Remind me never to vote Republican.

I consider myself a pretty a-political dude. I definitely lean to the left, and at one point in my life derided America on a near daily basis for it's abuses of power. It only takes one trip to a third world country, though, to make one thankful of what we have here in the U.S.A. I have been to three, and have moved a lot closer to "center" than in my younger years.

I manage a telemarketing center. Telemarketers, I know, are not the most popular people in the world. But they are also not, in most cases, the shysters people make us out to be. We are so controlled by laws and regulations that it would be impossible to be anything but honest. We have stringent quality standards and heavy monitoring.

Additionally, the people that work in telemarketing centers have a HARD job. The make upwards of 600 calls in a day, and let me assure you that it is few and far between that the person on the other line is happy to hear from us. They put up with hours of abuse each day. I have single mothers, high school drop-outs, professors, former inmates, and people from just about all walks of life employed in this center. We are a true melting pot, with African-Americans, Chinese, Filipinos, Whites, Mexicans, and even a Brazilian. I have ladies in their 80's and guys in their teens.

Many of these people would be "living off the government" if we did not employ them. Some of our employees have been here 18 years.

One of my current clients has something to do with the Republican party. I'm not gonna go into any more detail than that.

In the industry, there is a thing called a "seed call." This is a phone number seeded into a calling list, usually one of the client's numbers. It is used to check the ability of the tele-marketers.

We had one of these today, and among the feedback that we received was that the caller sounded too "urban." Like we have Jay-Z on the payroll or something.

We record EVERY phone call that leaves this center, and I fire people if their quality sucks.

I sound more urban than this agent, even though he is black. I'm not saying that black people necessarily sound urban, I'm saying this because the client happened to make this comment about the only black person on this campaign. If this were the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air," this agent sounded more like Carlton than Will Smith.

The client also purposely baited and was blantantly rude to this agent throughout the call, but the agent remained professional throughout.

I've never been more disgusted in my life with feedback from a client. If I were a Republican I would be ashamed to have this guy on my side.

The next time one of us calls you, it's ok to hang up on us. We get it all day long. It's ok to say no, we get it all day long. If you feel we're being too pushy, it is usually the case that the rep is mandated to rebuttal a minimum number of times. Hang up on us if you don't want to hear it. If one of us is rude to you, complain to the supervisor. But by all means, don't be rude to someone who is just doing their job, and is going to work EVERY day to slug it out for 4 or 5 sales. Remember, you're talking to a person. Usually a person who is just trying to get by.

I'll step off my soapbox now.