Exactly. As long as callers are polite, the person answering the calls was going to be answering calls anyway, and doesn’t seem harmed. But hopefully there might be a memo written saying
“I’m sorry, sir, but our booking numbers are down this month because no one can make a reservation as our lines are always busy.”
You’ll have a hard time getting your voice heard from Guantanamo Bay.
I’m not buying it. This is exactly the same rationale used by Trumpers to attack the Women’s March (“Won’t SOMEONE think of the innocent commuters who will be late to work?”) Whether they meant to be or not, these employees are representatives of Trump’s organization. Unless you’re going to make his organization off-limits for political protest actions, “innocent” people are going to be affected. If you’re the least bit serious about resisting Trump’s “Presidency,” you’re going to have to get over this squeamishness.
That “think of the minimum-wage workers” line gets reached for a bit too easily. It’s what businesses are counting on when they surround themselves with a human ablative shield, and arguably you’re just giving in to their terrorist hostage tactics.
It is 100% right to be polite and empathetic to call center workers, but even at minimum wage, the longer you stay on the phone to them the more you’re costing their employer. Plus, it takes the sheen off an expensive hotel if genuine customers can only get through to a new-hire flunky in a call center.
Pestering Turmp businesses won’t solve much, but if someone wants to claw back a small fraction of his profits from this con, I wish them well.
Having been a phone jockey at a call center, when it was that one angry guy who wasn’t happy about his pet thing, it never bubbled up. If it was thousands of people every day expressing serious concerns about the same thing then the message would have bubbled up.
Until the President fully divests and creates an actual blind trust, his businesses are among his greatest weaknesses. While I don’t want to make the random people working for them annoyed, what Trump is doing is far more serious than a few thousand employees being somewhat inconvenienced and I’m fully supportive of the calls if that’s a way to send a message to their boss.
Sorry, but this falls under acceptable collateral damage. If you want to protest any company’s business model, you are going to inconvenience employees and make it harder for them to do their job. And as more people like Trump are coming into power, it’s not like the number of desperate people with shitty jobs is going to decrease- it’s only going to get harder to protest people without bumping into low wage workers along the way.
If this was about shitting on their desks or slashing their tires, you would have more of a point, but this is answering phones. I used to answer phones for a living, and I’m the last person who would blame people for doing this. Just like calling the White House switchboardn the same rules apply: Say your piece, don’t insult the staff, and hang up. I’m sure the people working there have had enough rich douchebags shit down their throats that this is a comparative relief.
While I, as a customer service employee, fully agree with the sentiment:
They have made themselves otherwise completely untouchable and unreachable and until you guys get onboard with directed extreme violence your options are marching and getting ten years for it and…I guess bitching to people on Facebook and Twitter who already agree with you???
Plus, you have to subject yourself to the abuse of Trumpers who will be trolling every thread on the site.
They have made themselves otherwise completely untouchable and unreachable
This
While I agree with what you say the last receptionist at a hotel I stayed in in the US was a black woman doing her masters. I guess she would have agreed with an anti-Trump caller.
No reason you can’t use your allotted time to just have a nice chat with front desk person.
Y’know what?
Better that it’s just some petty annoyance in response to highly unethical acts on the part of the government than people firebombing his properties, thereby actually harming some innocent schmucks who are just trying to earn a living.
Because it could come to that, all too easily.
By definition, the truly powerful never do their own work. They always surround themselves with servants and slaves, taking advantage of the desperation that capitalism creates to compel powerless people to serve and depend on them.
This is a genius move because it means that anything you do to harm the powerful will also harm their servants. It’s virtually impossible to strike solely at a powerful person. All you can do is strike at the extensions of their power, all of which are made of other people!
It’s a tough ethical question: by failing to strike at power, you’re allowing it to oppress unopposed. By striking against it, you’re causing more problems for those already captured by power.
I think it’s useful to understand that when you strike against power, most of the time it’s not actually you who are causing harm to the servants, it’s the power structure causing it.
Donald Trump can hire people to do any job he wants, and he can make that job as pleasant or horrible as he chooses because he’s the boss. By positioning his employees in front of an angry public, and telling them their pay depends on them protecting him, he is ensuring those people will receive the anger intended for him. It is his fault. He is choosing to hire those people as shields. He shouldn’t be rewarded for that behavior with mercy. He should be hit even harder, to the point that he has to pay more and more for shields. Eventually maybe nobody will want to be his shield for any price, because it’s such a shitty job.
And another thing! Why does the Trump administration have to be such blatant dicks about everything?
They could have left the public comment line in place and just quietly ignored it. But they had to signal to the world how little they care. They need you to know they are ignoring you.
What is the matter with them?
And if the phones lines are tied up with friendly people voicing their concerns, that call won’t get through. Win/win.
They’re worse than that. They want to see people unhappy.
Ever seen any Trump property? Gaudy and phallic is the default setting.
