I promise this will be as painless as possible

I'm doing my favorite kind of calling right now. I cannot tell you the specifics, but it's a very fast call basically getting an opinion and giving information. It literally takes about a minute to do, there's no money involved, and for the most part people don't actually mind it as much.

HOWEVER, there's always the few people who get infuriated the second you start. It's getting tipped off by the not-quite right pronunciation of their names, no matter how well you studied phonetics. Or the way you introduce yourself. Then they don't even listen to a word you say. You could be telling them they won a million dollars for all they know, and they just rip into you.

And here's the really weird thing, usually it's the women yelling at me that bothers me the most. The men are usually gruff and grumpy, but they usually make you laugh while they're telling you off. But women, eeee! Sometimes I think they would hunt me down and kill me given the chance.

I day dream about all the witty retorts never said, for the most part I just politely get them off the line. I say sorry so many times a day.

I must have done something REALLY awful in a past life to end up at a job where saying sorry is so automatic. I am a machine, a sorry saying machine.

But here is what I have to say to the mean ladies who rip into callers:

This morning I was eating something (I think it was chips) and drinking coffee and smoking and having my alone time with my huge pile of email (I'm on a listserv, it's not fans or anything), and this horrendous whirring saw noise starts, in the hallway outside my apartment. Ugh, I was so mad, and it continued on and off for the last hour I had before going to work, and totally wrecked my concentration. I wanted to yell at him, but I couldn't, and didn't. He was doing his job. So it was annoying, whatever, poor guy has to go be annoying everywhere all day. I was nice to him. I just imagined throttling him so he'd shut up. I didn't do it. And in the end we have nice new tiles in the bathroom. And a pit where the toilet used to be.

I miss the toilet, but I digress.

So just be nice with callers, we are usually pretty amiable to a polite no, and it doesn't take that long to talk to someone.

AND here's another thing about callers, YOU might know the person calling you. But they could be using a fake name, like Cha Cha DiGregorio, or Jessica Drake, or Mrs. Goulet. So you could be making your best friend or your cousin cry. Have you ever seen a caller cry? It is a sad sight.