title.
In february i was transitioned from inbound queues to outbound queues, at the company i work for. This was supposedly supposed to be a promotion to back office, except i got more responsibilities, more scrutinization and kept the same pay rate. Soon after moving there, i realized i could not meet up to the standards that they wanted me to be at. I realistically cannot do outbound calls as i cannot start conversations properly (people with or who know someone who has Asperger's will understand what i mean by this, and it's not related to language barriers or talking points.) My brain is not correctly wired to understand social context, which makes it nearly impossible to start conversations with people. I can provide responses when someone speaks to me, which made me great at doing inbound. I was even in technical support supervisory role there and excelled, but that department closed down, which was why i was moved, and on top of that promised raises, verbally i may add, that would turn out to never be coming.
My managers are constantly on us about call times and being on the phone with the customer, but my mind doesn't work that way. it's not due to a lack of trying. in the role i am currently in, we are supposed to “cold call” people who have technicians going out and “fix the issues on the call”. but the problem is a lot of these issue are not solvable, like Lines having open faults (the line is cut or ungrounded, which we are supposedly just to ignore and try setting them up anyways, even if we know they cannot get setup base on thew length of their lines to their home), The customer cannot actually get service due to being to far out (yes we are supposed to call them and try to set them up, or just tell them they have a service denial and deal with them screaming at us), or is related to lines not being buried (new lines laid, improper burials, etc). We even have to call customers who have refused troubleshooting with another inbound agent, persons who are known to be verbally abusive to agents, and in some cases have even made thinly veiled threats. Keep in mind this is still for minimum wage. All of this has been causing me to have severe panic attacks while i am at work and i cannot do this anymore.
I Even had a meeting with the program director about this issue, and his response was as follows, paraphrasing slightly. I would like to note that this program is in a trial, and can close down, and as well, was told that they were “looking into” me moving back to an inbound position but that never happened :
“You're like a square trying to fit into a circle hole. We haven't even been able to go over your metrics due to stress. Why are you here? Why are you still with the company? This is not for you. Everyone is held up to standard, and this program may fail. You should really think about looking elsewhere for work. Best we can do is give you some aux 9 (HR Accommodation) time for stress, that is unpaid. But keep looking else where”.
Now, i have no way to understand social queues, but to me it sounds as if they are trying to push me out becasue i am too much of a liability. I can't afford to lose this job and the entirety of the situation has left me on edge, haiving more panic attacks, having more anxiety. I've been applying for other jobs for months, at least or so applications but i have had no luck, and with my current paycheck taking 85% of my rent, and having already paid last months rent late, i don't know what to do.
Is there anything that i can do? i can't see my doctor until Monday as he is out of the country, and i can't afford to lose this job or my home, but i also can't mentally or physically do this job anymore. any ideas are appreciated.