Today is May 14th, Receptionist Day!
The above ladies, Paulette, Emily, Sarah, and I, are all friends and co-workers trained to work the HQ front desk. More details than most know. When I'm gone on daily break, occasionally sick, or on vacation these ladies are the friendly voices you hear.
In honor of Receptionist Day, I made up a funny, yet realistic post of what long time receptionists go through. Enjoy! (#2 is my fav!)
Receptionists Day is dedicating to reflecting the
importance and hard work of receptionists worldwide, who are often
responsible for providing a good first impression to customers, staff
and VIPs, as well as keeping the day-to-day operations of an
organisation’s customer-facing aspects running smoothly and efficiently. ---source: http://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/receptionists-day/
Things I've Learned as an Receptionist
1.) How to make coffee for the office
Grew
up in a non coffee drinking family so I had never used a coffee maker
before until I become a receptionist. When I first started working as
receptionist I was told my coffee tasted
anywhere from transmission fluid to flavored water and "was
unofficially banned" from making coffee by the avid coffee drinkers.
Now, years later, whenever I don't make coffee, people will come and ask
me to make coffee for them, so I've definitely come a long ways in the
coffee department! :-)!
2.) You learn that seeing the same co-workers pass by you several times a day gets really awkward.
It's
those moments when you've already seen someone several times that day
that you honestly don't know know how to say hello
again for like the 10th time, slight exaggeration, so you just keep
your head down and do your computer input work, but then realize people
would prefer you smile at them at least, but you realize if you do you
will have wrinkles on your face from smiling 8 hours a day and would
never get any data entry done. ...so you choose to risk a reputation of
"needing to develop more friendly character," rather than living the
rest of your physical life with smile lines and wrinkles on your face.
One of receptionists many awkward moments. It's not personal, it's just
business.
3.) How to eat lunch in under 3 minutes and continue working taking calls at the same time
When
I first started working as receptionist
eating lunch while still working was difficult. Every time I would try
to take a bite the phone would ring, or someone would come in to the
office and stop at my desk, so it took forever to just get one bite in,
so forget enjoying eating my lunch. Years later, I can now VERY
successfully eat my entire lunch in under 3 minutes, not advised for
good health or proper etiquette, but a necessity. Callers can not tell
that I'm eating while talking. I still sound professional. Trick is to
push the food all the way to one side of your mouth while talking from
the complete opposite side of your mouth. Side effects of this are when
you're off duty, you tend to still eat fast and lose your proper
etiquette of not talking while food is in your mouth. Not recommended
on dates or any other social functions.
4.)
It isn't alarming for receptionists to receive a call from a 911
operator saying that someone from your office made a 911 call.
When
your office phone system requires you to dial a 9 to get out, and then
dial the usual 1 to call long distance, your co-workers sometimes will
accidentally hit an extra 1 thus calling 911. Your co-workers are way
more phone shy than you, so they will usually hang up fast. Note to
co-workers, if you accidentally call 911, don't just hang up in fear,
stay on the line and let 911 know it's an accident. Otherwise they will
think you're being killed or hurt, and then they will call your
receptionist asking if everything is okay, and if the receptionist
happens to be away from their desk they will send the police out. If
you want to add excitement to your offices day, this is a way to do so,
but not highly recommended. :-)
5.)You are a real, live walking telephone book
You know you've been a receptionist for years when you see a number on
caller id and automatically know what state the person is calling from,
from looking at the area code. Oh, and you're like a walking phone
book. Your brain is on overload with people's phone numbers. This
includes office ext's, home phones, and cell phones that you don't know
you have memorized until you need them, and realize you don't have to
look them up. #haven't figured out if this is cool or pathetic yet
6.) Learned not to be too naive and trusting of people
Most
people tend to think when they meet someone that the person is A-okay
without many flaws, and it is only after they've known a person for
awhile that you start seeing their flaws and that they are not perfect
even though you still love them because everyone is flawed. Being
receptionist has made my pendulum swing to the complete opposite side.
When I first meet someone I deem them maybe weird, crazy, very flawed
until proven innocent. The longer I get to know someone the more I find
them less flawed. ha, ha! It's like this to sum it
up....people are like
rechargeable batteries to me. They start off very low, but the longer
they are on the charger, aka I get to know them, the higher voltage they
get until they are completely fully powered. The mind of a
receptionist who has to deal with many real crazy people! :-)
7.) Learned not to be easily offended
I
use to be
sensitive to what people said and did, but after being a receptionist
for years in dealing with people everyday which is what a receptionist
does,
receives people, I've seen and heard it all. People can think
receptionists are just the "show girls" of the office, or think you
don't know what you're doing, and then you deal with crazy people, I'm
talking real live nut cases out there in this world, and you know most
people wouldn't last at your desk for a day probably. You realize
you're
dealing with human beings including yourself and we all have our
moments, and yes, there are really crazy people in the world. The down
side is that maybe receptionists get a little "too immune" to things. I
think if someone slapped me in the face I would just rub it and move on
being like okay, you're a crazy one, you seriously are a battery that's
running on low voltage!
8.) You learn not to take yourself too seriously and not to get embarrassed too
easily
As receptionist you're always out front in plain view for
everyone to see. This means that you've probably done just about
everything embarrassing in front of others that you can imagine. I
actually have a blooper list worth of years of "funny oops moments."
With that said, if you fall out of your chair, yes, I've done this, or
get the hiccups while talking to someone professionally, or
make another public mistake like getting sleepy and closing your eyes for two seconds; btw, you will get caught b/c someone is sure to walk by, instead of being embarrassed all you think
when you see others staring at you is this: "What, it happens." :-)
BONUS
You've probably sent out more lost and found emails than you've ever dreamed! :-)
Sean Davison chats with the dean after graduating. A fellow Texan I've known since he was little.
