Calls to Kids Help Phone have increased. Now some consultants are making a distress call on their own

But the advisors who spoke with CBC Go public to say that managing increased demand is even more difficult due to micromanagement and unreasonable demands from supervisors, which have strained the consultants’ ability to do their jobs properly and their mental health.

They said the service is operated like a corporate call center and that consultants are under pressure to account for how every single minute of their working day is spent via a software monitoring system.

“It was like a production line,” a former councilor said. “For example, we need another goal, we need to reach three million calls. I mean, we’re not in sales. I’m helping people.”

WATCH | Consultants talk about working conditions on the Kids Help Phone:

Some current and former employees of the national 24/7 helpline say it is operated as a corporate call center, not a crisis counseling service, which is causing high employee turnover to cause of burnout. 2:09

CBC News agreed not to publish the names of current and former advisers who were interviewed, as they fear that speaking out against the practices of an organization as well-known and prominent as Kids Help Phone could harm their future employment prospects.

They revealed how Kids Help Phone measures the performance of consultants based on what are known as key performance indicators (KPIs). Their job performance is tracked, with percentages, for things like how many calls they didn’t answer, how often they weren’t ready to answer a call, and what percentage of their time was spent on self-care.

Supervisors request an explanation from consultants if their KPIs do not match the organization’s performance goals.

The time to debrief with coworkers after shocking calls – something they were able to do in the past to recover and get into a proper frame of mind for the next call – is now strictly limited, consultants said.

Pressure and burnout

Kids Help Phone has provided assistance to millions of young people over its 30-year history, including counseling for victims of abuse and suicide prevention. It also provides a caring listener for young people who just need to talk anonymously to someone about their problems.

The charity employs 182 professional consultants in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, with another 50 arriving later this year, thanks to additional federal funding in response to the pandemic.

Those who contacted Go public he said the addition of new staff didn’t do much to reduce stress, as micromanagement continued. Alerting supervisors, management, and their union about the problems did not lead to any significant changes, they said, although the stressful working conditions that counselors face affect the quality of their work and their ability to help children in need. .

But after Go public reached out to Kids Help Phone to inform them that several counselors had been in contact, the charity’s youth manager said changes will be made.

“Our consultants are courageous, kind, and high-level professionals,” said Alisa Simon, who described herself as the most in touch with employment issues at the charity. “If we’re missing something, we’ll do it right; including changing guidelines to better meet their needs.”

No specific details on how the guidelines would be revised, or when, were they included in the statement.

In a previous statement a Go public, Kids Help Phone said it has added more support for frontline staff over the past eight months and intends to add even more, including awareness programs, extra days off in the summer and “added time to unpack and debrief.”

The charity also said it polls staff to find out how they’re doing.

However, a current Kids Help Phone consultant named Natalie for the purposes of this article says stress leaves are common and turnover is high.

“We can’t really give adequate support if we’re running out,” he said.

Another former adviser, who will be called Ashley, said the organization’s intense focus on efficiency metrics, introduced in late 2019, is a distraction during crisis calls.

“There’s a lot of pressure to have in the back of your head when you try to be there and talk to some of these guys,” he said. “It moves away from the main goal of what we are trying to do.”

Natalie said supervisors have even texted consultants via the company’s internal chat system during long calls to ask what takes so long.

“This can lead to anxiety and nervousness,” Natalie said.

“You think, ‘Oh, the manager is noticing how long I’ve been on the phone’ and it really takes you off the call, because now you’re worried that the manager is watching you and you’ve been there too for a long time. It can ruin the job you’re doing. . “

The union doesn’t help much, the advisers say

Kids Help Phone workers are represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, but consultants who spoke to CBC News say the union complaints did not lead to meaningful action.

“The union told us to keep trying, to keep making suggestions, to document the problems,” Natalie said. “And that’s not enough. I think their method is just to wear down the management. But we’re exhausted.”

Go Public has reached out to the union for comment, but has not yet received a response.

Before the focus on time management and efficiency was introduced late last year, Kids Help Phone had been a great place to work, said Jacques, a former adviser.

“When I started, I told my friends, ‘I’m retiring from this place, I love it,'” he said. “The training was fantastic.”

Ashley said she loved the job too.

“It was great to be able to help some of these guys,” he said.

The consultants said they have no problems with the charity using a software program to track their work activities through a code system. They could still manage their own workflow and were not punished for a lack of time management goals, they said.

But once the new operating guidelines were introduced last December, the charity began measuring the consultants’ performance monthly, providing percentages to indicate their adherence to a rigorous schedule that determined exactly how much time they had to spend on various activities and when he might take breaks.

Bathroom breaks are considered “self-care”

On one occasion, before the pandemic hit and the counselors started working from home, Jacques said his supervisor had dealt with him after returning late from the break.

“I was told, ‘You spent a minute at lunch. What are we going to do about it?'” He said.

An operational guide for Kids Help Phone, provided to employees, was obtained from CBC News. He says time is allowed for self-care, but that it shouldn’t amount to more than five percent of a counselor’s “average recording time over the course of a month” or, for example, 30 minutes over a period of 10 hours change.

The paper also specifies that downtime is intended to promote well-being and suggests that it can be used to have coffee or tea or to use the bathroom.

Jacques confirmed that this is how it works.

“Can’t I even go to the bathroom without having to justify to someone why I spent two minutes off the phone?” Jacques said exasperated.

Consultants who spoke to CBC News said the unpredictable nature of the calls they receive requires a level of flexibility in their workday, but supervisors don’t seem to appreciate it, insisting instead on strict adherence to the schedule.

Danielle van Jaarsveld, who teaches in the Department of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, and has studied call centers in the United States, Europe, China and Canada, said it appears that Kids Help Phone is exacerbating the stress of an already stressful job.

“The problem with this kind of monitoring is that it really contributes to employee emotional burnout,” he said. “And when employees are exhausted, they can’t really do their best.”

He said employee time tracking systems like the one used by Kids Help Phone are not uncommon, but are better suited to call centers that deal with “shorter and simpler transactions,” as opposed to lengthy counseling sessions.

“What I tend to see in call centers where interaction involves emotions is a lot more discretion given to employees than breaks.”

Believe it when they see it

When told that Kids Help Phone said she intends to change time management rules, Natalie said she was skeptical about her employer’s motives.

“They say they have our welfare in the front, but they’ve said it before and nothing has changed,” he said. “I think if it has a different result this time around, it’s just because they are concerned about their reputation and not us.”

However, she and the other advisers she spoke to Go public they said they remain confident that the charity’s problems will be solved. They said the mental health support Kids Help Phone offers its callers is more important than ever.

“I think the people who are higher up don’t understand the reality of the front,” Jacques said. “We need more autonomy to say, ‘These are my limits right now.’ And that’s not that much to change if you think about it.”

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