Once, years ago when I was between jobs, I temped in various offices in downtown Los Angeles. One of the assignments I had was rather unique, because I literally walked away from the job when I heard what they wanted me to do. I was told (by the temp agency, that’s how it works) that I was to do office work, filing and so forth, for one day. That sounded suspicious, but I needed the work so I showed up. Sure enough, the minute I walked in the door, the woman running things announced that they had changed their minds, and wanted me to do something else instead. She led me into what’s called a boiler room, with cubicles armed with phones (complete with headsets), computers, and desks and chairs. She then handed me what’s called a script, and left me to read it over.
The script I was supposed to read was a fund raising thing for a referendum that was currently on the California state ballot. The referendum protected the rights of people who were in car accidents from being sued by the people who had hit them. We’d had a rash of illegal immigrants who caused car accidents, and then fell afoul of unscrupulous lawyers (or had them on speed dial in the first place). The lawyer would call you or your lawyer and basically say: “Look, it’s a car accident, who’s to say who’s at fault? My guy’s suing yours. You can’t sue my guy because he’s not here legally and has no assets, on paper anyway, but we *can* sue you. Wanna settle out of court? $25,000 makes us go away.” The referendum was written to prevent this, and the script I was supposed to read was directed to raise funds to oppose it.
The interesting thing, though, was what was in the script. I was supposed to call law offices, and tell the person that I talked to there that I was in another law office, which was named. Since I wasn’t in a law office, this was troubling to me. The whole point was that lawyers would collectively oppose this attempt to separate them from some of their hard-earned cash.
I’ve never worked in a boiler room. I never want to start. I’ve got friend who’ve done it in the past, and frankly I have better things to do with my time. Oh, and the point to this entry? The organization that wanted me to lie like this, which wanted to raise money to fight this ballot initiative? The Service Employees International Union. Wonderful people, those community organizers.
Oh, and in case I didn’t make it clear, I walked out and didn’t look back. It was a bit surreal, the woman who originally introduced me around, and handed me the script, chased me down the street for a bit, trying to get me to come back. And no, the temp agency didn’t (as far as I know) penalize me for my actions. I complained immediately to them, explained what happened, and was working again I think later that week, or the next.
