11/21/08
Dear usacomplaints. Coms,
This is a synopsis of a letter that I have written to the EEOC in Dallas, Texas. I worked for a company called TCIM Services/AT&T Communications in Longview, Texas. It was one of the worst places I have ever worked for. It was a nightmare to say the least. They purpously and maliciously defraud the employees and threaten them, well please read below!
I am writing your agency to report violations of my various rights under equal opportunities employment laws, Texas state laws and Federal law, wage and hour violations. There is no question that I am a victim along with many others of sexual, racial discrimination, physical assault and wrongfully termination by retaliation for failure to sign erroneous discrediting documents and reporting bizarre possibly illegal workplace practices to TCIM Services/AT&T Communications corporate in Wilmington, DE..
In the middle part of March, I started working at a company known as TCIM Services/AT&T Communications located at 2835 East Cotton St. Longview, Texas 75602. Either TCIM Services is partnered with AT&T or a subsidiary of AT&T. TCIM Services/AT&T Communications performs customer service with tele-service sales of CITI Bank credit cards and financial service programs and AT&T products. I was hired for the AT&T west inbound position.in this position, AT&T customers would call in from all over California with various complaints about their bill. Customers would also call in to pay their bill. I was also required to pitch these individuals with various long distance plans, DISH-TV, DSL, and cingular wireless. I also pitched customers with prospective sales of wireless products and cellular phones.
I underwent a training program for three weeks on how to use various software related to the sales of the AT&T products. The trainer Darlene Hancock represented that the position was a professional one with good opportunity to make substantial income. Darlene Hancock and others at TCIM Services/AT&T Communications represented the opportunity to make substantial amounts of income from commissions of the AT&T products and that of DISH Network if you were a conscientious and ambitious worker.
I thought by the initial representation of TCIM Services/AT&T Communications by Darlene Hancock; I thought that this might be a great job opportunity for me with the possibility of great income from the commissions. I have sold various types of insurance with major carriers, have worked in tele-sales before, and was good at tele-sales. After the three-week training period, I was moved in the beginning of April with others from the training area to the new area where the AT&T reps would be located.
I first noticed unusual behavior that was contrary to what the Darlene Hancock described. Employees appeared to be under the influence of either drugs and/or alcohol.in addition, many of the employees would have disheveled appearances concerning grooming and personal hygiene. Some looked like they have been up for days doing drugs.in addition, companies that retain a large work force would usually have some type of dress code. Many people would appear to dress like homeless individuals that have been living in the gutter or under bridges. Most of the time I would come to work in appropriate professional attire by wearing nice ties, dress shirt and slacks and shoes. I came to work like that every morning.
I also noticed a fair amount of African-American people who were on payroll that apparently performed no job function that I could see. These individuals would mill about the building much of the workday and engage employees that were working in conversation and raw provocative jokes. I found out later that these individuals sold narcotics on the premises of TCIM Services in Longview, Texas. Drug dealers selling ecstasy pills, cocaine and marijuana solicited me several times.
The African-American employees who milled around the building selling dope would be paid the same $8 dollars an hour or more than myself and would not be required to work for it. They also would not have to put forth a professional appearance, demeanor or practice good personal hygiene as myself and other white workers. The white workers would not get the same leeway in regards to the black workers. The white workers would be required to work the whole day and would not get the same long breaks and lack of work assignments as the African-American workers that milled around the buildings.
I worked next to an African-American individual who would often smell of marijuana, B.O. And liquor. He would take his stinking shoes off, socks too and put his filthy feet up on the desk of his cubicle by sliding the monitor back to accommodate his feet. He would take long naps and actually snore the day away. The African-American worker that I am referring to actually told me to keep my voice down while I was on the phone to AT&T customers out in Beverly Hills. He was upset that I had awoken him from his alcohol induced coma. I had another African-American woman yell into my phone several times while on the phone with AT&T customers. She thought it was funny. She told me to "f* off".
Needless to say, I lost numerous sales because of this slack individual. This individual even complained to his black supervisor friends that I was interfering with his naptime. Because of this, my lunch break was taken away and I could not take morning break anymore. I also believe that these tactics were used against the white workers in order to get them to quit so they would not qualify for unemployment benefits.
After about three weeks of work at TCIM Services/AT&T Communications, I noticed other bizarre things. It started out as a stressed, tenuous working atmosphere of personnel conflict and animosity from the supervisors on the floor towards the new employees assigned to AT&T inbound. This atmosphere was in complete contradiction to what Darlene Hancock represented about TCIM Services/AT&T Communications.
