One of the many jobs I held in previous chapters of my life included telemarketing. Desperation is the mother of dehumanizing choices. With that experience always with me, I was amused to read this from Ezra Klein who has been doing some politicking over the phone:
There's little more depressing than phone banking, which consists of nothing save you bothering people who don't want to be bothered, and are all to happy to tell you so. My friendliest conversation -- by far -- was with a Republican woman I neither convinced nor got threatened by. Out of 60 calls, I reached 10 humans (though left a lot of messages). Of those 10 humans, I think four would tell me who they were voting for. A fair swath of the rest told me, semi-politely, to fuck off. Indeed, the annoyance is such that you wonder if you're not turning potential voters off…There really should be a National Be Nice to Telemarketers Day. You can’t imagine what it takes sometimes to sit down and look at that phone at the beginning o a work day and have to steel yourself for what you are about to do. It’s a crappy job.
But, the pollsters, data divers, and all the rest assure us this helps, so it gets done. By the end of a few hours though, you feel abused. I've never been that unlikable in my life. I'm already pretty polite, but I hereby pledge to be kinder to telemarketers.
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