During my younger days, I worked at the front desk of a hotel that, to say the least, has helped me appreciate all jobs that I had after it. Here is one fun story:

We have a night auditor that works Sunday night through Thursday night, 11:00 pm to 7:00 am, every week. He is nearly seventy years old. There is another position for someone to work this same shift on Friday and Saturday nights, which, as you can imagine, would be hard to keep filled, as it’s an overnight position with only two shifts. My boss has decided to hire a questionable person into this role, as he was the only applicant.

I am working the evening shift, 3:00 pm to 11:00 pm, and it has been a smooth evening thus far. Eleven comes and goes and the weekend night auditor does not show up. I call him multiple times with no answer and then call my manager to see what she wants me to do.

She explains that there are only three people that know how to do this work: the weekly night auditor, who we cannot call because we will mess up his sleep schedule and possibly cause more problems for ourselves; the weekend night auditor, who we currently cannot get ahold of; and one of our Managers-On-Duty that was just promoted out of the role and has already worked 9:00 am to 9:00 pm today.

My manager explains that I need to call the MOD and ask him if he can come in. 

I call him.

“[MOD], hey, listen, [Weekend Night Auditor] didn’t show up,” I explain. “Can you come to work?”

[MOD] is very obviously drunk as he responds, “WHAT’S UP, BUDDY?! OF COURSE, I’LL BE RIGHT THERE!”

He hangs up before I can say anything else and shows up a while later, blitzed as can be.

I call my manager again to see what she wants me to do, and she says we don’t have any other choice.

We then start doing the night audit, where everything was hilarious to [MOD] until about 3:00 am, where he takes on a more subdued demeanor. I essentially watch him go from being drunk all the way to a hangover, and he’s been awake for over twenty-four hours. I have also been up for nearly twenty-four hours by the end of the shift.

We are able to complete the work, and then I drive him home, as he can barely stay awake.

My boss does not fire the weekend night auditor, and this is not the last time that he doesn’t show up for a shift. More stories to come!

I have a compromised immune system, so I’ve been working from home and haven’t been going out much. My doctor has set up telehealth visits where we can video chat instead of going to the office.

A few days before my visit, I get a call from the office.

Me: “Hello?”

Receptionist #1: “Hi, this is [Receptionist #1] from [Doctor]’s office. Am I speaking with [My Name]?”

Me: “Yes, this is her.”

Receptionist #1: “Okay! I need to go over some basic information before your appointment. It’s just the check-in stuff we would normally do in person. Do you have about fifteen minutes for that?”

I glance at my schedule and see that I don’t have anything pressing coming up.

Me: “Sure.”

We go over my basic info — name, date of birth, weight, medications, etc. — and she verifies that I know how to log in to see the doctor. We hang up and I go back to work.

The next day, I get another call from their office. Unfortunately, I’m already in a call with a client, so I can’t answer. After I’m done, I listen to the voicemail.

Receptionist #2: “Hi, this is [Receptionist #2] from [Doctor]’s office calling for [My Name]. I just need to go over some basic information with you before your appointment. Please call us back at [phone number] prior to your visit. Thank you.”

Thinking this is about something new, I call back.

Receptionist #2: “[Doctor]’s office.”

Me: “Hi, this is [My Name]. I just received a call about some information before my visit?”

Receptionist #2: “Okay. Let me pull up your file here… Okay, we just need to do your basic check-in before your visit. Do you have about fifteen minutes?”

Me: *Confused* “I did that yesterday. Is there something new?”

Receptionist #2: “Hmm, I don’t see anything here. Are you sure it was with us?”

Me: “Yeah, same number, same appointment.”

Receptionist #2: “Well, I’m not sure what happened but nothing is charted here. Can we go over it to make sure?”

Me: “I have a few minutes, yeah.”

We go through everything again, and after the receptionist assures me it’s all been documented, we hang up. The following day I get ANOTHER call from the same office. I’m still working, so I let it go to voicemail again. It’s a third receptionist, wanting to verify all of my information yet again. I call back, annoyed.

Receptionist #3: “[Doctor]’s office.”

Me: “Hi, this is [My Name]. I received another call about my upcoming appointment.”

Receptionist #3: “I see. Well, it looks like we’ve been trying to reach you, I see. I can go over your info now if—”

Me: “Look, I’m sorry. I’m sure this isn’t your fault, but I’ve done this twice already. Is it not being logged or something?”

Receptionist #3: “I don’t see anything about us talking with you. Do you know who it was?”

Me: “Well, I have [Receptionists #2 & #3] in voicemails but I can’t remember the first one’s name.”

Receptionist #3: “Mmhmm, I called today. I see that [Receptionists #1 & #2] also reached out. Are you sure you spoke with us, not another office?”

Me: “Yes. I’m sure. How is this not being recorded? Can you ask the other receptionists?”

Receptionist #3: “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I can go over your information with you now.”

Me: *Sigh* “Fine.”

For a third time, I went through everything. I guess it finally stuck because that was the last call before the doctor’s visit. When I asked her if other people had the same problem, she said she didn’t know anything about it. Suddenly, I miss those in-person visits.

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

I work with three other coworkers. We do not like [Coworker #1]. She likes to track the times we are in and out, and no one is allowed to do that. [Coworker #2], [Coworker #3] and I are in [Coworker #3]’s cube near our signout board.

[Coworker #1] walks over to the board and writes down where she is going. She turns to walk away.

[Coworker #3] is in the middle of a sentence.

Coworker #3: “…and I just don’t understand — 12:49! — why they did that; it is so tacky.”

[Coworker #2] and I look at her in shock.

Us: “Did you just say that out loud?!”

Coworker #3: “What?”

Me: “You just said the time really loudly as [Coworker #1] walked away. “

Coworker #3: “Oh, I guess because I was looking at the clock when she signed out and it was stuck in my head and it just came out.”

Us: “You better tell our boss what you did before she complains that you are marking her time.”

This story takes place back in ye olden days of dial-up Internet.  

The place where I worked at the time had two phone systems so you had to dial a prefix to select the line. Unlike most places where it was a single digit, they decided to get more convoluted and used three-digit prefixes — 922 for an internal line and 991 for an external line. Why they picked those number combinations, I have no idea.

One day, a non-technically-inclined coworker needed to take a laptop on a trip and he needed the IT folks to set up the dialing program for him so that he could get his email. In order to test that it was working, they set the number to 991 1-800-[number]. Then, they made the mistake of not wiping the prefix before handing it to the employee.

This employee didn’t know that he would need to look up what he needed to dial to get an outside line from his hotel and change it on his laptop. He just plugged in his laptop and tried to connect. It just so happened that his hotel used nine to get an outside line, so his machine was dialing 9-911 over and over and over again trying to connect. He had no idea why it wasn’t connecting, so he was blissfully unaware of just who he was calling until hotel security showed up at his door.

Fortunately, the authorities understood that he had not done it intentionally, so there were no serious consequences for him, but the poor guy was too afraid to try to connect his laptop for the rest of the trip.

I am working at the front desk at a hotel.

Caller: “Can you tell me how far your hotel is from Mustang Island?”

Me: “We are on the island.”

Caller: “Yes, but how far away is the island from the hotel?”

Me: “Like I said, we are on the island.”

Caller: “Look, I don’t think you understood. How… far… are… you… from… Mustang… Island?”

I give up.

Me: “Um… less than a mile.”

Caller: “See, was that so hard?” *Hangs up*

Coworker: “Did they really not get it?”

Me: “Nope. But at least I didn’t have to lie to them; zero is less than one mile.”