Pia Marsh
June 9th, 2015

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Employees faced with demeaning and humiliating work conditions (photo: www.plantronics.com)

Rookie salespeople at TDC have called for a stop to the public humiliation they receive in front of their colleagues if they do not manage to sell mobile phone subscriptions.

According to Avisen.dk, several employees have come forward with reports of demeaning behaviour. A bad day at work can result in a plastic faeces being placed on their desk or having to wear a green hat with the words “I cannot sell”.

In addition to this, employees have revealed that if sales go badly, the boss will try to motivate them by putting up a picture of a gallows.

Infamous for mistreatment
The call centre industry is notorious for its rough working environment. However, the union HK is surprised to learn of the harsh methods practiced in such a large and reputable company as TDC.

According to employees, the harsh methods practiced in the subsidiary TDC Telco, which has about 400 employees, is aimed at selling more Telmore subscriptions.

“It is not the first time that we have encountered these methods,” said René Knudsen, the chairman of HK Service.

“In a sense, the industry is like the wild west – everything is done for the lowest common denominator. But we did not expect to see it at TDC’s subsidiary.”

Earlier this year, reports surfaced of TDC forcing employees to accept lower wages and poor working conditions in order to keep their jobs, which has left an expert on work environments deeply shocked.

“It is totally absurd,” contended Peter Hasle, a professor at Aalborg University.

“Although it takes place in a young environment, it cannot be described as anything other than organised bullying. There is no doubt that it has a negative effect on employees’ well-being, and potentially also on their health if they do not flee in a hurry.”

‘Employee driven culture’
However, according to TDC Telco, it is an employee-driven culture.

Zet Zebastian Wünsch, the head of the sales department, points out that a recent employee survey from May 2015 shows that 96 percent of employees feel appreciated by their immediate supervisor.

“Now that we have become aware that some in the group are unhappy with that behaviour, we will of course change it.

“Therefore, we have now commanded them to stop these gimmicks. Even though it’s a shame that people in a functioning department have become victims of company politics,” he wrote in an email to Avisen.dk.