I’m sitting on my bed, wearing a telephone headset. I wait anxiously for about two minutes, adjusting the mouthpiece, until I hear the tag line:

“Female Fantasy.”

This signals the start of a call, my first call. The caller is responding to an ad for girl-on-girl action. I have a lump in my throat.

Me: “Hello, who am I speaking with tonight?”

Caller: “Gary. What’s your name?”

Me: “Tiffany. So what can I do for you tonight, Gary?”

Caller: “I don’t know.”

Me: “Well, what do you look like?”

Caller: ” Well I’m, um, dark hair, dark eyes. About 6 -foot -2 and about 6 to 7 inches.

(Most callers would boast 7 inches, if not more.)

Me: “Oooo, Gary. Seven inches sounds awfully nice.”

Caller: “I’m not sure if I should do this.”

Me: “Do what, Gary?”

Caller: “Talk to you. My girlfriend is passed out on the couch.”

It takes about five minutes to convince Gary that he shouldn’t worry about his girlfriend waking up in the middle of our conversation. I tell him if she does, she is more than welcome to join. Finally he opens up and turns into another person.

Caller: “Are you a dirty little whore who likes to eat –” (You get the idea.)

Indeed I am, I tell him over and over and over and over …

Then I hear the sigh of a satisfied caller and the click of a receiver. My first call is over. It was easier than I thought.

To be honest, this all started as joke. I was browsing on Monster.com for a full-time job to replace the crappy job I have. I came across many ads for Phoneactress.com, a job you can do from home that allows you to set your hours. So I told my roommates that I found this funny ad looking for “phone actresses.”. They dared me to call. So I called and left a message in a normal voice saying that I was interested in the job. I didn’t expect them to call back because I didn’t use a sultry, seductive tone. However, the next day I received a message from my roommate saying Judith called from Network Telephone Services, Inc. and would love to talk to me. Emphasis on “love,” by the way.

After about a week of playing phone tag, I finally got ahold of Judith. Apparently, my voice fit their requirement of sounding like I was between the ages of 18 and 25. After she told me that it paid $9 an hour, I decided this wasn’t a joke anymore.

I waited patiently for the first day of my new job. I got home from my “regular” job and prepared myself for the night. My stomach was in a knot while I was at home.I kept trying to make my room, or new office, comfortable. The clock took forever to reach 10 p.m., my starting time. I called the 1-800 number to log in and gave them my operator number. I was then able to receive incoming calls. A beep would signal that I was being connected to a caller. Directly after the beep, I was given “whisper tags.” Whisper tags give phone actresses a heads-up to what kind of ad the caller was responding to. There are many tag lines, ranging from Anal/Oral Action to Female Fantasy to Asian to Busty Beauty. Female Fantasy won out on my night.

On one of my Female Fantasy calls, I talked with a very interesting guy. I started off by telling him I was fantasizing about my roommate when he asked me if she was home. I told him she wasn’t and he asked if I could call her. After I made it clear to him that my roommate could not get in on the action, I went through the same runaround with a request for my next-door neighbor. After he realized that there wouldn’t be another female in the room with me, he asked if I was watching porn. Thinking quickly, I replied yes as I turned on the TV and flipped to Cinemax, knowing that there would be some awful soft-core porn on. He asked for me to turn it up and for a minute he proceeded to listen to the terrible music and acting. When he got bored, he asked if I had a dildo. I told him I would be more than happy to get it out so we could play. He then said, “Hold on, I’ll have to call back.”

My next whisper tag was Spice. This caller was looking for something sensual and flirtatious, but not explicit. This was one of my best calls. I kept the guy on the phone for about 30 minutes telling him that I wanted him and that I liked when he touched me. That’s what did it for him. He didn’t talk; all I could hear was heavy breathing and moaning. He finished and hung up promptly.

After a few more Female-Fantasy calls, including one that started with my roommate and ended with the guy’s wife, I had an Anal/Oral Action call. This one could have been interesting, but it ended just as quickly as it started. The caller proudly told me that he had 8 1/2 inches to give me. It almost scared me to think of what orifice he would want to put that in. Fortunately, all I had to do was “suck him off.” Just before I got started, he hung up. I was almost glad, as I didn’t prepare myself well enough for an oral call by having something on-hand to put in my mouth for realism.

After my first call, I thought to myself, ‘This isn’t too bad, I could do this as a full-time job.’ The fact that I had these men hanging on my every word was empowering. I could get a guy off by simply talking to him. How many girls can say that? At that point in time, nothing could make me feel more attractive. Granted, these guys thought I was hot, bootylicious Tiffany, but it was still me making it happen.

However, I realized after a couple hours that being a phone actress was boring. In four hours, I had received 10 phone calls, most of which were very short. So on Saturday, I opted not to login and went out with my friends. My shift supervisor called my cell phone a couple of times, but that was the last I heard from Network Telephone Services. Two weeks later, I received my paycheck for the four hours I worked. It wasn’t a horrible experience, just a boring one. If I had the opportunity to do it again in a more fast-paced environment, I’d probably give it a whirl.

Even though this experience only lasted four hours, there are some things that I can definitely say could be considered the “cons” of working in this type of business. For one, I didn’t want my parents to know. I had told my mother at one point that I had applied at a porn store during my job search. While she didn’t have much of a problem with that, she promptly told me she would inform my grandmother who would probably have a heart attack. If not, she would disown me. In a sense, it was almost like trying to tell your parents that you were a stripper. Not something anyone really wants to do.

While some may see it as a normal way to make money, there is a certain stigma attached to professions in the adult industry. Some will automatically make assumptions about your character as soon as you say “I’m a phone-sex operator.” Even saying the more politically correct “phone actress” raises a few eyebrows. This leads me to my second point: Such a profession could attract unwanted attention. If you are single, this could lead guys to think you are easy. If you are attached, your significant other may become jealous or disapproving of your job. Lastly, I would not want to put this on my resume or list it as job experience. Yes, I suppose, technically, you could call it “customer service,” but such a reference would probably leave the wrong impression with a potential employer.

There are things to consider when deciding to any job in the adult industry. Before getting involved, weigh your options and decide what’s best for you.