This is my press relase about the islamophobia-based discrimination and mobbing I have been subjected to at Teleperformance Portugal.

On April 18, 2022, I was accepted to the training to work as a customer representative for one project related a worldwide known social network partner at Teleperformance Portugal.

Teleperformance Portugal is a company where is recruited more than 20.000 workers from all around the world from diferent religions, cultures and nations in peace.

During our training at the company, the company told us about its basic values and principles. One of these principles was about pluralism and respect for different cultures. However, my experience in the company showed that a medieval mind and Hitler understanding still dominates the managers who hold important positions in the company, the opposite of what we were told during the trainings.

During our 3-week training period, lunch breaks were between 1.00 and 2.00 PM every day. I requested from our instructor, A. C., that this break be put forward half an hour to 1:30-2:30 on Fridays. He responded that this was not possible. And he said he would report this to his superior, S. L.. S. L. and A. C. invited me to a meeting on this subject.

Meeting No. 1

S. L. told me that I had to be available between 6.00 am and 12.00 pm before I was recruited, due to the nature of the job, I should not have any other work between these hours, and if I was determined to attend Friday prayers in the mosque besides my office, they would not be able to hire me even if I was successful in the training. I told him that it was not a special situation for me to go to Friday prayers, that many Turks went to Friday prayers and that it was a religious obligation. Upon explaining this, S. L. said that he needed to listen to the commentary of a supervisor in charge of the Turkish Market to learn about the subject. I think this is very natural, because he wanted to obtain more information about the practice.

In the meantime, I went to the Mosque and learned about the legal dimension of going to the Friday prayer in Portugal. My Spanish trainer even shared with me a link that shows it is legal to attend Friday prayers in Portugal. Meanwhile, I sent a message to S.M., who is a supervisor for the Turkish market, and said that I wanted to call and consult her on the subject matter. S.M. said she couldn’t give me her number. I asked for her e-mail address, she said that she could not give it, but that I could only send a message via Facebook Messenger. I also explained the situation through Facebook Messenger and conveyed to her that her comment would be expected. S.M. informed me that she could not make any comments on this matter. In response, I told her that it would not be right for her to avoid commenting when the comment is expected, and it was not natural for her to treat me like the first person who attends Friday prayers.

Meeting No 2.

At the meeting held with S.M., who is responsible for the Turkish market, and A. C., the trainer, the issue of attending the Friday prayer was discussed again. Turkish Market supervisor S.M. told me sentences like “There are thousands of mosques in Turkey. If you are going to attend Friday prayers, why did you come to Portugal? This is not a Muslim country, is it appropriate to attend Friday prayers here?”. I reacted to this and said that I was a Portuguese citizen, and that Portugal was a free country, anyone who wants can go to the mosque. The discussion evolved into a dispute, and the meeting was over. S.M. said that she would not allow anyone in her team to attend Friday prayers, and this was unacceptable and extreme.

Meeting No. 3

After the interrupted meeting, a new meeting was held with the participation of S.M.’s superior, O.K. (who is also her boyfriend), S. L. and A. C. and O.K., who took the floor at this meeting, said that attendance to Friday prayers by anyone in the Turkish team would definitely not be tolerated. I told him that I did not want to attend Friday prayers under his tolerance, but that I wanted to attend Friday prayers within the framework of my freedom of religion and conscience, which is guaranteed by Portuguese laws. I declared the official letter I received from the Lisbon Mosque on this subject and reminded that in Portuguese law, attendance to Friday prayers is considered a justified reason for not coming to work. In addition, I stated that I was successful in the training provided to me and that I was entitled to recruitment simply because I passed the training exams. I reminded that it is against our training contract to stipulate an additional condition such as not going to mosque for Friday prayers other than being successful to be recruited. Despite O.K.’s and S.M.’s insistence, I was recruited because I was right. Absolutely A.C. and S.L. are innocent of what was done to me. They sincerely acknowledged that I was right and voted for my employment.

