I’ve worked in all kinds of call centers, some good, some not so good. One of the worst was a telemarketing company selling satellite television service. The call center was in a decrepit building in the middle of a “bad neighborhood” in a medium sized Midwestern city. I had just lost my previous job thanks to the “Do Not Call List” and it’s effect on the industry and this one wasn’t intended to be permanent, just something to get me through the near future. The police station was right across the street, which turned out to be a very good thing for the police since they didn’t have far to go to make a “pickup”. They basically were running a one way chauffeur service from the office over to the “county hotel”.
Fights in the workplace aren’t the norm, but they do happen. The tiny, cramped office was always very noisy since the building was not designed for a call center and we were practically crammed in with a shoehorn. Customers frequently asked me if we were having a party due to the noise in the background. It was in this environment that the battle erupted. The night started out like any other, I made 30-40 calls and got maybe 1 sale, but I don’t remember for sure. What I do remember is that between calls I heard several shouts and everybody in the place jumped up and ran over to the the back of the office. Two young girls were beating each other up and the team leads were trying to break it up without any success. It turns out that an innocent bystander, an unlucky man who was between them and in the middle of a call when they attacked each other, got the worst of it. The sheriff made yet another visit to our little corner of paradise and removed the Mike Tyson wannabes. The poor guy in the middle of the fight was unharmed and later in the evening somebody jokingly raised a fist to him, to which he responded: “I’ve already been rumbled on once tonight”.
