Lessons Learned as a Debt Collector
Clients lie. After a while, when you get exposed to lies so often, you start creating a nasty habit of not telling the truth. This doesn’t do any good to you professionally. Neither does it help you become more human in this crazy world today. Basically, if you lie to a client which is lying to you he will pay his bills next Monday, you haven’t accomplished what you needed – he won’t pay those bills. If you lie to someone who is not lying to you, there is a small chance you can make him pay his bills because he gets scared. However, even in that case, your conscience might not allow you to sleep well at night. It is said that when one lies, he loses a part of himself. The more one lies, the more empty he becomes. I believe in that statement and I am one of the Don Quixote(s), trying to create a world without lies. It’s hard, I have to admit, but I love every second of it.
The importance of being earnest. Just like the play by Oscar Wilde implies, being honest is what matters, being named Earnest or not. If you are honest with your clients, they will appreciate you more. As a bonus, you will get to keep your conscience clean, no matter whether the clients paid or not.
Keep your promises. Clients will respect a man of his word and are likely to pay. Plus, you strengthen your integrity and add weight to your words which helps them to be heard when spoken or written.
Help your colleagues, and ask for help if needed. Help your fellow teammate reach his monthly quota. It will help him get more confident in his skills and the upper management might even send a bonus check to everybody that month. Also, put your pride aside and ask for help if things go south.
Accept the fact that some battles can’t be won. Whatever you do, you can’t win every single battle. Some clients won’t or just can’t pay, unfortunately. Unfortunately for them, not for you. At least, you still have a job you lucky bastard!
After 7 months of hard work, these 5 thoughts are what I brought with me after quitting the job as a debt collector in a call centre. Also, even today I am 100% sure that there is no better office job which allows you to acquire the amount of nerves of steel I received as a debt collector. It also boosts your patience by at least 50%.
Having become unemployed again, I wanted to focus on studying and it was about time I passed my exams and graduated. While I was studying Italian literature of the XIV century, my best friend intrigued me with his stories of the internet and the endless possibilities someone can have by using it, especially if you are a developer. At that point in time, I knew that pressing the big button will turn the computer on, I knew how to use Windows operating system and I enjoyed playing video games. A lot. I was using my browser to log into Facebook and for playing online chess. Everything else was a mystery to me and I didn’t have any desire to find out what’s under the hood.
