# I'm glad to be back in the workforce, and... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 15, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763 "2012-09-15T04:21:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/41 "2012-09-16T05:01:40Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > No, they are not “trying to fix that”. They are lying to you. You are lying then to your customers. Actually, our masters used to have our name come up but for some reason changed it. “They” in this case are our immediate superiors and they ARE trying to fix it because they see how it is problematic. It is a matter of humans at all levels working to perfect our product and things take time to change when you have a chain of command. I believe I am telling my customers the truth. I may be misinforming them, but I am not lying to them and I resent your statement that I am a dishonest person. > [@](#): > > Why not try sign twirling? Fresh air, excerise, the ability to look yourself in the mirror again… Okay, now I am starting to get mad at all the fucked-up kiddie attitudes here, though it is the Pit, the home of fucked-up kiddie attitudes. I wanted to complain and didn’t want the sappy sympathy I’d get in MPSIMS, but some of you with whom I have never before had any beef whatsoever are getting on my last nerve. Telemarketing is a real job for real people. Many of my co-workers are young and getting their start in business. It is a step up from flipping burgers for them. Others, like me, are older and have found that the job market has less and less use for them. What we have in common, I’m afraid, is that most of us belong to minority groups, where many of the younger people are black and many of the white people are older. Telemarketers, in my limited experience, tend to not be young and white. The young, black people have something that will help them get better jobs. The older people have something to pay the bills until they die. I am trying for the skills to get a better job thing, but I am realistic enough to see I may end up dying with my headset on. And I need a job to go for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy instead of a Chapter 7, wherein I would lose my home. As I keep trying to pound into your pointy, little heads, these are not cold calls to people out of the phone book, but calls to existing subscribers who must not really mind us calling because they have not cancelled their service. They have received sales calls from us for as long as ten years. They should be used to them by now. And as I also said, CONSUMERS WON WITH THE DO NOT CALL REGISTRY. Please try to be more gracious winners. Generally, though, I suggest that some of you grow the fuck up. Act like the adults you claim to be. Try to look at the world without your too-cool blinders. Your friends may be disappointed that you are not as superior and snarky as you used to be, but they are assholes, not role models. Oh, and **DrDeth**? I am trying to scrape together the money to buy the books to take classes in tax preparation so I can work evenings and weekends at Liberty Tax Service. I just hope I won’t need to dress up like the Statue of Liberty and stand outside with a sign, like some of their employees do. Verdigris green makeup would clash with my eyes. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/42 "2012-09-16T05:09:54Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > In fact, the one thing I learned by being a telemarketer is that 99% of the consumer population is stupid. Far too many people think they know something when, in fact, they know nothing. I try to not be patronizing, though I usually fail, but with every job I’ve had I saw that an important part was leading people to make decisions that were really in their best interest but which they were [del]too stupid[/del] too mentally occupied with other things to realize. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/43 "2012-09-16T05:19:36Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > It would be better if you answered the phone, said you weren’t interested, and hung up. Then we won’t call back for three months. If I get an answering machine we’ll call back tomorrow. If i am calling you then you are a subscriber who has agreed to us calling you. That is really uncalled for and you have a very counterproductive and childish attitude toward the value of time in the telemarketing trenches. I have been passed over for real inside sales jobs, the kind where you build up a customer base and they start calling _you_ and you get insurance and real money, because I don’t have enough experience making cold calls. Cleaning toilets would be no advantage in those cases and could mark you as a person who was too inept to get a job in telemarketing. What? Really, what? Its harder to get a job cleaning toilets than it is do cold calls. I was trying to be supportive with my post. I have cleaning toilets on my resume. I’m not ashamed of that. I don’t have the one month stint of trying to sell siding there. And, I’m not going to answer the phone to make things easier for strangers. I don’t care. Next time you call, I will just not answer and delete the number. I know that you need to eat and pay your bills. I just don’t feel that its my responsiblity to listen to someone trying to sell me shit. OH…and btw…I moved up from cleaning the toilets to running a warehouse. