November 14, 2007

The Name Game

So, my new favorite game to play with my co-workers is called the name game. The fun thing about this game is that I am actually the only one aware that we are playing a game. It's great.
There is a good chunk of my day that I am trapped into answering the phones while the usual receptionist and the back up receptionist are out in the warehouse talking bad about people in Spanish so that the English speaking folk can't understand what the junk they are talking about. This is where the game begins.
All sorts of people call for random people here. They call and say, "this is so-and-so with this-and-that may I speak with whats-her-name?" And I'll page whats-her-name and say, "whats-her-name, you have so-and-so on line 2."
For me to properly explain my fun, I'll use what I did today as an example.

Ring Ring
"Thank you for calling Trakk, this is Vonda."
"Hi, Linda," and that's usually where I daydream about strangling myself (or the caller), "could I speak with Bossman please?"
"Actually, Bossman is out to lunch at the moment, may I take a message?"
"Yeah, This is Pamela with HP. Could you have him call me back?"
"Sure thing Pamela."

Then I write on a sticky note:

Terry, Emily from HP called.
Please call her back ASAP.
555-555-5555

Now I wait.

About an hour or so later I hear bossman on the phone:

"Ok, well I have a message right here from an Emily. Are you sure there is no Emily who works there? Ok, well how about you just make an announcement that Bossman from Trakk is on the phone and wants to know who called him."

Ten minutes later Bossman walks around the corner and says, "It's Pamela. Not Emily."

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