Abuse in blood donation call centers (short rant) - eviltoast

Before you go work for a place that calls people to ask them to donate blood, please know that about 6 months in, you will be hounded by the supervisor for more appointments. You will have no control over if the donors answer at all, what kind of mood they are in, or if they even want to donate ever again.

You will be at fault and they will always point something out that you did wrong(didn’t resemble a robot in) such as taking an extra 3 seconds before sending the next call.

The people at the top are making bank while the call center agents are abused and don’t even make a living wage. They get told they are saving lives and then hounded for more appointments.

Reddit is flooded with blood donation schills and bots that gaslight you for saying anything bad about their industry. In reality, most people are angry that you won’t stop calling and some will curse and threaten.

I am not saying that you should not donate blood. I am a blood donor myself (inactive).

If you want to give them a reason why you won’t schedule, besides the fact that they give you a pin for donating loads of gallons of your life and health, you can also mention that you don’t like the way the call center agents and donors save lives so that upper management and up can make major bank.

  • logos@sh.itjust.works
    16·
    1 year ago

    My girlfriend and I donated blood a couple times and then we started getting at least 5 calls a day each to donate more. We asked them to stop but they didn’t. Eventually we ended up telling them we will never donate blood again.

    • ChrisLicht@lemm.eeEnglish
      16·
      1 year ago

      I’m O-Neg. They’re relentless.

      The process used to be nice from the ‘70s to the ‘00s. You’d pop by a blood drive or your local Red Cross spot, and you could be in and out quickly and have a pleasant experience. Now, it takes 20+ minutes, just to deal with the paperwork before giving, even if you’ve filled out the app ahead of time, and the phlebotomists mostly seem disaffected and over it.

      Not to mention the fact that the Red Cross stacks up the whole-blood appointments, so that if you do have some free time in the next few days to give, the only times available are for Power Red and platelet donations. You have to go out of your way to schedule a couple of weeks ahead, or let yourself be dunned to death by their constant calls, emails, and texts.

      You can feel the MBA gears at work, driving up nominal stats and revenue, ruining an experience that should be made as convenient and pleasant as possible for folks who are giving their time and something you charge hospitals hundreds of dollars for, particularly for O-Neg donors who donate every 8 weeks.

      I used to love to donate blood and felt great about it. Now, I dread the depersonalized, corporatized experience and only drag myself to do it because it benefits other people at some point.