Like Connie-- I have phone fear for outgoing calls. Since I have answered the main phone for every job since I was 16 until now, incoming phone fear would be incapacitating. or possibly, have kept me out of shit jobs.

I don't have phone fear if I am calling for someone else or on business, for some reason-- for example-- I can;t order a pizza on the phone for me, but if I need to order several pizzas, for work, with tax exempt status to come at a certain time-- I am fine.

Well, well, well. CNN is saying Michael "Drownie" Brown has resigned as FEMA director. Can't say we didn't see that coming.

Too bad they didn't fire him... but this is almost as good. (And I'm sure he had no choice....)

I don't have phone fear if I am calling for someone else or on business, for some reason

I wish I had this. Whenever I have to call someone on business, I have to psych myself up for it, even if they're expecting the call. Some of it is being afraid of sounding like a dork.

I remember once when I was doing cold calling that I had to hang up immediately, because the recipient was a mildly peeved Englishman, and the sound of a sexy, snarky British voice made my brain lock up.

Michael Brown's going to spend more time with his family: [link]

the sound of a sexy, snarky British voice made my brain lock up.

They could just take the country right back if they simply exploited this fact, couldn't they?

I'm not really afraid of the phone.

That first job at the sandwich shop I was given the job of making collection calls for bad checks. I was the youngest and least experienced and I had to call people up and threaten them.

This actually served me well when I worked at the land surveryor's and had to threaten people with liens and other nastiness if they didn't pay up.

I don't have phone fear so much as phone white-hot-loathing. I can count the number of people with whom I can easily talk on the phone on one hand, and I'm related to all of them.

If I have to call someone I don't know, especially about anything even vaguely bureaucratic, I write down what I'm going to say before I call.

I've had a ton of jobs, mostly because I temped my way through college/grad school/shortly after grad school. Some of my non-temp jobs:

RA
Residence Hall Director
Maintenance Sec'y
Assist. Theatre Mgr/House Mgr.
Retail (Lane Bryant mostly, also Michael's)
Sec'y for Industrial Real Estate brokers
Reservations agent for a hotel chain
Substitute Teacher

Some of my temp jobs:

Folding turtlenecks at a dept. store during a sale
Checking in better bags and putting security tags on them at a dept. store
Answering phones at a jewelry store
Clowning for the grand opening of a drug store
All kinds of office work
Inventory at a fasteners place (I counted a shitload of bolts)