Calls to Kids Help Phone have surged. Now some counsellors are making a distress call of their own

Kids Help Phone, thecharity that offers 24/7 counselling services to young Canadiansin distress, needs to listen to the concerns of its stressed staffif it trulywants to help callers, say three current and former counsellors.

Demand for Kids Help Phone's services hasbeen on the rise, with calls and text messages surging since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

But the counsellorswho spoke with CBC'sGo Publicsay handling the increased demand is even more difficult because ofthemicromanagement and unreasonable demands ofsupervisors, which havetaken a toll on counsellors' ability to do their job properly and on their own mental health.

They said the service is being run like a corporate call centre, and counsellorsareunder pressure to account for how every single minute of their workday is spentvia a softwaretracking system.

"It was like a production line," said one former counsellor. "Like, we need another target, we need to hit three million calls. I mean, we're not in sales. I'm helping people."

WATCH | Counsellors speak out about working conditions at Kids Help Phone:

Counsellors speak out about working conditions at Kids Help Phone

4 years ago

Duration 2:09

Some current and former staff at the 24/7 national helpline say it is being run like a corporate call centre, not a counselling service for young people in crisis, which is causing high employee turnover because of burnout.

CBC News has agreed not to publish the names of the current and former counsellors who were interviewed, as they fear that speaking out against the practices of an organization as well-known and important as Kids Help Phone could harm their future employment prospects.

They revealed how Kids Help Phone measures the performance of counsellors based on what it callskey performance indicators (KPIs). Their job performanceistracked, with percentages, for things likehow many calls they failed to answer,how often they weren't ready to answer a call, and what percentage of their time was devoted to self-care.

Supervisors require an explanation from counsellorsif their KPIsdon't match the organization's performance targets.

Time to debrief with colleagues after upsetting calls something they were able to do in the past in order to recover and get into a proper frame of mind for the next call is now strictly limited, the counsellorssaid.

Pressure and burnout

Kids Help Phonehas provided assistance to millions of young people in its 30-year history, including counselling victims of abuse and helping to preventsuicides. It also provides a caring listener to young people who just need to speak anonymously to someone about their troubles.

The charity employs 182 professional counsellors in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal,with 50 more coming on board by the end of the year,thanks to additional federal funding in response to the pandemic.

Those who contacted Go Public said the addition of new staff hadn't done much to reduce stress, as the micromanaging continued.Alerting supervisors, management and their unionto the problemsdidn't lead to any significant changes either, they said, even though thestressful working conditions counsellors face affect the quality of their work and their ability to help kids in need.

But after Go Public contacted Kids Help Phone to tell them that several counsellors had been in touch, the charity's chief youth officer said changes will be made.

"Our counsellors are courageous, kind and top professionals," said Alisa Simon, who described herself as the executive most in touch with workplaceissues at the charity."If we miss something, we will make it right; including changing guidelines to better meet their needs."

No specificdetails of how guidelines would be revised, or when, wereincluded in the statement.

In a previous statement to Go Public, Kids Help Phone saidit has added more support for front-line staff over the past eight months and intends to add even more, including mindfulness programs, extra days off in summer and "added time to decompress and debrief."

The charity also said it surveys staff to hear how they are doing.

However, acurrent Kids Help Phone counsellor,referred to as Natalie for the purpose of this article, says stress leaves are common and turnover is high.

"We can't really give the proper support if we're burning out," she said.

Another former counsellor, who will be referred to as Ashley, said the organization's intense focus on efficiency metrics, which was introduced in late 2019,is a distraction during crisis calls.

"That's a lot of pressure to have in the back of your head when you're trying to be present talking to some of these kids," she said. "It takes away from the main focus of what we're trying to do."

Natalie said supervisors have even sent messagesto counsellors over the company's internal chat system during lengthy callsto ask what's taking so long.

"That can bring some anxiousness and nervousness," Natalie said.

"You think, 'Oh, the manager is noticing how long I've been on the phone,'and it really takes you out of the call, because now you're worried that the manager is watching and you've been on too long. It can ruin the work you're doing."

Union not helping much, saycounsellors

Kids Help Phone workers are represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, but the counsellors who spoke with CBC Newssay complaints to the union haven't led tomeaningful action.

"The union has said for us to keep trying, to keep giving suggestions, to document the problems," Natalie said. "And that's not enough. I think that their method is just to wear management down. But we're worn down."

Go Public reached out to the union for comment but has yet to receive a response.

Before the focus on time management and efficiency was introduced late last year, Kids Help Phone had been a great place to work, said Jacques, a former counsellor.

"When I first started, I told my friends, 'I'm going to retire from this place, I love it,'"he said. "The training was fantastic."

Ashley saidshe also used to love the work.

"It was amazing to be able to help some of these kids," she said.

Thecounsellorssaid theydidn't have a problem with the charity using a software program to track their work activities through a system of codes. They could stillmanage their own workflow and weren'tchastisedfor missing time-management targets, they said.

But once the new operational guidelines were introduced last December,the charity started to measure counsellors' performance on a monthly basis, providingpercentages to indicate their adherenceto a strict schedule that dictatedprecisely how much time they wereto spend on various activities and when they couldtake breaks.

Bathroom breaks countedas 'self-care'

On one occasion, before the pandemic hit and counsellors started working from home, Jacques said his supervisor confronted himafter returning late frombreak.

"I got told, 'You went a minute over your lunch. What are we going to do about it?'" he said.

A Kids Help Phone operational guide, provided to employees, was obtained byCBC News. It says time is allowed for self-care,but that it should amount to no more than five per cent of a counsellor's "log in time averaged over the course of a month," or, for example,30 minutes during a 10-hourshift.

The document also specifies the downtime is intended to promote wellness, and suggests it can be used to get a coffee or tea, or to use the washroom.

Jacques confirmedthis ishow it works.

"I can't even go to the washroom without having to justify to someone why I spent two minutes off the phone?" Jacques saidinexasperation.

The counsellors who spoke withCBC News said the unpredictable nature of the calls they receive demands a level of flexibility in their workday, but supervisors don't seem to appreciate that, insisting instead the schedule be strictly followed.

Danielle van Jaarsveld, who teaches in the organizational behaviour and human resources department at the University of British Columbia'sSauder School of Business, and has studied call centres in the U.S., Europe, China and Canada, said it appearsKids Help Phone is compoundingthe stress of an already stressful job.

"The issue with this type of monitoring is that it really contributes toemployee emotional burnout," she said. "And when employees are burnt out, they really can't perform at their best."

She said employee time-tracking systems like the one used at Kids Help Phone are not uncommon, but are more suited to call centres that deal with "shorter, simpler transactions,"as opposed to lengthy counselling sessions.

"What I tend to see in call centreswhere the interaction involves emotionsis much more discretion being given to the employees with respect to break time."

Believe it when they see it

When told that Kids Help Phone said it plans to changethe time-management rules, Natalie said she isskepticalabout her employer'smotivation.

"They say they have our well-being at the front but they have said that before and nothing changed," she said. "I do believe that if this time has a different result, it is only because they are worried about their reputation and not us."

Nonetheless,she and the othercounsellorswho spoke with Go Publicsaid theyremain hopeful that the problems at the charity willbe solved. They saidthe mental health support Kids Help Phoneoffers its callers is more important than ever.

"I think the people that are higher up are not understanding the reality of the front line," said Jacques. "We need more autonomy to say, 'These are my limits right now.'And that is really not that much to changewhen you think about it."

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