Okay, so I just went out to the lobby to ask the receptionist a question. I stand in front of her, waiting patiently for her to acknowledge me...

She's typing in her instant messager, yakking to a friend...

She stops typing, looks up at me, then looks back at her monitor, and starts typing some more...

Then she stops typing, looks up at me again, then starts typing again...

Then she answers the phone...

Finally she looks back up at me and asks me what I want.

Now, I don't really think I'm any better than her, or any more important than her, but y'know when you weigh my work-related question against her non-work-related chatting on the internet, well guess which one feels more important to me?

She's moving to England in a year. I can't wait.

Perhaps some of our English friends could help her get a job -- in the coal mines.

Saying her name, with a rising inflection as if to ask a question ... ever thought of that? It tends to get my attention.

Have you never had task-focused self-hypnosis? I have, especially when programming or writing HTML. Yes, her tasks at hand may have included personal IMing. (And how did you know what she was doing, by the way?) That doesn't mean she wasn't immersed in it, along with phone monitoring.

A gentle nudge can work wonders. Especially if it's what we all cherish most, the sound of one's own name.

Does she not know that you are a Princess and Leader of Legion World?????


When I started working in a bank, I became more and less patient of customer service people. If it is busy and the customer service person is working at her/his job, then I have all the patience in the world. However if there is no one else in line and I have to wait while the customer service person finishes talking about their date last night (or worse continues to talk to their coworker while ringing up my purchases) then I become annoyed.

Well, she looked directly at me twice, so I'm fairly certain that she knew I was there. I thought I made that clear in my original post.

Well, besides the fact that I know she IMs all day long, I could see her monitor when I approached her, and that was the only open window (Yahoo Messenger windows look quite different than the handful of other windows that she might possibly have had open).

You'd have to know our receptionist to realize that what she cherishes most is the sound of her own voice. Some people are just like that. She feels that she is the most important person in the company, second only to the President. Maybe not even

Apparently she missed the Barbara Walters interview

Saying the name of the receptionist at Crujeckie's workplace gets your attention? Why -- do you share the same name?

These little emperors of office domains always flummoxed me. If you want anything, like information or to get your package sent out, whatever, you just have to go with the behaviour and even be nice to them. I wonder if it's pure ego or some defense against being "bothered" and interrupted constantly - even though that's her job. It didn't sound like she was swamped with work, however. If she's like that with everyone, it doesn't present a very good image for the company.

Sorry Mrs Thatcher shut them all down...how about a call centre instead, we have loads of them!

Our receptionist is a nightmare, she doesn't know what to do with half the calls she gets and just gives them to us and we should only be getting calls from staff members. We dread her calling us with problem as well because trying to do any problem solving with her is impossible because she is "too busy" to do it. Even though we could sort it out in 5 seconds over the phone.

We also have a PA who has her own PA. No one can work out what she actually does.

Okay, first I'm just coming off of work, so bear with me.

I'm sick of people who sit their chairs or stools in front of emergency exits or just where people need to get by, like their more important than anyone else in the world. I hate people who see your hands are full or are carrying a keg of beer and you say excuse me to get by and they look at you and refuse to move.

There are some really rude and self-important people in this world and most of them hang out at my bar.

Anyway, sorry. Just needed to get that off my chest. Carry on.

I'd be real polite if I ever came to your bar.

Me too!!!!!

Here's what I get at work- Some yuppie type is waving frantically to get my attention, I approach his/her table and begin to ask," How may I help you?" and before I can finish he/she holds his/her palm up in my face to shush me because he/she is in the middle of a hands-free cell phone conversation!
It happens at least once a day!!

lil'rhino

stab them all!

every single one of them, knife knife knife and you'll feel so much better, trust me I'm a serial offender!

Though seriously, I know the feeling of having to deal with rude and ignorant people. I deal with so-called professionals and one of them called me a c*nt the other week. That conversation was immediately terminated and I cannot wait until I have to audit his surgery.

The wanker!!!

Where in the hell did all these miserable people come from? I cater weddings etc. on the weekends (at an art museum/botanic gardens here in Nashville), and on Saturday I had a wedding reception. The no-class motherhumpers came in and starting picking apart the buffet before the bride had even arrived! Usually I try not to talk to people, but I could not resist giving them a dirty look so pointed that they asked me when they were supposed to start eating. I told them it was CUSTOMARY to wait until the bride FREAKIN' SHOWED UP (not in so many words, but...) unless the mother of the bride said differently. That advice did not take for the rest of the ignorant crackers at this wedding, so when the bride arrived everyone else had eaten and the buffet (which I had gone to a lot of trouble to set in an attractive manner, BTW) had been demolished. Like school on Sunday--NO CLASS.

Doesn't it just seem like society keeps going further and further down hill? Trust me, you can't wait until the kids I teach are in the workforce. Things ain't gettin' any better....Does saying that automatically make me old?

"Doesn't it just seem like society keeps going further and further down hill?"

A few months ago my next-door neighbor's kid was making noise from climbing all over my front porch railing. I've had so many BAD dealings with kids-- AND their parents-- in the last year, I called the cops. Before they arrived, I happened to see the mother standing outside. This particular woman was one I'd had polite conversations before-- but only when the trouble-makers were someone ELSE's kids. This time, she lit into me with a non-stop barrage of garbage, all in a loud voice, flat monotone & heavy accent. You couldn't get a word in, everything she said got more and more stupid, and the one thing she said that got me more than anything else was, "Why can't you put up with it like everybody else?"

YEAH, RIGHT. Like we're ALL supposed to just lie down and accept that there are no standards of behavior anymore, and we're supposed to just LET the whole world go completely to HELL. When the police arrived, I had a very pleasant talk with an officer for about 5 minutes. He then went around the corner to talk with the mother. After dinner, I looked out the window and saw his car was still there, more than a half-hour later. I'm guessing HE had trouble getting a word in with her, too! (I'm sure her boyfriend never even tries argueing with her-- he wouldn't stand a chance.)