Moncton — Local man Jamie Sherrod is thankful to be among friends, family and people he doesn’t mind talking to following a long and harrowing ordeal in which the 32-year-old call centre worker found himself hopelessly ensnared in a conversation described as both “agonizing” and “utterly exhausting.”
“I was at work and went out for a smoke break,” said a visibly shaken Sherrod. “Some people were talking about the weather and I made some comment about the snow in Buffalo. Before I knew it I had a guy directly speaking to me about his cousin who lives around Buffalo, and then it somehow got into his cousin’s marital problems or something… I don’t know, I was completely lost at that point and panicking.”
Fearing to be impolite, Sherrod continued to listen and feign interest despite the complete lack of humour, meaning or relatability to his co-worker’s seemingly endless tirade.
“It quickly got to a point where I just stopped responding,” said Sherrod. “But he just kept going so I nodded politely following the pauses in whatever the hell he was talking about.”
Luckily the verbal torment was cut short by a telemarketer who called Sherrod’s cellphone several minutes into the unremitting banality emanating from his unnamed co-worker’s mouth.
“It was a godsend, I mean I was so thankful that this crook offering me a free trip to Vegas relieved me from this awful conversation, I almost wanted to give out my SIN number and have my identity stolen just to say thanks.”
Sherrod said he won’t be making the same mistake again. “I’m trying to quit anyway, but if I really need to go for a smoke at work again, I’m just going to smoke in my car and leave the windows up.”