Receptionist Accused of Stealing Parcel

DCFC79

Jerryjerryjerry wrote: »

I also greet visitors, ring their contacts and announce. I answer queries. All phone calls go through me. There are about four different companies who phone each day and I answer with their company name.

I also am a PA to one of the companies upstairs and I organise his diary and arrange all his bookings, sending out all confirmation emails. I would say, in total, I spend about two hours a day working on his stuff - I have to log, in minutes what time is spent there.

I also frank mail. Log who uses what on a spreadsheet. I laminate stuff and log all that for each company.

I give directions and I speak to customers all day long about problems they are having and then pass these problems onto relevant people, ie.. maintenance man, housekeeper, etc. The company I work for also have serviced apartments all over the city and are very busy.

Its not hard work, but I am finding it all a bit hard at the moment. Especially when I am talked down to.

let it go over your head then, dont let it get to you, ive had idiots as managers before who treated the underlings like crap but we didnt let it get to us.

The procedure patman has posted is good, i was thinking more of an excel sheet but in landscape setting,

patman99

No worries, I work on secondment at a company that runs by procedures (being an FDA-compliant company we have no choice). We even have a procedure for creating a procedure!!.

Seriously though, you are entitled to a break of not less than 20 minutes after 6 hours work and after a further 4 hours, you are entitled to another 15 minute break, so you could stop at 12:30 for 20 minutes, then again at 5:00 for a further 15 minutes.

Going back to procedures, if you create one for each task, it makes training new staff easier and if you get any back-chat from anyone renting space in the building over the way you do a specific task, you can show them the relevant procedure as agrred by your boss.

ceebeeby

Jerryjerryjerry wrote: »

Really appreciate your support. Thank you. I am learning to ignore people like that poster. She sounds like the woman whose personal parcel was sent back today.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

You're certainly not aiming for any "Receptionist / Cheeriest Front of House Award 2011" are you!

The more I read your responses, the more I think you're here on a wind-up. Do you not get that your actions were WRONG in sending the womans parcel back. It wasn't HER fault that there was no parcel entry monitoring system - to me that was your responsibility. That you didn't have one is something that you should be accountable for - your boss isn't expected to do everything and you are presumably employed not as an automatom, but someone who can use their initiative - either that or you're in the wrong job.

Question - you've been in the job for four months - did you apply for the front of house job and understand that it was a receptionist position. Did you state on your application that you were unskilled in some aspects and would require training?

Question - Have you at any time in those four months done anything about requesting training for the aspects of your role that you were unsure about - either in terms of company training, or self-training from manuals, or evening course in administration etc.

Question - During the afternoon, spent on a public chat forum (albeit one I like very much ) did it never occur to you that rather than spend the time bemoaning your situation, you might have actually benefitted your employer (who pays you a pittance) in googling for an appropriate procedure / looking up administration techniques etc.

Please don't blame people who respond. You have posted details that show you to be incompetent in your role, lacking ingenuity in resolving issues and dishonest in your use of your employers time and incapable of acknowledging this!

I acknowledge I was harsh, I'm normally a !!!!! cat - but seriously, if you were a staff member of mine, those questions would only be the start of my queries!!!

paddedjohn

Jerryjerryjerry wrote: »

I take a 10-15 minute break at noon. My manager covers for me. I have a loo downstairs next to reception which I rush to when I need to. As it happens, i've never managed to "go" without someone pressing the front door buzzer! lol.

if you work more than 6 hrs at a stretch, the law allows you to have a break of at least 20 minutes which you can take away from your work station.

poet123

I do have to say that it is not rocket science to put these procedures in place. Had I been in your place I would certainly have done so, so I think Ceebeeby does have a point.

pension-newbie

i support the OP - its bad business to leave it to the front line staff to invent the operating process framework (show initiative yes - but fill in a vacuum - com eon)

how can your managemnt exist as a managed facilities operator and not have any managed facilities processes

as for posters being harsh - ignore them - they're probably really !!!!!! people to work for and like their staff to cover for their own inadequacies but take the credit for good ideas

scheming_gypsy

patman99 wrote: »

_____________

Procedures should be saved in a shared folder on the network.

in a building with 14 companies that isn't going to happen. Each company will have their own separate infrastructure

Savvy_Sue

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

in a building with 14 companies that isn't going to happen. Each company will have their own separate infrastructure

I agree, and in any case with this kind of thing it's often more sensible to have an 'Office Manual' or procedures ring binder in a handy place by the front desk, because if you ever fall under a bus (or trip over a recycling box) and are unexpectedly not there, it will be easier to find that way, especially if it takes a while to get a replacement person logged onto the computer.

As to whether or not you should have accepted the parcel, I'm in two minds, and if I were your boss I'd have backed you publicly even if privately I'd told you to accept such parcels in future.

custardy

pension-newbie wrote: »

i support the OP - its bad business to leave it to the front line staff to invent the operating process framework (show initiative yes - but fill in a vacuum - com eon)

how can your managemnt exist as a managed facilities operator and not have any managed facilities processes

as for posters being harsh - ignore them - they're probably really !!!!!! people to work for and like their staff to cover for their own inadequacies but take the credit for good ideas

thing is,it usually takes an incident like this for a procedure to be brought in
there will be 000's of businesses where items are taken in by reception every day with no traceability or accountability

Jerryjerryjerry

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I agree, and in any case with this kind of thing it's often more sensible to have an 'Office Manual' or procedures ring binder in a handy place by the front desk, because if you ever fall under a bus (or trip over a recycling box) and are unexpectedly not there, it will be easier to find that way, especially if it takes a while to get a replacement person logged onto the computer.

As to whether or not you should have accepted the parcel, I'm in two minds, and if I were your boss I'd have backed you publicly even if privately I'd told you to accept such parcels in future.[/QUOTE]

Do you mean any parcel, with any name on it, regardless of whether or not the person still works here, or doesn't work here, just accept it, sign for it, and deal with consequences later?

At the time, I had never heard of the person whose parcel I was being asked to sign for.

Most of the time, I do get people coming downstairs and letting me know there is a parcel for them and to look out for it. I pop a post it note up, so that I can ring that person when parcel arrives.

This parcel was to a totally alien name with just the building address on it.