After crashing my father’s car, I needed to find a job to pay him back for the insurance deductible. I had gotten a flyer from someone advertising for a job that paid $12 an hour. For someone who was 16 at the time, this seemed like a pretty good deal. I called the number on the flyer and was informed that it would be for a telemarketing job, soliciting donations for a police organization. I got an interview and was subsequently hired. My first day on the job, I found out that I would not be making $12 per hour until I had worked 40 hours. They required me to work at least 20 hours a week. I was concerned that this would be a little too much for me, being a junior in high school. I brought this concern to the manager, who told me to drop some classes so that I could work more.  Looking back, this was a very blatant red flag, but since it was my first job, I just shrugged it off and thought he was crazy.

I received just about the worst training ever. I was trained by two different guys who told me to do completely opposite things (“Ask them how they’re doing, you gotta build your rapport with them” and “Don’t ask them how they’re doing, if they’re having a bad day, they’ll tell you about it”). I was told to really push them to give the organization money. It truly made me feel like a terrible person to listen to people sing the blues about how broke they were and still try to press money out of them. I heard it all. Seemingly, everyone had just lost their jobs or had a family member who had recently died or had cancer. On my sixth day, I showed up, only to find out that I had been suspended for not meeting the quota for donations. Needless to say, I was not very happy about going in to work (I lived on the other side of town and had no car) only to have to go right back home. The next day, I showed up, only to find out that I was being fired. On Labor Day. When the buses were not running.

A couple months later, they called me and offered me my job back.  I told them I would never set foot in that place again.