“There was an episode of a supervisor that was heard in the room a supervisor slapped a girl in the face and that was a very shocking scene, I was like, oh my God! There is a colleague of mine who is Italian and the supervisor was telling her to put on a leash because that’s what you are, and she didn’t know what the word leash meant and when she realised to what she was associated she started crying because it is a very strong word. There was a lot of sexual harassment from the supervisors who used their hands to massage. They bullied at work. I never complained to Authority for Working Conditions, as I had an expression of interest, I didn’t want any conflict”. [E4, Man, 44 years old, Venezuela]
These continuous situations may lead to high levels of stress, burnout and emotional exhaustion, as well as psychological illnesses, such as anxiety, emotional dissonance, depression, consumption of anxiolytics, antidepressants, and, in more serious situations, sudden death and suicide (Dejours, 1994; Derry & Kinnie, 2004; Roque, 2010).
“In 2018, a colleague of the English customer support line committed suicide. He hanged himself at home because there was a mistake, another of many, and he had only received 40 euros in salary and was full of debts. After several complaints the company did not help him. He got tired and committed suicide”. [E4, Man, 44 years old, Venezuela]
“And, suddenly, I asked my colleague, what’s going on, Adelino? Let’s take you to a doctor. The supervisor said that I had to serve customers. But I helped him and I went to the bathroom. He was having a heart attack, and the company was unable to call an ambulance”. [E4, Man, 44 years old, Venezuela]
“She started crying and knocking on the iron door. No one could help unless there was a disciplinary process, but the girl managed to get out of the window and she went to the iron door and threw herself. By each window there is an air conditioning platform and, and the windows have spikes to prevent pigeons from straying into the windows. The French colleague got hurt all over and they had to call the ambulance and the police. This call centre building was designed from scratch with this architecture due to the train line and the frequent suicides. Every week there were suicide attempts, accidents at work, crying”. [E4, Man, 44 years old, Venezuela]
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