the coffee machine

so while I was training, I found out that I am the lucky one that gets to be responsible for the coffee machine (as any receptionist is). It's not just a regular coffee machine that brews one cup at a time...its one of those machines that you can select the type of coffee you want. At first I just thought I was supposed to refill the machine each morning (otherwise I will get hunted down because people can't survive without coffee)...but of course I have to figure out how to fix the thing if something goes wrong. Again, I know nothing about these machines.

So of course the damn thing freaks out the first day I'm here. The first person who came and told me there's something wrong with it was nice enough to just "let me know"...I was in the middle of entering stuff into our data system, so I didn't immediately jump up out of my chair to go fix it. They can wait 5 minutes, right?

Wrong. Not only did multiple people come and tell me that it was broken and I needed to fix it right away because they had to have their coffee, but they followed me around and hovered around the machine while I tried to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do to fix it.

One chick (who I'll call J) stood there for a few minutes jiggling the coins in her hand while I was flipping through the manual and huffed off when it took more than 2 minutes to fix it. And as my luck would have it, she lurked until I could fix it.

Finally I figured it out and got it to work and went back to my desk. 5 minutes later, J came back to my desk and told me that I should learn how to fix the coffee machine so that people didn't have to wait around because it was a "waste of their time". She just walked away before I could respond. And thus the lessons of what being the receptionist really means began.

Every time something happens with the machine, J is the first person to harass me about it. Lady, I get it. You can't have your fix as soon as you need it and it's my fault. I made the mental note so you don't have to remind me every time.

Weren't we supposed to learn about patience when we were little?

Can't you just ask someone?

(Of course I'm not going to use the real company name so I'll just call it P Co.)

So P Co. is a good sized company. We probably have about 40 "regular" employees, and a dozen or so temps that work in the production area. Whenever a call comes in, I answer it and transfer it to the right person. Once and awhile I'll get a call from someone who has a question for a particular department (sales, planning, etc)...and it usually isn't too hard to get someone to help them. But, this guy was a whole other story....

Me: Good morning, P Co.
Caller: Um yea, this number was on my caller ID so I'm just calling you back.
Me: Well is there anyone at this company that would be contacting you?
C: Who is this again?
M: P Co.
C: No I don't think I know anyone there
M: Are you currently doing business with us?
C: No
M: Okay, well there are a lot of people that call from this number so it could be a number of people.
C: I'm just calling the number back. Can't you just ask someone?
M: Sir, there are a lot of people that work here. If you don't know anyone here, and you're not doing business with us, it may have just been a mis-dial.
C: Oh. Okay.
(click)


I guess I better start getting call records for everyone here in case there's another call like that. Or not....

so here's the story....

Confession: when I was little, I thought that it would be fun to be a receptionist (I think I got the idea from visiting my dad's office...who knows). Most kids play house, school, doctor...but I went through a phase of make-believe office where I answered phones and typed on the computer. Ambitious, right?

Well here I am years later actually working as a "receptionist". The job title is completely misleading because in actuality, I'm really the office bitch. I do a lot of HR and accounting work, but the main part of my job is being responsible for anything that anyone else does not want to do. And of course I'm treated as if my IQ is about as high as pigeon's.

With that said, my days can be quite entertaining. Frustrating, but nonetheless entertaining. I like my job so of course I put up with the crap that comes along with it.

Lesson: a receptionist can end up with a lot to b*tch about.