Telemarketing calls are a form of theft.

I have tried to articulate to myself why telemarketers fill me with incredible levels of rage. My wife scolds me to be nicer, that they do not deserve the curt, even rude treatment I heap upon them when they call my office. Some of my friends protest tha they “are just doing a job”. I disagree, and can prove it.

1) I am on the no-call list. This means that their calling me is in violation of state and federal law. It doesn’t stop them, however. I do not have caller ID, so I can’t see their number, and good luck getting them to give you contact info, so I am stuck for reporting them. This is a legal and contractual violation by the telemarketer’s company.
2) When I inform them that I am on the do-not-call list, I have never had one merely apologize and promise to take me off of their call list. The callers do not care if I am on the DNC list, or that the company they work for violates the rules of the DNC list. The moment they knowingly work for a company that violates the law, they are just as culpable. They cannot legally or morally blame the company for their actions.
3) Being a business, I cannot pick and choose the calls I handle; I must answer all calls, and I must expend time and energy doing so. This disrupts my work day’s rhythm and reduces my time available to perform legitimate work.
4) As my time costs the company money, telemarketer calls are costing my employer money. Further, if I have to work longer hours to recoup the time I have spent on their calls (or on spam in emails, for that matter) then they are costing me, personally, in the one commodity I value most: MY time.
5) My time is priceless, as I have a finite amout of it. No one has a right to choose how I spend it but me.

In the end, this is why I hate (yes, HATE) telemarketers. As a disclaimer, yes, I even briefly interviewed for a telemarketer job, and have known people in the business. That said, I have never known one who has been in the business more than 1-2 days who didn’t know exactly what they were doing to people.

Telemarketers are thieves of time and energy. They are unethical abusers of my time and my desire to be left alone, and they are willful violators of the law – the spirit of the law, and quite often the letter of the law.

Treating them in any way other than rudely only encourages such behavior. My only regret is that I can’t have them arrested and their companies fined and closed down.