AIBU to think people feel entitled to be rude to GP Receptionists?

[alpacasandwich]

I've got a job stacking shelves in a supermarket. I love it. People are mostly kind, friendly and above all respectful. If someone asks me where something is, they are so apologetic about me abandoning whatever I'm doing.

By my third shift in a GP surgery I'd been sworn at, regularly told I was responsible if someone died before they could see a GP, been given the line "I pay your wages", been hung up on over the phone multiple times, I barely went 20mins without someone angrily eye rolling and shouting and being hideous.

Why do people treat people like that? I always heard retail is hell, but the odd moany customer is the exception. As a receptionist you're treated with absolute disdain no matter how hard you work and how nice you are. I used to cry in the toilets.

AIBU to think people feel entitled to behave this way, maybe due to the idea that receptionists are evil witches?

At my GPs we have a 24 hour automated appointment booking system. You don't have to speak to a soul. It's great.

You've done 3 shifts though

Give it 3 years and you'll probably be a cowbag like the rest of them

I've never encountered GP receptionists who are anything other than polite and helpful. At five different surgeries since I was 18 (because I've moved house not changed surgery deliberately), when at times I've been a very regular customer due to ongoing mental health issues. I'm not saying the nasty ones don't exist, but I've never met them thankfully.

Give it 3 years and you'll probably be a cowbag like the rest of them

If she is, it'll be the patients' fault.

I've never encountered an aa

I've never been anything but polite to GP receptionists (as I am to ALL staff everywhere.)

Almost universally I've found them to be rude, nosy and incompetent with an often dangerous assessment of their medical abilities - not just to me but to other people I see them interact with. It's a stereotype yes but it's one I've found has some truth in it. I've seen them give out factually incorrect and potentially dangerous advice they had no place giving and reduce vulnerable and upset patients to tears.

The last time I called mine in the UK it was 'no we don't have any appointments if you can't tell me what the problem is.'
'It's private, I need to see xxxx. She's your go to person for that.'
(Her being snotty, me being polite.)
'Well unless you tell me, miss..?'
'Dr. It's Dr. Anatidea'
(Sudden switch to simpering.)
'Oh she has an appointment at two.'

I'm sorry people were rude to you.

I've never in my life been rude to a GP's receptionist but I've encountered some very rude ones in my time.

I've never encountered an arsey GP Receptionist. Equally, I've never been arsey to one. The receptionist at my current GP's are lovely and very accomodating (shame the same can't be said for the GP himself!)

I deal with all manner of GP's staff when I'm on rotation on Community Midwifery, and they're all lovely, and efficient as well.

Nobody should ever be abused simply for the job they do. I'm sorry this has happened to you, OP.

I think some of the views on this tread are truley disappointing. I started working in the GP surgery when I was 19 coming from a back ground of nothing like it, I had the same misguided views as some of you.

However, this jobs is one of the hardest thing I've ever done. We all work bloody hard long hours and I ALWAYS put patients first. I have never come across so many people that think it's acceptable to shout, swear and be so rude to people who are just there to help.

For all of you saying 'nosey cows' if you ask for an urgent appointment or one more quickly than the routine appointment we can offer, part of our job and a vital part, is to ask a very brief indication of the problem, this is for YOUR safety, we need to understand whether the call needs to be passed immediately to the doctor or whether an ambulance needs to be called. Or whether a prescribing nurse will be able to see you more quickly. The fact is we don't sit and discuss what your problem is or even remember it past the next call, we have over 10,000 patients and humdreds ringing everyday, it our job that's what we are paid to do and it's very important

From personal experience, if you are polite and considerate to us, remembering we are people doing a job to pay for our houses and children, and also that we can not magic appointments that we physically haven't got, we will be polite and go out of our way for you. If you are rude and demanding and insulting as soon as you get on the phone, you will not be met with a smile

All you who've "never been rude to a GP receptionist" but had them be rude to you, it's because the majority of patients are rude and they've been ground down by them.

Pink I worked as a receptionist for 3 years. I said I'd been abused that much in 3 days

What I worked in a job for many years where clients routinely spoke to me like dirt.

When a new client came in who was polite and friendly, I certainly wasn't rude to them just because. What a terrible attitude.

ImAFurchester I'm not a receptionist (I work in a customer facing role though where people are rude on a regular basis, but I kill them with kindness), but I'm pretty sure that's what's happening here.

What I don't think that's reasonable.

The problem is patients come in spoiling for a fight and don't even give you a chance. Aggression sets the tone of the encounter and it's a constant battle to de escalate when people just want to confirm that you're an arsehole and don't care how hard you're trying.

As someone who has been a GP receptionist, and is still in a related industry, I believe that most receptionists do not start out rude and bitter. They're mostly made like that by the way people treat them, lots of daily micro-aggressions, drip drip drip.

Of course some are simply horrid people and/or bad at their job but I know all too well the gulf between patient or client expectations and what the higher ups expect you to enforce; being on the front line of that and taking all the flak is miserable.

The worst is when someone says when they die it will be your fault, it really screwed me up hearing that from so many people

I don't feel entitled to be rude to GP receptionists but I do feel like the receptionists at my practice think they're entitled to be rude and nosy to the patients.

Fair play if you're rude to people who are rude to you.

No excuse for rudeness towards people who haven't been rude at all.

I'm with the majority here. I don't think it's ever okay to treat people rudely in their jobs, but I have to deal with GP surgeries (secretaries and practice managers mostly) in my job role - and that means going through the receptionists.

They are some of the rudest, most dismissive people I have to contact. Which is awful considering they are front line to people who are sick. I don't mean to generalise, but 9/10 people I call are just not helpful and very rude. I don't have this with any of our other partnerships.

I always go out of my way to be unfailingly polite to GP receptionists, as you tend to get a much better, er, reception - I tell myself that by being generous and friendly and courteous, I am making up for all the times they will be shouted at and abused today.

This is despite the fact that I have more experiences of being spoken to rudely by them than of them being nice, and I once cried on the phone when I was sick and scared and the receptionist said nastily that she couldn't hear me and to call back when I pulled myself together.

Yet, even so...I would never, ever be abusive to ANYONE. I'm sorry you had such a rubbish time, humans can be shitty.

My experience of my Gp's receptionists have been so bad that where possible I get dh to ring them because I cannot face getting upset by them. It is difficult enough when your severely disabled child is ill without someone refusing to look at your child's notes which explain that the doctors have agreed flexible appointment times.

I actually left my last GP surgery because the receptionists were so awful and unhelpful.

They're fairly clinical at my new one, but still polite.

Just to cross over into other MN hates...

My MIL is a retired doctor's receptionist (not a nice one I suspect)

I'm NC.

I understand asking for basic triage but there are two issues with that:

1. It puts a lot of responsibility on someone who is not medically qualified. Seemingly innocuous sysmptoms can in fact be very serious indeed. Its not a call you can make and if you're being asked to make it then you need to be worried because there are liability issues.

1. It's often not done in a 'dr. Smith is our asthma expert so best you see her' way, it's done in an 'if you won't tell me in detail I won't give you an appointment' way and that's unacceptable.

if nine patients are rude to you then that's something I have sympathy for but it's also no cause to treat the tenth one like dirt when they are polite to you.

If you need an appointment for a child get your husband to call. Dh gets call backs and help getting an appointment. I get told no appointments you rang too late (I rang at exactly opening time). He calls every time now!