Marusa closing Kelowna office

by Kelly Hayes - Feb 20, 2008 CASTANET

Kelowna is about to lose one of its larger employers. Marusa Marketing is closing its doors. Employees got the bad news Wednesday. They were told that the doors will be shut in April because its parent company, Teleperformance USA, is consolidating its call centres. Sources tell Castanet the company is leaving effective April 30. The number of people affected by the impending closure isn't clear, but when Marusa first opened its doors in Kelowna back in November 2004, it was looking for up to 600 workers. Marusa's office is located in the Telus building on Hardy St. Calls to Marusa in Kelowna were forwarded to Teleperformance USA which did not return our calls for comment.
-----------------------
Marusa closing doors in Kelowna Don Plant Kelowna Daily Courier

More than 200 staff at a Kelowna call centre were sacked Wednesday when its American parent company ordered it shut down. Marusa Marketing, which answers customer-service calls and sells contracts for telecommunications giant Sprint-Nextel, informed employees the firm will close in the coming weeks. Teleperformance USA, based in Salt Lake City, pulled the plug. “It‘s been a long time coming,” said former Marusa manager Jeremy Goodrick, who resigned last April. “We all knew this would happen eventually.” The company opened the call centre in the former Telus building on Enterprise Way in November 2004, vowing to hire as many as 1,000 employees. The most management attracted was just over 400, said Goodrick. “Half the floor was devoid of desks. They couldn‘t expand any more. They couldn‘t get enough staff to stay to validate getting more desks.” With a typical wage of $10.50 an hour, turnover was a persistent problem. Most employees were in their late teens and early 20s. With Kelowna‘s hot job market, retaining staff was a constant challenge. For every 30 people who filled job vacancies, the company would keep five after they trained and worked for a couple of weeks, Goodrick said. “They (managers) did their best to keep morale up. At the end of the day . . . the environment was negative and poor.” Teleperformance became frustrated with what it considered a high minimum wage in B.C. and Canadian regulations, Goodrick said. “In their eyes, it was a money pit.” Goodrick became frustrated and asked to be demoted to sales agent. When managers told him he couldn‘t accept a second job at another firm, he quit. No Marusa official could be reached for comment Wednesday.