A Concerned UK Citizen or A Coward?

You decide.

Am I breaking a Non-Disclosure Agreement by writing this? If I am, I say extraordinary times require extraordinary measures.

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. We saw a need that needed to be filled, and we stepped in to help.~Benet Wilson

I’m no hero. There are many thousands of frontline workers who are the real heroes of this pandemic.

It’s at times like these that many amazing frontline workers put the health of their patients before theirs. They are the real heroes because they have no choice.

UK doctors and nurses are working with little or no protection because their government has been letting them and the rest of the country down for a decade.

Would you blame these heroes for refusing to work and wanting to protect themselves and their families by staying at home? We know the party and the minister who instigated the discontinuance of buying and storing protective goggles and masks. This is only one among many penny-pinchings and life-endangering cuts they thought would never impact them.

You reap what you sow, Prime Minister Johnson. You reap what you sow.

With this story, I hope to send a message to the government and inspire people to stand up for their lives and the lives of others.

You can call me a coward, something worse or something better after you’ve read my story. I already feel part coward, part concerned citizen, but mostly angry because the UK government doesn’t value our lives.

Last Thursday evening, I downloaded Tor, an encryption browser, so I could send this story to The Guardian newspaper anonymously. I was and am that concerned.

Since then I’ve seen nothing substantial in the news about call centre workers being told to work from home if it is possible.

I am going to tell my story now.

I have a job with a company providing call centre staff to their client, the National Health Service/government, at, I believe, the risk of the employees’ health.

I attended a four-hour training session last Saturday (22nd March) with approximately forty people in a small, cramped room. I signed the various documents on the training day. One of which had something about confidentiality.

During the training session, the only person who had a social distance was the trainer. The trainees, people who had lost their jobs and their businesses, were, I assume, like me. Desperate for work to pay their rent and bills, we sat with maybe 10cm between each other.

On my way out after the training, I stopped and asked one of the team leaders/managers listening in on calls in the current call taking area whether it was possible to work from home. He said they had the technology but the client didn’t want the call handlers to have that option.

I didn’t attend my first shift on Monday 23rd March because I started coughing on Sunday afternoon. I found out later from the recruiter that there were no other new employees who had called in sick that day.

I self-isolated and felt tired to the point of dozing on the sofa all day. I developed a temperature on Monday afternoon.

Should the government put more people into an environment where they are more likely to become infected when they can work from home?

Does the government wish to lose fresh employees daily/weekly to sickness (mild symptoms or otherwise) for seven or fourteen days at a time or permanently for no valid reason?

If it’s a case of wanting to save money then shame on them. Now is not the time for them to be penny-pinching.

Wouldn’t you want to earn a wage to pay your bills and also to help people but not at the risk of your health and others around you?

I know of a market research company that could have myself and all the other agents set up at home within hours. Give us a conference call/chat app. Get us signed in with a team leader for each session and everyone involved is safe.

I worked for and am still employed by the research agency on a self-employed basis. They currently have little or no work. They are also an outbound call centre, so I’m not sure they could help in reality but you get my gist, don’t you?

The Prime Minister called for the nation to stay at home on Monday 23rd March. Except for those key workers who didn’t have the possibility of working at home.

I can work from home. There’s no need to risk our health in a call centre.

I have to travel for an hour on the bus to reach the call centre. Another major risk to my health and other passengers and then to my fellow workers.

At the bus station, on the way to the training, I noticed posters telling passengers that the bus timetables changed to Sunday or Special Monday to Saturday services from the 23rd. I couldn’t get to the call centre for the 6 am shift I had been allocated.

The recruiter very kindly changed my shifts to 9 am to 5 pm starting Saturday 28th, perfect. But not on Sunday. I would arrive at 9.41 am at the earliest. At that point, she gave in and said she’d get back to me mid-week.

I asked her on Friday if it was possible to do the midnight to 8 am shift when I return to work. There are buses available at that time.

Maybe she’s waiting for me to confirm I’ll be back next week. I’m sitting here with alternate chills and sweats. What do you think? Should I go?

How difficult can it be to offer shift patterns that suit the employees? The market research company I mentioned, offer a variety of different start and finish times with a variety of hours ranging from 3 to 8.

Should I be self-isolating for one or two weeks with continued mild symptoms?

If I have a cold, I could go to the call centre worry-free.

If I’m yet to develop severe symptoms I could infect others.

When the home test is available to everyone in isolation, I guess I’ll find out.

I’d rather not go back to either infect others or perhaps get infected for real if I’m not currently. Especially when I know I could be safe working from home.

Should call centre workers who are in non-essential roles at least be given the choice of working from home?

Should the government be allowed to insist their NHS 111 call centre staff share their air for eight hours a day, five days a week? The PM could do the right thing and let employees work from the safety of their own home.

I know I am likely to lose the job I never started because of this story. But if it means the government is forced to loosen the purse strings to put people first, I’ll know I did the right thing.

I am grateful to have a wonderful network of family and friends who I know will help me out so I won’t starve or freeze.

I sincerely hope you are as lucky or luckier than me.

Stay healthy.