There's an article in the DF about being nice to the receptionist at a job interview

[fancyginglass]

Some rubbish article in the DF today but it reminded me of a conversation I had with a summer student who came in to work. He was at Uni and had massive plans to be a high flyer but he told me his mum had told him that you have to be nice to everyone at an interview including the receptionist. I said to him why would you treat the receptionist any different - no one is any better than anyone else. What a self entitled little prat who actually gave up Uni a year later. Does someone actually need to be told this stuff?

My DM has always said you can tell a lot about a person from the way they treat waiters, waitresses, shop staff etc.
Some people think they are better than everyone else and are only polite and courteous to people who they think matter.

Some people do need to be told unfortunately. We interviewed for a role in our small company (4 people) a few years ago. Part of the interview (marketing role) involved being asked to write up a press release whilst sat in the same office as our junior admin assistant. He was asked after the interviews what he thought of each candidate and he reported that several had been downright rude to him. Needless to say those people were not considered for the role.

Does someone actually need to be told this stuff

Some people do.

Some people treat people in certain roles very rudely. Or abruptly.

I've had calls at work - and they don't realise that because of the way we work, anyone could be answering the call. They were abrupt - and thought I was the Receptionist. Not the manager who they wanted to get a sale from.

My dd is a doctor and I’m a nurse . Whilst she was training I told her to always be nice to the nurses as they could make her job very difficult if she wasn’t .
She was quite offended as she’s the type of person who is always polite and friendly to everyone she meets . She realises now what I meant as some of her colleagues are so rude and entitled so naturally the nurses don’t go out of their way to be helpful to them .

A lot of people need to be told, I think. Just read some of the threads about how junior retail workers are treated.

Always ask everyone who has encountered a candidate how they felt about them. It's not a secret 'tactic' . Our local supermarket does it when recruiting because to make your appointment you have to talk to shop floor staff. Amazing how many people are off with them!

Yes I dont understand why people need telling either.

The same people also probably hate "bums" so of you dont work they hate you, work and they look down on you...

Cant win.

Mind you if I'm out for a mice meal with friends or family I'm with people I care about and want to talk to , I dont have tine to pick fights and insult waiting staff ...

Maybe if you weren't a dick they'd talk to you and you wouldn't need to abuse the staff for something to do..

Oh, so many people need telling. So many. There are senior people at my work who are so up themselves they wouldn't even think to say hello to someone in the estates or housekeeping or admin teams. I despise them. They're nice and friendly to me, because they think my job means I matter. Utter shits to people they think are beneath them due to the jobs they do. You can tell so much about someone by how they treat someone they deem to be less powerful or have less status.

Also , when my dd was at medical school she worked as a waitress during weekends /summer . The rudeness of some customers was unbelievable. One regular customer told her that she seemed quite bright so she should go back to school to try to get a better job like working in an office or something . What makes people try to belittle others by telling them their job isn’t good enough . All jobs are important in our society . Poor self esteem themselves no doubt

When I worked on a chemical plant it was essential to get on well with the plant operators who actually ran the process. They could make a young engineer’s life very hard by subtle non-cooperation, which they were expert at. It was amazing to watch interns, who we had from a particular university every year, attempt to be superior to everyone on the plant, then wondering why they were having their not very well thought out instructions followed to the letter, when “it was obvious what they meant”. Now I teach student engineers and advise them strongly to treat everyone with respect.

Plenty of people need to be told.

I’ve been in many many meetings with people who only address the most senior person in the room, or the one they think is the most senior. The higher ups don’t notice it till you point it out.

The way you treat junior people to you can have a real effect on your company and the way you can carry out a role without you realising it.

Treat people as you would expect to be treated.

I think some people do need to be told to be friendly. I've worked as a PA and I've been talked down to a lot.
The people that bothered to ask how I was/demonstrate even rudimentary friendliness/politeness always got what they wanted quicker!
People that were rude to me found the bosses diary a bit fuller.

Yeah some people do have to be told sadly. They lack manners.

