I Can’t Hear You; I’ve Got Ovaries In My Ears

I was working as a receptionist and office admin for a company in London. It was my first proper job, so I wasn’t as witty or quick with my replies as I am now. It’s coming to the end of the day and my boss — the Head of IT and Office Manager — has just left for the day and this call comes in. It’s a condescending sounding guy from an IT sales company asking to speak to my boss.

Me: “He has just left for the day.”

Caller: *A bit irritate* “Well, I know [Boss], and I could just call his mobile, so just put me through to him.”

Me: “I can’t do that. He is no longer on the premises. If you have his mobile, then feel free to call him directly. Otherwise, I’m happy to take a message and ask him to call you back tomorrow.”

Caller: *Getting pissed* “I don’t want to leave a message with a woman; you wouldn’t understand the technical wording. So, don’t you worry your pretty little head about it. Put me through to a man now!”

This is the point where I should have said, “Yeah, no. Bye,” or just hung up, but being young and having no confidence, I kind of froze, said, “Yeah,” and passed the phone to my colleague, who told the guy to sod off.

There is a happy ending, though. We told our boss the next day, and he rang the guy and essentially slaughtered him verbally down the phone while we got to listen. One of the best bosses I’ve had!