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I don't currently have a job, but since I'm still decompressing from my last one, I'd like to discuss it. I worked as a telefundraiser for the last five years in a call center, soliciting donations for a slew of political and social non-profits.

It's a given in call center work that everyone is on Plan F, G or H of their lives. Not just Plan B or C; did anyone ever grow up planning to be a telemarketer? No, the place was populated by a weird assortment of societal misfits: disbarred attorneys, recovering alcoholic executives, even a disgraced physician worked with me. Naturally many college students passing through on the way to better lives came in briefly, and some homemakers looking for part-time hours. We gave shelter to folks far too elderly to be hired elsewhere and people from half-way houses for parolees. Piercings and tattoos didn't matter.

What commonality united this bunch? In the early days, it was verbal skill and a quick mind. As a result, no matter what level of success these people had achieved in the larger world, here at the call center they could excel with or without formal education, with or without an impressive resume.

Later, the company's founder sold out to a large corporation, business volume skyrocketed, and anyone with a pulse got hired. Illiterate clods stumbled through their conversations and fractured the presentations.

In some ways, the work was not what you'd expect. The company insisted that we be honest with the prospects, and many of the managers and callers appeared to truly believe in the various causes we represented. We dealt with many of the most prominent cultural, environmental and charitable organizations. With political groups, our founder contracted only with liberals and I'd guess that about 85% of the callers felt they were fighting the good fight for justice. The rest faked it.

The prospects usually assumed we took a percentage of the donations, and frequently screamed at callers and called us crooks. We didn't get a percentage; the company negotiated a set fee with the non-profit for each campaign, and all the donations went straight to the charity. Hardly anyone believed us, but it was the truth. Our paychecks reflected bonuses for bringing in more donations, but that came from the contracted fees. We suffered because so many other companies in the business were conning people.

The work itself was so horrible that callers constantly suffered from stress and many broke down and cried or walked out in angry fits. I

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