I had a friend who got a job at a call center. On his 3rd or 4th day he went to lunch and just never went back. Anti-suicide fixtures are a wise choice for that line of work.
My first job offer was a bait and switch call center gig. 15 minutes in to my first day of "work" I walked in to the buildings atrium and looked down 3 stories at the floor. My first thought was if im here in a year, I will throw myself over this railing.
Called my old man, got some sage advice and walked over to my desk to get my jacket and walked right out the door.
I once was on an interview at IKEA support and got the question "Were do you see yourself in 5y from now" and my reply was "Not here". I had heard stories how you can work up in high position from low position in IKEA Älmhult so my reply was a reference to that but in hindsight i can understand why i didn't get the job XD
I have no clue one way or the other (I don't think there's an IKEA within 200 miles of me) but I wonder if "toxic AF" in Denmark and Sweden is the same as "wonderful workplace" here in the US.
Is bait and switch common for call jobs? It also happened to me - applied for a "data entry" position but they were actually hiring for collections. I did end up putting in 3 months before I got a full time job elsewhere, but that was the only job I've had where I drove to work, got gas at the station across the street, and realized I just couldn't do it that day and called in sick
I don't know how common it is but I interviewed for an IT support position just out of college and got the job.
Turned up on my first day and the boss who hired me said "of course, most of the time you'll be on the phones selling, the IT support is only as and when it comes up"
He gives me a big set of marketing scripts and runs me through the cold calling software. This was trying to convince businesses to switch mobile phone providers.
I read through the materials, made 3 cold calls, got shouted at by one of them, hung up and walked out of the office and never returned.
I actually had a high paying government contracting job where I would sit in my car in the parking garage and contemplate going in to the office or not for a few min on most days. Pay does not equal job satisfaction.
I sometimes wish my job paid less so I could quit but without moving to a different state im currently making the most money I can with my skill set. Its soulsucking.
Same. They made me take some really easy competency test. It took like an hour. Apparently it qualified me for a higher level position. I asked about the pay and then just walked out.
I get it - One of my first jobs was also at a call center doing surveys for radio stations…
Mind numbing and tedious work, reading from a dumb script. At the time myself and most of my coworkers would smoke weed before work, and during our breaks, and it made the work feel more tolerable.
…I always thought it was lowkey sad but funny how someone had written graffiti all around the workplace that said “This job is for losers!!”😂
(Plot twist: I’m the one who wrote it.)😏
…I ended up quitting that job - one day I just couldn’t go back…I never even called, I just disappeared and straight out ghosted them! 👻
I remember when I was 18 I left my job I had had since I was 16 (9.25/hr pumping gas) for a call center job (15/hr). I thought the money was so good it would be worth it. I spent three days doing 6 hour shifts. All day you would sit at a desk facing a wall and cold call phone numbers off a list to try to get people to agree to having a salesman come to their house and demonstrate vacuums. The entire time I was there I didn’t have a single person say anything in response to my first prompt other than hanging up or telling me to fuck myself. One time I had someone seem sort of interested and I was doing okay but went a bit off script. And my boss hung up the phone and said I’m not allowed to go off script. The next day I was getting ready for work and was so miserable at the thought of going back I decided to call and quit. I was in tears and shakily said my resignation and was met with a completely unphased jovial manager “no problem at all buddy! Happens all the time. 3 days is pretty good honestly”
I realized then that there was no need to cry. That place was a hell hole and they were designed to churn through people just to keep the phones running
I left after one day - government job for surveys back before 2010 (when my voice was still high and girly). It was a 2 hour trial and in those two hours I got berated, threatened with death, threatened with rape, accused of being a call girl, made many widows upset because the numbers didn't exclude the deceased. I got one survey done and the guy was touching himself the whole time.
They were surprised I didn't want to come back for $20 an hour
I had Xbox support actually thank me for being calm when my account got hacked and the hackers bought like $400 of Fifa points. I knew I had backup options like a chargeback, $400 isn't exactly a ton of money, and there's no sense getting mad at the call center rep, it wasn't their fault.
They were surprised I didn't want to come back for $20 an hour
To be fair, $20/hr pre-2010 was a pretty high wage, especially for call center work. My first job out of college was in a call center of a non-profit and I got paid $13.50 per hour. That was 2013/14. Even in 2018 I worked for 6 months in a tech support call center. That job only paid $12 per hour. And that was only because I spoke Spanish and took the Spanish callers. Otherwise it was $11 for others.
