November 18, 2022
The guild and AP met on Monday to continue discussion of the company’s intent to merge global help desk and customer support in the Technology Unit to a new title of Technology Support Specialist.
The AP said several people in the TU had accepted the SRO and replacements would be hired under the new job description with the goal that newcomers would have the skills or the understanding those skills are necessary for the job.
The AP explained its idea for training for current staff would be about three months of training, followed by pairing up of employees between the two units for approximately nine months of mentorship and cross-training.
John Braunreiter, a customer support specialist from Milwaukee said during a meeting with technology unit colleagues, people relayed “feeling overwhelmed and extremely fearful of what is coming. They feel extremely overworked and anything added on to what they’re doing now it seems impossible to do successfully.”
Ed Morsett, a technician and global help desk specialist from Phoenix, said it would be hard to become an expert on so many things, especially since staff being so overworked there would be no time to do the training. He also expressed his belief that AP would not find someone trained on all the required programs and processes coming out of tech schools.
The guild also said that while employees currently have expertise and speed in their workflow, having to learn a new job could slow everything down.
The AP responded by reiterating they don’t expect a quick process and envision the training and cross-training to be implemented over a span of about a year. There would be a process to evaluate progress with regular feedback periods. The company said its goal was to have folks who understand things, not to make everyone an expert on everything.
The company asserted that the changes are coming regardless and that needs to be accepted.
The guild asked for a list of all of the programs that everybody is going to have to know and a brief description of what the programs do so there can be a discussion with TU members about what people are or are not familiar with. The guild also asked for more details on the training process and subsequent shadow mentoring.
In addition to Braunreiter and Morsett, the guild was also represented by President Vin Cherwoo of New York Sports and administrator Kevin Keane.
Representing the AP were Teresita Seeberger, senior director of global human resources; Keisa Caesar, human resources manager; Hilda Auguste, director of human resources operations and technology; Helen Fridman, senior director of global technology support; Kurt Rossi, vice president of global technology; Reseann Treloar, senior director of customer support; and attorney Steve Macri.