Receptionist shouted at me and flounce off job

[Waytooearly]

I'm trying to run a department with very little admin support.

We have loads of time-sensitive work and we get sued if it doesn't get done on time. We had a couple crises arise today. It's fulfilling work but you can only manage if you're super organised.

Our main receptionist has a bad habit of ringing me when randoms drop in. Fine, ring once, nice to see if I'm free, but usually I'll have to say take a message or book him in later. I can rarely come down for "just a sec". We don't see people without appointments.

Lately I've had to talk to her manager because the calls are becoming like:

"This lady dropped in..."

"Yeah, got this bundle due at 4,sorry,book her in on Thursday?"

"Yeah but she said that you said that she could come in any time..."

"Yeah really no, okay bye"

"Yeah but she has kids with her and they took the bus..."

I even get calls when I'm with clients.

Today she rang because a current client stopped in for a "quick question". I said "No, sorry, urgently getting something done before my 4:00 appointment," She rang again ten seconds later, saying again, "Yeah but he said that you said that he could just pop in?"

I said, "Well now I have to come down because you're doing this in front of him. When you do this it means my work doesn't get done and I have to stay late."

Of course the person popping in pulled out paperwork and wanted to have a sit down so that happened. I just shrugged and thought, " Fine, late-ish night at office" and resigned myself to it.

I left the impromptu appointment to find the receptionist flouncing about the lobby shouting that she was quitting because I had talked to her like shit. There were clients in the lobby. My colleague and I got her into a room and made soothing noises to shut her up.

She still left. I'm pretty sure it was a drama quit because her things are still here.

Our manager isn't here today.

What's the appropriate response from my manager here? She is very good friends with the receptionist and they socialise outside of work. I fear therell be some placating response so they don't have to hire a new admin.

Can someone coach me on how I navigate this?

Clients are very aggressive sometimes

When did I say the clients are aggressive?

Mate I can kind of see why everyone is getting confused here...

OP, you've referred to these people as 'randoms' several times. Are they literally cold callers off the street, so to speak, or existing clients for whom you are acting?

On balance, I disagree that it's all the receptionist's fault. She's fire fighting. If you are unavailable, it sounds as though your firm needs another fee earner or paralegal to deal with the unremarkable issue of clients needing to speak about their case.

'By appointment only' just doesn't work in practice. A firm needs to have the capacity to deal with its clients properly, and that means accepting that the people they represent don't 'follow the rules' all the time.

I'm guessing the receptionist is calling you when people drop in because it's easier for her to send them away if she appears to be the nice helpful person on the front desk and have made an effort to contact you. Easier to say to somebody, sorry Waytooearly says she's unavailable. Can I book you an appointment? than sorry I know she wont see you even though she's here, so I'm not even going to try to ring her. Please leave.

I'd talk it through with receptionist. Apologise if you were snappy with her and explain you find it very stressful to be asked to deal with unexpected drop ins. Then ask for her help to agree with a better way of dealing with them and an understanding that she doesn't contact you when with a client unless she feels there is a risk of harm.

If you are unavailable, it sounds as though your firm needs another fee earner or paralegal to deal with the unremarkable issue of clients needing to speak about their case.
'By appointment only' just doesn't work in practice. A firm needs to have the capacity to deal with its clients properly, and that means accepting that the people they represent don't 'follow the rules' all the time.

This is all such GUFF.

@Spudlet

OP you definitely seem confused!

This is all such GUFF

. Can you explain? Why is suggesting that a firm needs enough staff to enable everyone to do their job properly and keep their clients happy 'GUFF'?

A law firm has the staff it needs to work at full capacity.

There is no way a firm would employ another member of staff to wait around in case there are walk ins off the street.

The office would do better to have an intercom system and locked door preventing anyone from coming in unless they have an appointment.

Some of the comments on this thread are interesting. We don't mind clients popping in where I work. If we're free we'll come and talk to them (which I appreciate the op sort of wasn't in this scenario). If they just want to drop something off reception can handle that if the person they came to see isn't free. If they had a question and that person isn't free reception will find someone to field it, same as if they had phoned.

I've been reading through wondering what we would do If it became excessive and how disruptive that would be. Except I don't think it would happen because we are easy to reach in a bunch of other ways if people have questions or want an update or need to send us things or need to ask us to do things. People don't need to drag their kids in on buses just to get us to speak to them.

If people are getting desperate enough to turn up in person and chance stories I actually think in most cases that says much more about the organisation they're trying to deal with than the person doing it. Especially with healthcare.

Surely she can have a dummy number to call that doesn't go anywhere so it looks as though she's making an effort, or she can say that your lin is busy.

In all seriousness though, I have been that receptionist sitting on an isolated desk while angry and aggressive people kicked off at me, and it’s not fun at all. I was always keenly aware that staff members did get assaulted fairly regularly and that there was no one in sight or earshot to back me up if someone actually did take a swing at me. So if I couldn’t talk someone down, sometimes my best option was to go onto the ward and either say I’d asked and the answer was no, or to find the nurse in charge if she or he was available and either get an update for the angry person, or permission for them to go into the day room or something. You sound like your workplace needs a similar plan so your receptionist isn’t fearing that she’ll get a punch in the face, because that is not a fun way to work. Which probably means your manager, the receptionist and you sitting down to work a suitable procedure out.

I believe you, OP.

Where I work we get a lot of this, too.

Can I suggest you make a sign (if you do not already have one) that can be put on the reception desk stating, "Appointments with Waytooearly must be pre booked with the receptionist - drop in slots are not available"

I would also document a protocol for the (possibly new!) receptionist to giev through her manager..

