Callcentre
I lasted 3 weeks when I worked in a call centre. Picture this:

16 years old, first ever part-time job. The idea was that this shitty local kitchen company that had already changed their time twice before, changed their name again and now started selling bedroom installations. Our manager? 22 at the most and didn't have a fucking clue. She sat there during every shift and talked to no one about this man she was shagging who had kids. There are about 7 of us sitting in this small room with the makeshift double desks you tend to get in classrooms all arranged into a big sqaure round the room. We got a cliboard with about 10 sheets containing 250+ names and numbers we had to call in 3 hours and try to sell kitchens. The pitch was 'your area has a 35% discount', which was bollocks because every fucking area has this '35% discount'.

The worst call I made was where I asked for this guy and his wife answered. It turns out he had died not so long ago. They didn't give you training for that (actually I got about 30 minutes training in my entire time there) and I'll never forget the sadness in her voice when she replied. There was a good one though when I asked this guy if I could speak to his wife and the person said 'this is she' in a pissed off tone :)

Ah what a shit hole. I know it's bad enough taking inbound calls but calling people up is fucking awful. Most of the time they get quite pissed off, cut you off before you finish the first sentence, call you names, etc. This one woman told me to stop phoning her and get a real job. I was like.. I'm 16 - where is your heart?

That was my last shift. I didn't receive my pay until I got in touch with the citizens advice bureau and threatened to take their swindling arses to court. Apparently the manager at the time was trying to save costs and hadn't even informed head-office I was working for them. Fucking cheek! Funilly enough, the whole £70 came a week or two later (followed by abother £70 when the original application went through and the payment was processed).
( thyrf as in turf, but not, Fri 23 May 2008, 3:55, Reply)