RE: [pf] Risks, imposed or chosen

by tully

18 December 2000 01:08 UTC

At 04:25 PM 12/17/00 -0800, David A wrote:
>Ah, aiding and abetting the telemarketing fiends!

That's exactly what I was afraid of when I first looked at the job, since I 
didn't want anything to do with that miserable business of direct 
marketing.  Luckily, we get our data from the telcos and we have 
contractual obligations not to allow it to be used for telemarketing or 
other direct marketing.  I'm a privacy freak, personally, and will do 
everything in my power to protect the non-published and non-listed numbers 
and promote opt-in arrangements instead of opt-outs.  I couldn't in good 
conscience work there otherwise.

I was so pleased to find a job that I could feel good about doing.  Its so 
hard to find something an idealistic old hippie like me could accept 
nowdays.  There are tons of jobs in marketing <shudder> or biotech, but I 
could never do that.  Before this job, I administrated a database system 
called Medical Manager, run by a series of medical clinics in several 
states in the southeast.  I felt good about that one too and if the boss 
hadn't been such a jerk, I'd still be there...

>And charging us poor people exorbitant rates for a simple lookup!  :)

If you saw what it takes to provide that number that the telco charges you 
.50 to 1.00 for, I think you'd be impressed with what you were 
supporting.  Especially since your bio shows you were also once an employee 
of AT&T as was I.  My company is a small startup begun a few years ago by 
some ex-Bell System and IBM people and never have I worked anywhere that I 
had so much respect for so many of my fellow employees.  We can't help but 
succeed with the team we have and its just great fun to be a major part of 
making it succeed, feeling pride in how we earn our income.  I suspect its 
a feeling few employees get to have anymore.

Now if I could only discipline myself to quit the game of building some 
tool for the company and instead do what I'm supposed to be doing around 
this house, I'd be set.  But what do I do?  Drop the company telnet session 
to start playing on the mail lists...  ;)


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