This picture triggers fucked up memories of stretching the cord all over hell to try to fix the “kink” at a shitty telemarketing job
Posted by waywardviking208@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 34 comments
tree_or_up@reddit
I never could figure out how to get these out. Sometimes I twisted things in JUST the right way and it popped back. So satisfying. I did become kind of fascinated at how these kinks actually form and learned how to recreate the problem reliably. Sometimes you could come back from the edge and it would go back to normal. Other times, you went too far and were fucked. I was convinced that if I could analyze how it crossed that threshold in enough detail, the solution to always being able to undo it with just a simple twist would be revealed. Alas, that solution remained an occult mystery
Global-Jury8810@reddit
I worked at Home Depot in the mid 2000s in Nampa, Idaho for a few years. I was a cashier but requested and was granted a transfer to the phone center. Admittedly, I was terrible, and one of the reasons was I would chew that cord during shifts. I had been advised against chewing the cord on several occasions and after it was replaced a few times I was eventually written up for it.
Bakingsquared80@reddit
I miss being able to slam the phone down when you are really mad.
jjmawaken@reddit
Yeah, pressing the hangup button just doesn't do it
ShillinTheVillain@reddit
slam phone on table for effect
gently pick up phone and press End Call
jjmawaken@reddit
*dang, broke my screen
NeoMoose@reddit
This just made me angry. Thanks.
waywardviking208@reddit (OP)
rosujin@reddit
You don’t stretch it, you twist it starting at the knot and working your way all the way to the end of the cord. I hated kinks in the cords and had OCD about fixing them all the time.
BreakfastBeerz@reddit
If twisting it fixed it, that must mean that it was twisting that caused it. But if twisting caused it....it would have started at one end and slowly made it's way to the middle. But that never happened. The cord was fine and then all of a sudden, one day, it had this loop in the middle of the cord. It's an enigma I'll never understand.
rosujin@reddit
It’s very subtle, but some people will answer the phone, then rotate the phone in one direction when they put it up to their ear, then rotate it in that same direction when they put the phone back on the receiver. Multiply this by however many times someone picks up the phone in a day and it creates a kink.
I used to watch my dad do an exaggerated double (or triple) rotation of the phone when he picked it up and he would absolutely destroy phone cords. It would almost be tied in a knot after he used one for just a couple of weeks.
PsionicKitten@reddit
Unplug one side to make it easy, twist to the end. Fixed. Done. I always fixed it for everyone in less a minute.
Vegskipxx@reddit
That would occupy the rest of my day
nina107c@reddit
It was an oddly satisfying feeling seeing that cord unwind.
Someidiot666-1@reddit
Worked at a call center for dsl tech support. Think pac bell, sw bell, etc. we had headsets but needed a cord to plug into a box that then had a thin headphone wire up to headset. I would routinely steal straight cords and keep them for myself. I also found the ocd nerds who couldn’t handle having kinked cords and would swap them out every few days for funsies. Worked night shift and we all had a day shift desk partner. I left my desk partner notes of my folly’s along with trinkets and mugs of weed. I sometimes miss the innocence and Juvenal good times had in the 90’s
waywardviking208@reddit (OP)
Just curious if you were working with an auto dialer at that point in time or if it was still hand punching the numbers to make a call? I enjoyed telemarketing in the late 90s early 2000s. it was when they got turned into more sweatshops with auto dialing and managers, listening into every call with constant feedback about your performance. It just turned into a nightmare.
Someidiot666-1@reddit
We had a cue of customers calling in with dsl support issues. Night time was the only time when phones weren’t constantly backed up.
Cutthechitchata-hole@reddit
My favorite thing to do was to flip their screen and watch them try and figure it out.
Proud_Cauliflower400@reddit
Damn. I almost forgot about corded phones and that nightmare. Thanks.
bjgrem01@reddit
I hated corded landlines because I had to fix them. Every time. Couldn't leave that kink in there ever. It drove me nuts.
Curious_Version4535@reddit
My mom’s cat used to chew through the curly handset cord. We went through so many.
thatotherguy57@reddit
Looking at this is aggravating me to no end. I cannot see this without fixing it. I avoid looking at the phones at work because every one has these kinks, and I will obsessively spend hours working them out.
w0rsh1pm3owo@reddit
to fix them, unplug one end, hold the part that is kinked in between your index and thumb, pull the cord through those fingers towards the unplugged end. it pulls the kink along the cord until it is at the end and is fixed. I know this because I fixed slinkies the same way
PsionicKitten@reddit
So the useless red circle is blue now?
Interesting-Goose82@reddit
I worked as a telemarketer!!! And i KILLED at it!
My phone chord was 100%. The dude that sat next to me, that used to sell cars, but couldnt sell poop over the phone, his chord was F'd.
....we both used headsets, i have no idea how his chord got messed up. ...when mine got twisted i just, un twisted it?
Also i never lied to ppl on my sales calls. I got right to the point, and people who want to be rude to telemarketers (totally get it by the way) i was faster to hang up on you than you were me. Im trying to sell shit and make money. Trust me i do this 8 hrs a day 5 days a wk. I know quicker than you if a sale is going down!
Best way to be done with a telemarketer? Be polite or say nothing, but the end call button is what youre looking for. Personally i interupt them and say "no thanks" then however long it takes for me to get my screen back on and click the red button they say "but sir i know,...! And!!!......." click MF'er!
nailszz6@reddit
Those with OCD, this could ruin an entire day.
drainbamage1011@reddit
This picture made me irrationally irritated. And I have a corded phone at work, so this is still a real threat in my daily life.
cutiemeowmeowxo@reddit
I can hear the supervisor yelling about call quotas in the background
TollyVonTheDruth@reddit
I still deal with this annoyance at work since the company purchased a ton of headsets with that same cord design.
OhFuuuuuuuuuuuudge@reddit
That’s just me not listening to whoever I was on the phone with while I slowly twirled the kink out of the line, then later I’d get in trouble because I hadn’t listened to what they were saying. Then of course the next time I used the phone it would be retwisted.
kingjamesporn@reddit
The amount of time I spent trying to cure the one in my kitchen should have been one of those early signs that I'm autistic.
Rich-Stay-1949@reddit
Goddamnit!
percypersimmon@reddit
My telemarketing job in High School gave us a break at 10 minute 4:20 so we could all drive around and get high.
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
And coming in the next day to find it back again!