OTAS, you found it

CHARLESTON, SC --This trip is beginning to wear. Flying around call-center-land and trying to determine what makes a good Customer Service Representative or a good Debt Collector is not all that difficult: Hardscrabble, with some street smarts, good on the phone and has some basic computer and math skills (but not too smart) no education, no options. . . that’s our ideal recruit. Boring, blindly committed, articulate, likes routine – someone who’s basically a fucking machine – that is a good CSR.

I, though, have a week to figure this out along with perhaps one of the most annoying people I’ve ever met. Raquel will be lucky to come out of this alive.

It’s not that she’s mean, per se. She’s just irritating, young, and a little too brazen for my tastes. She’s also on the neurotic side, interruptive, explaining everything ad nauseum, fussing over all the details, and Depression-era stinginess. Of course, she wants to do everything with me.

But enough of that: I would write more about it but I don’t even want to hear it myself.

Meeting people in the field has been a great experience. I’m finally understanding the business better and getting to know the people who run it, who seem really cool people (many of which I would not mind hanging out with on a casual basis). Call center employees are a cool lot, believe it or not.

But I’m missing home and like-minded people (Raquel is not one of them) and, most importantly, being able to control my surroundings. Being stuck here with Raquel and being pushed into meeting tons of people, meeting after meeting, then having to come back home to Raquel is like some sort of cruel joke.