So I come to work one day to find out that due to budget cuts my position might be eliminated!
– Great have people wondering around the building with a blank look on their faces! What are they thinking? Why am I wondering more on what will happen to the building rather than my job and financial stuff? Because I care, really I care–
It seems to me that whoever is making these decisions has forgotten that we are here to provide a service and although I might be at the bottom of the work pyramid for the company I consider my job to be so important because I am doing it. I am actually helping people, sending them to the right places, googling stuff that we do not provide a service for here, helping them understand the forms, speaking to the Spanish speakers in their language, etc. I am so frustrated and sad that the big people are getting rid of all of us the little ones.
I will keep updating as more news come.
Why people? why? Come into a building and expect me to know where you are going? Do you want me to read your mind? Remember stuff for you?!!!!
So this is the conversation that happens once in a while:
Person: Hello, I have an appointment.
Me: Ok, who do you have the appointment with?
Person: Mmm, I don’t know they told me to come here.
(Me thinking: Who the heck are they? Oh my goodness here I go again)
Me: Alright, can you tell me who told you to come here? Who did you make the appointment with?
Person: Mmm, I have no idea they just told me to come here.
Me: What is the appointment about?
Person: Well I am going to be an astronaut and they tell me to come here to take a test.
(At this point I send the person to the astronaut department hoping is there)
Me: Ok, go to this office across the front desk number 666.
(So after me giving the person directions, office number and all the person walks into office 777. After walking into 777 and realizing the mistake he/she goes into 666 only to walk out to go to office 222 because he/she wanted the aeronautic department after all!)
But that is not the end of it! After a while I get the astronaut department people mad at me for sending the person there! 
The city where I work at has a handful of homeless people that hang around a particular area.
That area is very close to the building where I work in. They are harmless and mostly everyone knows them at least by sight.
There are two in particular that are not shy as the others and hang around the area at all times. There is for example “Laundroman” who hangs around a strip mall where there is a guess what? a laundromat. For obvious reasons he is always wearing clean clothes… figure that, and is always shaved and clean. Then there is “Mr. Shoes” who is very dirty wears dickies and underneath them you can see his pajama pants which are longer but for some reason he is always wearing different pairs of shoes, not clean, just different. Like I wrote before they are harmless, they are just without a home. Mr. Shoes, though I think has a drinking problem because sometimes well you can tell when you see him walking in the street. Unlike Laundroman, who is not very talkative, Mr. Shoes will talk to you. For example, the other day my hubby and I went to one of those machines to rent a movie for a dollar a night. Right next to the machine was Mr. Shoes and he started talking to my hubby and told him he had seen all the old movies but not the new ones. My hubby told him that there weren’t many new movies coming out and Mr. Shoes agreed, wished us a good day and turned around.
Back to the story… I am working on a project emailing a bunch of people and having a bunch of directors having lunch in the lobby when all of the sudden someone asks me:
Hello there. I am a local business man and would like to speak to the manager about some ideas I have after observing your local landscaping and business traffic.
So I raise my head and there he is Mr. Shoes offering some ideas. That day my supervisor was in the office and I told Mr. Shoes I would get the right person to talk to and went to get him. Mr. Shoes said he would sign-in meanwhile because he likes to follow the rules 
My supervisor came out and Mr. Shoes offered his hand to shake. They walked out and I did not know more of what happened.
I am sorry Mr. Shoes but immediately after you left I had to clean my whole sign-in area. I feel bad but I don’t know when was the last time you washed your hands and judging from the look of them I think it was a very long time ago. I am sure my supervisor was super nice to you because that is the way he is but I really hope he washed his hands.
This is a busy building and of course with that I get to see a lot of different people all the time.
Of course they think I am a coin machine because people are always asking me if I can give them change.
What do you think that I am carrying change around so you can buy your twinkie and diet coke?
Yes, we receptionists have the answer for almost everything but we are not your human coinstar!
Sure bring me your dollar and I’ll break it into a thousand pieces! 
Ok so the other not so long ago I get this transfer call from the receptionist at our other office… I answer as usual and on the other line is this lady that now is sitting in front of me. The call goes something like this:
Lady: Where was I transferred?
Me: This is the office for X and X at X city. How may I help you
Lady: First of all I need to speak to someone in English because the other person I was speaking with doesn’t even speak English and I need to understand the person I am speaking to. I don’t know why they give jobs to people that don’t even know how to talk in this country. (Note: The other receptionist yes speaks with an accent but speaks English perfectly so this lady was just being rude)
Me: Well I am speaking English to you. How can I help you
Lady: Well I guess your English is better. I want to make an appointment for X service.
Me: Ma’am those appointments are made online only. Do you not have access to the internet?
Lady (interrumpting): Obviously not, I need to talk to Melissa. Transfer me to Melissa she was the one who made my appointment las time.