Others and myself would receive calls from customers that we were not trained to handle. Other employees and I would raise our hands as instructed to seek assistance from a supervisor in a green vest working the floor. A good deal of the time, the supervisors would ignore the reps that needed assistance. Most of the supervisors on the floor would be African-American. They would act in behavior inappropriate for this type of environment. They would appear to be on drugs and/or alcohol. These black supervisors expected the AT&T reps to know things that they were not trained on. If the new reps did not know things that, they were not trained on then the black supervisors would be verbally abusive. They would use profane and foul language towards the white workers. Homosexual supervisors would use foul and profane nature of an extreme nature towards reps also.
The reps on the phone needing help with a call not trained for would either have to stall the customer and even hang-up the call and go to the next one. Sometimes the reps would be told to hang up the call just so they could take a good thorough yelling of abuse either from a black supervisor or from one of the homosexual supervisors. The reps were told it was a numbers thing. The employees would be demoted in pay and or fired for doing what was instructed in the training regimen. Employees would be told contradictory information that would leave them in a catch 22 situation. You would be damned if you do and damned if you do not. Some women employees were so intimidated by the supervisors that they would break down and cry.
White employees and straight heterosexual employees caught in the catch 22 of abuse would be harassed, lose breaks and told not go to lunch.in addition, white employees would not be able to go to the bathroom either until getting off work. On one occasion, my pay was held back because I took 6 minutes to go to the bathroom to urinate. When I came back to my cubicle, a black supervisor verbally abused me by subjecting me to derogatory racial remarks and seriously demeaned my ability to utilize a toilet properly. I have never worked a job where I was told how to use a toilet.
I was coerced into signing disciplinary forms of a discrediting nature that were untrue. I was threatened with being fired and with a possible loss of that week's paycheck if I did not sign. I believe the coercion into signing erroneous disciplinary forms was a tactic that TCIM Services/AT&T Communications uses to bar employees from obtaining unemployment benefits in case of a layoff. I believe this is done to protect TCIM Services/AT&T Communications from unemployment benefit liability.
White employees and heterosexual employees at TCIM Services/AT&T Communications were threatened with termination, loss of commissions, loss of hourly pay, loss of unemployment benefits and verbally abused and harassed and threatened in a myriad of ways if they didn't get AT&T sales or DISH network sales. The work environment was one of extreme backstabbing and back biting and very stressful. The white workers and heterosexual workers were constantly threatened with termination over just about anything.intense sexual advances from the homosexual workers intimidated the heterosexual workers. TCIM Services/AT&T Communications has a policy of recruiting gay employees over heterosexual employees. David Millsap my direct supervisor would hire strictly gay individuals. Richard Jenks, another homosexual supervisor who is above David Millsap hires strictly gay individuals as well over heterosexual ones. Another employee told me that David Millsap hired a female employee to be impregnated with his sperm in order to be a surrogate mother for himself and his homosexual lover. Homosexual and black employees that were favored but not implicitly jobs qualified were transferred from TCIM Services/AT&T Communications in Paris, Texas to TCIM Services/AT&T Communications in Longview, Texas.
TCIM Services/AT&T Communications coerced white employees and heterosexual employees to sign disciplinary reports of a discrediting nature in order to disqualify me from unemployment. After awhile, I refused to sign such documents. As a result, I was harassed by TCIM Services/AT&T Communications and demoted by receiving incorrect pay for less hours that what I actually worked and would not receive my commissions and overtime, which I qualified for.
I also was not able to take the prescribed lunch breaks and other breaks as a form of retaliation against me for failure to sign such documents.in addition, TCIM Services/AT&T Communications put pressure on me and others to work overtime without being paid overtime. I reported my concerns to TCIM Services/AT&T Communications corporate in Wilmington, DE..
Most of the problems of being harassed, verbally abused, humiliated and threatened at TCIM Services/AT&T Communications started during my first week of being on the main floor in AT&T West inbound. A young African woman employed by TCIM Services/AT&T Communications named Taz wrote a disciplinary report on me after I had logged off the system in order to go home at end of my shift. It was already after 6 pm and I was logged off already walking towards to exit to my automobile. I went to the bathroom to urinate and then came back to my desk to retrieve my keys and headset to go home. It was the end of my workday.
Taz approached me. She admonished and belittled me for abandoning my computer with all the programs running. I knew that this was not the case. I thought that this was bizarre because they could clearly see the pattern on the computer screen showing I was logged off. I was told to sign a form that admits guilt to the allegations of wrongdoing. I was told I would be fired if I did not sign it. I was under pressure with possible termination to sign this form. I was scared that I would lose my job so I scribbled a line on the form. I do not usually sign any documents with a scribble but with my usual signature. However, under duress and fear of losing my position I signed a scribble mark not consistent with my actual signature.
