Telemarketers

I have a number of unusual habits that I don't think most people do, and one of the more interesting among them is being very polite to telemarketers. There are people who hang up as soon as they get the faintest inkling that they are talking to someone who is trying to sell them something, and there are people who are outright rude to the people who have one of the crummiest jobs in the world (with "being rude" including just hanging up on them as well as yelling mean things), and I'm just not one of those people. I'm nice to telemarketers, partly because I believe in being nice to people, especially those in trying circumstances, partly because it's interesting to see how they react.

There tends to be a fifty-fifty split between people who, upon realizing that I'm not going to buy their thing, say, "Alright, thank you, have a nice day" and people who, upon realizing that I'm not going to buy their thing, just hang up. I wonder what it is that makes someone have one reaction over the other.

I think it's a difference in how people view their job. Someone who has the former response sees being a telemarketer as working in communication - that is, actually talking to people and having conversations with them. It also might also be that the person who says "Alright, thank you, have a nice day" expected a real response on the other person's part (either rudeness or genuine interest in what they have to sell) and gives a real response themself. Someone who has the latter response, however, doesn't think they're paid to talk to people but rather at them, which admittedly is a realistic expectation of telemarketing. Either that, or they just don't know how to deal with most sorts of responses and hangs up out of inability to respond.

I genuinely have no clue but it is interesting to be polite to telemarketers and not hang up on them or yell at them.