Phone Monkey : The Secret Diary of a Frustrated Call Worker

by Anonymous

Ever feel undervalued at work? Looking for a bit of escapism to raise your spirits? Then Phone Monkey is the book for you. This is the laugh-out-loud-funny true story of a Phone Monkey being trained to sell insurance, while at the same time recounting the catastrophes he's encountered in his other jobs. Guaranteed to have you giggling away to yourself for hours! With a handful of extremely entertaining comic strips thrown in to lighten up the story, Phone Monkey's debut offers a refreshingly cynical insight into the modern world of work. Now the comic strips have been updated into a larger format so there's no problem with reading them on the Kindle!

Here's what some readers had to say about it:

“It’s hilarious, thank you for cheering my day up! I’ve recommended your book to all my fellow Kindlers.”

“Really good book. Loved reading this, I used to work for an insurance company so I relate to the stories. Made me laugh all the way through! I’ve recommended this on!”

“Just to say I’ve just read your book and I really enjoyed it. I bought it last night and read it in one sitting. Keep writing.”

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Biography

Kindle Edition

First published February 7, 2012

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's a Facebook post that ran way too long. It's not even funny from the perspective of someone who's actually worked in a call center.

[Grace Harwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me laugh a lot. I'm a phone monkey myself and some of the stories in the book I could definitely relate to (e.g. spending hours decorating the office under the heading "Visual Management" - I once spent around three hours cutting out snowflake shapes from bits of paper in the call centre of a bookmakers; the threat of immediate dismissal if you take a moment away from your phone or even go to the toilet too often and God help you if you ring in sick). I loved the stories about Phone Monkey's ridiculous colleagues and the customers who called up (particularly the blind woman who wanted to renew her car insurance) had me in stitches. There was an element to this that wasn't particularly well-structured and in places it was all a bit random with phone monkey stories mixed up with everything else the narrator had ever done in his entire life. There was also an element of bragging which got on my nerves a bit, but on the whole, this made me laugh more than it ticked me off. The author doesn't make any claims to literary genius with this and is quite open about the fact that it started life as Facebook posts and blog entries, but I couldn't help but feel that this would have been a better and funnier book if the author had stuck to the point a bit more and concentrated on his call centre training and subsequent calls taken. However, I liked it enough to buy the sequels and I'm looking forward to reading about Phone Monkey's next adventures.

[The Bookish Wombat · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a freebie from Amazon which I opted to download as I've worked in an insurance call centre like its author. I was looking forward to seeing if there was anything I recognised in it, but found it all a bit of a disappointment.

The author tries too hard to be funny and expects us to be impressed by his tales of drunkenness and his general lack of commitment to a "proper job" in order to support his family.

The character sketches of his team mates at the call centre are mildly amusing but very stereotyped and he actually says very little about the job as most of the "action" relates to the training he received before being let loose on the phones. It's also a very short book.

So all in all a bit 'meh'. I have funnier stories from my call centre days, but have never written them down - perhaps I should!

[Sharakael · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a very short book. It was amusing, but tends to carry on like "let me tell you all the stupid and funny shit I did before!" so if that sort of thing tires you out... then don't read this book.

This was most akin like talking to a mate about all the stupid shit you did when you were both young. Fun as a conversation, but was rather poor as a book.

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can relate to this book so much! A good, very real book on call centres! Very enjoyable.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was free and very funny. A quick read and worth reading if u like mini autobiographys

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty Funny.

If you have ever worked in an office of any sort this will make your eyes roll.

[Heather Cawte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I worked in a call centre for 15 months. A lot of this book was horribly familiar!