Tell a Marketer

Yesterday's New York Times carried a letter by Josh Nugent, of Amherst, MA, who wrote that he worked for a year as a telemarketer and doesn't like the dumb tricks people play on telemarketers who call them. "No, you're not entertaining us ... [s]top wasting our time and yours."

Listen up, telemarketers! I'm not trying to entertain you. You started by wasting my time. I'm just amusing myself so the time is not a total waste for me -- and so you can get a taste of what if feels like to have your time wasted.

I never spent a year at it, but I've spent a few evenings making political campaign calls. Most of the people who answered were polite. The few who were glad to hear from me made my day. The few were downright rude gave me a chuckle after they slammed down the phone. Cold calling is not for the thin-skinned.