The tragic death of a high school student has turned the spotlight on the poor working conditions of interns at customer service centers.
The body of the 17-year-old, who is not identified in news reports, was found floating in a reservoir in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, in January. She had worked in the city as a customer service center intern for five months before taking her own life.
Three years ago, a 30-year-old staff at the customer service center had also committed suicide.
“Her friend told me that my daughter cried for hours when some customers yelled at her over their inconvenience,” her mother told Nocut News. “It also seems she was scolded for her bad performance by her boss.”
According to the Nocut News report, the teenager was part of a team that had to persuade dissatisfied customers to continue subscribing to its products.
“I regret forcing her to get over the challenges at her workplace, when my daughter told me she wanted to quit,” she added.
The teenager was one of 30 student interns from a nearby vocational high school. One-third of them are still working there, according to the Nocut News report Monday.
“My daughter was simply a high school student, and I cannot understand why she was tasked with such demanding work,” her father was quoted as saying by Nocut News. “She began to vent her anger on us, as time went by,”
A staff from the center, which is affiliated to a telecommunications company, expressed condolences about the teenager’s death, but told Nocut News that it “never forced its employees and interns to meet a certain quota.”
By Son Ji-hyoung ()
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