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/44 "2012-09-16T05:23:54Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Why on earth did you quote the entire OP? The effect is the same as listening to the spiel, again. **AuntiePam** , two things: 1. As I have said, nobody has a gun to your head and you don’t have to read the entire quoted part a second time. Just hang up. 2. Tangent was making a joke about my long-windedness and my wish that people who don’t want what I am selling would not wait until the end of my spiel to hang up. I thought it was funny. 3. And yes, I really do like lists, but let’s try this one as bullet points. [ul] [li]As I have said, nobody has a gun to your head and you don’t have to read the entire quoted part a second time. Just hang up.[/li] [li]Tangent was making a joke about my long-windedness and my wish that people who don’t want what I am selling would not wait until the end of my spiel to hang up. I thought it was funny.[/li] [li]And though I like numbered lists, this is nice, too. :D[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/45 "2012-09-16T05:24:41Z")
**dropzone** , got it. Sorry about the siding. When they’re looking for something specific the only thing they (we) can do is ask. My motto is, it never hurts to ask, and you never know until you ask. Did you buy siding? Do you have a baby in diapers? Have you recently bought an iPad? Do you watch such and such TV shows? Whatever the study is about, we have to find people to fit the client’s exact criteria. I tend to work mostly on professional studies, medical and business, calling doctors or engineers or human resources people or business owners etc., which is why I often have to make more cold calls, but I’ve worked on plenty of “regular people” studies, and sometimes they can be harder to recruit than cold-called professionals, even though the regular people are from the database. People can game the system and tell us what they think we want to hear and whatever they think will get them into the studies, but we’re pretty savvy about that. The questions are often designed to thwart that. Obvious cheaters get banned from the database. > [@flatlined](#): > > **Equipoise** , I’d love to be in your surveys…but if you just cold call me…it will go to voice mail. That’s fine, really. I actually tend to prefer answering machines. It’s nice if you can get through to people but then at times it can be somewhat stressful because you’re rushing to tell who you are, that you’re not selling anything, and that you want to pay them for their opinions, before they hang up. Plus do it while not sounding like a telemarketer trying to fool them. When I get an answering machine I can sound more relaxed while giving the basics of the study, what it entails, how much it pays, our name and number. People can look up our company on the web to see we’re legit and then give us a call at their convenience. I do love answering machines. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/46 "2012-09-16T05:42:31Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > OH…and btw…I moved up from cleaning the toilets to running a warehouse. And that’s the gung ho attitude I’m talking about! You started with that first step at the bottom and used the experience to move your career upward. I, on the other hand, would rather get sworn at now and then than clean toilets. Been there, done that, different strokes and all. Still, I saw very few ads for custodial staff in my job search, even on Craigslist. I don’t know why. Loads of ads for after-hour cleaning ladies, but none for the guys with mops who keep our nation’s factories and warehouses clean day in and day out. In the past I was in some very clean factories and warehouses that were obviously maintained by people who felt pride in their work. I think a lot of those job duties are being handled by the assemblers and warehouse workers with the lowest seniority these days, and the warehouses probably look like shit because of it. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/47 "2012-09-16T05:47:31Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > Did you buy siding? Do you have a baby in diapers? Have you recently bought an iPad? Do you watch such and such TV shows? See? You hate me because I’m old and frugal. 😉 > [@](#): > > I tend to work mostly on professional studies, medical and business, calling doctors or engineers or human resources people or business owners etc. And in my three decades of being an engineer did you ever call me and offer me money? I’m still taking this personally. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/48 "2012-09-16T05:52:35Z")
I might actually have a fair amount of sympathy for someone taking a much-derided job because times are tough, until you come out with self-justifying shit like: > [@](#): > > As I keep trying to pound into your pointy, little heads, these are not cold calls to people out of the phone book, but calls to existing subscribers who must not really mind us calling because they have not cancelled their service. They have received sales calls from us for as long as ten years. They should be used to them by now. And, from your OP: > [@](#): > > These are not cold calls. You are already a customer, and have been for as long as ten years. After all this time you should expect that we will try to sell you an upgrade or an expansion now and then. Don’t act so surprised. Your attitude to the very people you are pestering seems to be If you don’t like it, then it sucks to be you, and that is why you are copping so much flak here. ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/49 "2012-09-16T06:58:21Z")
