Alright, so I've been calling real shareholders for a full week now at work, and I'm no longer queasy from nerves. This is good.However, it's still pretty damn stressful. I spend five or six hours a day phoning people who for the most part do not want to be bothered and who think I'm a telemarketer. Some of them still think I'm trying to sell something even after I explain why I'm calling. This is because they a) don't listen and b) are unaware of their investments.
When I signed on with the employment agency that got me this job, and they asked me what sort of work I was looking for, I said "Anything but retail or telemarketing". The reason I said I wouldn't do telemarketing is because I didn't want to have to phone people at home and piss them off. And guess what I'm doing now. Phoning people at home and pissing them off.
The only real difference is that I actually have ethical objections to telemarketing. I think if there's one place you should be safe from people trying to sell you shit, it's in your own home. Actually, I have ethical objections to any sort of aggressive selling techniques whatsoever. Anything that forces a person to have to tell a salesperson "No thanks, I'm not interested" is evil, in my opinion. People shouldn't have to be on the defensive every time they go out shopping, and store staff should, ideally, be there to help customers, not make them uncomfortable.
Now, contacting shareholders to encourage them to vote on their investments is not something I morally object to. While I definitely understand the desire to not be called at home during dinner or on weekends, it's really the only likely time to reach people. I think people should be aware of what's happening with their money, and should be glad when they're actually given a say in the matter. Not only that, but every once in a while I'll get someone on the phone who actually did mail in their vote, but we didn't receive it. Those people are then able to register their vote over the phone and ensure they're still participating. Or there are people who didn't get the proxy material and weren't aware of the meeting. These people are also given an opportunity to participate. Then there are people who don't have time to look through pages and pages of proxy material, or keep forgetting to mail it out, or whose family members threw out the information, thinking it was junk. We're able to give them a brief summary over the phone and make voting more convenient. All of this is good. And for all those people who just don't want to vote, they have the option of just saying no, or asking not to be called anymore. In fact, I really wish more of them would ask not to be called anymore, because it would mean I wouldn't have to worry about them going apeshit on me the next time some proposal comes up that requires shareholder votes.
But regardless of how good a concept this may be, that doesn't change the fact that I am still treated like a telemarketer (re: pondscum). And the funny thing is, given the fact that I get an initial negative reaction every time I call someone before I explain the reason for the call, I don't understand how it is that telemarketing actually works. Have any of you ever bought anything as a result of a solicitation call? Do any of you know anyone who's bought anything from a telemarketer? Because I don't. But people must, because if it didn't work, there wouldn't be telemarketing. So I don't get it. Who are these people? Maybe they're the same people who willingly watch infomercials for purposes other than mockery. Also .. how do telemarketers feel when they get solicitation calls at home? So many questions. And why would anyone take a telemarketing job in the first place? Desperate for employment? Because as I've said before, telemarketing rates just below "crackwhore" on my list of career choices.
Anyway, I don't know yet if I'll stick with this job or not. I figure I should probably keep looking for jobs and see if I find something better. Especially considering I don't know if they'll want to keep me on staff or not. I'm not too sure how well I'm doing. I'm very polite on the phone, but I'm not exactly persuasive. When I ask a shareholder if they'd like to register a vote, and they say no, I feel really uncomfortable using a rebuttal. That's when I really start to feel like a telemarketer. And I'm always shocked when the rebuttal actually works.
You might think that this job has given me more sympathy for telemarketers. It hasn't. If anything, I now loathe them even more. If it weren't for telemarketers and the companies that hire them, people would not be so goddamn cranky and suspicious when I call them. I'm half tempted to rag on the next telemarketer who calls me for this. Maybe I will. Or maybe I'll ask them all those questions I have. Are telemarketers allowed to hang up on people?
OK, I'm done ranting about work now. Unfortunately, nothing else is new. Hopefully that will change soon, because if this freaking job remains the only thing going on in my life, I may just have to try the whole crackwhore thing just to liven things up a bit.
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