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From An Insider -
Boris Johnson tells Britain that our test-and-tracing system will be “world-beating”. Here’s what I’ve witnessed from the inside.
In March, I was furloughed by my employer. The financial impact was huge, and I decided to look for some temporary work to help with the bills. I saw an online ad for a temporary “customer service adviser”, which said: “You must have your own computer and high-speed internet to download our software and communicate with our customers … Don’t let lockdown stop you getting your dream job.”
I have some experience in customer service, so I applied, and was then telephoned by someone who asked me some basic questions about customer service. He said my answers were great, and proceeded to tell me the role was working on the government’s new track-and-trace programme. They would like to offer me a role, and I could start training the following Sunday.
On my first day, I logged in and was put into an online chatroom with my new colleagues. There were about 100 of us, and it was soon pretty clear that people were having problems accessing the system correctly. Our trainer dipped in now and then, saying the training would start in 10 mins – 10 mins later, they would repeat the message. Nearly two hours later the training began, but people were still having problems – at which point they were told there was nothing more they could do.
The training was very basic. We saw some slides about our role – the public health website we will use, and a script for what we had to say to people. We were told: do not go off-script, and if there was anything we could not answer, we should ask our supervisor.
The training was wrapped up early, and we were asked if we felt prepared. There was a chorus of no from many people. Some said yes, but I didn’t see how anyone could be prepared for something they’d only found out about a couple of hours ago, plus we hadn’t even accessed the specific programmes. I checked my schedule and saw that I was due to start the next day at 9am. Panic set in.
The trainer told us there was a further seven and a half hours of self-led training that we had to complete before “going live”. This seemed a little unfair, if not impossible to achieve by the next morning. We were reassured that we could probably get through the training in two to three hours – but we would be paid for all seven and a half.
The trainer declared the training over and was immediately inundated with more questions from those anxious about what to do and when. The chatroom was then closed by the trainer, and we were left on our own.
The self-led courses were very basic – with some generic dos and don’ts about customer data, security and so on. I completed it all in less than one and a half hours, with a score of 95%+.
The next morning I was worried, and feeling very unprepared. I felt the job was an important thing to do. But it was essential to get this right, and I didn’t really understand the role and how to use the systems. I logged in and saw a message saying I would be invited to a chatroom and to please wait.
I waited seven and a half hours (my entire shift). I called the HR helpline after about one hour and was told to relax – everyone is waiting.
The next day I was scheduled to work again. This time, I was invited to a chatroom. I recognised many of the names in the group from my training, so knew the other people were also new. Many people were writing, “Did anyone do anything yesterday?” “Do we just wait?” “What are we waiting for?”
The questions quickly turned to complaint, and we were left unsupervised for hours. A message then appeared asking us to complete our online training – which was met with a chorus of “I did the training”. The day passed as we waited, re-attempted training, and wrote messages to supervisors and got no response.
Wednesday came (day four) and we got a message assuring us that we were getting paid – and to please wait. The comments came in “LOL getting paid by the government for this”, and “they’ll be clapping for us on Thursday”. It went downhill from there, and people started writing derogatory remarks. Others suggested we use the company phone system to practise calling each other on our computers. Again, supervisors didn’t interject or offer any guidance. One person set up a Facebook group (for the people in our chat) and called it Panic Room.
That night I saw someone from the track-and-trace programme had spoken to the BBC, and noted that their group had spent the day watching Netflix or playing games online. Having spent days feeling frustrated, I started to feel dejected too.
Two days later I logged in for my weekend shift and discovered nothing had changed – and that I had clocked up 40 hours of key worker pay for doing absolutely nothing.
After the Dominic Cummings story broke I started hearing more media stories about the track-and-trace programme. Health secretary Matt Hancock claimed that “highly trained track-and-trace staff” were in place. I still had not seen the government system we were supposed to use.
Over the next few days I learned more about my job from watching the news than I did from those who were supposed to supervise me. I still did not feel qualified to do it. Then it was announced by Hancock that we were going live the next day. On my chat there was a message from a supervisor asking the more experienced members of our chat to help those who needed help. The blind leading the blind! How were people who started the same day as me, and who had the same short and basic training as I had, supposed to help me do my job?
On Thursday, according to the government, the system launched. But for me, nothing changed. It was a day of waiting, with no system access. Yet on TV at the daily briefing, Boris Johnson told the nation all was well.
To this day I remain a “key worker”, paid £10 an hour to sit in a chatroom – alone, lost, without support or help. Despite what the government is saying, it seems the relentless problem “with the system” is another pandemic without a cure. Motivated as I am to help out during this difficult time – and after two weeks of doing “pretend” work on the track-and-trace programme – I have decided to quit and try to find a real way to help people.
