Soul-Sucking Job

When I mentioned in the meme a few posts back some of y'all commented and wanted to know what that was like.

Well, I am here to tell you it was beyond horrible. I had just a month before escaped from the hell of the shoe department at Belk, after a witch threw a pair of shoes at me. The Official Lunatic Version-Saturday before Easter, at least 100 people wanting shoes in the shoe department, 2 sales associates to hunt the shoes in the stock room and ring up the purchases. This witch thought we weren't waiting on her fast enough and said "I feel like throwing it all in and going somewhere else."

I very politely replied "Ma'am, I am working as quickly as I can, I will be with you in just a moment."

I DID NOT say what I wanted to which was something along the lines of 'B#$&h don't you see there are about 50 people in front of you, CHILLAX?'

I was very polite to her.

Then I heard it. A crashing 'thunk', where the shoes had hit the wall behind me, knocking down a whole row of display shoes, narrowly missing an adorable little blonde toddler girl, who btw was waiting her turn. I turned in my two weeks notice that day. I loved the job and the people I worked with, but the good Lord did not put me on this earth to put up with that!

The next week an ad appeared in the local paper for clerical workers with the pay being decent. So I sent a resume and was called quickly for an interview, at which they asked me to come to work the next Monday.

I really should have seen that as a "BLINDING GLIMPSE OF THE OBVIOUS", as my old journalism professor used to say.

The building was run down, probably at least 100 years old, right downtown, in it's former glory it had been a hardware store. The roof leaked and parts of the ceiling were falling down. The place had an aromatic mixture of mildew, rotting paper, and stale cigarettes. Everyone that worked there smoked(if you are a regular reader you know how I felt about that). The desks and chairs were broken down and falling down. There were no windows except in the very front of the building, where it had been a store front, and they had been painted over. The afternoon sun would hit those front windows and heat the place up like an oven. It was dreadful. I mean DREADFUL!

The actual job was sitting at a desk, in front of a monitor and keyboard wearing a headset connected to the phone. They had some kind of automated computer dialler, that would direct people who would answer the phone call to"hold for an important business call".

Now due to the nature of the business, we (they hired another unsuspecting ingenue when they hired me, so we trained together)were instructed to select a false name to use when we actually connected with a human. As in "HI, this is Patty Professional* and I am with the XYZ* Collections in Corbin. I am calling to arrange payment on your account with Dr. ZYX*, when will you be able to send us a payment?"

Now when we were hired we were told that if we would get a commission on all of the accounts that we were able to bring to payment. Now let me tell you about the accounts we worked. 99.99% of the accounts were from doctors offices, radiologists, and lab services. Out of those 100% of those doctors bills, lab fees and x-ray fees were overages of what the providers had agreed to accept when they signed on with certain insurers, Medicaid and Medicare. Every single person I ever talked to when I was there was elderly, on a fixed income, and had no clue as to why they were being billed.

Now it is illegal for doctors and others to bill the patients on the overages that Medicaid and Medicare won't pay. They are supposed to only charge what the government will pay and no more. I don't know if it was the case 15 years ago or not but I will tell you it was horrible having to hear those poor, downtrodden old people every single day! There were some of those operators that had been doing that for as long as 30 years, including the woman who trained us.

Looking back now, I can't believe I lasted two weeks. It was a nightmare. My husband was on second shift back then and I would eat dinner every night with my mom when she got off from work. Every night I would tell her how horrible it was, she finally encouraged/enticed me to quit by telling me she would make my car payments for me until I found something else. I am so thankful that she did, other wise I probably would have stuck it out because I am just that stubborn, and it is not in my nature to be a quitter.

When I told the manager I was going to quit, I was in tears. I told her that I just could not listen to those poor people who didn't have the money to pay anymore. She evidently took it personally because she got really snarky and said that they 'probably wouldn't have kept me past my probationary period anyway.' Which hadn't been the case, everyday she told both me and the other girl that we were doing a great job. When I asked if she would like me to give two weeks notice, she snarked that it wasn't necessary, you don't even have to stay to the end of the day.'

Well you didn't have to tell me twice. I hot-footed it the heck out of there, popped the top on the bug, and noticed that sun was so bright, so wonderfully warming, and birds were singing. Honestly it made me think of when Dorothy lands in Oz and the colors are so vibrant and the munchkins start singing!

I drove straight to my mom's office and we went to lunch together. I am really so glad to have quit that job when I did. Otherwise I would not have been available the next month when a truly wonderful opportunity came my way. Next stop-Travel Agent.

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent and the not so innocent.