Comments on: Song for telemarketers and other f*cking jerks

By: cfuse

cfuse — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 13:57:00 +0000

You always have options. People love to pretend they don’t, but the reality is that if you are in call centre and you stay there – then you made that choice (whether you are pleased about it or not is irrelevant).

Don’t like where you are? Fix it, don’t bleat about how it isn’t your fault and everyone should have pity for you.

As for my cold moral high ground, funnily enough if you maintain standards you feel better about yourself and you tend to be better paid than people who are willing to compromise.

By: cfuse

cfuse — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 13:38:00 +0000

I prefer to think of the American hyper-capitalist mode of thought as underprivileged for the slaves working under it.

If your only options are poverty or ethical compromise (which is most certainly not the case where I am) then the smart thing to do is go big. You might as well be the investment banker – the ethical compromise has already been made, and it’s just a question of remuneration.

People just love to pretend they have no choice when what they really mean is that they don’t like a choice open to them. Begging for sympathy and compassion over a voluntary (if unpleasant) choice to act unethically seems like a bit of an ask to me.

By: Peppermint

Peppermint — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 09:12:00 +0000

Yeah, I guess I should tell the depressive, unemployed, deeply altruistic man I love that he has no compassion because he has the *audacity* to want to earn more than €400($500) per month for his survival.

Have fun on your cold and lonely moral high ground.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 02:39:00 +0000

The point of doing it is to get them to quit until nobody will take those jobs anymore.

By: Coderjoe

Coderjoe — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 02:00:00 +0000

So I should be expected to tip if the server does a horrible job? Yes, I know they are paid less and expected to make up the difference in tips. But it USED to be called a gratuity (though some places to still call it that). If you do a terrible job, you shouldn’t be pissed at me for leaving either a bad tip or no tip. (I also think the whole “paid less and make it up in tips” system is a terrible way to do things.)

By: Coderjoe

Coderjoe — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 01:55:00 +0000

Partly because the “please don’t call again” is ignored? And it wastes time having to wait for the opportunity to say anything? (I have a stupid call come in about once a week that starts off with a recorded pitch that starts with a cruise ship horn. I have no idea how long I have to wait before there is a human or even a menu option for “don’t call me again”. I once waited for perhaps a minute and got sick of waiting.)

By: Spencer Janyk

Spencer Janyk — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 01:52:00 +0000

Please don’t harass people from call centers – they’re rarely economic privileged and often have a short-margin. Harassing them isn’t helpful and can be really hurtful emotionally.

Don’t be the person who doesn’t tip/yells at the help/harasses telemarketers.

By: Spencer Janyk

Spencer Janyk — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 01:50:00 +0000

Thanks for mentioning this – I was going to write something but you obviated the need. Just wanted to second the fact that this is just abusing the poor folks who have no other options but to go to the phones for this company.

By: Sekino

Sekino — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 00:52:00 +0000

Considering that I am married to the maker of this song and share the same phone line, I can assure every outraged person that this was made happily in jest and that we have never submitted any innocent call-center working stiff to it. So calm down a bit and smile, okay?

That said, I wish I had this recording back when I hit a rough patch and the collectors were calling me with personal insults and threats, dozens of times a day. They’d fully deserve this jingle, and worse.

By: Chris H

Chris H — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:37:00 +0000

What a fucking over-privileged point of view. Obviously you don’t have to make the choice between annoying random people and not having food to give the kids tonight. And believe me, that’s not hyperbole; no one grows up saying that they want to be a telemarketer. It’s not a shortcut to wealth or status. At best, it’s something you do when you need something–anything–to bring in some money. And as far as the morality of choices, there are far more immoral things to do. It’s not like these people have decided to become fucking investment bankers.

Kurt Weill described the moral logic of poverty beautifully in “What Keeps Mankind Alive”:

You gentlemen who think you have a mission
To purge us of the seven deadly sins
Should first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching, that’s where it begins

You lot, who preach restraint and watch your waist as well
Should learn for all time how the world is run
However much you twist, whatever lies you tell
Food is the first thing, morals follow on

So first make sure that those, who now are starving
Get proper helpings, when we all start carving

By: cfuse

cfuse — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 18:12:00 +0000

You are responsible for your own actions, your need for money doesn’t obviate that, nor does it diminish the rights of others (like the right of people to privacy and freedom from harassment in their own homes).

In light of that, I’ll show telemarketers as much compassion as they show to others. Namely, none.

By: LowerHater

LowerHater — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:44:00 +0000

As they say in SF about the Department of Parking:
Shitty jobs, shitty people.

By: xzzy

xzzy — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:40:00 +0000

It’s not like spending hours of effort trying to find a way to voice displeasure at the “higher-ups” will do anything either. There is literally nothing I can do to prevent spam calls short of throwing my telephone in a trash can (do not call lists are a fucking joke and get willfully ignored).

It’s a shit business and anyone working in it should be prepared for the backlash.

By: Jacob Ewing

Jacob Ewing — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 16:59:00 +0000

Funny enough, when my friend and I recorded this, we were both working in a call center – albeit for inbound tech support; a much lower asshat per caller ratio.

By: bluest_one

bluest_one — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 09:51:00 +0000

If a telemarketer has your number, it’s because people have already forwarded your number around to god knows who (and made money from it).

By: fergus1948

fergus1948 — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 08:44:00 +0000

And pissing them off can backfire. They can forward your number to god knows who.

By: Peppermint

Peppermint — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 07:21:00 +0000

Meh. Clever, but it doesn’t target the right people. My boyfriend worked in a call centre for a while, and let me tell you, the people there have a miserable job, feel horrible about themselves (until they become too jaded to even care), and insulting them is not going to get to the higher-ups, or even the middle managers. They are far more deserving of your compassion than your insults.