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I used to be a telemarketer. There, I've said it. I've even worked for a few different telemarketing companies. If there is anything worse than working as a telemarketer, it is having the circumstances in your life go so badly that you end up returning to work as a telemarketer a second, or, heaven help you, a third, time.

Telemarketers are people too. They are just like you, except more desperate, less financially endowed, and, in some cases, less educated. I worked as a telemarketer on summer break from college, because I desperately needed to make money for school. Later on, I worked as a telemarketer while going to school full time, and also working two days a week at several of the local day care centers, and one night a week in an art studio, teaching "non-credit" art classes. Yes, I had three or four jobs at the time, and was a full time student.

Did I want to be a telemarketer? Did I enjoy spending my precious weekends calling strangers, interrogating them, asking them for money, and interrupting their dinners? Of course not! I didn't really have much of a choice, unless I wanted to drop out of school. No more tuition bill would mean no more days of drugery working as a telemarketer. I'm not one to give up, though, so, I did what I had to do, and finished school.

I realize that few things in life are more annoying than answering your ringing phone only to hear a telemarketer on the line. Even when I was working as a telemarketer, I understood that. I learned not to take it personally when people started screaming at me, swearing at me, and threatening my life because I called them on the phone that day. I had a woman scream at me because I mispronounced the name of her town, and she took that as an insult. I had a few men attempt to initiate phone sex with me, for no other reason than because I called them, and happened to be female. It is not fun working as a telemarketer.

Now, I don't expect that anyone reading this article is suddenly going to moved to create a "love your telemarketer day", or anything like that. (Well, with the exceptions of the men who somehow thought I was calling to offer phone sex, that is.) I know that is unrealistic. I do have one small request, however, on behalf of all the poor, unfortunate souls stuck working the hell that is called "telemarketing". Please, if you are going to be mean and nasty to the telemarketer, don't even pick up the phone. This saves the telemarketer a teeny bit of the stress that he or she has to deal with in this aggravating, degrading, horrible job. It also saves you some stress. Phone numbers that aren't picked up, over and over again, tend to be "dropped" from the list of phone numbers that telemarketers end up calling. It might take four or five times of not getting any answer, but, it does work. So, save everyone a headache, and let the poor telemarketer alone. Telemarketers are people too, even if they are annoying.

Learn more about this author, Jen Thorpe.
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