Some days later, Taz told me to sign yet another erroneous disciplinary form that acknowledges that I did not work my required 8 hours from the day before.in all actuality, I worked 2 hours over time the night before. Taz told me to hang up on a customer from a Los Angeles Meineke Muffler franchise so she could explain the form. Because I could clearly see that I was being harassed with these forms and kept from making sales commissions, I refused to sign any more of these forms.
TCIM Services/AT&T Communications uses these tactics against white and heterosexual workers in a conscious effort to force them to quit their positions so they can cheat them out of unemployment, wages and commissions/incentives.By signing an erroneous form that incriminates you for wrongdoing, a person will actually discredit any claim they may have to file for unemployment compensation or possible lawsuits for illegal activity. TCIM Services/AT&T Communications uses these tactics to defraud individuals.
I do strongly believe that TCIM Services/AT&T Communications uses these harassing tactics in order to force individuals to quit so they do not have to pay incentives and commissions to individuals that make good sales. These tactics are completely opposite of what is represented to employees during the training phase. I believe employees are lied to during the training phase so they will stick around and make numerous sales, which benefit so TCIM Services/AT&T Communications but with no direct benefit to the employees. These tactics is atrocious and are violations of employment law, wage and hour law, federal trade practices, labor law and discrimination/reverse discrimination and FCC laws. I personally was entitled hundreds of dollars in commissions/incentives and wages for DISH, DSL, Cingular and AT&T sales that I made.in addition, Taz and other black supervisors and the homosexual supervisors kept various gift cards for themselves that white workers and heterosexual workers were entitled to receive for their sales efforts.
Taz and another black woman would regularly harass me to sign false forms admitting guilt to things that never happened. This did not only happen to me but others as well. Taz and the other black supervisors would show favoritism to others that were of the same race as them. The black workers and homosexual workers had no professional dress code while the heterosexual workers and white workers would be required to be in professional attire. I was professionally dressed with a tie and was required to do my job. Taz and the other black and homosexual supervisors would never discipline the black and homosexual workers that showed inappropriate behavior in the workplace.
There is a double standard at TCIM Services/AT&T Communications with regard to race and sexuality. Taz and the other black supervisors and homosexual supervisors would be required to know very little if anything about how to operate the AT&Tsoftware or to troubleshoot customer concerns and hardware issues. These same people would receive job promotions while others skilled in the software and training would not receive the same favoritism.
Taz and the other black and homosexual supervisors should have not been giving supervisory positions. They are very inexperienced and represent juvenile and unprofessional behavior not befitting a large worldwide organization like AT&T. With the environment of racial and sexual favoritism, I believe the black and homosexual supervisors got their positions because of their race and sexual preference.
On May 5th, Taz approached me with a disciplinary form that she ordered me to sign. Taz hung up my call for a wireless sale with an AT&T customer. I was spun around in a chair while we both read the form together. I discovered that it was an acknowledgement of guilt for not taking my lunch at 11 am. First, to clarify, Darlene Hancock did not assign me to 11 am lunch. Darlene Hancock, a trainer on the software, told me that I would have 11am break, 1pm lunch, and then 4pm break. This was so the entire time I worked on the floor at TCIM Services/AT&T Communications. There was no explaining the facts to Taz or the other black supervisors. Taz represented a very juvenile behavior by ranting, raving and screaming obscenities to beleaguer me into signing.
These black supervisors did not care what the facts were period. I told Taz that I do not sign things that are not factual. I told Taz that I will not this form. She got angry and told Sheila, another black supervisor that I would not comply with her wishes. Taz, a young African-American woman maybe about 20 years old or so, went off in a juvenile display of emotion by going into a temper tantrum and calling me and white trash.
As I was leaving to go home, I advised Taz and Sheila that I would report the work conditions to TCIM Services/AT&T Communications corporate and AT&T. Moreover, Taz grinned, giggled, and said that I should do that. Taz said she would have me terminated immediately. Other employees told me not to worry. They told me that AT&T would have to request me to be terminated personally.
When being critiqued, AT&T said that I was very professional on my phone presentation. I had no problem doing the job. The situation I ran into was with TCIM Services/AT&T Communications work place policy. The work place etiquette was never brought to light in the employment application, interview process or 3-week training phase. If I had known of the TCIM Services/AT&T Communications workplace etiquette, I would have never worked at TCIM Services/AT&T Communications.