If Boris Johnson or Matt Hancock are reading this, I’d ask them to please go into the chatrooms you created and read what people are saying. You will see a lot of anger and confusion from a lot of people. And none of them have any faith that we’re properly set up to fight any increase in infection rate from this pandemic.
Boris Johnson tells Britain that our test-and-tracing system will be “world-beating”. Here’s what I’ve witnessed from the inside.
In March, I was furloughed by my employer. The financial impact was huge, and I decided to look for some temporary work to help with the bills. I saw an online ad for a temporary “customer service adviser”, which said: “You must have your own computer and high-speed internet to download our software and communicate with our customers … Don’t let lockdown stop you getting your dream job.”
I have some experience in customer service, so I applied, and was then telephoned by someone who asked me some basic questions about customer service. He said my answers were great, and proceeded to tell me the role was working on the government’s new track-and-trace programme. They would like to offer me a role, and I could start training the following Sunday.
On my first day, I logged in and was put into an online chatroom with my new colleagues. There were about 100 of us, and it was soon pretty clear that people were having problems accessing the system correctly. Our trainer dipped in now and then, saying the training would start in 10 mins – 10 mins later, they would repeat the message. Nearly two hours later the training began, but people were still having problems – at which point they were told there was nothing more they could do.
The training was very basic. We saw some slides about our role – the public health website we will use, and a script for what we had to say to people. We were told: do not go off-script, and if there was anything we could not answer, we should ask our supervisor.
The training was wrapped up early, and we were asked if we felt prepared. There was a chorus of no from many people. Some said yes, but I didn’t see how anyone could be prepared for something they’d only found out about a couple of hours ago, plus we hadn’t even accessed the specific programmes. I checked my schedule and saw that I was due to start the next day at 9am. Panic set in.
The trainer told us there was a further seven and a half hours of self-led training that we had to complete before “going live”. This seemed a little unfair, if not impossible to achieve by the next morning. We were reassured that we could probably get through the training in two to three hours – but we would be paid for all seven and a half.
The trainer declared the training over and was immediately inundated with more questions from those anxious about what to do and when. The chatroom was then closed by the trainer, and we were left on our own.
The self-led courses were very basic – with some generic dos and don’ts about customer data, security and so on. I completed it all in less than one and a half hours, with a score of 95%+.
The next morning I was worried, and feeling very unprepared. I felt the job was an important thing to do. But it was essential to get this right, and I didn’t really understand the role and how to use the systems. I logged in and saw a message saying I would be invited to a chatroom and to please wait.
I waited seven and a half hours (my entire shift). I called the HR helpline after about one hour and was told to relax – everyone is waiting.
The next day I was scheduled to work again. This time, I was invited to a chatroom. I recognised many of the names in the group from my training, so knew the other people were also new. Many people were writing, “Did anyone do anything yesterday?” “Do we just wait?” “What are we waiting for?”
The questions quickly turned to complaint, and we were left unsupervised for hours. A message then appeared asking us to complete our online training – which was met with a chorus of “I did the training”. The day passed as we waited, re-attempted training, and wrote messages to supervisors and got no response.
Wednesday came (day four) and we got a message assuring us that we were getting paid – and to please wait. The comments came in “LOL getting paid by the government for this”, and “they’ll be clapping for us on Thursday”. It went downhill from there, and people started writing derogatory remarks. Others suggested we use the company phone system to practise calling each other on our computers. Again, supervisors didn’t interject or offer any guidance. One person set up a Facebook group (for the people in our chat) and called it Panic Room.
That night I saw someone from the track-and-trace programme had spoken to the BBC, and noted that their group had spent the day watching Netflix or playing games online. Having spent days feeling frustrated, I started to feel dejected too.
Two days later I logged in for my weekend shift and discovered nothing had changed – and that I had clocked up 40 hours of key worker pay for doing absolutely nothing.
After the Dominic Cummings story broke I started hearing more media stories about the track-and-trace programme. Health secretary Matt Hancock claimed that “highly trained track-and-trace staff” were in place. I still had not seen the government system we were supposed to use.
Over the next few days I learned more about my job from watching the news than I did from those who were supposed to supervise me. I still did not feel qualified to do it. Then it was announced by Hancock that we were going live the next day. On my chat there was a message from a supervisor asking the more experienced members of our chat to help those who needed help. The blind leading the blind! How were people who started the same day as me, and who had the same short and basic training as I had, supposed to help me do my job?
On Thursday, according to the government, the system launched. But for me, nothing changed. It was a day of waiting, with no system access. Yet on TV at the daily briefing, Boris Johnson told the nation all was well.
To this day I remain a “key worker”, paid £10 an hour to sit in a chatroom – alone, lost, without support or help. Despite what the government is saying, it seems the relentless problem “with the system” is another pandemic without a cure. Motivated as I am to help out during this difficult time – and after two weeks of doing “pretend” work on the track-and-trace programme – I have decided to quit and try to find a real way to help people.