1. Customer requests to see Waytooearly
2. Check if they have an appointment already booked
3. If yes - ask them to take a seat and notify Waytooearly
4. If not - book appointment with Waytooearly
5. Enusre customer is aware of appointments only policy for Waytooearly
6. Do not interupt Waytooearly with customer queries when she is in apppointments unless there is a Health & Safety emergency

Good luck!

All the other stuff aside, not too many storm out of work when people have been genuinely polite to them...

As for if your manager can't decide if you're management or not, this usually means they're happy letting people do 'important' -shit- jobs when it suits but not actually seen as a manager or paid to reflect the extra responsibility.

She's not following the policy and is in the wrong. She needs to be able to politely but assertively refuse people who do this.

As she is alone, I'd suggest that she needs a verbal signal if she is feeling genuinely unsafe. She could call up and say "Hi (insert emergency fake name) is Waytooearly available? Aggressiveclient is asking if she has a moment to come down". You, or ideally another colleague, would then need to back her up and reaffirm the policy that they need to make an appointment.

There is no way a firm would employ another member of staff to wait around in case there are walk ins off the street

That's not what I meant. Having paralegals who don't deal with the urgent time-sensitive stuff and can nip down to deal with queries so the fee earner isn't interrupted usually works pretty well in my experience.

The client is happy, the fee earner can work without interruption, the receptionist can do the rest of her job without all the drama.

If people are getting desperate enough to turn up in person and chance stories I actually think in most cases that says much more about the organisation they're trying to deal with than the person doing it

Agree. If this is such an ongoing issue, there is possibly more that needs to be addressed such as caseloads, better management of client expectations etc.

the receptionist can do the rest of her job without all the drama

That depends, often the "drama" is caused by the fact that some people think that the way things are supposed to be dont apply to them so they do what they want and dont care that them going against everything means that the customers or whatever expect the same "perks" from everyone and then kick off when the others follow the rules.

Clients are very aggressive sometimes?

But there's no way of employing somebody else so that the most vulnerable person in the building can be safe to do her job - or to call for help without being really obvious about 'I've got another fucking arsehole down here who is giving me the feeling that if I say no, make an appointment without at least going through the motions of calling you he's going to beat the crap out of me?'

You could, as a company/organisation, be failing in your Duty of Care to her and, if she walks, could well be liable for being sued for Constructive Dismissal - or if she is assaulted.

She is not at risk. I should never have said "aggressive", no one is threatening her. They're obnoxiously expecting to just be seen and she's failing at screening.

We have reasonable caseloads and an excellent reputation. That's why we're in high demand. But we can't deliver if we're popping down all day long.

Fine. So she's working alone and isolated, with service users who can come in uninvited, don't like taking no for an answer (and, unlike any other reception job in the country that involves stressed people who will sue you if you don't keep to time scales, they never act in an intimidating or confrontational way) and she's being entirely unreasonable expecting you to support her, rather than being rude to her and bitching about her to her line manager because it disturbs you.

If she has walked out, somebody's going to have to cover Reception. will that be you? I think it might benefit you to have some knowledge of what she needs to deal with on a daily basis.

I can imagine it happening. Our calls are recorded and people will swear "yes she definitely said X date and Y price" and the call gets listened to and no, never said that nor did I mention the 50% discount you were trying to claim
Or I tell people "the first appointment is the 1st December" and get "ok. Can you do the 22nd November?"
People hear what they want and filter out the rest but you need a really decent reception to send them packing basically, agree with the signs up as it's there in black and white

I have worked as a receptionist for 2 decades and now work in a large open plan office environment where I have no real autonomy (think contact centre type thing). But I now love the anonymity of just blending into the background and not taking full responsibility for all the arseholes who refused to take calls and visitors, despite promising to.

Oh and this kind of thing is not limited to the reception desk, oh no. I take calls from very vulnerable service users who are sent letters /emails saying that they need to contact ME by MONDAY or this, this and this will happen. But ME is out of the office until TUESDAY and I then have to talk very vulnerable service users off the ledge.
I hate colleagues sometimes.

Sometimes it's down to a misunderstanding. Or the person isn't thinking straight. And of course, some try it on.

I have been to an appointment and given medical treatment and told to come back if I need to. Ill, not with it at all, I dragged myself back to the department. I asked to be seen, telling them I'd been told to come back. I even thought I wasted their time. It was a few days later it dawned on me they meant to go back to a&e. Had it been explained to me properly I would have headed to the right place.

If someone has a bit of a rep for seeing walk-ins unofficially, it gets mentioned by others.

OP, she’s not doing her job, she’s ignoring your conversation about what to say to clients who try to bully their way in to see you so she’s calling you in front of them to try and temper the situation and to appear as though she’s trying to help them, knowing full well that you cannot see the client. She should be telling them that you are not available without an appointment and she should find out who has suggested they drop in and when the client has left, call them (agency or whoever) and specify this rule. She is the first point of contact for clients so it’s crucial you’re all singing from the same sheet so as to not undermine you (and essentially the business) in front of clients.
She left her stuff when she walked out because she knows her manager/friend will let her come back.
She either doesn’t care about her job or she lacks in confidence.
I’ve managed receptionists and admin staff and she’s not filtering the clients effectively at all.
You need to start putting your out of office on your phone when you’re with clients.

They're obnoxiously expecting to just be seen and she's failing at screening

So your clients are obnoxious 'randoms' and your receptionist is 'failing at screening'? .

Are these clients who have instructed you or off the street enquiries? If this is happening 'all day long' then once again - I'm afraid there are issues that your firm is NOT addressing.