Me: Ma’am there is no Melissa in this building but if you want I can go ahead…
Lady (interrupting): What do you mean there is no Melissa there? I called about a month ago and spoke to her and she made my appointment. What is this about? And now I can’t make it to the appointment and need to talk to Melissa to cancel it.
Me: Well, ma’am you were transferred to this office from the other one. Perhaps Melissa works there because she certainly doesn’t work here but I can go ahead and cancel the appointment for you.
Lady: Well I am sure Melissa works there. What is your name?
Me: My name is X
(silence)
Me: Do you want me to cancel your appointment then?
Lady: Yes, that is why I called in the first place!
Lady: My name is Angry Lady. Are you sure appointment will be canceled?
Me: Yes, ma’am I am.
So I called the manager of that department and let them handle this lady. Did it stop there? No. I had the same conversation with her two more times. She made the appointment and then canceled and then the same thing. The last time she called I made the appointment for her. Even though she was super rude to me I never answered back and really tried to be super nice to her. Yes, sometimes that is how I attack rudeness by being over the top nice.
Today she finally showed up. I had a total different picture of her in my mind. She came to the office without wearing a bra with two layered tank tops a dirty jacket and lunch bag in her arms. She asked for the office and I told her where it was. Then she started complaining of why she needed to pay for the service and whatnot. I just told her that it is something we all have to do one way or the other.
After she left my co-worker came by and we had a little chat of why we thought she was so rude. It seemed because of her looks (she almost looked homeless) and complaining about paying that she was in financial need, who knows what is she going through? In the end we felt bad for her.
Argh! I am so pissed. I am at the front desk for a reason! This person comes in talking on the phone and totally ignores me, or the fact I am talking to him. I even get up to get noticed but he walks right by me! Made me feel so stupid… and then this other older gentleman sees the whole thing and tells me: “you should tell people not to talk on the phone so they can pay attention to you.” I just responded with a shy smile – I should, huh?- Man I almost cried because of this jerk! 
***UPDATE*** The jerk came back in the afternoon and this time I told him with my best Bambi eyes how I felt so bad after he totally ignored when he came in the morning. He blushed and apologized. 
So every once in a while I get people that need to make a phone call and ask me for a public phone. Of course there is not one in the building and for some reason I am the one who has to let them use my phone. Well not that easy because I handle the switchboard and my phone is not a regular phone because it is computerized. I do have a regular phone that I let people use but I never use myself.
Ok back to the story… this old gentleman comes and asks me for the phone. I feel bad for him so I let him use the other phone. How many calls does he make? Four! I mean I thought this was an urgent thing but apparently not… Arghh! The other day the same thing happened with a woman, what did she want the phone for? To chat with the husband while she was waiting for someone else! Remember they are standing next to me so I can hear their whole conversation. People are unbelievable!
I work in a busy building and there is a sign-in clipboard in my desk. Every visitor has to sign-in in order for us to keep a record of who is in the building in case there is an emergency (say a fire or earthquake).
Well sometimes people just don’t understand and get mad at me for making them sign-in. Today I got one of those people: a lady with her 7 year old kid. She got mad and said it was ridiculous and that no one checked the clipboard anyway and signed-in as “V” and a line… These people just make me mad! I mean what an I supposed to say– Hey lady if there is a freaking emergency we know you are in the building or not by you signing-in and out, you want to die without being rescued go ahead and walk right through with your kid and yes continue teaching him how to be rude and ignore completely the rules!
I just swallowed saliva and told her the sign-in was necessary in the case of an emergency. I promise you have to be frigging patient to be in this kind of job ’cause you get all sorts of weirdos sometimes.
It’s almost lunchtime well actually one hour before lunchtime. And the person who relieves me for lunch shows up. What the heck! My lunchtime is not till a hour from now. So this person starts complaining on how busy her work is and that she does not have time to cover for my lunch etc. What am I supposed to do? Not take lunch? If you have any problems talk to your supervisor not me… So after complaining she decides to come back later. After a few minutes her co-worker (who covers my breaks) comes by and asks me about taking a longer lunch because she will not be able to cover my afternoon break. Ok whatever I’ll take a longer lunch no problem… We are happy…not after her co-worker arrives and complains about that too. Oh my, I hate complainers! Yikes.
Ok so here I am sitting at my desk when all of a sudden comes this gentleman asking me for the name of every single person in the building. Ignorant me responds to him that directory is internal and show to him where it says “internal use only” and I am unable to give him a copy of that. So he goes on talking that being a public organization and so forth and so on I should give it to him.
What do I do? I don’t want to get in trouble by giving away numbers listed as “internal only”. It’s my job that is on the line here not his. I went ahead and called HR there right in front of him asking if it was ok to give the directory out. They said that if I get in any trouble with the bosses blame HR. I printed out the info and gave it to him. After all is his right, right?
I just did not have a a good feeling about him. He made me feel stupid for some reason. He started laughing when I spoke to the person in HR and told her why I was questioning whether or not to give the directory to him. Oh well…
