(Matthew McDermott)
GRIPES GALORE: Staffers at the city’s 311 complaint-line headquarters, at the Brooklyn Army Terminal (below) in Sunset Park, say they sit in non-air-conditioned cubicles (above) and see roaches. (
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Well, they can’t call themselves.
Frustrated city 311 operators whose job is to field complaints from angry New York City residents all day had nowhere to turn for their own litany of gripes — so they called The Post.
The sick and tired workers ripped their Brooklyn grouse gulag as a “sweatshop’’ run by overbearing bosses.
“It’s terrible conditions,” griped one staffer of the Brooklyn Army Terminal digs in Sunset Park.
“It’s like we work in a factory. It’s very difficult at times to concentrate because you’re so uncomfortable. It’s terrible — it really is.”
The workers are employed by city subcontractor King TeleServices, a Brooklyn-based company.
The angry staffers — who help handle more than 1 million residents’ complaints monthly — said their dismal work digs have them batting away roaches as they toil in sweltering rooms without any air conditioning.
Meanwhile, the center is run by nitpicky supervisors who mete out silly punishments daily, they said.
Office rules dictate that the gnat-swatting, sweat-wiping staffers aren’t allowed to use offensive language — right down to the term “hell.’’
That restriction posed a dilemma for one worker after a ranting caller demanded some action on a noise complaint in Hell’s Kitchen.
“The supervisor heard me repeating the neighborhood and told me that I can’t use that word,” the staffer said incredulously. “It’s unbelievable.”
The threat wasn’t an idle one.
Another staffer who was startled by a cockroach scurrying across her beaten-up desk muttered, “Oh, hell” as the creature skittered past.
The forbidden word caught the ear of a supervisor, who immediately suspended the worker from her $12-per-hour job for an entire week.
The prohibitions even cover clothing.
Workers can’t wear short sleeves of any kind — and their rickety stand-up room fans do little to relieve the heat.
“We complain about it every day,” an insider said. “But nothing happens.”
Supervisors — who sit in the middle of worker desks to monitor interactions with callers — have a simple explanation for their draconian rules.
“They tell us that [Mayor] Bloomberg could walk in at any minute,” the staffer said.
The 311 complainers also told The Post that the company scrooges them out of hours that they work to minimize payroll and that puny half-hour lunch breaks go unpaid.
One worker said that their superiors — 311 “specialists” — are housed in a pristine office across the street.
“The Tier 2 workers are in a building down the block,” she said. “It’s magnificent. The lunchroom is clean. It’s air-conditioned. It’s top-notch. They’re the 311 specialists. Us in Tier 1 are like cattle.”
King TeleServices could not be reached for comment yesterday.