Phoning round to follow up an email sent a few weeks ago about a writing workshop project I a involved with, and this meant speaking to about 10 primary school secretaries this morning.
I was very polite, spoke clearly, gave my name and explained what it was in connection with.
They seem to fall into two types.
a) Nice-but-dim. My email rings no bells. Says she will ask someone, goes away from phone, comes back and still doesn't have a clue. Asks you three times what it is about, and has to have your name spelt out to her like a child. Says someone will get back to you. Yeah, right.
b) Little Hitler. Do they go to Bitch Charm School or are they born like this? They couldn't have been less helpful if I had phoned up and invited them to eat their own sick. Sound as if they hate job, kids, etc, and haven't got a clue who my email would have been forwarded to.
Sample conversation:
me: "Well my number is [number]"
dragon: "What's she going to do with that?"
me: "Well, I thought she might be able to give me a call."
dragon: "Isn't that counter-productive to email?"
me: "um, the thing is it's been a few weeks so I thought I'd just follow up with a phone call."
dragon: "It would have been forwarded to the relevant person."
I realise they get lots of stuff through, but it is their bloody job. And it's quite a well-known project so they ought at least to have had an inkling of what I was talking about.