Monday, July 25, 2011

Annoyed! Irritated! Uncomfortable!

So the saga continues!!  I wrote on Friday about my annoyance with clients walking right past me at the front desk only to get lost in the building trying to find the law firm they're supposed to go to, but without checking in with me first so they can fill out the required paperwork.  Well I replaced the sign at the front desk today, only to have Abrasive Anna tell me that my boss doesn't want the sign up at the desk because that's basically "giving them free advertisement."  What a bunch of bullshit!  Who fucking cares if there's a sign up?  No one knows what the hell the law firm's name is anyway, so how could we be advertising for them??  I know my boss had a problem with it because it's so big (8.5" x 11").  I don't see the problem.  I'm tired of people walking by me thinking I'm not an important stop on their way to their divorce, only to have to come back and require me to be pleasant to their stupid faces about the fact that they didn't check in with me in the first place!!  It's shit like this that makes me want to quit.  I hate not having control over my workspace and the job I am supposed to be doing.  Abrasive Anna told me that I need to do whatever is necessary to get the attention of the people walking by me, no matter what, so that I can direct them to the right place.  It's my job, she said.  Chasing fucking idiots around is actually not my job.  I am not running a goddamn daycare.  So I asked her, okay, but what if I am on the phone or signing for a package or otherwise engaged with another person?  To which she responded, "I'm able to get their attention, so you need to as well."

I just want to strangle her and her stupid haircut.  I'll never understand the logic behind how she thinks that being a bitch is going to get her what she wants from people.  I'd almost call her a bully the way she talks, not just to me but to everyone.  There's being straightforward, and then there's downright rude.  She's perhaps one of the rudest people I've ever met.  So how she is in a job like mine is beyond me, aside from the fact that I know that she's close with the building's owners and cannot be gotten rid of. 

I was in a pretty decent mood.  It got knocked down a few pegs when Tiffany bit my head off after I tried offering advice on how to discipline her kids, which I thought she had asked for last week.  Apparently she just wanted to complain about their misbehaving and have me listen without offering advice or solutions.  I didn't know that.  Then my mood started to get worse when an attorney who'd tried to book a conference room at the last minute last week for an important arbitration couldn't actually book a conference room because both were already booked invaded my personal space trying to see if the conference rooms were still booked, even after I told him they were.  There's a little step up into the space behind the front desk, where I sit.  People delivering packages sometimes trip on it trying to get to me to give me something to sign.  This guy steps right up next to me to see the conference room schedule.  Every.  Time.  I hate HATE that I'm so confrontation-averse because being that way also makes me feel weak and powerless when it comes to asserting myself and protecting my space.  I can't just ask him to step back because he's making me uncomfortable by coming back here.  I mean, I can.  I just don't want to have to do it.

And the phone has been ringing off the fucking hook this morning.  I'm really earning my $11.50/hour today.

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