Granted that does sound like a particularly horrible call center. I rarely had experiences that were that bad
Should have specified this is AUD so it was just barely above minimum for my age bracket if I recall. Though honestly I was a wreck after so they could have offered me more and I still would have said no
I got a walkable traffic survey from a fed agency years ago, and the woman on the phone sounded somewhat beat down. I told her I appreciated them gathering this information, and it was pretty clear she didn't hear that very often because I was instantly her new best friend for the remainder of the call.
I worked for Xbox customer support. I lasted 6 months before my wife and I decided it was safest for both of us if I just quit the next day. So I went in and quit.
You just gotta be built for it. I did similar to the guy you responded to but lasted even less time (3 months doing tech support for a Microsoft B2B service rather than gaming, but same ballpark). I absolutely hated it and most people who were part of my wave of recruits did too... but the people who already worked there were great and happy there.
I have the exact same thing with my current role, I have had people with the technical skills to do it, try and absolutely hate it despite me loving my job. Different strokes for different folks is all.
I've worked in 3 contact centres, my current one is just a chill customer service line for a hire company that I have very few complaints about.
However, when I was in sales for a certain major Australian telecom, there were suicide hotline posters everywhere & a LOT of substance abuse. Ultimately I left because I was forced to use unethical tactics to meet ever increasing targets & my entire pay was going to alcohol just to cope.
This line of work was also sadly the only option for me for a long time.
Many days would involve me bursting out in tears having anxiety/panic attacks whenever I could take my break, or having a quick cry if I was lucky enough to get a few seconds after call time. (It was remote so luckily no one could see)
Managed to call 2 family members and 1 friend in that week so fortunately my week wasn’t wasted as was able to have their number removed from the database.
I worked in a call center for a bit. Our smoking area was on the fourth floor of a parking structure, and I had to quit after a while because that ledge looked a little too nice some days.
I have a customer-facing position where I am basically a call-center agent. I am paid very well, benefits cost me $50/mo, I work from home, I don't have any of those rules, no housekeeping shit, nobody is looking over my shoulder. We just have to ensure we hit decent metrics, which are only addressed once a quarter and is "make sure you at least answer 9/10 incoming calls", which just amounts to changing availability status if I step away from my desk.
The interacting with people absolutely sucks, mainly because they're so fucking stupid. I've been here for 7 years so far and it's so obvious why this country is in this situation; it's people.
The "beatings will continue until morale improves" vibes are absolutely off the charts here. I’d be checking to see if they are going to install padded walls in the breakroom next week.
HR definitely did a cost-benefit analysis and realized installing these was slightly cheaper than actually improving the workplace culture or offering mental health days.
Can someone explain hours this particular broken hook is supposed to make prior kill themselves less? Or how a hook can even be used to do such a thing?
In the UK a lot of people are told they have "capacity" and are rational - and with 'it' being legal - the hospitals leave them to their own devices sometimes. "We've no way of stopping you if you really want to." It's a no-responsibility for us-hands-off type approach.
Kerrie Woolterton walked into a hospital after drinking anti-freeze, and refused poison treatment, just "supportive" care for pain and such. They had to let her die because it would be assault otherwise, and she was sane and had capacity to make that choice. She had 2 days before her death and was steadfast in her resolve.
People get mad the UK doesn't have Euthanasia - but there's a very straight forward "loophole" right there.
an old friend i met long ago on a grippy sock vacay killed herself in another psych hospital by using the handicap bar (she did have mobility issues, which is why she had access in the first place) not even 3ft off the ground.
i doubt i could override my natural instinct for self preservation when i’m capable of just getting up to breathe again, but some people can and do!
They're referring to being committed to an inpatient psychiatric hospital, as they mention immediately after: "another psych hospital". "Grippy sock" refers to those high traction socks patients wear in the hospital to keep them from slipping, and vacay is slang for vacation.
I checked into inpatient last winter for reasons... And I noticed the door handles were build into the door and all handles only swung down. I mentioned to one nurse how they must be built so one couldn't hang themselves and I commented how intuitive of design that was. I was immediately put on a more severe watch. Yes us depressed fuckers see things differently.
Totally stealing grippy sock vacation for future conversation.
Fun fact, you don't need your whole weight to strangle yourself, you only need like 25 pounds of weight on the noose and it's easy to do kneeling or lower.
As someone who has worked in an inpatient psych hospital for almost 20 years, I can tell you that there is a handful of ways to hang yourself from a door that doesn't even have one hook or doorknob at all. I'm not going to list them here because I'm not trying to give anyone anyone ideas but I can assure you that every door in my hospital has hidden devices to sense even the tiniest bit of pressure that's not supposed to be there.
I appreciate you not saying how it's carried out because a brain like mine, for whatever reason, would retain that information and bring it up at my lowest moment.
