Working The Floor: Dre the Mountain With a Warning

How we built a 125-person call center on scraps, chaos, and soda—and somehow survived

The stories shared in this series are creative nonfiction. All names, locations, and identifying details have been changed to protect privacy. Some characters are composites. Events are based on real experiences but have been fictionalized where needed. Any resemblance to actual people or institutions is purely coincidental. To the best of the author’s knowledge, no confidentiality agreements apply to these materials.

*Working the Floor: Memoir from the trenches of the call center nobody talks about.*

This piece is part of the Bent But True series — real stories, fractured fairytales, and reflections that don’t flinch. I publish Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. See full schedule HERE*

Dre: The Mountain With a Warning

Dre was a mountain. Not just big—commanding. Built like you’d need a team of five to move him if he didn’t feel like going somewhere. A North St. Louis original—hard to rattle, harder to read. Not the kind of man who gave you his trust lightly.

Early on, I didn’t know what to…