3 ms·

wow, that needs way more explaination

philwelch 17y ago
You'd be surprised how polite most people are with unsolicited calls. Most people just hang up. I worked there 30-35 hours a week for over a month until someone even cussed at me. You actually learn more than you'd think at that kind of job. You learn how it's difficult to distinguish between a male voice and the voice of a lifelong female smoker. You learn all kinds of fascinating regional accents. You learn how much fun it is for people to say bad things about companies they've had bad experiences with (some rich guy in Texas really had it in for Smith Barney). You learn that hockey fans don't like being interrupted during the Stanley Cup ("do you know what time it is! It's the Stanley Cup finals!"). (Drinking beer and watching sports does tend to give people the illusion that it's the most important thing in the world, which is probably where stadium riots come from.) You learn that some mothers feel a little insecure about not being able to judge the quality of the meat they buy. There's something that happens to people in customer service jobs where they have to be polite to people. Addressing people as "sir" and "ma'am" just gets habitual. One day I learned that habit isn't automatically broken when someone manages to trigger my "get into a cussing match" reflex. Some people will call you a son of a bitch for trying to do a survey with them on Father's Day. That wouldn't have bothered me, but some people have just the right type of voice and inflection to get my goat. Instinct got the better of me. When that happens, you learn that shouting "fuck you too, sir" into a phone loud enough for the entire call center to hear you is cause for summary termination. Going in there the next two Fridays to pick up my paychecks while getting the evil eye from the managers was oddly fun. It was around that time I learned that I was one of the few people there who didn't smoke weed to get by during the day. It might have mellowed me out enough to make more money. But I've also learned that having a bit more money isn't always as rewarding as having a story to tell.
- clistctrl 17y ago
  its a pretty good story too

You'd be surprised how polite most people are with unsolicited calls. Most people just hang up. I worked there 30-35 hours a week for over a month until someone even cussed at me. You actually learn more than you'd think at that kind of job. You learn how it's difficult to distinguish between a male voice and the voice of a lifelong female smoker. You learn all kinds of fascinating regional accents. You learn how much fun it is for people to say bad things about companies they've had bad experiences with (some rich guy in Texas really had it in for Smith Barney). You learn that hockey fans don't like being interrupted during the Stanley Cup ("do you know what time it is! It's the Stanley Cup finals!"). (Drinking beer and watching sports does tend to give people the illusion that it's the most important thing in the world, which is probably where stadium riots come from.) You learn that some mothers feel a little insecure about not being able to judge the quality of the meat they buy. There's something that happens to people in customer service jobs where they have to be polite to people. Addressing people as "sir" and "ma'am" just gets habitual. One day I learned that habit isn't automatically broken when someone manages to trigger my "get into a cussing match" reflex. Some people will call you a son of a bitch for trying to do a survey with them on Father's Day. That wouldn't have bothered me, but some people have just the right type of voice and inflection to get my goat. Instinct got the better of me. When that happens, you learn that shouting "fuck you too, sir" into a phone loud enough for the entire call center to hear you is cause for summary termination. Going in there the next two Fridays to pick up my paychecks while getting the evil eye from the managers was oddly fun. It was around that time I learned that I was one of the few people there who didn't smoke weed to get by during the day. It might have mellowed me out enough to make more money. But I've also learned that having a bit more money isn't always as rewarding as having a story to tell.

clistctrl 17y ago
its a pretty good story too