Unfiltered Story #268046

I am one of two assistants in the legal department. There’s a receptionist, a front desk, and a main phone line for the entire office, and then the legal department also has a main phone line of our own – when someone calls it, both the assistants’ phones will ring, and we transfer them to the proper attorney or whatever. 99% of callers who need to speak to one of the attorneys know to call the legal department main phone line, but occasionally, the main office receptionist will get a call for one of them, which they’re supposed to and always do) transfer to the assistants, not directly to the attorney.

At the time this bizarre incident happens, the other assistant is on his lunch break, and I’m at the copy machine, within eyesight and earshot of my desk (not likely to miss my phone ringing). For context, Attorney #1 and #2 are women with adjacent offices.

Attorney #1 comes up and asks me if I got a call from Attorney #2’s husband recently because somebody transferred him directly to her extension. No, I did not, and neither could the other assistant because he’s not here. I go to my desk and check the phone – no missed calls. I check the phone list (I don’t have every number memorized) and tell her that her extension is only 1 digit off from Attorney #2’s – he must have been trying to dial his wife directly but hit 3 instead of 4 by mistake and got her.

No, he specifically said he was transferred to Attorney #1. Okay, new theory: he must’ve called the front desk, and the receptionist (maybe because it was her husband and not an opponent or client) tried to transfer him directly to Attorney #2 but got Attorney #1 by accident. No big deal.

Why is Attorney #1 really, REALLY bothered by this? Because she told the guy, “I don’t know how you got me, but Attorney #2 is just next door to me, so I’ll transfer you to her and go tell her you’re calling.” But when she went next door, Attorney #2 wasn’t there, so she checked our sign-out board and saw that Attorney #2 is off today. Now Attorney #1 is extremely troubled by the fact that she transferred her husband to her voicemail after making it seem like she’d be there, and deeply worried about the fact that her husband called when she wasn’t working.

What she’s getting at strikes me as so ludicrous, I laugh and tell her what I honestly feel about it: “There’s nothing for you to worry about.” I assure her that, if it’s important, he’ll just call back (like any caller does when they accidentally get disconnected, transferred to the wrong extension, etc.), and I think she leaves once she realizes I just don’t see it as something worth getting worked up over.

It is too bad the front desk didn’t transfer him to me, because I can see the sign-out board from my desk, would’ve told him directly that she wasn’t working today, and nobody who gets highly bothered by the implications of their runaway imagination would have known.