To speak up at work

[spanieleyes22]

Am so fed up of goody goody people at work. Am getting very worked up about it and I know I need to chill and just let it all flow🤣back story we are having a restructure and were told in a teams chat by manager that there was now a rota for covering reception. I just hate doing it. Just because I'm really busy I have so much to do and the thing is 99.9%of the queries are nothing to do with my role and I don't know the answer. I said this to my manager and she said if you don't know the answer just stick it in the big teams chat and someone will reply. It's really inefficient. I have someone sitting in front of me or standing and they ask me a question and I say sorry I don't know hold on. Then I type the query in the chat and wait for a response which can take a few minutes. Then that person usually has to check something and I'm sat there with the person staring at me and wondering why I'm not doing anything. Other members of my team have all said privately that they don't like doing it but they won't say anything to the managers. Even today a girl on my team volunteered to cover someone and I was like Wtaf. So when an email came round just now outlining the rota for the next 6 weeks I put up a msg saying nobody had told us this was to be a oermanent arrangement and I honestly felt it wasn't the best use of my time. Nobody even gave my comment a thumbs up. They are like little sheep or mice they won't say boo to anyone. I shouldn't have said anything should I. I wish I was meek and mild and didn't care but I do care about doing a good job - and I just feel I'm worth more than a receptionist.

How about a different take on things?

You could ask somebody you know to go in with a wuery, and then to send a polite complaint to your company about the person on federation's lack of knowledge.

Something like 'I came into (your place of work) last Thursday and was greeted by a very nice and polite young lady who was, unfortunately, quite unable to help me. She was as helpful as she could be, but kept having to look things up and ask other people as she didn't have the information I needed. Would you please ensure that your staff have the correct training to ensure they are able to answer customer queries?'
Or ' I went into (your place of work) last week and the poor chap on reception was obviously just covering for the receptionist as they didn't have a clue about (pretty standard reception type query). I think they must have been from a completely different department. You need to employ enough receptionists so that there is always somebody on duty who knows what they are doing.'

One very polite, one slightly rude and ranty. If you could get several people to do that then maybe your workplace will take note.

You will need to make sure it can't be traced back to you, if reception queries are recorded or you have CCTV the people helping you will actually have to make the queries, all the complaints will need to be completely different, and all the complaints will need to be nice about the staff and complain about the process/company.

This! I expect with such an appalling attitude to her work (not to mention to your comment) the company would secretly welcome her resignation.

Great way for OP to get themselves sacked

Well yes, she can complain about it all she likes, but if she keeps going on about it, she will just be seen by everyone else as a pain in the arse, and eventually the company will probably have to manage her out. No company needs toxic employees who are constantly negative and unwilling to accept change.

If she has constructive suggestions about how to make things work better under the new structure, then I'm sure that they will be well received, but they're not going to reverse the changes just because she doesn't like them. They may well have anticipated some resistance in any case, but for whatever reason, they have decided that this is how they want to organise things. The OP has accepted the new job description, which she has acknowledged is broad enough to encompass these new duties, so she needs to either get on with it (with constructive suggestions for improvement where appropriate) or look for a new job. Endless complaining isn't going to get her anywhere.

I think you should just start jobhuntng and go elsewhere. You clearly aren't a good fit for this employer.

In their understanding, if there isn't the budget or workload for a full time receptionist, it's sensible to have all staff doing it on a rota because that way all staff will get a good overview of a range of different types of enquiry which will upskill them to have knowledge of a range of business areas outside their own specific brief.

It being an generally unpopular duty will be helpful as it will sort out the people who have a can-do attitude and find the benefit in every opportunity from those who gripe and moan and consider their own immediate priorities as more important than the whole business's big picture. This will help them know which staff members are ripe for more interesting development opportunities.

Seems clear that it's in everyone's best interests for you to move on.

I was with you until this: “ and I just feel I'm worth more than a receptionist.”
Then I was like: Whatever - I hope they stick you on lotsa reception duty.

I’m intrigued as to what sort of questions you are being asked on reception that are that difficult to answer. Surely an office receptionist usually deals with “I’m here to see…” type things rather than anything too complex and as others have said if you get the same stuff over & over then you learn the response.

The biggest issue is the expectation that you still do your normal workload while manning reception.

I think that if your colleagues don’t also complain you are pretty much stuck with the situation. Start job hunting.

It's not sensible to suddenly increase someone's workload by 20% though, is it?

Absolute nonsense that those doing it will be seen as 'ripe for development opportunities'. More than likely they will just get more sideways and downwards job creep.

The OP's attitude sucks in terms of 'goody goodys' and seeing reception as a bit beneath her, but she isn't wrong in the basics of being against it.

Really cant stanf the it not my job people in a work place one of my personal red flags and to me ot makes them sound up themselves and snobby

Sorry OP but you are a managers worst nightmare. A manager has to come up with a fair solution to a problem, just say, receptionist goes on long term sick. If there is nobody on reception, you can't open your business. So, the solution is to work share reception. You only care about yourself. Other people just think, oh well, it isn't ideal but if it helps the business then so be it. You clearly think the job is beneath you, and you are so much busier than everyone else. I have worked with somebody like you before. Can't say i still keep in touch. People should be able to speak up at work, but not try to shout the loudest to get out of a job that other people don't want to do but are just getting on with it.

Get a new job as this isn’t working. You shouldn’t need to do your own work on top of this. If deadlines can’t be met then tell managers early on. If people are then allocated your work they will hopefully then complain to managers about not getting their work done.

the receptionist is the first impression people get of the company and so if it looks chaotic then they will remember and not come back.

I’d ask the manager to either complete the work I couldn’t finish or cover my reception slot so that I finished it. If she gets cross that’s too bad, as you can’t do both and shouldn’t have to work extra hours to do so. I would do this every single time there was any work with a deadline clashing with my reception rota. Make it your managers problem!

I have read all yiur replies, yiur company is being unreasonable, they should be employing a dedicated receptionist, who will learn the job and be able to answer people's queries. It is also unreasonable as you are not getting your own work completed and people are having to work extra is nuts too, if that was me and my boss had said I need this by 5pm I was on reception I would be saying if yiu want this by 5pm you need to put someone else on reception. It's a ridiculous way to run a reception. You are right to speak up.