Reply #40: Speaking as an intern who fielded a lot of these phone calls

[Colin Ex]

I have a few points I'd like to bring up.

1) I do NOT have a direct connection to John Kerry. I cannot call him or his campaign up on the Bat-Phone. So when you say "I think it would be great IF..." you're wasting my time and yours, but mostly mine.

2) If you start our discussion with "I think John Kerry should..." then that five second pause you hear is me finding paperwork to do while you waste my time for ten minutes. Seriously.

3) I don't really care about what you're saying because I am an intern, working for free 20 or 30 hours a week, and it's not like they're paying me.

4) You want to know why you're on the phone with an intern? Because the field directors have people like me around so you don't waste ten minutes of their time.

5) When you call, the person fielding your call (me) has usually been staring at a computer screen doing data entry, putting together palmcards, or making phone calls for a few hours straight. (Side note: unless you can tell me what data entry, palmcards, and phone calls entail, STFU) That, along with you're wasting my time, is why I'm mostly ignoring you.

I spent pretty much the whole summer dealing with people who would call in and tell me about how John Kerry should discuss the critical plywood shortage or complain to me about how John Kerry has no message or tell me how much they hated the person who answered the phone (without actually leaving a name: evidently there's a phone troll under the desk who takes care of it). Working 20-30 hours a week pretty much all summer without pay has pretty much completely killed my acceptance for bullshit when I'm behind a desk.

Just my two cents: please don't waste my time and yours (mostly mine).