After I got off work at 6pm, I contacted TCIM Services/AT&T Communications corporate and reported the abuse, racial discrimination, and sexual discrimination. I talked to Scott Von Kleeck out at TCIM Services/AT&T Communications corporate in Wilmington, DE. About my concerns. Von Kleeck said he would look into this. I have not heard back from Von Kleeck. Repeated calls to TCIM Services/AT&T Communications corporate in Wilmington, DE. Were directed to a Prissy Suzi. To my knowledge, I do not know whether a Krissy Suzi is a fictitious person or not. A Krissy Suzi may not even exist.
I will know describe the sexual discrimination in detail. On or about mid- April on the last couple of days of training, my direct supervisor at TCIM Services/AT&T Communications David Millsap motioned for me to come into his office and shut the door. David Millsap said that he had received complaints about me of an extreme sexual nature. Although Millsap would not elaborate whom these individuals were, David Millsap said they saw me masturbating in front of a work computer. I believe the words that David Millsap used were jackin-off. This totally astonished me. I thought, Oh my God. My Lord this is beyond belief, I did not know how to respond to this. I did not know whether to laugh, get angry or what. I thought that this was a practical joke and I was waiting for the punch line. I thought to myself; Wow what an off the wall tactless joke is this that is being played upon me!
Millsap said he was very serious about the allegation. I advised David Millsap that what was alleged never ever happened. Millsap told me in a lackadaisical, overly friendly, non-sincere and a rather flippant tone of voice, Well it better not happen againor you will answer to me personally. David Millsap also at the same time made comments about the way I dress and said I looked masculine and extremely handsome. David Millsap told me that I am a very sharp dresser and that the ties really are awesome.
I then suspected that David Millsap was gay by his overly friendly overt comments in the office at during my time there at TCIM Services/AT&T Communications. I told other employees about the false allegations of masturbation. I was advised to report it to EEOC. I was also told that David was gay. I am not sure if people actually told David Millsap that Iwas masturbating or not. If it really happened according that what David Millsap alleges, then I would have been arrested. I suspect that David Millsap made the entire thing up as a come on to me.
In addition, TCIM Services/AT&T Communications in Longview has a policy of hiring large numbers of gay people over straight people. Gay people are giving preferential treatment and supervisory positions at TCIM at an alarming rate. Its not that everybody is gay at TCIM Services/AT&T Communications, but gay people are sought out and given the staff positions in rather high numbers. I believe this is done because David Millsap is gay and prefers to hire gay people. David Millsap's direct supervisor, African-American Richard Jenks is also gay and hired David Millsap.
Because I did not want to create tension for myself, I rather buried the sexual situation and overt sexual advances of David Millsap under the rug. I tried to avoid David Millsap as much as I could but it was hard because Millsap was my direct supervisor. The workplace atmosphere was extremely stressful after the advances of David Millsap. I was a new employee and I had rent, food and gasoline to worry about. I needed the job and the money that it was suppose to provide. I did not want to make waves. I thought if I can avoid him, it might be ok. The accusation bothered me for weeks though and did create stress between David Millsap and myself.in my opinion, I think it is atrocious to accuse another employee of such a heinous accusation of the kind of nature that it was. I personally believe that a practical joke of this kind, if that's what this was, is very vile and extremely offensive
Because of back problems, on May 6 I took a Tuesday off for a doctor's appointment. I brought in the various doctor's work notes to show I had a valid reason for not being there on May 6th. Other people of homosexual persuasion and others of the African-American race would not be required to bring anything in for missing work and would get preferential treatment. Black individuals and homosexual ones as well could miss a whole week of work without even being questioned about there whereabouts. Heterosexual workers and white workers would not be given the same luxuries.
A Dallas law firm advised me that I would have to make the steps of going through various steps first before they could file a claim for damages against TCIM Services/AT&T Communications. I thought for short while that this was a worthwhile job with possible opportunity for me. I realize that TCIM Services/AT&T Communications purposely conducts their business in this illegal way in straight contradiction to employment law both state and federal. All I wanted to do was perform my job at TCIM Services/AT&T Communications to the best of my ability without any hindrances as to what I have described.
When customers call AT&T, they do not get who they think they get on the other end to say the least. Calls would be transfered all around the building and different states all because employees did not want to talk to the customers. It was a running joke. I would try to be polite to the customers. I was told that I was too polite and reprimanded for it. It could be your mom, dad, grandmother or brother calling in to pay their bill. The customers were treated with much disdain to say the least.
I sure hope that you can help me with respect to my complaints of sexual, racial discrimination, retaliatory behavior, wrongful termination and drug dealing taken by TCIM Services/AT&T Communications in Longview, Texas and at the premises of TCIM Services/AT&T Communications in Longview, Texas.
Thank You
RipOff reports for your avenue of redress!
Steve Arrington, Virginia
U.S.A.
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