11 Struggles Of Being The Office Receptionist

When you work in an office and very little is expected of you - the struggle is real.

1. Your training was irksome.

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"Yes, I know how to login to a computer."

"Yes, I can load a new ink cartridge into the printer."

"Yes, I am aware that the office phone operates differently than a cell phone."

You went to college. You have a degree. You don't need an entire day dedicated to teaching you how to transfer phone calls and work the fax machine...

2. Keeping everyone caffeinated is your #1 priority.

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Maybe it's just a simple 1 pot coffee machine. Maybe it's a gigantic, technologically advanced, latte extravaganza. Either way, if it's not working - you're in trouble.

3. Silence is a virtue.

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Everyone is engrossed in their work, headphones in, and they do NOT want any distractions. Typing too loud? You'll hear an office door slam. Unexpected sneezing fit? Same response. It's nearly impossible to be as inaudible as they'd like, but you do your best, right?

4. Office supplies are your responsibility.

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Ordering office supplies and snacks are usually the responsibility of the receptionist. This gets tricky when no one speaks up to let you know that they really hate that new creamer you ordered last month, so you just keep ordering it until you catch someone making the "this is terrible" face and you have to re-evaluate everything you thought you knew.

This task becomes additionally difficult if you work for people that have a very specific taste in office supplies:

"I only use 8" x 5" note pads. Those 8.5" x 11" ones won't do".

Ugh...pleaseee...

5. Your days seem impossibly long.

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You probably get there at 8 or 9 in the morning, and you're there until 5pm.

8 or 9 hours is basically 10 seconds in weekend-time, but it's about 78 years in office-time.

The time between when you get there until lunch is spent solely debating with yourself on what you should do for lunch.

Then you get back from lunch and you try as hard as you can to NOT stare at the clock, trying to will time to move faster, pleaseeeee. This event is made much more miserable if it's a Friday afternoon and you already have Friday night plans.

6. Your biggest task for the day took you 15 minutes.

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YAY! Someone called your phone and asked you to come to their desk; they need you to do something for them. You're super stoked because you're actually going to have something to do! Then you find out they just need you to put a stamp on something, or fill in a little spread sheet.

You're finished with the task in under 15 minutes and you're back to staring at the clock again. Awesome....

7. Lunch is the highlight of your day.

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And that is kinda sad. Mostly because you have to go to lunch early by yourself. Everyone else takes their lunch at noon, but if you left with them, who'd be there to answer the phones? No one. So, you lunch at 11 am alone. Although this may sound miserable, it's not that bad. You're your favorite lunch date anyway, right?

If you were smart, you'd pack your lunch instead of spending money on some overpriced lunch place in the city, but even if you did, you'd have talked yourself into eating pizza down the road, anyways. You've been thinking about it since 8 am and you've got to get out of the office and into some fresh air!

8. Answering the phone is your MAIN duty.

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Easy enough. You've been talking on the phone since you could talk. The problem is, you've been staring at that computer screen for what feels like a million hours and you're totally zoned out and THEN the phone rings. You habitually pick up, but you're totally zoned out, so your greeting usually comes out a little confused sounding.

"Good afternoon! How can I direct your call?" at 9:37 am...

9. The people in your office don't want to take the calls anyways.

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"I don't really want to talk to him."

"Eh...I'm kinda busy..."

"NOT taking that call."

But the person that called is still on hold and you're stuck making up some kind of excuse for your coworkers:

"They are currently unavailable right now, would you like me to put you through to their voicemail? No. They can't take your call right now. I understand that it is very important...."

10. You'll make up any excuse to get up out of your desk chair.

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You've been sitting at that computer for what feels like a billion years. Your arms are stuck in t-rex form because you've been messaging people all day, your posture has gone to shit and you're not even sure if your legs work anymore.

BUT JUST THEN, someone comes around the corner with an empty cardboard box and you shoot out of your desk chair:

"I'll take that to the dumpster for you!" They think you're being helpful or sweet, but really you'd do just about anything to get up and out of the office, even if it's just for a second.

11. Buzzfeed isn't even posting enough articles to keep you occupied.

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And they post A BILLION articles all day, every day. You're still hitting refresh every few minutes, waiting on new articles to publish.

How could you even make it through the day without Buzzfeed constantly providing you with information to distract you from your monotonous day? You wouldn't.

Thank you, Buzzfeed!