Rogers has laid off various support staff across multiple provinces, most of whom work in chat support roles.
The telecom declined to share how many people are being laid off, but a person familiar with the company’s operations who spoke with MobileSyrup on the condition of anonymity said that the number is close to 400 people.
“As customer habits continue to evolve, we’re investing in digital tools and self-serve options that help our customers find what they’re looking for faster. While a small percentage of roles in our customer service team are impacted, we continue to grow and hire people to support our operations across the country,” said Rogers spokesperson Zac Carreiro.
News of the layoffs broke on Reddit, where multiple threads have sprung up regarding the layoffs. Those posts suggest that Rogers is shutting down its live chat customer support services.
The source we spoke with suggested that people at call centres were also laid off, and there’s an intention to phase out the company’s ‘retail support group,’ which solves internal sales and tech support issues for Rogers employees.
Instead, store-level reps must submit tickets to an escalation team to resolve even simple account problems, which could take as long as five days.
The change could lead to longer wait times for problems if customers need their accounts altered and longer wait times for anyone needing sales or tech support from the carrier.
Toronto-based employment law firm Samfiru Tumarkin LLP says that dozens of affected Rogers employees have reached out this week after being laid off.
A report in The Globe and Mail mentions that workers across Ontario, Manitoba, B.C., and Quebec have all lost their jobs. Many worked in online chat support, others were former Shaw employees, and others worked for the company’s social media customer support team.
Over the past year, there have been many restructuring efforts and layoffs across the Big Three Canadian telecoms.
Bell has offered voluntary separation packages to over 1,200 employees over the past few weeks, and Telus is offering buyouts to 700 workers as it also looks to shrink its workforce.
