Receptionists! Don't hate the world!

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Right, I'll say straight off I wouldn't want to work on a reception desk and I can see why the job sucks, but bloody hell...

Why is every receptionist I deal with rude and evil?

Woman: [sighs heavily] Hello.
Me: Hello can I speak to [name] in digital media please?
Woman: Never heard of him [hangs up].

― Anna (Anna), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 09:54 (twenty years ago)

Sounds like a repeat wrong number to me. Not by you, but the world at large.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 10:14 (twenty years ago)

your number no longer works! i think you told me this

do you have, a record player, that i could use for an hour or two? (not as in 'take away')

― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 10:17 (twenty years ago)

sorry, that doesnt have much to do with receptionists. dont hate the world, receptionists! dont hate receptionists, world!

― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 10:17 (twenty years ago)

if you list her number here we can all prank call this woman in revenge!

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 10:20 (twenty years ago)

Our receptionist is great, but then she isn't a real receptionist, she's a temping actress, just filling time between her telly job. Where she plays a receptionist.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 10:48 (twenty years ago)

How many receptionists, in the final analysis, can truly be said to be "real receptionists"?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 10:48 (twenty years ago)

Sounds like a repeat wrong number to me. Not by you, but the world at large.
-- mark grout

No Mark, he really does work there. It's a large record company to be fair (not that switchboard bitch would ever be fair), but email address and subsequent calls prove his employment.

― Anna (Anna), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 10:50 (twenty years ago)

(Gareth, yes, my flatmate has a record player which we all use. However I am not in for a lot of this week. Pressures of work etc woe is me etc. Email me.)

― Anna (Anna), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 10:51 (twenty years ago)

complain to that guy about the receptionist!

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 10:55 (twenty years ago)

But they are ALL like that. Who employs them? Or do they start out nice and become bitter because of the job/ crushed dreams etc?

― Anna (Anna), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 10:59 (twenty years ago)

You have to remember that the primary role of a receptionist is to act as a barrier between you and whichever person or organisation you're trying to contact. Kind of like human barbed wire.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 11:03 (twenty years ago)

I am the de facto receptionist here, even though I am supposed to be a 'resources assistant'. I am massively helpful, far beyond the call of duty, but perhaps that just proves I'm not a real receptionist...

Some woman had me looking up ALL the Japanese degree courses in the UK the other day because 'oh, my husband's on the computer at the moment'. So, you know, it cuts both ways. People often assume that the receptionist (or the first person they reach on the phone) knows EVERYTHING about the whole organisation and has no other job but to talk to people on the phone.

And I just found out yesterday that on people's business cards here, where it says 'direct line', it actually gives MY NUMBER. GRRRR!

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 11:13 (twenty years ago)

Awwww, one of my bestest friends in the world is a "switchboard bitch" - the stories that I had to hear about what she put up with, my god, I'm surprised that she never figured out a way to jump down the phone receiver and strangle people.

― Lapdog Shoesnog (kate), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 11:17 (twenty years ago)

Today is Administrative Professionals Day in the US! Hooray for Administrative Professionals, today!

― diedre mousedropping (Dave225), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 11:22 (twenty years ago)

Hooray!

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 11:23 (twenty years ago)

Being a receptionist is often fine, but you do have to deal with all the stupid people, angry people, rude people and confusing people who want to speak to anyone in the whole company. After a while, it becomes soul-destroying, with every bad call experience chipping away at your will to live.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 11:32 (twenty years ago)

oh awesome -- not that my boss will care its a holiday for me!

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 11:39 (twenty years ago)

How many receptionists, in the final analysis, can truly be said to be "real receptionists"?

Not a bad point: it's not the sort of job that anyone grows up dreaming of being. If you tried and failed to get out, you could become very bitter very quickly. If you were the sort of person who measures yourself by your job.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 12:26 (twenty years ago)

Awwww, one of my bestest friends in the world is a "switchboard bitch"

there was a girl back in uni who was known as the "switchboard bitch" but it wasn't for her profession.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 12:36 (twenty years ago)

I'm a receptionist and I quite like it! I don't think I'm a bitter person. When my officemates call in, sometimes they even tease me for sounding so chipper. But I'm just so glad I'm not at my last job any more that I'm kind of over the top happy.

And I love the smell of coffee grounds, which helps when you have to make so much coffee.

My most recent inspiration is Carol from the Bob Newhart show.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 12:38 (twenty years ago)

Haha that just got me thinking about Carol from The Brittas Empire. A truly crap show, but she was funny. She kept her baby in a filing cabinet or something once?

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

my first ongoing job after graduation was as receptionist at the payroll department at the hospital where marcello works. it pretty much sucked, in nurses would often come in crying and (rightfully) angry over their pay being fucked up, and often the payroll clerks would put off coming out to see them until i'd calmed them down a little. it was very stressful.

after six months, i became a payroll clerk, and realised 98% of the fuckups were due to human resources errors. but we weren't allowed to tell the employees this due to some fucked up agreement, and so had to take the blame ourselves. it was, without a doubt, the worst job i ever did.

― stevie (stevie), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 12:42 (twenty years ago)

Well, it's true that the worst job I ever had was as a receptionist, but it was at a local tax assessment office. I would get callers and walk-ins constantly yelling at me because I was THE MAN and was taking all their money and pocketing it.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 12:44 (twenty years ago)

Oh my lordness, this is so fucking OTM.

― sugarpants: new and improved! (sugarpants), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 12:45 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I do have to lie sometimes. And I have been asked to literally jump in front of people who try to walk back to the offices without being given permission.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 12:46 (twenty years ago)

(Receptionists kill threads!)

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 13:45 (twenty years ago)

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