I am a switchboard operator, I am not a secretary, I am not a gopher. My job is to sit and answer the phones for the Indy and two other offices. Few people reports to me if they are in the office or out of the office, no one reports they are stepping away from their desk, in a meeting, or at lunch. Calling me back to report that they did not answer the phone does nothing more than irritate me and wastes your time, leave a message, when they get back in, should they choose, they will call you back. When pages are not returned, I cannot run around all three floors to see if they are in the office.
I do not know who called your cell phone, we have over 200 employees in this office and 50 in the other two and they do not report to me when they call a cell phone. Listen to message first, and then call back. They also do not report to me when they call 911, I do apologize to the 911 operators, but as far as I know, there is no emergency. We have asked them to be careful when dialing out, I am not sure why they cannot do this. I am a switchboard operator.
Lastly, This is a large business, I have over 50 John's, Chris's and Bob's in my directory, I have calls coming in and do not have time to go through all the last names to see what jogs your memory. Please have that information in front of you when you call. Good Day.
I said Good Day.
UPDATE: This morning it was brought to my attention that taking 20 steps away from my "cell" to get water, is not right, I should be calling somebody. I normally bring a water bottle because I have to drink a ton of water, but forgot it. I need to ask permission to go to the bathroom AND get water, at 27 years old, I can say that this really, really pissed me off. I'm waiting for someone to tell me I am now drinking too much water... The things we do for love!
I busted out laughing at that last line. :)
ReplyDeleteBut having been a switchboard operator in a previous life, I feel your pain!
heehee, awesome!
ReplyDeleteLOL people giving ME messages to give to others is my biggest pet peeve! I can't imagine with THAT large of an office!!! Yikes!
ReplyDeleteI was a receptionist in my late teens/early twenties and I know exactly what you're talking about!!! "Hi, someone called me?" Well OMG. Let me pull my psychic ability out of my butt and try to figure out which one of our 200 employees called YOU from their extension. Or when they ring back and say, "they aren't answering." Hm, really? LEAVE A VOICEMAIL THEN. But, no. They want you to page them. Well.....considering that they're probably not answering their phone because they're probably taking a poop, or don't like you, or aren't even here, paging won't do any good at all.
ReplyDeleteSigh. Can you tell I'm still bitter about that??
You must ask permission to go get water and go to the bathroom? That is the craziest and most annoying thing I've ever heard! You shouldn't have to deal with that!
ReplyDeleteHEY! I love your blog and I found it through KJ. Anyways, I wanted to say that I had a job as a telephonic health coach (outgoing calls) and we also had to report when we went to the bathroom, got water, or anything else. We were timed and we only had so many minutes in the day to do these things. It was awful.
ReplyDelete