…my 22 year old daughter was told to “take a 2 month break and rethink” the job she had for one week. It was with with a non-profit organization that dealt with environmental matters, involved going door-to-door asking for donations, signing petitions, and sending letters to politicians. Hydrofracking, pesticides sprayed on green spaces, things like that. They had to go out 4-5 hours a day and meet a quota. Some days were good. Some days they didn’t meet their goals. She dealt with abusive mean people, doors slammed in her face, getting yelled at over the phone - basically a door-to-door salesman job…My girl is devastated and feels like a failure. If she doesn’t find another job in the interim she can go back in two months and try again. I think you need physical strength and a thick skin, neither of which she sufficiently possesses, apparently…Never thought about it much, but I have been guilty of turning down these people, myself, politely, and hanging up when they phone. After this, I will try to give at least a spare $10, even though money is tight, or at least offer them a granola bar or bottle of water! If some young person comes to your door, please be polite when you turn them down, they aren’t trying to harass you.
I could never do door to door sales. I hope she doesn’t let it get her down. It’s probably a blessing in disguise. At 22 I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do as a career. I waitressed, worked as a nurses aide, did some factory work, was a cashier. All these jobs helped me figure out what I was good at and what I wasn’t good at. By 24 I figured it out and trying a variety of jobs helped.
I was a telemarketer for an hour, trying to pitch newspapers. It was a shit job so I quit.
I’ve had people come door to door and I’ve always been polite when turning them away. I’ve always been polite turning down telemarketers, too (even though I usually cut them off in the middle of their pitch). I wouldn’t recommend buying something you normally wouldn’t as charity, but I fully endorse a plea for people to be polite.
I did canvassing for two different nonprofits, once upon a time many years ago. It could be tough, but it was also pretty fun at times. There were some good after-canvass parties sometimes. It can be an educational experience, for a very young or sheltered person, in that one is compelled to try to talk to and persuade a wide range of people that one might not otherwise have occasion to interact with.
I wouldn’t really recommend thinking of canvassing as “a job,” though.
Hardly anybody really makes much money at it, beyond a shared-house, ramen-noodles level. Advancement opportunity is very limited. Having it on your resume is unlikely to impress anyone.
I was downright cruel to a Sierra Club girl once although not directly at her because she was just doing what she was told and I am sure that she was quite idealistic. We bought the mother of all fixer-up properties about two years before with literally about 12 tractor trailer loads of waste spread around two and 1/2 acres. All we did was work on the property and house restoring it spending every dime we had and many we didn’t on it. I had grand dreams of restoring the place which eventually happened but it took 7 years of constant work.
I got laid off on a Friday while my wife was traveling and I was also taking sole care of my 2 1/2 month old daughter who had colic. It was a bad week and a very bad day and night and I didn’t get any sleep until early the next morning when the baby finally passed out.
I was woken up by repeated knocks at the door by the Sierra Club sucker girl. I was polite and first and listened to her spiel and then she noted that a simple $200 donation could do some good. It was just a classic sales technique to shock and she tried to work her way down to something more reasonable which I truly couldn’t do at that point. She finally piped up in that enthusiastic but condescending college girl kind of way “Don’t you care about the environment?”.
I lost it even though I wanted to be nice. I replied. “No, I hate the environment! You see all those big trees out there? They drop leaves the same time every year and drop branches sometimes to. I am trying to save my money to have everything here clearcut and have some type of asphalt or concrete poured over everything so I don’t have to deal with them anymore. I hate wildlife too. They eat your stuff and try to get hit by cars to hurt people. I’m sorry, I really can’t stand the environment and want to fight against it. I won’t support it.”
She looked shocked and wandered off with her eyes swelling with tears. I felt bad because she was a cute doe-eyed thing but there are reasons why people may be hostile towards people coming to their houses and certain times and there is no way for an outsider to no that nor is it any of their business.
