when asked, jokingly, "what are you doing on the telephone?" one salesman retorted, "Boiling." Another chimed in, "We're boiling away." The term boiler room, however, is only recognized by experienced telephone salesman. like other members of deviant groups whose style of deviance is attributed by outsider but rarely self-acknowledged (hippies, pool sharks, and white collar criminals), boilers are not, except in just, referred to as such but rather in terms borrowed from the conventional sales world; telephone sales agents, telemarketing reps, brokers, or inside salesmen.