I am completely alone here in the big office. The highly degreed ones are upstairs in a meeting and the woman I usually work with is taking a class on campus. Some disgruntled student called trying to get his VA benefits ferried through the system and wanted to complain endlessly to me about it. Meanwhile, the other lines are ringing. I finally got off the phone with him and researched who is supposed to know what the hell to do to help him. I found the right person and asked her to call him, which she did. Then he called ME back so he could bitch some more. In the meantime two other lines are ringing. So, I'm not answering the phones because I'm stuck listening to this whiner talking to me about stuff I can't help him with and besides, it's been HANDLED. Now I know what Dean goes through every day.
I have to pee but I'm AFRAID to leave my desk! What if one of those people who called earlier and didn't make it through calls back? Of course, now that I'm not chasine down VA benefits the phones are silent. I just know that as soon as I get fully committed to a bathroom break that phone will ring.
Yesterday while I was poking around Google I found a spanish blog that has linked to this one. Mine is the only english blog that she linked. I thought that was pretty interesting. I wonder what it was about my blog that caught her eye? I wrote her a note to say hello. I'm assuming she speaks english.
Ooh, someone from my office across the hall just came over to give me a project. Yay! Something to do!
6 comments:
That's the kind of thing that makes me think there just MIGHT be a god: you sit at a desk for hours and nothing, but when you finally decide to run for the bathroom, the phone rings. It's just too coincidental.
If I were a god, that's the kind of thing I would do if I were bored.
-dean
Here's what you do when you have a whiner (that is not an administrator) on the line.
"Blah blah, blah...etc"
Please hold
"Blah blah, blah...etc"
Please hold
"Blah blah, blah...etc"
Please hold
After a while they'll get tired of being interrupted.
There is a god. She was blasting me with Dr.Pepper a couple weeks ago.
I'm too damned polite to put people on hold. It just didn't occur to me. I have to grow some secretary balls and start hitting that hold button. This guy was really good. I could NOT get a word in edgewise.
Things aren't quite so dead now. Everyone is back from their upstairs meetings and now there are meetings happening in here. It's been a good day.
Oh ya see ya gotta turn your thinking around. It's impolite to let phones ring (even if they go to voicemail) because it's likely someone more important than the main line.
I don't think I could get through 15 minutes without the hold button.
It's been "Yell at Deaf Old People" week at the library. Every third call is some ancient deaf person wanting a word spelled or a telephone number. We've all been screaming into the phone:
"NO... IT'S L-I-B-R-A-R-Y!" Once I had to give up. I said, "Ma'am, I've done the best I can. If you give me your address, I'll mail the word to you." The word was "whatsit". I could not get "whatsit" through to her.
-dean
Virginia- Oh yeah, I know. Actually, I feel the same way. It's just hard for me to interrupt someone when they're speaking, especially a master rambler like that guy. When he called back I knew I was dealing with a major loser. It was easier for me to hang up on him the second time.
Dean- There's only one R in libary.
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