At the same age I worked for the same green organization (I think). Anyway, lots of doors slammed in the face and all that but it was a good experience despite the tough times. Met lots of interesting people and learned what to think of their opinions (sometimes constructive, sometimes not). Your daughter is going to grow from this. It’s tough to watch but it’s likely a good thing.
Please come back in 15 years and remind me of this when my daughters are struggling with their first jobs. 
A few people are born with a thick skin. The rest of us (myself definitely included) need to develop it.
I know it’s painful for your daughter. But that time getting doors slammed in her face and getting yelled at can benefit her.
It’s not failure. Emphasize this to her. It’s training. Yeah, it hurts, but real training hurts. It should.
Things are picking up. My own field (manufacturing, chemical) is a leading indicator. We crashed first (2006-2007), we started picking up these last few years. Things are going to be better soon.
Put a chip on her shoulder. This is like the best time to be starting a career. The entire world economy has started a painful reboot. Times are primed for a brilliant recovery. Every “failure” she had is a brutal but useful lesson. Now is the time to get back into the field, fists ready. She knows what it feels like to fail. But that’s good. Let the wounds scar over, then go back out there wiser and ready to fight for a cause.
I am failing to understand the point of the OP, and am definitely failing to understand the punch line.
Canvassers and door to door sales people are a scourge. That your daughter has discovered that people do not like this work inflicted on them after only 5 days on the job is good. That she has vowed never to do this work again would be even better.
I am always polite to such folks, but insist that they and their tiresome organzation (of whatever nature) never darken my door again. The ones who don’t get the message the first time are dealt with more sternly.
I am genuinely sorry that people were mean to her. I hope that the OP, and the rest of us here can help her understand that she is a good person and not a failure.
But to decide that the best response to somebody being mean to your daughter is to forever more give in to canvasser’s demands? I’m sorry, but in my book that is insanity.
**GameHat **is right, the next 12 months are a time of great opportunity for folks with hustle. And that she will be stronger and better for her scars. But the idea that the right response is to go back to being a canvasser for a non-profit after a 2 month hiatus is an idea totally from left field.
It’s low-paying shit work done by folks who’re either just learning about the reality of wokring life, or by no-hopers. Your daughter is a honorable dues-paying member of the first group. Don’t let her become part of the second.
They are two completely different animals, only superficially similar in the means (door-to-door).
If you don’t want to contribute money to whatever cause, that’s fine, but why resent somebody for trying to involve you in something that affects your neighborhood/region/nation/species/planet?
FWIW, when I canvassed, I considered fundraising as only half my objective. I was still interested in talking about issues (if possible) even after it was clear that no donation was possible. Sometimes I didn’t even have to knock to guess that would probably be the case.
Sorry, but this is exactly what they are trying to do; not the individual doing the actual selling, perhaps, but the organization as a whole is using the tactic of shotgunning a mass population in order to find people who are lonely, desperate, or weak willed, and part them from their money for a cause that they aren’t educated on and probably don’t really care about. If they were soliciting money from people who are interested in their cause they’d go directly to the source: their members and members of similar organizations. If they want to spread the word, they’ll post in outdoor publications, rec stores, grass roots efforts by members, et cetera. What the organization your daughter worked for is doing is one level above Glengarry Glen Ross. (“Put that coffee down. Coffee is for closers.”) I’ve seen the inner workings of a number of non-profits, and many of them are just as oriented on making money–as opposed to supporting their ostensible cause–as any profit-making organization, and they’ll use people like your daughter as low grade fodder.
I don’t have a problem with salespeople, per se. A good salesman (or -woman) will take a look at what I need, look through their roster of products, and provide their best advice in a forthright but not pushy manner. (The best salespeople will actually advise me to go elsewhere when they can’t help me…and I’ll go back to that person next time because I know that they understand that their best interest is satisfying my best interests rather than lining their pockets with a quick deal on an unsuitable product.) But ringing doorbells and hawking a product or cause that I don’t care about and am not interested in is not good salesmanship, and if someone is going to engage in that sort of rudeness (interrupting someone’s activities in order to shell their product), then it is only expected that they’ll receive a lot of rejection, closed doors, and even verbal abuse.