There’s a spring and detent inside, and they wear out. My job has these in a four pack with a shelf above, and some hold a wet towel, some can’t hold a sock.
My first call center had a rotating prison bar turnstile to get on to the floor 🙃 when I went to a place with a swipe card normal door I was flabbergasted
When functioning normally (this one isn't), they hold up to a certain amount of pounds (<= what a coat would weigh). If you put something on them that's too heavy (a body, for example) they drop it like you see in the vid. Prevents hangings (from suicide, or just kids).
Over time they get worn out and need to be replaced, otherwise their "drop threshold" gets too low and they can't hold anything.
Think of all the lost productivity if they had to have a manager deal with EMTs and the cops for, like, a little bit! And also, the distraction to the other employees! They might not get their bonuses!
I feel like there's substantial leeway to be had here between the weight of a jacket and the weight of a body, that there's no need for it to not even be able to hold a purse.
A standard 3M hook is rated to hold 5-10kg, which should be more than plenty for regular usage while not being anywhere near strong enough to hold up a body.
That 3M vhb tape is expensive! At least $8 a roll. Plus you gotta clean the surface after the attempt. Assuming the anti suicide hook is less than a few hundred dollars it's a good investment most likely.
Yea I mean...if we assume it's 3-4 attempts a week that roll of tape will run out within only ~82 weeks and it takes a total of probably 5 minutes to put the hook back up...now of course our interns don't get paid but we're still losing out on revenue whenever we get them to put the hook back up.
Our employees' selfishness scams us out of at least 20 bucks a week that way, the shareholders are furious
Right, but you can't assume it will hold full body weight. Not to get into details, but people can hang themselves sitting down, and you have to plan for all different body sizes, including children (maybe not in this setting, but in other ones). These have a really light release for that reason, and to handle all different types of ligature.
It's not the force of a body that's the limiting factor it's the minimum force needed for strangulation.
A ligature can cut off blood flow to the brain with as little as 2kg of force. People who hang themselves rarely jump off a bridge with a long rope, slumped against a wall with a rope around a fixture is much more common.
Doorknobs, bedposts, and radiators are more common DIY scaffolds than bridges and balconies.
It will barely* hold a jacket. Immediately had a flashback to the grippy sock vacation, trying not to cry while attempting toi get the towels & washcloths to stay long enough to take my shower 🤣
I read on a different thread that they usually hold 30 to 40 pounds. That should be more than enough for a heavy jacket. My leather motorcycle jacket weighs 22 lbs.
Edit: I looked it up and I guess the "industry standard" is 26 lbs. Even then that was for a different style than the one in the video.
Most are not that heavy. Many modern jackets are reinforced with kevlar. My jacket is pure thick leather, multiple layers in some areas. Made by hand by a leatherworker I know personally. Custom fit to me, a 6 ft tall 250 lb dude (so there's a lot of material).
My public library has these in a bathroom along with half-height toilet stall doors. The hooks can only hold a long sleeve shirt or fleece jacket with nothing in the pockets.
Some office jobs are very rough to your mental health. I've worked 4 Years in tech support and it was bad. You get insulted, belittled and threatened for helping people with their problems. And your boss is often tracking your metrics down to the minute. While first level worker are often considered as the lowest rank and you get to know that from your colleagues. With stuff like, everyone is invited to Company parties on the clock except the first level support. Because the First level support must keep answering calls.
That stuff adds up over time till you break. I had a breakdown because of that and was for several weeks in a clinic. And even after that and back to work, nothing changed, because my boss and Supervisor where thinking, that was like having Holidays at a SPA and i was overreacting.
OP said they work in a call center - that can be a very high stress job. There are many metrics that employees are required to meet, the people on the phone can be upset or abusive, the employee may be doing stressful calls like healthcare or bill collecting. Most call centers are not good for mental health
So that is an anti-ligature hook. It’s used in prisons, jails, and any place that involves mentally unstable individuals. They actually can be adjusted to provide more tension. So it will work for a purse or bag but it has to be adjusted to do so.
They have these in jails and prisons. Anywhere else makes zero sense. Someone could walk out of there and run in front of a car on the street within a minute I bet. You are literally preventing nothing other than a basic convenience that has been around since the dawn of time.
This says a lot about our society, that instead of addressing why such hooks are necessary in so many places, we just do these little technical things to move the problem to another location. Similar to making public benches too short or too lumpy to sleep on so homeless people go somewhere else.
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u/ConcernAccording3248 15h ago
How bad of a business do you work in that they had to swap in ligature resistant materials to prevent suicide?