[tedunangst]

If you're getting paid to communicate with people using the NATO alphabet, you should know the NATO alphabet. (Or the company should hire people who know it. It's not strictly the call workers' fault that they can't communicate.)

[kiiski]

But rdl said "using telephone in general" (which I assume was meant in the context of speaking with customers) and people do that even if they weren't hired specifically for communicating.

[tedunangst]

Yeah, that may be pushing it, not sure how general they really meant.

[rdl]

Yeah, I didn't really mean "as a telephone end user"; I meant "in a professional telephone-based job, especially one in data entry", although I'd consider it to be one of the basic communications skills people should learn just as people, too.

It was chosen specifically to work through bad communications channels and diverse accents, especially if you use the specific pronunciations required for the words (kay-beck for quebec, etc.).