(no subject)

[radlilim]

Nothing like a call from a credit card company to take away all one's ambition and drive to even try. I'm not sure how those people survive their jobs. How can someone destroy people's lives and take away all of their self confidence like that for 8 hours a day?

I felt sick to my stomach before the call, now it's worse.

Company meeting later today, so I will try and stick it out. My bet is we will go down to 3 unpaid days off a pay period. There has been rumors of more work coming in, but I'm not going to get my hopes up.

Laura, Jack and Rob are flying out to Saudi Arabia this morning. By tonight they will be over 7,000 miles away.

Softball was fun last night, though I really don't feel like talking about that. We were short a player, not happy with him, and I had to pitch and cover second base all game. Lots of running. We almost won, but the other team rallied in the last inning. Great people, hopefully we can get most of them back next year.

Comments

[maroon-ed.livejournal.com]

Well, as someone who used to work in a department store collection department (paperwork support and training--I never actually did collections) I can tell you it's a total meat grinder. Some people are built for that and thrive, but the job itself is competitive. The managers look at the dollars collected and skim off the lowest producers--and lay them off. A new crop comes in--lather, rinse, repeat.

One thing (well, besides seeing the collection process up close) that got me past the guilt and horrible feelings of being on the wrong end of collections...there was a book at the time, early 90's and I've since lost the title. But the gist of it is that the collectors are interested in one thing only: money. Zero empathy, zero honor, zero thought for your well-being. A corporation with a balance sheet, nothing more. The collection agent is trained to appeal to your sense of honor, of guilt, on your desire to feel like a good person, on your desire to keep your promises. These are all levers to them--they neither know nor care what kind of person you are. Their job depends on you sending cash, and they'll do anything to that end.

You are a good person who's low on cash. Not being able to pay your bill says absolutely nothing about your worth or your morals...especially in this economy. It takes practice, but I found it liberating to learn not to care what they say or think.

[jkivela.livejournal.com]

I kinda figured that is the mindset of people in that position, but I just can't fathom how someone can have that mindset. I guess it's on par with soldiers? Not to the same extreme, but it must take a similar bent to shoot someone as it is to verbally berate them. They probably need a strong dose of superiority too.