d2/ratingen

text in german
(13.03.01) I'm employed by a temporary agency and work at D2 (communication company) in Ratingen/Duesseldorf. The following report should give a rough impression of the work and the conflicts that arise from it, as an example for the "information work" sector.

"We have to admit: the work is, how would you say it, a little bit dull." (D2 team leader)

I work at D2 as a data-inputter. The wage is about 17 DM per hour before tax. The wage of the temp workers in general ranges from 13 to 19 DM. The workers who are directly employed by D2 get 20 to 25 DM. About 300 people work in the D2 office building in Ratingen. It is hard to say how many exactly because there are 3 shifts and a lot of part timers who are there for just a few hours a day. There is a 'core team' of experienced workers who are working for D2 for several years and who represent at the most 1/3 of the whole workforce. Most of the workers are young students etc. who work part time. In addition there are about 50 temp workers. Two groups of workers are dominating. The young students and the women who are either single mothers or who contribute to the family income. The two groups don't have much contact with each other. Where I work they are separated into two different shifts. The women arrive at about 8 and stay until about 2 or 3, the students arrive at 4 p.m. The temp workers are quite mixed, but mostly young people who don't fancy committing to something or who are waiting for something else, a better job, the civil service, the university etc.

My 'task' is to type the cancellations of mobile contracts arriving via letters or fax into the computer. Therefor exists a special screen where you just have to type in the right numbers. In most cases you have to laboriously search for the needed customer data. The customers write down much to many numbers, apart from those which you need. So I often have to pick out the customer data, by looking in the database. The work itself is quite stupid. One work-step or performance takes about 38.5 seconds. I just have to take note of the period of notice and check if the writer of the letter is also the actual customer.

There is a strictly defined procedure which is also determined by the software. If everything goes well I can perform my tasks alone, but because this is rarely the case there are different forms of co-operation. The most simple form is to ask a work-mate when I can't decrypt the address or customer number in the cancellation letter. If technical problems occur (crashing of the computer, no connection to the electronic network etc.) I chat up those who have been working in this shop longer. Either they can solve the problem or they know people who can. Our performance is just one step in the process of information work. What we type in or click on determines what happens to the customer. Either the customer will be contacted by call centre agents to win them back or the information on the cancellation is passed on to a special department where the cancellation is actually activated. The single steps of this process are recorded in the customer database.

There are mainly two conflicts. The most important conflict for the permanent workers is the question of competence / qualification. Those who work for D2 for longer mostly are skilled office workers with work experience. Despite their qualifications they have to do basically the same work as the temp workers and part timers. They operate in the sphere of tension between the companies propaganda ('if the customer wants it, forget about the costs!' - 'If it is write for the customer, forget the company procedures and rules') and the actual everyday work where their performance is reduced to small and defined work steps. The permanent workers are frustrated by the fact that the work is not appropriate to their 'qualifications'. This can't be compensated by the motivation of 'good customer service' because in the daily work process the 'service' is mostly sacrificed to the 'quantity'.

The main conflict for the temp workers is the legitimisation of wage divisions. Wage divisions do exist both between temp workers and permanent staff and between temp workers of different temporary agencies. The problem to legitimate wage divisions was especially noticeable on the late shift which the management tries to build up with young students. The temp workers who are paid less than the freshly hired students have got more knowledge about the work organisation - and this without additional training by the management. Often the students had to ask the temp workers when problems cropped up and no team leader was around. So how could one explain why the temp workers get less than the students? The exchange between the temp workers and the students was stopped by the constant presence of team leaders, to prevent that with the problem solving, there was also an exchange of tricks how to ease the pressure of work.

The strategy and aims of the company leaders are clear: On one side they try to put pressure on every worker by employing them with different contracts. A little core of permanent workers shall be 'complemented' by low paid students and workers from different temporary agencies. That will increase the pressure of work on everybody because the permanent workers have to justify their higher wages and the temp worker have to work hard at cancelling mobile contracts if they want to get a permanent contract. But obviously the job isn't that luring and therefore the turn over of temp worker is very high. That's why the management on the other side is quite dependant on the loyalty of the permanent staff. Their tedious workday shall be sweetened by measures like the 'empowerment campaign' (more competence / scope in dealing with the customers etc.). The management gives the permanent workers special authorisations over the temps to make them feel a bit than merely data-inputters in spite of their 'unqualified' work.

The problem for us workers is clear: Whether these divisions lead to more stress for all, depends on our reaction to them. A first step is an open relationship amongst all of us disregarding our different contracts. We all have to do the same shitty job so there is no point to our different pay. There is also no point why some workers think that they can command and drive on other workers just because some boss has given them the allowance to do so. We should also prevent some 'heroes of work' rattling off 300 or more cancellations a day and by doing so forcing everybody to run to keep up.
Let's discuss what has to be done about all this!


top of the page