Get the Feed
A Call for a Better Job
by Kristine K. About a year ago, the money I received from a stipend as an exchange student in Japan was running low, and I decided to look for work. Despite America’s robust economy, few decent paying jobs seemed available. I felt too old to work at grocery and discount stores, and I did not want to buy a new wardrobe for a $6-per-hour clerical job. I applied at a few restaurants, but every place was afraid to hire a 20 Finally, I settled on telemarketing. I wasn’t alone. For many, telemarketing is the only viable solution in Omaha, where the jobs are plentiful but it is hard to find one that pays a decent wage. I soon learned that there are few perks to this line of work, however, and the negatives far outweigh them. First, the facilities resemble Third World garment factories seen on television news shows. Where I work, there are more than 700 work stations on the production floor. These cubicles are placed so close together that customers often comment that it sounds like we are at a party. It is loud, but certainly not festive. The production floor often smells like cheap perfume, and it is hot. There is barely a meter between rows, which means two people cannot back their chairs out without colliding. Most of my co-workers are overweight, and they have a very difficult time squeezing through the aisles. Our primary job is to take incoming calls from people looking to buy — as another student told the campus newspaper — ‘the crap on TV.” There is a certain blend of humor and shame in selling products like “Hairagami” and “Making Money with Don Lapre.” Sometimes, I answered the phone for a company whom I had just read was under investigation. The worst part about taking these orders is that we are not simply “an ordering service.” Often, companies want us to tell the customers about other offers available, such as an accessory or extended warranty. The scripting for these items is sometimes embarrassing (”People who just can’t keep their clothes on!”), pushy (”So look for that in the mail, OK?”), or deceptive. For example, we’ll say an item is offered at a $5 We cannot change any of the scripting, because strict rules keep us from softening our presentation. Even a 15-year-old girl has to read the “Girls Gone Wild” scripting to a dirty old man, then remain calm when he asks if she’s in the video. The rules also force production employees to raise their hands and ask permission to use the bathroom. The nature of telemarketing itself — that is, spending eight hours a day speaking nonstop into a telephone — is damaging to the vocal chords. The job is monotonous, tiring, and, after repeating the same phrases all day, workers feel as if there is no hope in the world. This lack of hope illustrates Omaha’s employment scene. Yes, there is a help wanted sign in nearly every store and business. Furthermore, I got a promotion off the production floor after five months, so now I just critique other employees’ performances on the telephone. I make $8 per hour, 50 cents above the base pay. But for most people, telemarketing is not just a temporary job until a good internship comes around, or until he or she finishes school. It is a lifetime career. My mother has been taking hotel reservations going on eight years, because nothing else pays more than $10 an hour to start for a person without a college education. Omaha promotes itself as a haven for employees, and government officials say it is a "job seeker’s market." But too many people are employed in low paying service jobs. It bothers me when the Omaha World Herald writes about the low unemployment rate, because many people are working two full-time jobs to get by. When the high paying industrial jobs in Nebraska started disappearing, telemarketing moved in. There is no union to voice workers’ concerns, and the jobs carry little respect in most people’s eyes. The same situation is happening in other regions, too. In eastern South Dakota, farms are being shut down, small towns are declining in population and the local economy is suffering. My relatives in Brookings, S.D., say that when Sitel Telemarketing opened a new outbound call center, there was a waiting list of people hoping to be hired, even though the jobs are paying minimum wage. As industrial trade workers find fewer jobs and the economy moves more toward the service sector, more people will be employed in dead-end jobs, the worst of which may be telemarketing. It crushes the spirit.
To comment on this article Related Sites
Read the entire work issue
|
