I'm going hooooooome

Hello again. I can’t believe how long it has been since I wrote last. It doesn’t seem that long ago but was weeks now!

I have been so busy these last few weeks have flown past at the speed of light. I like to keep busy this time of year. October and November have always been quite difficult months for me, the last few years more than most. I think it goes back to when I was at school. When September comes, I was always full of hope that this year would be different and things would be easier. By the time I got to October, I realised that things hadn’t changed. They were the same as they were last year and would be the same until I left school at 16 – which when your 13 or 14 is a lifetime away. So I always keep my days and nights busy this time of year with things to look forward to. It helps keep the gremlins at bay.

Since I last wrote, my little brother has tra la laaa’d off to University to study to become a teacher. He seems to be settling in ok, and it’s quite disconcerting not to be verbally abused in the local pub on a Friday night (when he used to work). We’ll be going up to see him for his birthday in a couple of weeks to see just how in the middle of fucking nowhere he is! Looking at Google maps, it makes home look urban and built up.

Since their youngest has now flown the coop, Mum and Dad have been off globetrotting, first to Fowey in Cornwall for a week, and now to Spain. Once they get back from Spain they’re home for 4 days and then off to Thailand for 10 days. Please direct all abuse to their linked twitter pages.

While my parents are off getting pissed in exotic locations, (and my brother in not-so-exotic ones) Chris and I have temporarily moved back to Mum and Dad’s to look after their dogs. It’s quite weird moving back into the house you grew up in. Even though I’m older, more grown up (apparently) and have been living alone for 3 years, it still strange to be in charge of a house that you know so well under other peoples rules. It’s kind of like I’ve sneaked in while mum and dad weren’t looking. At least I’m not sleeping in my old bedroom – I can’t, Mum converted it into her home office before id even moved out.

I’m not entirely sure why it’s strange, I just know that it is. Maybe I can feel mum inspecting the tidiness of the house from across the continent. I wouldn’t put it passed her to have webcams rigged – if she knew how to rig them. It’s more likely she uses some sort of ESP to make sure I’ve hovered. Maybe she can converse with the Hoover on an alternative plain through time and space. I don’t know. I’d ask the Hoover but after living there since I was 12, I still don’t know where she keeps it. ...

A Plea for Compassion

Some of you know, (and some of don’t) that I work in sales and marketing. Some of my job is telesales. Purely to businesses. Purely 9-5. I don’t read off a script, I have a conversation with them. I don’t hassle people. If they say not interested then fine. Thanks for your time. Goodbye. I am *always* polite. Never shitty, never pushy. A lot of people I have contacted still contact me months on for repeat orders

Most people are nice. Or if not nice, polite. Or if not polite, manageable. Then there are the other people.

I HATE rudeness. I really don’t think there is any need for it at all. Especially if the person you are being rude to is being polite and pleasant. Most people, I have already said, are not rude. There are not nearly as many rude people out there as I thought there would be when I took this job on. The situation might be different if I was ringing people’s homes when Corrie was on, but I’m not. I’m ringing businesses about local business related things. Things that could (and more often than not do) save them a shit load of money on stuff they’d have to buy anyway (on ink and toner if you’re interested – and normally we’re talking a 50% saving).

So. I call a gentleman up. This was *not* a cold call, by the way. He’d spoken to us before and had agreed to get an email with some details. He was so rude, bordering on accusatory, and I had to be polite and say thank you very much and ended the call. I don’t see why I should do though. He has no right to treat me as sub human. He agreed to the information and had spoken to us before. I so desperately wanted to pull him up on it, but of course couldn’t. I had to smile and carry on.

Here is what I would have loved to have said.

“....excuse me Mr [bleep], but what the hell is your problem. Are you so misanthropic that you speak to everyone like that, or is it just you think you can speak to me like that because there is are 2 handsets and some cables between us. I don’t care that you’ve had a bad day, how great do you think mine has being having to speak to people who make me feel crappy. If you don’t want cold callers, TPS your number. It’s your right and a legal requirement that we follow it. If you just say “no thanks” then fine, ill fuck off and leave you be. But you have no right, to make me feel 2 inches tall....”

All I’m asking people to remember is that there are people on the end of these phones. People doing a job. Like what you do, I do and everyone else does. And guess what, we may not like it all of the time. This isn’t necessarily what we dreamt of doing when we were young and full of hope - but it pays the fucking bills. Common courtesy costs absolutely nothing and may make one person’s day a hell of a lot easier.

For those wanting to register as TPS and stop sales calls, please visit http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/

Rant over