Mobbing experienced after recruitment

Isolation

After I started working, I was pushed into the process of systematic mobbing and isolation day by day. First of all, while all Project employees were working on the 4th floor of the company, they made me sit on the 5th floor and I was seated alone in a room of 40 people. Sometimes one security responsible were coming to my room telling me that I didn’t supposed to be there, and abandon that room. I asked him to talk with my project about it.

Issues related to the Entrance Card

Even though I was recruited, I was not given an entrance card and I started commuting with the trainee card. Since I have a trainee card, it took 20 minutes to enter the building every day. I reported this to my supervisor many times. My supervisor was referring me to Employee Support Unit and saying that she had already filed an application for this issue. However, the Employee Support Unit informed me that there was no such application, and that my supervisor should submit an application. Supervisor was lying to me. Finally, after the security guards informed me that I could no longer enter the building with the trainee card, I was given an access card, this time with restrictions not found on any other staff card. With this access card, I was not allowed to land in the building’s parking lot. I had to use the parking lot as I came to the building by bike every day. However, whenever I entered the building from the parking lot, I was forced to shout for help from the security guard to let me in. The fact that I was waiting there while all other people were logging in with their card was intended to humiliate me in the eyes of other people working in the institution.

Issues related to my Business Computer

After the issue of Friday prayer was discussed several times, many problems started to occur on my business computer. The first of these problems came up during a training. While the exam link prepared by the instructor was working on all other trainee’s computers, it was limited on my computer. Since it was limited, I could not solve the exams at the same time as everyone else, and I was put on hold. Finally, I had to solve the exam from the instructor’s computer via screen sharing.

The in-company communication was through a private workplace platform. And in this communication, voice and video calls were very important. In the 60-person project, only the calling and video calling feature on my computer was limited. I was not allowed to call people. Although I reported this problem to my supervisor many times since the day I was hired, I was advised to manage all work by texting correspondence. Since my call function on internal platform was limited, then I asked to be offered alternative ways such as BlueJeans or Zoom videoconferencing, but my supervisor rejected these suggestions.

Another restriction was related to Loom links on my business computer. Customers who resorted to us were asked to take screenshots from a program called Loom. I was not allowed to watch the recordings taken in this screenshot program. Therefore, I could not fully understand the customer’s problem. Although I told my supervisor many times about this restriction, no solution was provided. There were other restrictions as well, but one thing was for sure, my computer did not have the permissions given to a normal standard agent.

Altered Timesheets

Since we work in rotating shifts, our timetable was announced in advance on a monthly basis, and we were asked to observe it. Although I strictly observed the timetable and took screenshots regularly, I saw that my timesheet was changed by interference. And for this reason, when I went to have lunch, I was accused of not complying with the timetable as though I was skipping work. When I looked at the timesheet again, I saw that the sheet had been altered. But I also learned that no one else has had such changes in their timesheet. I saw a one-hour time zone between 12-13 on my chart one day, as those who changed the schedule did this unprofessionally. This timeframe was marked as “P”, namely production. The person who tried to pull my lunch time to this time frame but forgot to delete the production part. So, it looked like I was working 3 shifts a day in timeframe that was not on anyone’s timesheet.

Exclusion and Double Standards

From the day I started to work, the Friday prayers crisis during my recruitment process was heard within the company and people who heard about this started to be harsh and cold towards me. To give an example, I invited a person named B. K. to have coffee on the occasion of the feast. This person said that he would gladly accompany me and that we could chat. This attendance to Friday prayer dispute was heard among the staff. Afterwards, I reminded this person of our conversation and asked when we were going to have coffee. Then, Mr. B. sent me a message saying that he did not want to talk to anyone from the outside the working hours, and that I should never message him in this way again. However, I knew that the same person was meeting with other TP employees. Some of the people I met during training in the group and naturally became friends on Facebook removed me from Facebook after hearing about the dispute. After I started the job, I was not introduced or presented to anyone in the team. I still do not know who the people in my team are. There were people I met by chance by texting.

Apart from that, I know that many people are constantly meeting outside and having fun in the the project. But they never invited me, and my invitations were often not accepted.

