Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Confession Wednesday: Workplace Confessions!
Now then.
The workplace. It's something we are ALL familiar with. Whether you spend your days in a corner office with a beautiful window view of downtown or flipping pancakes and grilled cheese for your toddler, you work. A lot.
And you've got something to confess. You know you do.
Are you harboring a mad crush on the UPS guy?
Is it YOU who raids the refrigerator lunches?
Do you pretend to be on important phone calls to avoid talking to certain coworkers?
Me? Well, I've got a confession.
When I moved to Utah, I had no place to live and no job. I'd planned the move for several months and had a few leads and connections, but nothing solid. My friend Sara and her husband graciously offered me their guest room until I found something permanent.
Not wishing to impose my transient self on their generosity or their newlyweddishness, I took the first job I could find and started work six days after rolling into town. As a telemarketer.
I know!
Did I say I have a confession? Really? I've got several.
- When someone was particularly rude to me, I might have sort of, kind of forgotten they requested the Do Not Call List and set them up for a callback instead. Maybe.
- My coworker made a chess board out of paper, tape, and one panel of a view binder and we spent hours playing chess in between calls.
- I hated my job so much that I used to hope to get into a car accident on the way to work, just so I wouldn't have to go that day.
- I sometimes lied to customers to get sales, because my stats were looking bad and I was afraid of getting fired.
- I still giggle about the deep-voiced customer named "Rainbow."
- And I still giggle about how some customers of particular ethnicities said, "I'm not interesting" instead of "I'm not interested."
I hated everything about that job. I hated it so much that I didn't even make an effort to stay in touch with any of my coworkers after I left. And a couple of years later when I heard that my boss had died of cancer, I didn't feel a thing.
Worst job ever.
And now it's your turn! You know what to do and you know you want to.
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Oooh! Those are good. When I was pregnant and working( I was a teacher before my SAHM status), on my off period, I would turn off the lights, close and lock my door, and then put my feet up and sleep for an hour. It was great!
ReplyDeleteOOH I used to be a customer service representative for a long distance phone company based out of San Fran.. ummyeah you got it.. it was developed by the gay and lesbian community because of their ill treatment from the then Bgi 3 Sprint, ATT and MCI.. althoguh they were so nice and kind and I was kicking butt as a CSR I finally quit cause the drama was HUGE.. But I do have to say I enjoyed the fact that 10% of everyone's phone bill went to support one of 25 worthy causes that the users chose every year.
ReplyDeleteI sold Chemlawn (to keep weeds from growing in your lawn) for 10 days. My only sale was to a little old lady that was just glad to have someone to talk to on the phone. It was terrible.
ReplyDeleteI've invented a loyal commenter award and bestowed one upon you! Stop by my blog today to see it. It's a beauty!
I had a job working at a flower shop taking orders, which I though sounded great. It wasn't. My boss was crazy, and wanted us to answer the phone in a way that used incorrect grammar. It drove me crazy. Hmm, maybe I'll blog about it.
ReplyDeleteYou are so sly...and hilarious. I hate being forced to talk on the phone, which is why I avoid jobs where I have to be on the phone...but I have a few confessions of my own.
ReplyDeleteWell, I confess that I was quite happy and relieved when I got to work today and figured out no one else was in the office today! Yesterday I thought I was going to strangle about half of my co-workers.
ReplyDelete:) "I'm not interesting" that made me laugh, thanks.
ReplyDeleteDid you get your goodies? Have you jumped on the yummy brown rice bandwagon?
I think the worst job ever would be Mario Lopez's, well, anything, but a telemarketer is pretty bad.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I am flying down to Disneyland next Saturday. You should meet us! There's two of my other friends coming.
Back in the day, I worked for a text paging company. That was before modern cell phones with texting. Back then, if you wanted to send someone a text message you had to contact a call center and a poor schlub would have to type in the message for you and send it. That poor schlub was me. It was a total sweatshop type job, with hundreds of people crammed into a cublicle-filled warehouse without windows. I hated the job and almost everyone I worked with. The only reason I stayed there as long as I did was because it was a 24-hour a day company, and I needed something that would work around my school schedule. I was so relieved when I got a "real" job and could quit. My last day, when I told them I was quitting, my supervisor gave me this long guilt trip about how, since I wasn't giving any notice, there was no way I'd ever be eligible for rehire. Like it was such a coveted position or something.
ReplyDeleteOH man the life of a telemarketer SUCKS. I lived that life for... Drum roll please.... 5 HORRIBLE LONG YEARS. ICK. I worked for discover card. I lived and was involved in all of the office drama. I even dated, got engaged, broke up, and turn the entire center against this guy named Jason. I was the drama and hated it. On the day I realized I could quite, I gave my notice by shouting 'I'm outta here Bitches' then walked out and NEVER went back!
