BY FORMER FIRSTSOURCE EMPLOYEE: I worked there for nine months and in that time I was brought to human resources 7 times.
This was mainly for going over breaks allowed to use the toilet which was ridiculous. There was just under two minutes allocated for every hour you worked to use the toilet.
“I actually timed myself to use the bathroom and it took two minutes to get from your seat to the door!
“This then means you get less wages and one strike on your name, if you have two strikes you end up in a disciplinary hearing!
“If you go over the allocated time by a split second you get the strike no matter what, even if there was a queue in the bathroom. On one occasion I was using my phone to contact my grandmother at the time who had cancer and I explained this before I made the call. I was threatened with the sack as I was not my grandmothers ‘official carer’.
“I was shouted and left in tears 3 times. I was told to pull myself together or I would be sacked on the spot. I also had having major issues get my tax back as I was on an emergency code at the time. I also made around £100 in sales and never received it!
My shifts were changed 7 times and was also threatened to be sacked when I complained due to other commitments and university.
“Why do you care? You’re just here to make your money for drinking at the weekends?!” was what was said to me.
“I explained that I am 21 but I live alone and have car insurance to pay, I’m not a stereotypical student.
“I was given a written warning after 3 months of being there as I took a day off as I had swollen glands. They asked if this was likely to happen again, something no-one can know. They then said I could be taken up for being dishonest as a result of not including in my application form that i was prone to swollen glands. And that if it happened again I would have to be sacked. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
“They were unobliging, unorganised and uneducated! My team and I were also once asked to change shift, so we agreed. We arrived and were told that our shift had been changed again to 3 hours later, we had to wait in the corridors as we all had no lifts home. When we complained to HR about what had happened we were told, “well you know what you can do if you don’t like it”.
“I ended up handing in my notice after it genuinely started to effect my whole life, I fell behind in university and became depressed. We were made to feel like prisoners, like in a boot camp, just another number, unimportant and helpless. I could tell stories for hours about that place…..
The first person view was just one of many sent to Derry Daily in the past three days.
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