The rest of the
day I am sent to the phone room. The phone room has 4 chairs and 4 phones and
stacks of old member’s files.
They want us to call to renew past memberships. Rachel sits next to me, one stack of files in front of her and a discard “ already called” pile on the floor.
The first call I make is to a woman in her 70’s. After of 10 minutes me yelling into the phone, she understands that I am calling from Dora Dee Figure Salon and that I want her to renew.
They want us to call to renew past memberships. Rachel sits next to me, one stack of files in front of her and a discard “ already called” pile on the floor.
The first call I make is to a woman in her 70’s. After of 10 minutes me yelling into the phone, she understands that I am calling from Dora Dee Figure Salon and that I want her to renew.
After realizing
that I am male and that the club is not going co-ed just the staff is, she
hangs up on me. I write “ Doesn't want men in the club,” under her reason to not
return. Her file gets tossed into the discard pile.
Rachel seems just
as enthused as I am to be making these phone calls. She constantly holds her
middle finger up to the phone when she talks and writes “Die” on a piece of
paper that she holds up for me to read. After an hour of rejection on the
phone, I begin making calls using a feminine voice and saying that my name is
Genevieve. Rachel has to mute her phone after spitting water out her nose.
Thirty files get
thrown into the discard pile. Rachel writes “Dead” under reason to not return
on 50% of her files and then launches them Frisbee style across the room. She
tells me that she does this so she doesn’t have to call them back. It is our
jobs to take the discard files of someone else and call them. Past members will
be called at least 7 times before they are completely removed from our paper
system.
Isabelle peek’s
her head into the phone room to make sure we are working. Dora told her that
someday she could be second in command under Sharon. This way she is guaranteed
that Isabelle will spy for her and report back.
The day is
finally over for me and I have to punch out on the way out. Sharon waves to me
from the front office. Rachel punches out moments after I do, waving to Sharon
and then rolling her eyes when she looks away.
Half way down the
stairs Rachel bums a cigarette from me. “Oh my lord, I need to graduate and get
out of here.” “How long have you worked here?” I ask. “Not much longer than
you,” she says taking a deep draw of the cigarette.” “I didn't know you
smoked,” I say as she heads into the parking lot. “I don’t,” she says and
flicks the cigarette onto the pavement.
I stand around
the corner and wait for the bus to bring me back to Albany. The sign that reads
Dora Dee Figure Salon gets turned off. I wait for the bus for about 45 minutes
to arrive. The trip home is slow and we stop at every bus stop on the way home.
No one is on the bus except for 3 people and no one is at the stops.
I am supposed to
stop over and pick Billy up from David’s on the way home.
To be
continued…….
Geoffrey Doig-Marx holds all written and electronic rights to his writing "A Day in the Life". It can not be reprinted in part or whole without his written consent.
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