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Antiwork

Craziest place I ever worked at

Very early 2000s I worked for a place that paid a lowish basic but very good commission. Good earners were on over £60k/pa which was mega money in your twenties in those days. Unfortunately it was an insane work environment, the last of the boiler room inspired sales environments where the manager would walk round and ask why you weren’t on the phone or how many times you’d got up to go to the toilet. The interview process was four x three hour interviews. You had to do general knowledge quizzes, role plays, tell a joke, sing a song. Basically prove you had no inhibitions and were in it for the money. Work was Monday to Thursday 0800-1730 but you had to stay behind voluntarily for at least another 2 hrs to set yourself up for the next day. On Friday you could leave at 1730 unless it was your…


Very early 2000s I worked for a place that paid a lowish basic but very good commission. Good earners were on over £60k/pa which was mega money in your twenties in those days. Unfortunately it was an insane work environment, the last of the boiler room inspired sales environments where the manager would walk round and ask why you weren’t on the phone or how many times you’d got up to go to the toilet. The interview process was four x three hour interviews. You had to do general knowledge quizzes, role plays, tell a joke, sing a song. Basically prove you had no inhibitions and were in it for the money. Work was Monday to Thursday 0800-1730 but you had to stay behind voluntarily for at least another 2 hrs to set yourself up for the next day. On Friday you could leave at 1730 unless it was your turn to stay behind and man the phones for the obligatory 1930 test call from the boss. However you were expected to spend the evening in the pub together on a Friday (I did this once in my first week and spent the rest of my time explaining how I wanted to spend my spare time with my new girlfriend not people I’d preset done over 50hrs with and then be stranded with my car) and basically everyone went along with it. We played rev up games first thing (which actually were fun despite the cringe) like charades for 30 mins and basically unpaid. When you started you were given a sales book and had to summarise a chapter every week so there was another chunk of your free time lost at at the weekend. I absolutely hated it. Once 6pm on a Sunday hit I was on the Monday fear cycle. Don’t get me wrong it had moments (like making £5k commission in a month and the training sessions were amazing) but I still can’t quite believe the place existed.

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