Restriction on Technical Support

There is a person in the Turkish Market who is in charge of assisting us during the practice period. This person is called PEX in the team. This person’s job is to help us resolve our files. This person named K. E. has always been harsh and rude to me from day one. While she was training us, she always did not hesitate to insult customers such as idiots, no-brainers etc., and she was telling us that we could swear at customers as much as we wanted among ourselves. She did not answer any of my questions properly, although this was her duty. She responded to my requests for assistance too late or not at all. She was writing the answers so badly that she was telling me, for example, that you need to “reoky”. When I could not understand what she meant and asked again, she said she meant “reply”, and she was wasting my time. Her treatment forced me to avoid seeking her assistance. I had to ask the same questions to someone else again, because I did not understand her answers anyway.

Mobbing through Notifications

Since the day I started working, I have been exposed to notifications every day, without exception, by my own supervisor. I was constantly warned by these notifications, which sometimes went up to three times a day. My other colleagues who started to work did not receive these notifications in any way. These notifications contained baseless information. For example, I received a notification about absenteeism, which means that I did not come to work for no reason, with regard to a working day on which I saw the dentist and was on sick leave. I presented my medical report to my institution. This time, I was getting notifications about my presentation style. Justifications regarding the reasons for absenteeism at TP Portugal are submitted to the Employee Support Unit. Although I submitted my justification to this Unit, my supervisor also wanted me to send her an e-mail. Even after I sent her an e-mail, she asked me to forward it to another e-mail that because she did not read her business inbox this time.

Mobbing through Forced Language Use

I am Turkish and Portuguese. I am not only fluent in English, but I also speak Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish and French. I try to speak to everyone in the institution in their own language as much as possible, if there is no one who knows any of these languages, then I prefer speaking in English. I was communicating in Portuguese language with the Portuguese within TP, and in Turkish language with the Turks. However, my supervisor told me that speaking in Portuguese is strictly prohibited within the company and that I had to communicate in English. I said that all other Portuguese staff communicated in Portuguese language among themselves, and I wanted to communicate in Portuguese language with the Portuguese staff because I was Portuguese. Upon this pressure, I was compelled to write the e-mails in two languages. I was writing all my correspondence with the Personnel Support unit in Portuguese and English. However, all other Portuguese were writing in Portuguese.

I was warned for sending a message in Turkish/English to a group with only Turks in the group, where breaks and lunch times were shared. I was asked to text in English only. However, there is no regulation stating that speaking in Turkish is prohibited in the company. After I wrote my message in English, I asked why writing in Turkish was a problem. This time, I received overreaction only for asking a question.

My Success Rate

Despite all types of mobbing that I have mentioned or not mentioned above, from the day I was hired to the day I was fired, I continued my job as a highly successful customer representative. In my customer survey statistics, my scores were similar to the scores of other colleagues in certain criteria. On specific criteria, my scores were significantly higher than the average. To give an example, while 40% success was expected from the whole team in the percentage of returning to the customer by phone, I was 88% successful. All my files are recorded. There has never been a file where I could not solve the customers’ problem. I gave the right guidance and information to all of them. I had followed a very successful line for a newly recruited staff. In order to understand this success, it will be sufficient to examine the statistics of the warm-up period of all newly recruited personnel in the company.

Conclusion

After the events I mentioned above, I was invited to a meeting today by O.K., who is in charge of the Turkish Market. He was already hostile to me because of his girlfriend, S.M., who was changed his project after crisis related to attending Friday prayers. In today’s meeting, he made statements confirming this hostility and said that I could not integrate into my Turkish team and that I was a very unsuccessful representative. He could not explain his thought with any statistical data or concrete examples. He concluded the meeting by saying that I have no future in this project. Less than an hour after that, I got an email indicating I was fired from the company.

The Teleperformance Portugal has iniciated an internal investigation to seek the situation. I hope a fair result from this investigation. Anyway I will seek my rights in the framework guaranteed by local laws until last instance to guarantee who is involved to this violation of basic human rights see the treatment he deserves which is happening in the middle of UE in de 2022 .

İbrahim AYBEK

Fired Teleperformance Portugal Customer Representative.