Go down to the docks, proposition some sailors, make some honest money. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/50 "2012-09-16T08:03:26Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > Sounding an air horn into a phone could get you sent to prison??? At least theoretically. It could damage someone’s hearing, and if it’s done with the intent to harm - which is really the only reason someone would do it - it’s assault. I’m not convinced any jury that’s ever been cold called would convict, though. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/51 "2012-09-16T08:35:28Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Just to point out that that is almost certainly illegal, the call will almost certainly be recorded, and if they have your phone number they can probably track you down fairly easily. > > Not that I dislike the _idea_ of doing that to cold callers, but I’m not sure it’s worth a prison sentence. WTF are you smoking? You really believe “Bob” in Mumbai is going to call the local cops to report someone who he illegally cold called when they are on the Do Not Call list is blowing an airhorn into the phone? SURE! ---
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/52 "2012-09-16T08:40:14Z")
Hmm… didn’t someone recently get convicted of pulling the air horn/whistle thing?? ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/53 "2012-09-16T09:09:15Z")
You really are a purulent little buttlump, aren’t you? You’ve dropped below the gutter and are currently bobbing merrily along the sewer, jostling the other plump turds and stinking the air for everyone above with your pungent miasma. > [@](#): > > And if you are in a business meeting and that number comes up on your cell phone, DO NOT TAKE THE FUCKING CALL! Put me into voicemail. I promise I will not leave a message that you have to listen to. We’ve covered this one already: you should expect to be pestered at home when you sign up for our service. > [@](#): > > And if you are in a business meeting and that number comes up on your cell phone, DO NOT TAKE THE FUCKING CALL! When I pester you, it’s your own fault for answering the phone. > [@](#): > > I cannot help you with your billing or technical issues, nor can I transfer you to to the customer service department. All I can do is give you a phone number to reach someone who can help you. Fuck off with your desire for service, I’m just here to sell you shit. > [@](#): > > There is no need to swear at me while I read the legalese I am required to read. For all of my airs about being the best and brightest at what I do, I am a monkey reading from a script. > [@](#): > > But why would you trust me? I’m just a telemarketer. You said it, bub. So a little less of the disdain for the other bobbing turds who infest your particular stretch of sewer for being “telemarketers working for telemarketer pay”. After all, perhaps if you had shut up and worked harder in your last job you would not be here. But probably not, so just shut the fuck up and do your job. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/54 "2012-09-16T11:16:43Z")
> [@madrabbitwoman](#): > > Hmm.. didn’t someone recently get convicted of pulling the air horn/whistle thing?? I’ve found a [case in Germany](http://www.thelocal.de/society/20120522-42685.html) where it happened. Not prison though. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/55 "2012-09-16T12:57:54Z")
**dropzone** , I think maybe you should start saying you are in customer service, since in fact you are only calling current customers who have agreed to be called. Because 90% of the people in this thread seem to be incapable of reading for comprehension and full of hate for people who (gasp) make their phone ring! Wow, hanging up is so hard, or not answering, and calling the company to ask their number be deleted from the data base is completely impossible. I really don’t understand some of the incredible anger in here. I don’t like getting calls from computers either, or getting spam, or junk mail. It doesn’t make me foam at the mouth though. Makes me think some of y’all have a lot of hostility that you have decided to direct at telemarketers and specifically **dropzone**. Maybe you ought to check out who you are really mad at. (Sorry, at whom you are really mad.) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/56 "2012-09-16T13:39:39Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > **dropzone** , I think maybe you should start saying you are in customer service, since in fact you are only calling current customers who have agreed to be called. > [@dropzone](#): > > A moment’s thought will tell you I do not work directly for the company I represent, but in a job that has been outsourced, like nearly every other telemarketer job on Earth. I cannot help you with your billing or technical issues, nor can I transfer you to to the customer service department. Yeah, that sounds like the definition of good customer service right there. If you want to use bullshit euphemisms, he might as well tell people he’s a philanthropist doing charity work. > [@KayT](#): > > Because 90% of the people in this thread seem to be incapable of reading for comprehension and full of hate for people who (gasp) make their phone ring! Wow, hanging up is so hard, or not answering, and calling the company to ask their number be deleted from the data base is completely impossible. I really don’t understand some of the incredible anger in here. Let’s try an analogy. Suppose that every day, I come to your house and ring your doorbell. If you answer, I start giving you a sales pitch that you don’t want to hear, which you either have to patiently listen to or slam the door in my face. If you don’t answer, I’ll just keep coming back and ringing your doorbell every few hours, every day. If you