Good luck to your daughter in finding a job which matches her personality and gives her the self-confidence that comes in providing value to someone other than her employer.
Stranger
Nonprofits do use all the methods you mention, in various combinations.
Part of the point of canvassing, specifically, is to reach people who aren’t in touch with the information streams you describe. When I canvassed on air and water quality, I talked to lots of people who had literally never heard of some of the points I was discussing; not all were able to donate, but I was still glad to have gotten a little information out there. Door-to-door canvassing is one of the basic instruments of genuine “grass-roots efforts.”
It’s not a very good job for most people, but I’m glad there are people doing it.
Yes, what I want when I’m interrupted in mid-dinner or while I’m trying to write an analysis report that is due the next morning is to have some turk knock up my door and start lecturing me on his pet interest for which the sum total of his knowledge comes from an orientation video and a couple of pamphlets. If I were really interested in the issue/cause/product, I’d hop on the Internet or go down to the library and do my own research, thank you. What world do you live in that this is even remotely courteous behavior?
Stranger
my house is my PRIVATE domain.
If you want to canvass,fundraise, gather my signature,etc---- don’t do it when I am at home.Do it in public places ( train stations, shopping malls, etc.)
Pass out your leaflets , walk up to strangers, whatever—but don’t invade my private space, my private family life, my dinner time, my baby’s bathtime.
Now, because I’m such a nice, cultured gentleman,I wouldn’t berate your daughter---- but I will close the door in her face within 5 seconds.
And she should apologize to me, not vice-versa.
Are you actually serious? You’re wallowing in misery WITH her because she was let go from one of the most emotionally abusive and shittiest jobs in the industrialized world? I don’t care if they are selling world peace and unicorn farts it’s DOOR TO DOOR sales without even the fig leaf of offering a tangible good like Girl Scout cookies. And the bright spot is that if she wants more abuse she can come back in 2 months and take another beating.
I hesitate to tell you how to do your job of advising or comforting your daughter, but really were you raised in a bubble or something, almost everyone knows these jobs are pure shit and are to be avoided. Why didn’t you stop her from doing this in the first place? Your daughter has dodged a gigantic bullet. Take her to dinner and tell her to count her good fortune.
I am not rude to door-to-door workers, but I won’t be polite, and I certainly won’t give them a penny or a signature or anything else. The way I look at it, if fewer people gave them what they want, the job wouldn’t be worth doing and they would stop it. If no one signed the stupid petition, they wouldn’t bother bringing them around. Bonus for everyone!
I’m with Palo Verde, I politely tell them I don’t support this form of selling, period. For non profits you don’t have to be Einstein to see that most of the funds raised are paying for the canvassers. Any piece of paper or badge you show me, to convince me you’re legit, could easily be made on my computer. I have no way of knowing if you’re going to give the money to the charity or put it in your pocket. So no, not ever, never.
Same goes for phone solicitations. I let they say their initial come on and they tell them, sorry, I don’t support this form of solicitation, period. Then I say, ‘Thanks anyway’, and hang up.
I research the groups I give to, very thoroughly and give to those I choose.
Boy scouts selling apples on street corners I’m down with, girl guide troops in front of grocery stores I’ll give to (keep the cookies, thanks, yuck!), same for local sports teams, on location as a group, so I can see they are on the up and up.
I just don’t answer the freakin’ door… Tell blondie with the ponytail to go to the next house.
I’m with chappachula and elbows. I’ll support some non-profits when their sales methods don’t invade my private domain.
My last apartment didn’t have no solicitation signs. As a day sleeper, those who came to my door trying to sell me something, be it vacuum cleaners, save the whales or religion, usually had one strike against them before I ever got to the door. The telemarketers, pre-do not call list and caller ID, did as well.
I can be generous to a fault, but on my terms.