I have a colleague who speaks very rudely to waiting staff, receptionists, treats everyone like an idiot. He's just an awful awful person. His partner is glamorous and attractive, I wonder how she looks past this behaviour, I was horrified by it.

i read that pathetic article also.
seriously the interviewer sat pretending to be the receptionist?
ridiculous unlikely scenario

Also be careful who you meet on the way up as you will also meet them on the way down. Just this week I crossed paths with a manager who bullied me out of a great job, one where I was doing really well and was respected until he started. He now works for a company we employ to do to a process, he has fucked up and was trying to smarm his way out. My name is now my married name but I took great delight in saying I remember him from x, he nearly shat his pants. We could employ another company tomorrow....

Once at work I had a man come in to get us set up a partnership with his co. He was very charming and the proposal looked good (although we were considering a few). After he left the Receptionist came to see me and said he had been really rude. I spoke to the Security guard on the front gate as well and he had been rude to him to. Unsurprisingly I refused to deal with him again.
When I used to visit a lot of clients I was friendly and pleasant to everyone, purely because why wouldn’t I be? However, it served me well on a few occasions where people helped me find a parking space for example and once tipped me off about something that helped me secure a VERY good contract

Yup. People can genuinely be dicks and it's quite sad they need to be told.

When I first saw this online my first thought was that I can't wait for posts on LinkedIn 😂
"I went for an interview and the receptionist obviously had a bad day and was quite frazzled. So I took over her work, risking me being late, prepared fresh sushi for her lunch, gave her a massage all while handling her admin and checking in other interviewees. It didn't matter to me that I will miss mine. This is what #kind people do. What a surprise she was the interviewer and I got a job! My mum always told me to #bekind and it paid off"

😂

So many people are rude to those they consider beneath them.

In my old job I would sometimes answer the main reception phone if the receptionist was away and people were so rude. Especially sales callers, which is strange considering they want your company's business. One man, when I asked to take a message, said in a voice full of contempt "I'm hardly going to speak about a matter like this with a person like you." Go and sell your printer ink somewhere else then you knob.

This reminds me that many years ago when I was a student I had a holiday job in A tourist town in Switzerland. When native English speakers came in and threw their weight about I pretended I could not speak English and made them struggle to order! On the other hand, I've bent over backwards to help native English speakers who were friendly and polite to me. The owner of the café fully supported me. For what it's worth, the obnoxious ones were always American and the nice ones always English (or rather from the UK). I always told the owner, who didn't speak English, this so she didn't think badly of us Brits!

I’ve had 2 ‘proper’ jobs in my life - both what you’d call high-flying in very impressive sectors. I’m used to being treated with politeness, even respect, with the public I come across. Recently, bored with the reduced socialising in lockdown, I took up volunteering at the weekends at my local Oxfam store. I love it, but the instant difference in how you’re treated for being on the shop floor was very noticeable - so much so that I mentioned it to a friend. People do talk down to me, tell me to hurry up, hand me scrunched clothes to put away etc. Really opened my eyes. I’m glad I got to experience it - I’ve never even done odd jobs as a teenager!

@Hoppinggreen

Once at work I had a man come in to get us set up a partnership with his co. He was very charming and the proposal looked good (although we were considering a few). After he left the Receptionist came to see me and said he had been really rude. I spoke to the Security guard on the front gate as well and he had been rude to him to. Unsurprisingly I refused to deal with him again. When I used to visit a lot of clients I was friendly and pleasant to everyone, purely because why wouldn’t I be? However, it served me well on a few occasions where people helped me find a parking space for example and once tipped me off about something that helped me secure a VERY good contract

haha

I wear jeans, a fleece and walking trainers to the office quite regularly. My 3 grades removed junior is a man who wears suits (it’s a wear what you feel comfortable in office). The amount of people who come into our office and assume he’s the boss was amusing to start with, now it just pusses me off.

Still I’m the one making the decisions, so I get the last laugh.

oof sorry wrong link