Since there aren't many sub jobs to be had these days due to school winding down, Cyndi filled out her application for a temp agency today. She figured it would be a good way to keep money coming in through the summer while she interviews for full time teaching positions for the fall. This reminded me of my brief experience working temp jobs right after college.
Even if I know someone real well, I usually don't like spending a lot of time on the phone with anyone. I never know what to talk about. So as you can imagine, I was horrified when I went to my first temp job at Cal State Fullerton and was placed at a long table with 2 other new temps and 3 phones. We were told that we were going to be helping to put together an auction that they were using as a fundraiser. They wanted to put together and auction off travel packages and needed to get people to donate nights at hotels and airline tickets. This is where I came in. Sort of.
They had a letter that they wanted to send out explaining what the fundraiser was and asking for donations. However, they didn't want to send out generic letters to these hotels. Thus it became my job to call the hotels and ask for the manager's name and verify the address and phone number.
That's when they gave me the book.
Apparently we weren't just supposed to call hotels in major cities where people might actual want to buy travel packages to. We were supposed to call every hotel.
I got Holiday Inn.
Even if I know someone real well, I usually don't like spending a lot of time on the phone with anyone. I never know what to talk about. So as you can imagine, I was horrified when I went to my first temp job at Cal State Fullerton and was placed at a long table with 2 other new temps and 3 phones. We were told that we were going to be helping to put together an auction that they were using as a fundraiser. They wanted to put together and auction off travel packages and needed to get people to donate nights at hotels and airline tickets. This is where I came in. Sort of.
They had a letter that they wanted to send out explaining what the fundraiser was and asking for donations. However, they didn't want to send out generic letters to these hotels. Thus it became my job to call the hotels and ask for the manager's name and verify the address and phone number.
That's when they gave me the book.
Apparently we weren't just supposed to call hotels in major cities where people might actual want to buy travel packages to. We were supposed to call every hotel.
I got Holiday Inn.
The book was huge. There are thousands of Holiday Inns. I should have walked out then, but I needed the money and didn't want to burn bridges with the temp agency on the first day. So with great dread, I opened it up to the first page: Alabama.
I quickly learned that old phones and heavy southern accents don't mix. I also learned that people get real defensive when you call and ask for the name of their manager. Most of the time I had to give them a spiel about why I was calling before they'd give me the information. If I was talking to the manager, they'd usually tell me they weren't interested. Then I'd have to make up some reason why I needed his name anyway.
This was my lot in life for close to 2 weeks, 8 hours a day. Every time I got to a new state, I'd have to get used to a new accent. Massachusetts and Louisiana were the worst. The whole south was bad. I found that about 30% had a manager with Patel as the last name. Forget outsourcing to India. Holiday Inn is providing them all jobs here.
Finally, one morning I got to the end of Wyoming. That's when my bad job got worse: "Holiday Inn -- International Guide" was placed before me. Kentucky is nothing compared to Guatemala, Pakistan, and Mozambique. I was stuck for another week. For 40 hours, I made one international call after another, just so some Holiday Inn manager in United Arab Emirites or Bosnia could see their name printed on the top of a form letter. That's your tax money at work Californians!
So the next time you see a Holiday Inn, no matter where in the world you may be, know that I have called there...and hated every second of it.
3 comments:
Did you get to call the disputed zone?
I did a phone banking job for UCR for about a week, we were supposed to try to get alums to donate slowly going down from $1000, $500, $300, $250, $100 and finally anything they felt comfortable with. This is me calling hello would you like to give $1000 bucks? no? okay would you like to give anything? no? okay have a nice evening......yeah i never got a single donation.
i worked at an econolodge in Vermont- the owners last name? PATEL.
I tell ya, something odd is going on there.
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