Thursday, December 11, 2008

Madmen

So, I have a new temp job today, its a receptionist job at a pretty large company. Nice office, lots of people working and running around.

The phones are pretty busy I'd say, it's not constant but you can get a lot at once and you have to look up names and extensions on the computer and it can be pretty harrowing with the lines blinking and making really loud noises.

I'm familiar with working phones, it's a short step from "receptionist" to "admin." My one thing I promised myself was that I would never really have to answer phones again. I didn't have to at my last job and I really, really enjoyed that.

But being a receptionist for a few days as a temp job is fine. I caught on quick, although they have their quirks, phone systems and the way people use them are generally the same, voice mails, messages, forwarding, extensions...blah blah.

So I slipped pretty well into it today even though its fairly confusing and all is well and good and then I got the dreaded call I hate most of all: The Man who speaks down to receptionists.

I hate this guy, every receptionist has to deal with this guy, the guy who thinks the skirt at the desk is some feeble-minded, lesser-half who doesn't quite get his question.

And then I got all flustered and mad that this man got me flustered, so...I'm working on letting it go and feeling true compassion for him, oh man, I hope he calls back tomorrow.

4 comments:

Kate said...

Hixx, you're such a better person than I am. I have no compassion left for such people. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure I ever had it to begin with.

Unknown said...

Totally understand that feeling. You can easily tell what kind of a person someone is by how they treat the receptionist. I always believe that if someone treats the receptionist like crap it's because they themselves really have no power and don't want that to be known (self esteem issues) - being nice to a receptionist (or admin for that matter) will get you what you need more quickly than knowing anyone else in a company.

smussyolay said...

it's the same everywhere. 'what you do to the least of them ...'

when i waited tables, i was astonished at the people who treated the busboys and cooks like shit cause they were stressed out. guess who got things 'done on the fly' when she effed up? guess who always had her tables bussed? me. and i didn't do it for those reasons, but it was a nice perk.

receptionist, server, janitor, cashier ... what comes around goes around. period.

Hixx said...

You guys are totally right, I forgot how good I had it at the last job. And although I'm sad I lost that job, I'm thoroughly thankful that they showed me a company where people were treated with respect.

Pshaw.