Re: Who's got your back?

On Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:57:23 -0700, Islander <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Rumpelstiltskin wrote:
On Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:47:26 -0400, Thumper <jaylsmith@xxxxxxxxxxx>

<sniP.


Unfortunately you only hurt working people just trying to get by in a
shitty job.


If people harass you repeatedly and you just let them
keep doing it to you, without at least trying to make it a
bit uncomfortable for them, then sorry, you don't have
my sympathies.

<snip>

Some time ago, I received one of these calls and launched into one of my
pat responses about how the person making the call should be ashamed for
what they were doing and what would their mother think of them for
stooping to such a level.

The woman, in very uncharacteristic form, laid right back into me,
describing how she was a single mother who had not been able to find any
other job and this was her last chance to support herself and her child.

Now, perhaps I am naive, but I felt sorry for her.


No, I don't feel you're being naïve. I'd feel sorry for her too.
I'd feel somewhat less sorry for her if she lit into me for such
a legitimate complaint about what she was doing, but just as
sorry for her kid and the situation she was in. Nevertheless,
she is in a job that bugs a whole lot of people, and she must
know that, so I regard what she's doing as not much above
being a shoplifter because one needs money. The main
difference is that one's unlikely to get arrested for wasting
people's time by telemarketing. The number of times I've
gotten out of bed with my fake knees, or run back from the
kitchen, just to find it's one of these stupid calls, is an
imposition on me that, I feel, merits whatever response I
can give short of hurting somebody.

My bed is a mattress on the floor, and my answering
machine can't be set to more than four rings. The
telephone is in my bedroom but not within reach of the bed.
If I'm in bed with the covers over me, it takes me at least
three rings to get up and out of bed with my fake knees,
even if I really hop to it. I have a better chance of getting
to the phone in time if I'm in the kitchen, three rooms
away from the phone. I can run a lot better than I can
get up off the ground. That's due to the fact that fake
knees don't bend as far back as real ones.



IIRC, I responded with the earnest appeal that she not get discouraged
and keep trying to find another job.


Very charitable of you.


.

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