If Boris Johnson or Matt Hancock are reading this, I’d ask them to please go into the chatrooms you created and read what people are saying. You will see a lot of anger and confusion from a lot of people. And none of them have any faith that we’re properly set up to fight any increase in infection rate from this pandemic.
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Replies: 27
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geordie, send this in to Sky. People need to hear about this.
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I saw a guy on the news (Newsnight, I think, but may have been ITV news) saying that he hadn't taken a single call on his first day. It seems to be yet another half-baked idea that they have been panicked into announcing long before it is ready. Should have been in place weeks ago, imo. I reckon it will go the same way as the antibody testing, the Turkish PPE and the food parcels for the elderly: announced in fanfare of optimism and blind hope, then quietly dropped when they eventually have to admit they can't do it.
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Fooking hilarious.
The financial impact was huge, and I decided to look for some temporary work to help with the bills. paid £10 an hour to sit in a chatroom – alone, lost, without support or help. Despite what the government is saying, it seems the relentless problem “with the system” is another pandemic without a cure. Motivated as I am to help out during this difficult time – and after two weeks of doing “pretend” work on the track-and-trace programme – I have decided to quit and try to find a real way to help people. It's only been live for two days  |
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Name checking Dom is a nice touch
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The guy i saw on the News said he was being paid the equivalent of 70 Grand a year, I think. Can't imagine anyone wanting to do it for 10 quid an hour.
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Someone who can't pay the bills on minimum 80% wages who hasn't got another job when unemployment is about to spike
They could at least try and make it sound genuine |
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3 days 7,000 positive case they reckon up to 30 contacts for each one, that's 200,000 possible contacts,be generous call it 50,000,and despite trying not a journo can find anyone who,s been contacted or any tracer who,s phoned someone,
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Erm everyone has meant to be social distancing
They are asking for people you've been within 2 metres for at least 15 minutes. It's not the set of Caligula |
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Do people posting here not realise that people who want to read every Tory bashing article on the Guardian can just go there and read them without all their sh1t being posted (unattributed) on here?
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They are also blind to the fact that these fantasies are criticising their beloved NHS.
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well anyone could have a 1000 contacts on the beaches today, tube,train carriages,obviously they wont be able to contact them without an app, but the placers with heavy transmissions, have obviously got heavy,multiple contacts
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The original poster has made this up. Sure of it. They make it sound like the thing has been running for months when its only been going two days! And if it is genuine, the OP sounds like a right wimp. 'Oh, please tell me what to do, please tell me'. For christ's sake, show some sense and work stuff out for yourself a bit. Lastly, the 'financial impact is huge' after being furloughed. So, the 20% of lost wages is huge is it? Must be living above their means by some considerable way. It seems even the BF forum is open to fake news now.
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I don't myself well documented,but social distancing doesn't help,if people are picking it up of hard surface,s
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To be fair the Daily Mail ran an article expressing similar reservations about the scheme.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8364799/Matt-Hancock-LAUGHS-suggestion-rushed-contact-tracing-scheme.html |
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It's even more pathetic than just copy/pasting from the guardian, he's added "From an Insider" (not on the Guardian site) as some sort of "ooh this is secret information" rather than "From the ranced left wing comic the Guardian".
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plenty of people on sage saying there,s at least some airbourne transmission,social distancing wont save you from that
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What extensive training do you need to ask for the details of people who have recently been up close and personal for 15 minutes or more.
Because offices are closed and training is remote and the scheme was not up and running, they have effectively had to pay people for not working. |
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Of course, people looking for problems will inevitably find them.
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It's even more pathetic than just copy/pasting from the guardian, he's added "From an Insider" (not on the Guardian site) as some sort of "ooh this is secret information" rather than "From the ranced left wing comic the Guardian".
Stop hyperventilating you silly wazzock .. the article was posted as anonymous in the Newspaper so I said from an insider |
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Pity those in power didn't look for the simple problems and solve them
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who settles a dispute in these cases? if i am contacted and they say i have been in contact with mr x and now have to isolate.who decides if i say no i havent been in contact with him?
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Lucky social media wasn't around during WW2. Turing would have been grassed up for being gay before he could crack the enigma code.
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yes i understand that bit but what happens if i believe he is wrong and they believe they are right?
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It's not mandated as a legal requirement (not yet anyway). What I meant by my post is that you will know yourself if you have been within 2 metres of someone outside your household for 15 minutes or more. If you haven't then I guess it will come down to what you think the real chances of being exposed were.
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15 minutes, lol
Your lass reckons 3 and a half max |
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tory,s/doris gagging to get rid of 2M social distancing and now they've fell out with sage they can,that,ll be the end of TTT, EVERYONE WILL BE within metre of someone and witty said transmission is far more likely so the 15 mins comes down as well,so anything over 5 mins will be classed as a contact
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