In Regards to the Battle of the Telemarketers Vs. Receptionists

A significant portion of my day is spent answering the phone. Though answering the phones may be one of my least favorite things to do, most of the people who call in are nice and considerate, which makes my job much more pleasant. A portion of my time on the phone is spent warding off telemarketers, who I thought were a nuisance before, but have recently become the bane of my existence. Since I have difficulty telling people off outright, I have to dance my way around why I cannot connect them with the "hiring manager" "the person in charge of the computers" or the name of an actual person who works at the company, but has nothing to do with what they're asking about, and should most definitely not be bothered by the call.

Telemarketers are worst in the morning, when I'm still battling the desire to go back to sleep and have not yet built up the stamina to deal with them. This morning, as people were just beginning to arrive, someone called asking who he could speak to about our company's Verizon account. I replied in my standard, polite way, asking if he had a name of someone I could connect him to--knowing full well that even if he did, I wouldn't connect him. At first he didn't veer far from our polite stock responses, but after I told him that if he didn't have the name of the person he wanted to speak with, there wasn't anyone I could connect him to, he started rattling off random guy's names--John, Tim, Steve. I managed to stay in character, which I think pissed him off even more, saying that there was not anyone by this name or that at our company, which strangely enough was true. After the fourth or fifth name, he pushed a button that made a loud beep and hung up.

Now there was no need to push that button and make a loud noise in my ear. And in this situation, I'm fully in favor of that saying "don't shoot the messenger." In the battle of the telemarketers vs. the receptionists, I believe there's no reason not to fake politeness to one another. We both stand in each other's ways and don't want to be talking to each other, so why not at least feign a mutual regard for the other's responsibilities and call a truce. I'll listen to your schpiel and pretend to attempt to connect you with someone and you say thank you and quietly hang up. Neither of us will have gained anything, but at least I'll still have my ability to hear.