Behind the front lines

For my last two years of college I worked 

In a call centre taking calls for Aol broadbands' cancellation department  . We used to call it aohell and joke that we sold our souls when we signed the contract and in a way we weren't far wrong. The money was good, like really good but the pressure to sell was high and chances are if you were doing really well then you were either extremely persuasive or not quite playing by the rules. I was not one of the best but I comforted myself With the knowledge that I was not one of the worst either.

One thing I learned during my time there ( apart from a deep hatred of call centres ) was that I am not a born sales person. I can only sell a product if I genuinely think its good and when you're in cancellations 

Constantly hearing people ranting about the terrible service they've been receiving, I started to feel like I was peddling utter crap and I found it hard to go home and count my money If I wasn't able to do so With a clear conscience. 

I talked to the angry and the aggrieved and the downright stupid. I had people swear down the line at me and call me  names. I had people recount experiences of such horrible service from Aol that I felt 

Awful even asking them to stay and I had conversations so frustrating it was a wonder I didn't scream down the phone. People cancelling because they weren't going to pay Aol because they also got Internet from google or that we had miss billed them so much they were forced to cancel, they would never call 0900 numbers ( premium rate e.g. Sex lines  in the UK) and sure no one was home at the time except their teenage son ( cue awkward silence on my end of the phone ) 

Sometimes I would come home so despondent that I would loudly complain to my friends that customers were like  dementors ( from Harry potter and if

You didn't get the reference then shame on you )because they sucked all the happiness from your soul. and I would often come into work With that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach before I put on my headset, and tried to not let the Despondence I felt come through in my voice.  

It's funny because when the place closed 

Many people took to talking about it as though it was the best place to work but

I'd walked long Before then ( adamant I'd never work in a call centre again) because something's just aren't worth the money.

Despite all my protests I worked in another two call centres Before finding my way back to retail. Not because I rediscovered a love for customer service but because in hard times a job is better than no job. Now that I've escaped and am no longer tied to a desk I'm never going back. In fact I get a bad feeling even calling a call centre and sometimes I 

Get one of those dreams where I'm back

Working there but when I realize I'm Just dreaming the relief is palpable.