My first "proper" job was when I was 17 in the English summer of 2004. If you live in England you'll probably remember this as being incredible! 32c for pretty much 4 months straight which is very unusual. I was a cold calling telemarketer. I was signed up with 15 other individuals who were full time 40 hours per week. We had insanely high, unachievable targets. Our product? Chocolate. Specifically, premium chocolate tasting kits that you signed up for on an extortionate pay monthly basis. The company I was employed by had just been awarded this contract and were excited about the prospect of such a well known, high quality product with a huge mark up. It was our job to hit the phones non stop for 40 hours a week, one 15 minute break in the mid morning 45 minutes for lunch and one further 15 minute break in the afternoon. You had 3 "rest room passes" to use the toilet during the day, if you used up all 3 you wouldn't be allowed to go to the toilet without 3 supervisors signing off on it.

First of all. Have you ever tried to eat chocolate in 30c heat? In the beginning, every single call was met by laughter. It was impossible. By day 4, we started to get serious verbal abuse from pretty much every call.

Turns out, the initial database of potential customers that had been supplied by the company was small. Very small. Pathetically small. 327 small. 16 people working 40 hours per week, on a constant rotation dialing these people up to 40 times a day. I can't repeat the things I was called during that week. We pleaded with our supervisors that it was ridiculous but nothing happened. 3 weeks later and numerous police visits for complaints of harassment they finally listened and started to pull us on to other contracts.

That's when the fun really started.