tell me to stop, maybe I’ll listen and leave you alone, or maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll keep showing up at all hours of the day or night, and drive up in a different car and wearing a different disguise so you won’t recognize me. Let’s say you get so sick of your doorbell being rung all the time that you move to a new address—_only to have it start all over again_. Ding dong, ding dong. Every fucking day. Maybe it’ll be an actual offer for services. Maybe it’ll be a “survey” that’s actually a “free” vacation scam. Maybe it’s a slimeball collection agency looking to collect a long-expired debt incurred by someone whom you’ve never heard of, which refuses to believe that it’s not you. No reason to complain, right? It’s just a doorbell, and you can always keep answering it and saying “no thanks,” or just ignore the bell going ding-dong, ding-dong, _ding-dong_ every day of your life. _That’s_ my experience with telemarketing. Any company I’m a customer of has my email address, and if they have exciting new money-saving offers that will revolutionize my life, they can easily notify me that way and I’ll decide whether I’m interested. If you want to make absolutely certain that I won’t buy whatever it is you’re selling, hiring a human robot to call and read me a script (eating up my cell phone minutes in the process) is definitely the right approach. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/57 "2012-09-16T14:53:34Z")
> [@Omg a Black Conservative](#): > > This is why I’ve never understood the hate for telemarketers. The hate is probably twofold. Both that people are bothered and that others are willing to debase themselves because of the nature of a capitalist economy. > [@al27052](#): > > That’s what I do, and it works quite well. Asking them to remove you from their calling list works too. ---
**Author:** ![Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omg_a_Black_Conservative)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/58 "2012-09-16T15:20:09Z")
About the air horn thing, don’t do that. If you damage someone’s ears you can get sued for it, much like if you issue a death threat on the phone you can wind up with a prison term. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/59 "2012-09-16T15:31:47Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Let’s try an analogy. Suppose that every day, I come to your house and ring your doorbell. If you answer, I start giving you a sales pitch that you don’t want to hear, which you either have to patiently listen to or slam the door in my face. > If you don’t answer, I’ll just keep coming back and ringing your doorbell every few hours, every day. > > If you tell me to stop, maybe I’ll listen and leave you alone, or maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll keep showing up at all hours of the day or night, and drive up in a different car and wearing a different disguise so you won’t recognize me. Let’s say you get so sick of your doorbell being rung all the time that you move to a new address—_only to have it start all over again_. Ding dong, ding dong. Every fucking day. Maybe it’ll be an actual offer for services. Maybe it’ll be a “survey” that’s actually a “free” vacation scam. Maybe it’s a slimeball collection agency looking to collect a long-expired debt incurred by someone whom you’ve never heard of, which refuses to believe that it’s not you. > > No reason to complain, right? It’s just a doorbell, and you can always keep answering it and saying “no thanks,” or just ignore the bell going ding-dong, ding-dong, _ding-dong_ every day of your life. _That’s_ my experience with telemarketing. Great analogy, as I usually liken people calling me to them coming to my door or being in my house (usually in regards to how they speak to me). Now let’s add one more component; If you call my cell phone, you are using my minutes and (theoretically at least) costing me money. I never gave you permission to spend my money to make sales pitches at me. The whole slimeball collection agency thing. Had that on the landline at my old apartment. I had that number for 5 years and I probably got over 100 calls demanding payment of a debt and refusing to believe I wasn’t that person. The worst part of it was that for several of those years, I was working nights and the calls would wake me up (and then piss me off, making it harder for me to get back to sleep). ---
**Author:** ![moejoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@moejoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejoe)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763/60 "2012-09-16T15:45:54Z")
I don’t have any issue with you taking a telemarketer job just for the money. Everyone has bills to pay and sometimes we take the job we can get, whatever. What strikes me as odd is that you’ve taken this job that clearly no one wants, and then you expect your coworkers to behave as if they love it and are somehow motivated to do more than just show up and grab the paycheck. Seriously you’re pissed that they’re flirting? Or that they spend a call or two stretching their legs rather than crouching in the cube box for the whole shift? You can’t imagine why they try to chat with you between calls? I’ve had jobs that sucked, and the only good thing about them was that we all agreed they sucked and did our best to wrench some fun out of the day however we could. Except for that one dude who thought we should take it seriously because, I don’t know why but he spoiled it for everyone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-glad-to-be-back-in-the-workforce-and/634763.md?page=4)