So to start, I work at a call center. Back in January, I moved from the tech support side to the sales dept to make more money since they decided to screw everyone out of a decent raise and I need some sales experience to get out of there in the future.
I had a friend in the sales department, who was incredibly knowledgeable with sales techniques and order entry. He was been part of this mentorship program, in which the top sales agents takes 2-3 months off teaching new agents on how to sell and use the computer systems. A week after being on the sales floor, my friend told me I was able to bypass asking for SSN for cellphone orders for people who are just keeping their phones and numbers by just inserting an invalid number like 111-22-3333 or 444-55-6666. His reasoning was that “no one checks the customers credit score for those since they aren't financing anything so only ask for the SSN if they are purchasing”.
It made sense to me since he was one of the top agents and was mentor. A month later, he finally got what he wanted and was promoted to a supervisor.
Months had gone by and I've been following his procedure without anyone saying anything until 2 weeks ago.
I was scheduled for a sudden meeting with my manager that morning. I really didn't think much of it since I don't usually start shit at work. I was taken to the office where my manager and an HR generalist were conducting an investigation.
I was taken aback but I still believed I didn't do anything wrong and it might pertained to someone I knew or someone in my team were in trouble and my name was mentioned.
The manager started asking me questions while the HR generalist was writing them down if I ever received bribes or gifts from a customer or employee or if I was working with a customer or employee to sell other customers information. I'm still sitting where now just wondering when this will end since it was just a barrage of questions.
The manager then pulled up my order history and now was asking me “how did this social security numbers 111-22-3333 and 444-55-6666 end up on 80 of your BYOD orders”.
Now I'm in shock as now the realization of losing my job hit me. What hit me harder was I trusted my friend with this stupid advice and now I'm in trouble with management.
I told them everything regarding who told me and they concluded the interview and sent me back to work.
A week later they conducted their investigation and their conclusion for me was a final written warning. According to my supervisor, I was a hair length away from losing my job. He said he was fighting for me but I mean given who told me, I'm sure there was more to it.
Now I'm sitting here, stressed out and incredibly bitter with my former friend. During the investigation he stopped talking to me and pretends I don't exist. This whole sense of betrayal and rejection has finally pushed me to go on leave and find another job. The call center life is already incredibly stressful but fuck this.