ReplyDeleteDon't know that I have any big confessions of my own but just had to share a lil telemarketing story... from just last night!
ReplyDeleteWe went to bed a bit earlier than normal... we're watching Biggest Loser when the house phone rings- it's after 9:30. We only have 1 phone in the house because people generally call our cells. But at that hour of night, I was worried that someone tried my cell, didn't reach me so they called the house phone- my mind was racing with a list of who might have died. I'm dashing down the hall, vaulting over the baby gate (keeps kids and dog contained), sliding into the kitchen, snatch the phone off the wall...
It's a dude wanting me to take a music survey. And when I tell him I was in bed? "Oh! I don't know what time it is at the places I'm calling so... is there a better time to call you?" I somehow managed to still be polite when I said "No" and even said "thank you" before hanging up.
You're going to think I'm SO AWFUL!!! But, here goes. Once I had a high school girl who rode my bus who had an annoying high pitched voice and a laugh that was worse than fingernails on a chalkboard. You know high school kids...they laugh and talk NON STOP! So, when I couldn't stand her anymore, I'd go to my "happy place" in my mind and dream about hitting her in the mouth with a baseball bat. ** There! I feel better already!**
ReplyDelete--don't judge me!
hehe....I'm going to go hang my head in shame now.
I've got a serious question: do people really buy things over the phone from telemarketers? I suppose they must, but it sounds like you had way more NOs than "sign me up"s. How do telemarketers stay in business?
ReplyDeleteSo, Jennee isn't the only one to move somewhere without a job or place to live? Congratulations on staying so long at a horrible job. And, just because we tell "them" to put us on the DO NOT CALL list, doesn't mean they actually do it? Hmm. Enjoyed reading your confession.
ReplyDeleteThese are good ones.... ummm, my confession.... I blog at work all the time. I am totally addicted. LOL
ReplyDeleteI posted my confession. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd for the record, very brave of you to admit your telemarketing ways. I KNOW you only do that job out of desperation. PHEW! Glad you survived! Sounds like a nightmare.
Happy Hump day!
Of course I don't like the telemarketing guys, but I have imagined their job may seem like a nightmare to them too.
ReplyDeleteMe, working as a village doctor, I NEVER use the work phone to contact my family and friends. I NEVER curse people who call me in the middle of the night because their arm has been hurting for 10 days, and they couldn't be bothered to come to me in the mornings during normal, working hours. I NEVER try to avoid doing procedures on children because well, they are children (aka sensitive and needy of the care of a pediatrician and not of a graduate med student who sometimes doesn't know $hit). And of course, when I actually have no clue, I NEVER refer my patients to a specialised doctor, blaming the lack of equipment in order to have an excuse.
Yeah, right...
Yes, I am THAT awful.
I was once a telemarketer for about six hours. I don't know how you put up with it for ten months!
ReplyDeleteI work in IT for a mortgage company and we put of people's Help Desk requests for DAYS if they are rude. The people who are nice get their requests fixed in minutes :)
You have been added to LDS Listings (http://ldslistings.blogspot.com). THANKS!
ReplyDeleteI thought I was the only crazy one who used to wish for a car accident when I hated my job.
ReplyDeleteMy confession now is that I read blogs on my breaks and although I am afraid I'll get in trouble over it, I can't seem to quit! :)
Seriously, this sounds like me: "I hated my job so much that I used to hope to get into a car accident on the way to work, just so I wouldn't have to go that day." Dead on.
ReplyDeleteI can so relate to hating your job. This was a great post and congrats for confessing!
ReplyDeleteLOL! karen you are too awesome, love this post :-)
ReplyDeleteBoy, do I have some confessions! I, too, blog at work, but not enough to not get my work done. I, too, wish for a car accident some mornings so I don't have to go in. But, maybe worst of all... each and every day I sit at my desk and wish I had a job that was creative and rewarding. I'm coming up on my fifth anniversary here, make good money and have decent benefits, so I stay. But, I don't like my job much. I'm an office & human resources manager... I'm a bean-counter and a complaint-listener. One of these days I'll stop procrastinating and find something rewarding.
ReplyDeleteI have a confession to make. I'm one of those people who are rude to telemarketers. Not at first, but if they insist then I get a little rude. As a matter of fact, someone called last night at 9:10 pm to ask me if I had smoke detectors. She started by saying this was not a sales call. I asked her not to call again since she's called about 8 times in the last month. She promptly told me she would be calling again tonight. Really? I'm ready for her. I've got a whistle all set to blow her ear drums out. My apologies to all the nice telemarketers out there.
ReplyDeleteThis is Carol Guest....
ReplyDelete