There are so many different kinds of people that come through the call center. Some stay and do ok, some quit after a week, some don't make it through the training program, and there are several that were just told to leave. Once you can make it through a couple of months without losing a lot of money and pissing a lot of customers off, your place is fairly secure.

Some people become very cynical and depressed after working here for a while, I am probabally one of them. But last year someone joined our team that rose above all that and seems to be almost flourishing in this environment.

I'll call her María, she is an older lady, I think she is from Cuba or the Dominican Republic. She had worked in our field before. What's so amazing about her is how she gets along with management. She does her work her way, she lets memos pile up on her desk unread. Policy does not really enter into her mind, she does things her way, and talks to the customers any way she wants. I don't mean that she cusses at them, but she will talk rude to the customers if she needs to. I think she could do a better job, and provide better service. I also think it would not hurt her to care a little more about the people that call in.

When the boss calls her on not following policy or not reading memos she smiles real sweetly and talks to him like a teacher to a slow pupil. But she throws enough of a flirt in there that he's powerless under her spell. She is a great example of a truth about the world that I did not really discover until about ten years ago: