The Dreaded TeleMarketer
“It’s a telemarketer,” I mouthed silently to my husband, my forehead furrowing, while doing my best to be polite.
“No thank you. We’re really not interested.” …..pause….listening again…. “No, honestly, we’re just not interested. Please don’t call again.”
“Just hang up the phone,” my husband commanded. “They don’t need to be calling here!”
I admit, I’m horrible when a solicitor calls. I hate the thought of just hanging up. Somehow that seems so awfully rude and I loathe the idea of being nasty! But we had such an issue with these kinds of calls, we turned the ringer off on our house phone and only accept messages!
A friend shared his thoughts on how he handles the situation: “Major success this evening! I kept a telemarketer on the line for almost ten minutes. Every time I came through the kitchen I just picked the phone back up and told him to continue to hold. He was very patient. That was ten minutes that he didn't bother any of you. Just doing my part!”
Another friend shared her solution. ‘The next time give the phone to one of your grand babies’, and another said, “I used to hand the phone to my toddlers when the telemarketers would call. I would tell the toddler that the phone was for them. It was hysterical.”
My daughter shared cable solicitors became obnoxious when she told them she was not interested in their cable offer since they don’t even own a television set! They refused to accept her reason as truth, and then when she persisted, and they finally realized she was being honest, were appalled and asked, “What on earth do you do at your house then?” She’d laugh and explain her children spend time outdoors, reading and doing things as a family!
Some years ago the daughter of a lady my husband worked with took on the job of being a telemarketer. “There are only so many times you can handle rejection,” she said. “Even though the person isn’t rejecting you, personally, it’s still a form of rejection and can be quite depressing.”
Until she shared these thoughts I had never considered how a telemarketer must feel. I look at it from my perspective and not from the perspective of someone trying to earn a living.
No one likes rejection. There are those who will tell you they don’t care what others think; but I wonder if they are being honest.
When I encounter a disabled person, I wonder how much rejection they have dealt with in their life. We take ‘inclusion’ for granted. To those of us without a disability, there is so much commonality, it doesn’t often occur to us that differences can separate us in ways we don’t understand.
I admit, when I see people who have their hair colored in an unusual neon color, I tend to cringe. Or when young people wear their pants so low they can barely walk and undergarments are glaring at me, I again, cringe. They are choosing to be different—at least from the norm.
Unlike the telemarketer, who chooses to make calling people for marketing purposes, the individual without a hand, a burn victim with scars on his face, one sitting in a wheelchair, or numerous other possibilities didn’t choose to be different from their peers. It’s just the way things are. On what basis do we have the right to be unkind and reject the person he is?
Rejection hurts. Perhaps this week, no matter who we encounter, we can choose to be accepting and kind.
Photo Credit: https://unsplash.com/s/photos/headset