For the Ladies

Why do male call center employees wear giant chains on the outside of their shirts? Why do call centers attract that kind of clientele? Or is it that working in a call center is what prompts many of them to start wearing their chains in such a fashion -- or to start wearing a giant chain in the first place? Or is it both? Chain-wearing males are hired; non-chain-wearing males begin to regard wearing a gaudy-ass chain in a blatant manner as the only recognizable form of status in this lower-class environment; non-chain-wearing males become chain-wearing males as soon as their wealth (mostly dependent on the money they make at the call center) permits; status is gained and the cycle begins anew.

Christ, there are a lot of them.

It was my one year anniversary at Comcourse today (technically, the 16th, but I work until midnight so I consider it to be the same day until I go to sleep). I shared the milestone with Gob and Tron. Gob wears a big gold chain on the outside of his shirts. He also wears a gold watch. And a gold ring. Tron has only a small silver chain which he wears over turtlenecks.

Comcourse distributes pins to employees to mark each year of service. The three of us hoped this would not happen. We did not want any formal acknowledgment of our 12-month stagnation in a call center. The only accomplishment that pin commemorates is not being fired -- which is not a particularly difficult feat. We show up for most of our shifts (Tron actually has a year of perfect attendance) and we have never been caught under the influence while on Comcourse property. No one knows about the knife in my bag or the weed in Gob's pocket or the gun in Tron's car. We perpetrate all of the behaviour cited as unacceptable by Comcourse University (the online training tool designed to teach employees the policies and standards of Comcourse without having to pay anyone to explain them nor pay us to listen), but there has typically always been someone doing such things a little more gregariously. We're rarely noticed and we like that.

At least I thought we liked that. We were not given a pin today. There was no mention of our anniversary. I don't know why. And even though I wanted no attention paid to this day, I suddenly felt slighted by the lack of acknowledgment. In fact, the only thing out of the ordinary that occurred today was a change in our mandated seating arrangement. Gob, Tron, and I are now separated and work is less tolerable than usual. I doubt we would have been as hypersensitive to the change were it not October 16th. But it was. So we were.

It wasn't this cold out, this time last year. I remember showing up for orientation in a sweater and worrying about being flushed from the heat. I didn't know anyone then and now they're my entire society. I want us all to have a pin about that.

Maybe I'll just get myself a big-ass chain.