Currently I answer the phones for a company that’s best known for a certain fruit and child labor exploitation. Fun! I’m saying this because I think it matters that, while everything I do is for this certain company, technically I’m employed by someone else.
That being said, we use Teams to communicate with our colleagues and supervisors all day long. The last time we had an actual meeting where we could see each other and talk to each other, someone (can’t imagine who 🤷️) brought up the idea of unionizing. MANY of my colleagues were on board. Here’s the problem:
Teams is the only way we can communicate with one another. However, the only ppl we can message directly are supervisors, Team Leads, etc… they have made it impossible for regular employees to be able to message each other.
Which…ok, that’s kind of shitty, but I can see where they could make the excuse of us messaging each other all day could take away from productivity. HOWEVER…
They have also made it “against the rules” for any of us to post our contact information in the chat. For example, we have group chats for the different areas we work in, but we aren’t allowed to post phone numbers, Snaps, or even email addresses.
And they’ve also made it impossible for is to use the company email (Horde, if anyone knows what that is) to even EMAIL each other. I’ve tried and the emails bounce back…I can only email leads, supervisors and bosses.
So my question is two-fold: WHY are they so scared of us lowly employees being able to talk to each other? And secondly….is this legal?
It seems super fucking sus, but IANAL. And I know someone will tell me to ask there, but it’s a telecommunication company. We are spread out not only in America, but ALL over the world.
Any insight?