telahell sits on sloping high ground, nowhere near a stream. If that place would ever flood, half of Erie would be looking to get on the Ark.
Some of the supervisors are decent people, Bridget in particular. But then there's Amy Smith. This woman truly has a sadistic streak. She says whatever nasty things she wants to people she dislikes and makes them feel badly about themselves in front of others. If any of the reps filed their nails in Amy's presence, Amy would scream at them to stop. We'd be sitting there for 6 hours with nothing to occupy our time except 3-4 phonecalls per hour, and Amy wouldn't even let us file a hangnail.
No paper or pens allowed at the desks, no cellphones allowed in the building, we couldn't surf online between calls, not being paid for the sales we made, forced to work 6 days a week with the option of working 7, holidays were optional but there was no holiday pay for those who chose to not work. Those who worked holidays still got straight pay, there was no incentive like time and a half for working a holiday. On Fridays there would be a cheerleading session that we were required to attend. If we didn't appear to be enthusiastic about it, we were yelled at or ridiculed openly.
When people decided they'd taken enough from Telahell and it was time to move on, they had to be very careful about how they quit. I know of two employees who never received their final paycheck after quitting. When I quit, I told Diane in HR that I was taking a vacation week and asked that my paycheck for the previous week be mailed to me. Then I never went back. They called three times to ask if I was coming back to work - duh - and then a couple months later they called again to ask if I wanted to come work for them again. Now what kind of company would want to rehire someone who walked out on them?
Mr Covato was not even supposed to be on the property because of his criminal record. Yet he was there several times a week. The Covatos got an award from the state of PA because they hired so many people. But they hired so many people simply because of the high turnover rate at their facility. What a joke.
If you're looking for a job in Erie, stay away from Telatron. No matter how badly you need a job, this is not a healthy place to work. They will destroy your self esteem and you will not be paid fairly.
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