STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

I can't believe that your friend sided with the dumb guy.  Weird.  I'm thinking even though you are just being nice by helping the guy, you're actually doing yourself a disservice.  I think for every request like that that you get, you should tell them that you can't help them/don't know how to do that and tell them the receptionist should be able to help you.  Also, you could get a name plate with your title printed on it so they know you're not a receptionist and have that sitting on the ledge. 

NCshopper wrote:

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I can't believe that your friend sided with the dumb guy.  Weird.  I'm thinking even though you are just being nice by helping the guy, you're actually doing yourself a disservice.  I think for every request like that that you get, you should tell them that you can't help them/don't know how to do that and tell them the receptionist should be able to help you.  Also, you could get a name plate with your title printed on it so they know you're not a receptionist and have that sitting on the ledge. 

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The hilarious thing is that I do in fact have a nameplate on my desk - actually I have two, that say my name and my title.  Once again, unless you are blind, you would see.  People are just ignorant and don't really care.  I am really pissed off at my friend for siding w/him - WTF!

LOL Collette that's hilarious...maybe next time i will say "f--k off"!  

Oh I also wanted to say, I'm not normally this nice, and my answer is always, "I'm sorry I don't know but you can check w/the receptionist who sits right around the corner"

Another thing that angers me is that because I have that ledge on my desk, people like to stop and have meetings in front of me..to which I either stare at them w/the evil eye, cough really loudly & clear my throat, or get on the phone and talk really loudly so they'll leave.  God!

blubirde wrote:

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Could you request to have your desk moved somewhere else? I'd tell someone in HR what the problem is and ask if I could be moved to a different location. But man that sucks for you! That kind of crap would drive me insane. (Once a fellow attorney asked me to make a copy for him and the look I gave him was so withering he started backing out the door and telling me never mind. ) Good luck and stay strong! Your friend sucks too. Boo to her!

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Well here's the deal, I'm an executive assistant/communications assistant...so I sit outside or my bosses office - he's one of the main people I support, so no, I couldn't ask to be moved because I don't think he'd be too happy about it!

Ugh!  How annoying!  I think the ledge/half wall thing makes you seem more approachable even if people know that you are not the receptionist.  Can you arrange the set-up of your cube so you are facing away and seem less approachable to someone that is just being lazy and looking for the first person to take responsibility for something?  Don't take it too personally.  In every job, there are always people asking you to do things that aren't your job.  People don't always understand what is and what is not your job.  And even if they do, if they know you will do it, they will keep coming to you.  I would play dumb as much as you can because once you say yes, they'll keep coming back.  "Can you book me a conference room?"  "I'm not sure how you do that, but I know Ms. Receptionist has the schedule for the conference rooms."  "Is my HR rep in today?"  "Sorry,  I have no idea.  You should really check with her assistant.  She probably has her minute-by-minute schedule."  Seriously, even if you book conference rooms for your boss all the time and saw the HR rep by the coffee machine earlier in the day, just keep saying you don't know.  The more that they know that you know, the more they are going to come to you, especially if the assistant or receptionist does a crappy job or doesn't know the answer or happens to be away from their desk.