With the ongoing health crisis, doctors in my state are doing consultations by phone and having their receptionists fax or email the prescriptions to the patient’s preferred pharmacy.

One particular doctor’s surgery seemed to be having trouble with their fax machine. I received about ten copies of the cover page but none of the prescriptions that were meant to be faxed with it.

I called the practise and suggested they tried email, instead. Soon after, I received an email with an attached photograph of a pile of prescriptions.

Yes, instead of scanning or photographing them individually, the receptionist put the prescriptions in a nice, neat stack so that only the top one was readable.

At least they tried, I suppose? A day later we’re still trying to get those same prescriptions. Maybe tomorrow we’ll get lucky?

Related:
A Most Unreceptive Receptionist, Part 3
A Most Unreceptive Receptionist, Part 2
A Most Unreceptive Receptionist

It’s a busy morning and we have multiple customers waiting for prescriptions.

Once one of them is ready, I call out the surname on it. Three women simultaneously step forward to claim it, and immediately, all three look confused. I then call out the first name and one of the women steps back. I now have two confused women laying claim to the prescription, which is marginally better than three.

After a few moments of conversation, we work out what is happening. 

Of the three women, two shared a surname but not a first name, and two shared a first name but not the surname. Additionally, the third lady’s surname was similar enough to the other two that it was easily mistaken if you weren’t paying close enough attention, e.g. if two of the women were named Smith, the third was named Smits.

As if this wasn’t enough of a coincidence, the two women who shared a surname (who had never met) realised that they were distantly related by marriage and quickly struck up a new friendship, agreeing to meet later on for coffee.

In well over a decade of working in the industry, I’ve never had such a coincidence!

And yes, all three ladies eventually got their own correct prescription and they all went on their merry ways.

This story is part of our Feel Good roundup for September 2020!

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Read the Feel Good roundup for September 2020!

I have a coworker whose hair is naturally very curly. She hates it, so she straightens it before work every day. One day, she is running late to work so doesn’t have time to straighten it. A regular customer walks in.

Regular: “Hi. Nice perm. Where did you get it done?”

Coworker: “It’s not a perm; it’s my natural hair.”

Regular: “Don’t be silly; you have straight hair. Where do you get it done? I promise not to tell anyone else if you want to keep it a secret.”

Coworker: “No, normally, I straighten it before work.”

Regular: “That’s absurd. Nobody has hair that naturally curly! Stop lying to me!”

She storms off.

Coworker: “…”

A friend who works at an Australian chain store that sells cheap clothing, books, toys, homewares, etc., told me this story.

Their particular store is in a rougher area of town and stays open late and thus is subject to frequent shoplifting. One night, a man comes in wearing a dirty, older pair of boots and walks out again wearing a shiny, new pair.

Spotting the ol’ switcheroo scam, my friend and the security guard confront the man and walk him back to the shelves to make him change back into his old boots.

They open the shoebox where he’d hidden them, only to find the security tag still on the old pair of boots because he’d stolen them, too!

I’m led to believe that the man had a discussion with police later on that night!

Today at work, I was tidying up a basket of junk that was under my desk and I found a large, black paper number two that had been nicely cut out for an old display and not thrown away afterward.

I held it up to show my coworker and said, “I found a number two in my basket! Wait…”

Definitely gotta find a new job now. Can never go back there again. Nope. Definitely not.