Telemarketing
Oct. 30th, 2003 09:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
memelainaOh, my but this is a hard one. I spent two hours yesterday doing telemarketing for Junior Achievement. No, I'm not a real JA enthusiast. I won't even do that kind of thing for causes I really believe in like wells for villages in Africa. But my ex-boss, to whom I owe more than I can possibly say, asked me to be on her "team" for an afternoon at the JA telethon, and I didn't feel like I could turn her down. Next year I'll write her a check and turn her down flat.
Telemarketers are one of my real hot buttons. But I thought, hey, for two hours I can do anything. I barely made it. I was acutely uncomfortable the whole time. I called about 100 numbers, got no pledges of cash, but got a paint ball place and a gym to offer freebies for the annual auction. The back of my mind kept thinking of things that I would rather be doing, like childbirth and labour, or a migraine, or perhaps being stuck in the middle of Kansas with a broken car and a lost wallet. I was watching the minutes pass one by one on my watch and wondering if I would actually last the two hours.
Maybe there's a "golden rule" violation here. Not the "do unto others part" but the "don't treat other people in a way you wouldn't want to be treated". I hate and despise the whole notion of telemarketing. I am admittedly downright rude to any that get through my phone barriers and actually talk to me. It doesn't matter to me that they are from non-profits, political parties, and charitable causes that I will actually support throught the mail. If they call me I go balistic. Perhaps that's what there is for me to learn in this one, I was really distressed that someone would treat me the way I treat other telemarketers. No one did. Perhaps I am now under a karmic obligation to change my phone response. Don't know if I can.
I kept telling myself that it was only two hours, and that I really wanted to be there for the woman who asked me, and yet I just could not come to terms with actually doing it. I don't think anyone could have paid me to do it. Either there isn't enough money in the world, or I'm at a point where I just don't need it that much. But debts in things other than coin still demand repayment.
Telemarketers are one of my real hot buttons. But I thought, hey, for two hours I can do anything. I barely made it. I was acutely uncomfortable the whole time. I called about 100 numbers, got no pledges of cash, but got a paint ball place and a gym to offer freebies for the annual auction. The back of my mind kept thinking of things that I would rather be doing, like childbirth and labour, or a migraine, or perhaps being stuck in the middle of Kansas with a broken car and a lost wallet. I was watching the minutes pass one by one on my watch and wondering if I would actually last the two hours.
Maybe there's a "golden rule" violation here. Not the "do unto others part" but the "don't treat other people in a way you wouldn't want to be treated". I hate and despise the whole notion of telemarketing. I am admittedly downright rude to any that get through my phone barriers and actually talk to me. It doesn't matter to me that they are from non-profits, political parties, and charitable causes that I will actually support throught the mail. If they call me I go balistic. Perhaps that's what there is for me to learn in this one, I was really distressed that someone would treat me the way I treat other telemarketers. No one did. Perhaps I am now under a karmic obligation to change my phone response. Don't know if I can.
I kept telling myself that it was only two hours, and that I really wanted to be there for the woman who asked me, and yet I just could not come to terms with actually doing it. I don't think anyone could have paid me to do it. Either there isn't enough money in the world, or I'm at a point where I just don't need it that much. But debts in things other than coin still demand repayment.
