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Call Center Workers Gather For Last Call

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 30, 2008

BRANDON - No one was crying in his beer.

Then again, none of the roughly 100 Home Depot call center employees at O'Brien's Irish Pub in Brandon on Jan. 23 was jumping for joy, either.

It was the last call for the call center at U.S. 301 and Causeway Boulevard, which officially closed Monday.
Home Depot announced in early December that it was closing the call center and would lay off the 750 people who worked there.

Although employees said they had heard rumors about the closing, the announcement before Christmas came as a shock.

Afterward, the home improvement warehouse giant, based in Atlanta, agreed to keep the call center employees on for an additional two weeks and afford employees full pay.

"We have the media to thank for that," said Arlene Wykle of Brandon, who worked at the call center for nearly four years. "I'm not sure we would have gotten it without all the publicity."

Employees at the call center primarily helped Home Depot customers get prices and schedule appointments for installation services. Those tasks have been outsourced.

Wykle said she took the closing personally.

"I gave that job 110 percent," she said. "It was very emotional for me. I'm going to miss all my friends. They really became my family."

However, she said she's one of the lucky ones. She landed on her feet.

Her first interview got her a job with Delta Mechanical, one of Home Depot's installers. She began her new job Monday.

"I'm ecstatic," she said. "It was my first and only interview. It's exactly the type of atmosphere I wanted, and I still get to work with Home Depot."

A jack of all trades, Bob Myers was known as "Bob the Builder" at the call center, where he worked since it opened in 2001.

At his new job with Humana, the national health-care provider, he will more likely use his proper name.

The Antioch resident said fate was with him when Home Depot decided to close the center. On Jan. 17, Myers turned 65 years and 10 months old, meaning he could begin collecting Social Security. But he isn't ready to retire.

So he attended one of the job fairs Home Depot organized for call center employees featuring 48 companies, including the HSBC banking services company, Humana, AAA Auto Club, other call centers and several temporary employment services.

Myers was among 60 employees Humana hired for its Tampa facility.

"And they pay pretty well," Myers said. He will start his new job Feb. 11. "Between retirement and Humana, I'll be making about $54,000. I count myself pretty fortunate."

So does Marilyn Brinson of Brandon.

She has considered being a nurse, and at one of the job fairs, she learned about a federal grant that will finance her education.

"So I took early retirement, and I'm going back to school to get my LPN licensed practical nurse license," she said.

A manager at the call center, Jeff Franklin of Brandon, agreed.

"People are discovering new opportunities," Franklin said. He plans to move to St. Louis to spend time with his daughter. "People started thinking outside the box, and everybody pulled together, helping one another find jobs. It was a real testament to what we are as a group. It brought out the best of us."

Floor manager Alex McGuire of Brandon said she wishes she could say the same for the company's executives. A 12-year employee of the company, McGuire said she's bitter about the way the employees were treated.

"A Fortune 500 company like that could have done so much more for the employees who have been so loyal to them all these years, who have stood on the front line for them and tried to make the company better," she said.

Ray Calandro of Valrico remains hopeful, although he has yet to find a job.

"I'm OK. I've been promoted to customer," he joked. "There's not much you can do these days when something like this happens. You just keep sending out resumes and praying."

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524 or dlwhite@tampatrib.com.

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