Fucking with telemarketers

[frogmarch]

25. Years ago, when my

now-daughter-in-law was fresh out of high school and just starting college, she needed a job to get by, and out of desperation became a part-time telemarketer. She said that because of all the insults she got from the other end of the line, it was the most depressing time of her life.

One day, a man who'd answered the phone changed that. He told her she sounded like a nice person, someone who he thought could find a better, more satisfying job, and he suggested some places she could apply.

She thanked him and quit her telemarketer job that very day. As the man had suggested, she applied for a part-time job at a nursing home. She was hired, and she worked there throughout her college years.

Instead of blowing up at her on the phone or insulting her, the man - she never knew his name -made a positive difference in her life.