I had a job, I have my own apartment which I'm paying for with that said job and now it's gone and surely I can only blame myself.

The story goes, I worked customer relations for Sweden's biggest telecom company and somehow an obvious trend has been seen in that very industry. Even though we were helping customers with their subscription business models we had the possibility of doing additional sales to their current model and receive additional commission for those sales.

Now this was not a requirement but definitely encouraged since they company obviously benefited from it, this is however not the case now in the company 2 years after I first started there. The focus on additional sales has been increased drastically and we are constantly reminded to sell more and more. That's when I realized that I was working telemarketing.

I had been working telemarketing before, I swore that I would never end up in a job like that but don't get me wrong guys it's not a bad job in any way but for me... It's something that I completely loathe doing myself but the question remains. Now I'm unemployed and have the worry of accomplishing something whether it is finding a new job or something else, the only thing I do now is sit at home and look for a job or post Youtube clips / stream. Ohh the glory years!

tl;dr: Made myself lose my job because I hate selling stuff.

So you quit your job or you got fired? If you quit your job, why did you do it before lining up another?

Do you have unemployment benefits in Sweden like we do in the U.S.? I got laid off a couple of years ago by a company that went to a 100% commission based system, and at least I had severance and unemployment pay to fall back on for a few months until I got a new, equally crappy job.

@TheHBK said:

why did you do it before lining up another?

You're wrong. Telemarketing is the worst.

You're wrong. Telemarketing is the worst.

I know all about dreading a job to the point of it ruining your life so i can understand it if you quit.

I always wondered how customer service reps for phone companies handled this problem. Now I know. You have restored a small amount of my faith in humanity.

Also, I hope that you line something up soon.

Yeah I don't want to sound like an idiot for quitting the job but I had been working telemarketing before and doing it for at least 2 years. And when I finally left that job I promised myself never to do that again and with this job all of a sudden it feels just like I'm working telemarketing. The reason I didn't find a new job before I quit is because I had been looking for quite some time with no avail, the job market is completely messed up and I just couldn't remain at this current one any more.

As for severance, I don't have 100% severance because I didn't join the "A-Kassa" in time here in Sweden. This means I'll be living with minimum severance, I'm not really a whiny guy but to be honest I'd rather be in this position right now.

Edit: Grammar and spelling.

I understand your reasoning but I would definitely say that if you somehow wind up in this position again, line up a new job first and then quit.

Selling shit is pretty terrible, did it for about six months before getting another call centre job doing credit card collections.

Turns out hassling people in debt was WAY better than sales.

Was this at 3? I took an interview for one of those jobs and it seemed like an alright place, but I'd end up hating it for the same reason you did.

You did the right thing. I have been there myself, dreading going in to face another day etc... Telesales really is the worst, every sales comes with a little piece of your humanity added to it. Something will come up, there's always temp work and things like that.

Good luck getting employed again soon.

As soon as you said Sweden I read this as if you have a thick Swedish accent. But definitely don't get stuck doing something you don't love or can't tolerate, hope you find something and bounce back quick!

I did the exact same thing 5 years ago. I was hired to be a customer service representative for Vodafone and they were pushing me to try to sell additional services after I was done assisting customers with whatever problems they were having. This was not part of the training, nor was it even brought up for the first few months on the job. It got to a point where a team leader was going to sit in on my calls and try to 'assist' me with pushing sales because I told them I simply wasn't doing it. He pulled up a chair next to me, at which point I threw off my headset, grabbed the coat from the back of my chair and walked out of the building, never looking back. No regrets. It didn't help that I was going through some serious personal shit at the time and didn't need this extra hassle.

@Azteck No, this is at Teliasonera. But I have the feeling it's pretty much the same for most Swedish telecom companies nowadays.

@RobotHamster Haha well you'd be surprised how little I sound like a Swede, must have been the obsessive viewing of sitcoms as I grew up.

And at everyone, thanks for the encouraging words. It's hard to know what this is really unless one has tried it themselves, some people are made for it though. Though my leaving the place was not quite as dramatic @CaLe , although I respect what you did a lot!

@Agraba said:

@Azteck No, this is at Teliasonera. But I have the feeling it's pretty much the same for most Swedish telecom companies nowadays.

I guess so. It's a shame because I'd be okay with working customer support but I'd feel really bad about selling people things when they don't know it's utterly useless for them.

Just go out and get whatever you can until something more desirable comes along. Maybe even try going to a competitor of your former employer.

Just go pump gas. Lift heavy things. Do whatever you need to.

Hell, move back in with your parents. Ain't no shame. Global economy is fucked beyond reason.

Make A Living Wage vs. Don't Be A Soulless Piece of Shit

I think you ended up on the right side of that one.

If you're into working on the phone, see if you can land a tech support job. Pretty much the same set of skills and you won't live and die by your sales figures. Best of luck finding a new job, duder!

@dudy80 said:

I know all about dreading a job to the point of it ruining your life so i can understand it if you quit.

I work for a Canadian Telecom. I know how it feels :(