To say I'm a Receptionist not a Dogsbody?

[ReceptionistNotDogsbody]

I work as a receptionist in a very busy hotel. There are 6 of us in our team, and we all have a job description that keeps us busy; we don't just sit at the desk saying hello to people walking in, and checking the occasional person in, we actually have constant reports and paperwork to do, too.

However, the rest of the staff in the hotel seem to think that we're there to be their PA, and constantly try to offload the parts of their jobs that they dislike, to us! One particular woman in another department always gives us the parts of her job that she cannot be bothered to do, and expects us to do them, whilst getting the 'glory' of doing it herself!

Customers are also the same; thinking we're there to act as their PA whilst they're in the building. I'm happy to do receptionist duties and always happy to go over and above expectation, but I'm not here to be someone's slave.

Our management are totally ineffectual; I've mentioned everything to my manager so, so many times and they, whilst sympathising and making the right noises, have made it clear they will do nothing about it.

It seems that all departments in our workplace can do as they wish, except reception!

AIBU to get sick of being treated like a dogsbody?

What sort of things are you talking about? What would happen if you said no.

With regard to other staff, if it's not in your job description, surely you can say no? There are various ways of saying no, depending on your level of bravery!

How about these for starters:

1 I tell you what, if I do this for you, will you do my xxx report for me?

2 Well, that's not part of my job, so no I won't be able to do that.
3 Well, I'll do it if I've got time but I have enough of my own work to do (and then don't have time to do it)

Sadly if your management aren't backing you up then it is up to you to sort it. It sounds as though management agree with you though so you at least know that you are within your rights to say no?

Hard to say with no examples. Reception always gets the extra jobs partly because of how the job is viewed and partly because it has a physical, visible location that everyone has contact with. Part of the job is giving off a sense of calm, organisation and people mistake that for you not being busy. When I worked on reception i was once asked to arrange the items and do the plastic wrapping on a hamper that was going as a prize. I did such a shit job i was never asked again 🙃

You could always take initiative and invite people to a presentation of a day in the life of a receptionist and make a tongue in cheek point that they're all being CFs...

Refuse to do the extra work?

"I'm really sorry, I've got this report to write".

I have found that when senior members of staff try to off load yet more work on to me that I don't have time to do, if I say something like ' yes of course, what should I drop so that I can do it?' works quite well. It shows willing but also points out that you can't do everything. Might not work for you though.
Is any or all of this work in your job description though? If so, then I'm afraid that doing things for other people is just the nature of the job. All you can do is to point out that if you do A, you won't have time to do B.

To give an example; the woman who does reservations often 'forgets' to allocate a bedroom when she does a booking. Hence she end up with days and days worth of allocations to do, which she can't be bothered to do, and so that's passed to us. Also she frequently overbooks the hotel by two or three rooms for a night, then laughs about it and tells us to phone customers to say they don't have a room. This happened the other day and we had several irate customers and she just went home!

Managers seem to think it's endearing and just say 'oh bless her'.

That’s shocking!

Sounds like Philisophigal is the OP's CF colleagues. No, consistently doing your job badly and asking someone else to pick up the pieces isn't normal and the hotel management should not be tolerating it. If the woman doing the allocations is continually messing up, she should making the phone calls to irate customers - then she might start doing her job properly.

If the OP's role specifically included allocating rooms, it would be fine for her to be asked to do it. But not when someone else's role is all about allocating rooms. And receptionists don't go round making the beds either unless a hotel is very badly understaffed, but it doesn't sound like that's the case here, only that people aren't doing what they are meant to do. "Ah bless" indeed. What a useless manager the OP has.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of those things but then I'm one of those people that like to be helpful

what including cleaning the loos in bedrooms? Yeah right. Sanctimony is so tedious on MN.

OP maybe you should ask for this to be moved to Work so you get some sensible advice rather than pointless AIBU sanctimony.

