RW, installment 3

I overheard this conversation earlier:

Coworker A: Where is R? Is she still the receptionist?
Boss: Yes she is. Why do you ask?
A: She’s not at her desk. She’s not answering the phones.
Boss: That’s because she’s filing.
A: No she hasn’t gone near the filing all day. And she’s never at her desk. We have a lot of orders to enter and it’s real hard for us all to do that when we have to keep stopping to answer the phone. And if we don’t enter the orders then nobody gets paid.
Boss: Well she has a lot of work to do.
A: Isn’t her job to answer the phone? Isn’t that why we have a receptionist? (President of the company) will get mad if I’m not doing my job, and when he does, I’ll tell him that it’s because I’m doing R’s job too!
Boss: Ok, I’ll talk to her.
A: It’s just annoying!

** Let me explain something here. A has been with the company since its inception. She has seniority. She and President are friends because they’ve worked together for so long (not the other way around). In short, she is important. Normally she is very complacent, so when she complains about something, you’d damn well better listen.

Later, I ask R if she has something I need on her desk. Her response:

R: No I don’t have it. I have to go get it from the shop, but I can’t because Boss told me to stay at my desk all day. I guess “they” were complaining about me because (in a mocking voice) “it’s too hard for them to answer all the little phones.”
Me: Well, the order entry people and the CSRs have a lot of work to do that they can’t do while on the phone.
R: So do I! (points to the to-be-filed pile.)

At that point I just walked away because I don’t want to have an office screaming match right now. But later I mentioned to A that I agreed with her, even though I don’t answer the phone myself. And it is sooo good to know that someone finally stood up to Boss about the non-working of the receptionist. (Seniority is key here.)