Current Events > Great. Under new management, it's one person to one task.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Everything about the thought of being a receptionist is just appalling to me. I like phones as much as a claustrophobe likes tight spaces.

If you're a claustrophobe with a job which sometimes involves tight spaces, you may have to tough it out. If the entirety of your job is occupying a tight space, you need to find a new one. I've already changed jobs this year and I don't want to do it again. 2022 is only two months away so maybe I can hold out until then.

I'm an active worker. Give me a task and I'll go do it. When you're telling me to wait by the phone, that's passive. That's ultra-passive. I'm at the beck and call of nurses and doctors calling on the other line. And unhappy people are a lot braver on the phone than they are face to face. So I'm waiting for angry assholes to call. And even if the conversation doesn't go south, there's still the issue that I'm baseline uncomfortable with talking on the phone. I've had plenty of time to "get used to it." I'm not going to adjust to phones anymore than a polar bear is going to adjust to the desert.

I hope the new management comes to their senses and realizes that alternating tasks is the only thing which makes this job bearable.

I know a few receptionists who feel the same way. They answer the phone, type on the computer, make coffee, and help people out. A friend of mine is claustrophobic and was recently made the receptionist at a restaurant called The French Cafe.

She's one of the few receptionists that get peoples names right. She has a list of names and phone numbers and she's like "Hi, Mrs. Jones. How are you?" but now the room where she's working is a few inches smaller than the width of the door. When I order coffee, there's a table across the room with people sitting at it and I stand just off the side of that table, near a window, looking out. I have a pretty good view of the street, which, in this town, is all I really care about.

I try not to think about how close I am to the people at the other tables. Mostly I just stand there, looking out at the street. A few times a day I'll see someone on the sidewalk and I'll get up on my tiptoes and look at them.