Definitely sounds like weak management or someone who they fear is a single point of failure on some part of how the business is run.

“I’m afraid that’s outside my areas of responsibility but I here’s my line manager’s number. Give him a call and see if he can reprioritise my workload to accommodate this.”

Just throw any paperwork anyone gives you into the shredder and deny all knowledge of it.

I think you need to be more assertive with your line manager.
Do they or don't they expect you to do this work when asked?
If they don't then you say please talk to my line manager as they have advised this is not work I can take on.
If they do expect you to do it then it's part of your job. If you don't have time for all your tasks then you need to prioritise them and agree how you will do this with your manager including which tasks can be done later/by someone else/not at all.

I have read that receptionists have one of the lowest job satisfaction ratings though of all jobs, maybe look for a different role? It's a good time to look for a new job and maybe you can get more money too. Good luck OP.

I feel your pain op - l am a Receptionist too and everyone dumps their crap on me.
So l say yes l will do it bit it will have to fit in around my work so if it is urgent, l might not be the best person to ask.

And to the person who collected their manager’s dry cleaning? That’s a sure fire way to have your work in an organisation devalued. If you are going to help out focus on the ‘high value’ jobs that could lead to promotion - come up with ideas to improve efficiency/customer service, sorting out the database, successfully dealing with pernickety customers, asking Sandra assertively to book the bedrooms and checking her work every day and then offering to train her if she can’t manage it. There are ‘extras’ that are valuable and can lead to promotion, and there are extras that paint you as a dogsbody.

If you didn’t take on these tasks, what would you be doing though? Sitting just waiting for something to do?

When they ask you just say: Mary! You know I'd love to help you out , sadly I'm up the walls today myself, so no can do. Then just keep repeating it every time.

Your options are:

• learn to say ''no'' when someone expects you to do their jobs for them
• look for another job.

Don't just put up with it.

Management should be looking at getting rid of the people who can't do their job properly, not give them a free pass and expect other staff to pick up the slack. But they won't do that as long as you and your reception colleagues let them get away with it. Be firm and let them deal with it.

The lady with the reservations sounds a pita and it's not on, if she's screwing up reservations then that needs addressing - maybe refer a couple of the really unhappy guests to your manager to deal with? Then they might do something about it if they've got to get an earful.

But in hospitality sometimes you do need to stretch to other departments and lend a hand because quite honestly the guests don't care about your job role or title, expectations are very high and they're set to get higher as people have less disposable income and therefore choose carefully where they spend to get the most value for money, and the guests are what it's all about at the end of the day.

Yes, sometimes reception need to cover housekeeping, it's quite common if the hotel becomes suddenly busier than expected or someone phones in sick - as a hotel guest are you going to care that your room isn't ready at the advertised time because someone phoned in sick and the receptionist had a report to write? Or are you just going to be pissed off that you can't check in when you want to? Because again, that's what we're all there for and how we've still got jobs - the guests, something like that could stop a returning guest before they've even got to their room.

By it's nature hospitality is hard to predict, there's certain times obviously than can be predicted and staffed accordingly, like bank holidays or weekends, but some degree of flexibility from all departments is needed to cover demands when working in a hotel because the guests needs spread across several departments simultaneously and good customer service is meeting those needs quickly and with minimal fuss.

I'm happy to pitch in and help. I'm not happy to do other peoples jobs for them that they can't be bothered to do. No one else will even cover reception for 2 mins whilst whoever is on duty uses the loo! Surely the helping out should work both ways? As reception we are viewed as being the lowest of the low and I don't think it's particularly fair

What do you mean when you say the customers go too far?
I thought reception was where to go when you need for example - dinner reservations, taxis, tour recommendations, extra room items?

Do you have a job description?
Are these extra tasks resulting in you working unpaid extra hours?

TBH I would have thought allocating the rooms would be part of a receptionists duty, but talking to overbooked customers should sit with the other lady who created the problem.