My Small Part To Help U.S. Jobs

Just a few minutes ago I received a telephone call from Discover Card. Because I was such an important customer, my account manager wanted to extend to me a very valuable opportunity. Of course they were offering one of those credit protection scams the credit card companies are always offering.

Well, my personal account manager had a very heavy foreign accent (never mind which country, you already know). It occurred to me on the spot, that this was a good time to do something to help America’s displaced workers. I interrupted the sales pitch and asked if the call was originating in the United States. The "account manager" indicated it was not.

I very politely explained that I realized he was only doing the job he was hired to do, but that I’d made a decision to only consider products or services offered to me by people based in the United States. I told him I appreciated the call, wished him a good evening, and hung up.

I realize my one call handled that way won’t exactly end the off-shoring of jobs, but if everyone in U.S. adopted that attitude, it might make some companies reassess their attitudes about off-shoring. (Don’t let them get away with calling it out-sourcing.)

So, I invite everyone to join me. Start asking from whence the call originates, and politely decline any offers that don’t originate in the U.S. If you call a company for customer service, ask they please transfer you to U.S.-based call center. If it were a big enough movement, it might have an impact.