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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Job Snob

127 replies

ImNotDancing · 03/05/2016 11:47

Just wanted to get a feeler out there for other peoples opinions...

My DF just got a call from a telemarketer and reeled of a whole spiel about the telephone preference service but then ended with the words 'get a better job'.

I was fuming on the other persons behalf, DF may find the phone calls annoying but who is he to deem whether their job is good enough? I told him it's the equivelent of telling me working in retail that one day I'll get a real job. AIBU?

OP posts:

Alisvolatpropiis · 03/05/2016 11:48

Yanbu.

Junosmum · 03/05/2016 11:51

Yanbu. It's a shitty job, cold calling but it's a job and they are trying hard, earning money to pay the bills.

moonlight1705 · 03/05/2016 11:52

When I was saving up for my MA I worked at a customer satisfaction telephone centre as it paid well. The amount of people who thought they could patronise me or look down on my work was unbelievable and there was nothing I could say to that attitude.

I never lash out at poor telemarketers now just put the phone down on them nicely

BathshebaDarkstone · 03/05/2016 11:58

YANBU, I used to work in telesales and that would have really upset me. What would happen if all the dustmen and street cleaners got "better" jobs?

MovingOnUpMovingOnOut · 03/05/2016 12:01

Yanbu and your husband has made himself look like a cock.

GoblinLittleOwl · 03/05/2016 12:01

I agree with your husband; they are doing an unnecessary job that no-one has asked for.

Original poster

ImNotDancing · 03/05/2016 12:01

I wanted to phone the poor man back and apologise!

I think part of it stems from me and him having totally different attitudes to work. I've had jobs since I was 14, worked steadily since I was 17 and worked my way from the shelf stacker to middle management and intend on working my way further up the ladder. He didnt work till he had a part time bar job in uni and then went straight into high entry jobs and has never been the bottom of the heap working your ass off for little to no money.

OP posts:

MunchCrunch01 · 03/05/2016 12:03

yanbu - if I was desperate for money, I'd do it. I just assume they're desperate, not everyone has a choice of work. OTOH, I once took pity on one and answered the questions and my reward was heaps and heaps more junk mail.

TurnOffTheTv · 03/05/2016 12:05

What a shitty attitude, poor person is only trying to make a living and support a family, they probably don't want to work their either. Id be ashamed if my husband had said that.

Original poster

ImNotDancing · 03/05/2016 12:05

just to clear it up, may have got the acronym wrong, I meant my father haha

OP posts:

DefinitelyNotAJourno · 03/05/2016 12:06

Alternatively... Yes, it would be unreasonable to criticise a binman for their work. Binmen add value to society by keeping our surroundings clean.

Telemarketers add nothing. They are literally paid to interrupt us with calls nobody wants. The operation is parasitic. I feel sorry for those doing the job, but by tolerating those performing this intrusive and sometimes intimidating action, society condones cold calling.

More respect being on the dole than phoning people at home and interrupting their day with pressure to buy things they don't need.

fredfredgeorgejnrsnr · 03/05/2016 12:10

It's a shit job, a really shit job, where you annoy and interrupt 99% of people you talk to - doing shit jobs normally earns you more because other people don't want to do them, making the job nicer doesn't help anyone but the companies making a profit on the dubious marketing.

It doesn't help the people who make the calls - if they had no other option of a job, they'd be paid more.
It doesn't help the people who receive calls - you're making it cheaper for every call that's made so more are made...

"Get a better job" is not particularly rude, they're hardly providing a public service, and it is good advice.

BlueMoonRising · 03/05/2016 12:10

Depends on the telemarketing imo.

You get some very dodgy ones, and some that are not. If your DF (correct acronym, not sure why people thought it was your husband...) is registered with the TPS, chances are the people calling are on the dodgy side of legit, and your DF is not unreasonable.

WorraLiberty · 03/05/2016 12:14

It was rude and he shouldn't have said it.

But it's not comparable to working in retail, where it's safe to assume people actually want to be there to buy things - unlike people annoying the fuck out of you in what is supposed to be the privacy of your own home.

WorraLiberty · 03/05/2016 12:16

And no it's not comparable to people who are employed to take our rubbish away either.

Our refuse collectors went on strike a couple of years ago, and oh my god did we realise how much we need them. We endured 2 months of misery and streets full of rubbish during a hot Summer.

Unlike telesales people who seem to cause misery by actually doing their jobs...

TurnOffTheTv · 03/05/2016 12:20

Ok, well your Father has a shitty attitude, not your husband

shovetheholly · 03/05/2016 12:21

I was on the phone to a customer service line the other day. The person on the other end turned out to be veryy educated, and the son of a famous scientist! He had some amazing tales to tell about how their father used him as a toddler to be able to travel around African warzones safely!

You never know who's on the end of a phone! So best to treat everyone with respect.

I do appreciate it's annoying when you keep getting phoned up, though.

travellinghopefully12 · 03/05/2016 12:21

My DP Used to work for Ipsos Mori (the ones who do Mori polls) and hated how horrible people were to him. It doesn't help that telephone preference services don't cover Mori so they are made to call people on the blocked list (yes, really.) Apparently as it's 'research' it doesn't count.

He never had a problem with people saying - 'Please don't contact me again.' That way he could just take them off Mori's list and it would be fine.

He often got an earful though, and was regularly sworn at.

'Get a better job' is a horrible thing to say to anyone as it presupposes so much about a person.

There was an excellent blog that got shared on my twitter called 'going stealth' by a girl who is writing a novel and working so called 'menial' jobs to fund it, all about the shit she gets from people.

I hate the supposition that people in the service industry or whatever have shitty jobs. Surely we've all done work like that at some point??

SantasLittleMonkeyButler · 03/05/2016 12:23

Unforgivably rude! YANBU.

"Good" jobs are not all that easy to come by - indeed not everyone has the experience or academic qualifications required for higher paying (or more respected) positions.

It must be an awful, thankless, job to have to do day in day out. I have much respect for a person who turns up to that kind of employment in order to earn their own wage and pay their own way in life, knowing full well that they will be receiving verbal abuse all day. Would your DH prefer the Telemarketer to be relying on JSA instead on moral grounds?

In a similar vain, I absolutely hate to hear Care Assistants referred to as "wiping arses for a living".

We can't all be Prime Minister.

DefinitelyNotAJourno · 03/05/2016 12:23

This person is not in the service industry. They add no value. Their job is exploitative and intrusive.

The service industry does not compare.

SantasLittleMonkeyButler · 03/05/2016 12:25

Sorry - DF! Not sure why I also read it as DH!

blindsider · 03/05/2016 12:26

YABU

Although your DF is being a bit condescending, he has signed up to the TPS so the person contacting him is breaking the law by doing so. Receiving nuisance calls at home is a scourge of modern day life, worse are the ones by auto dialler that then ring off as there is no one available to talk to you when you answer the phone.

limitedperiodonly · 03/05/2016 12:39

That's not very nice of your father. Is he insecure? Does he often feel the need to take his frustrations out on people he deems below him? I think you should ask him about this troubling part of his personality.

The classy thing to say is: 'Thank you for calling but I have no interest in your services. Please don't call again. Goodbye.'

limitedperiodonly · 03/05/2016 12:41

I absolutely hate to hear Care Assistants referred to as "wiping arses for a living". We can't all be Prime Minister.

What? And lick them?

Original poster

ImNotDancing · 03/05/2016 12:41

travelling that sounds really interesting I don't suppose you have a link? I tried googling it but to no avail :(

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