An Eventful Day

Yes, you read that right. An eventful day? On a Monday? At work? Am I really having a semi-entertaining day at my perpetually dull receptionist job?! Expect the unexpected, my friends! OK, surely it isn’t that crazy if I have time to write an entire blog post start to finish and revise it three times, but by my new standards of eventful, today has been off the charts.

Today is my first day on a different floor since the woman I was covering for the last two months is back from vacation. This means I am in unfamiliar territory, which already makes my day a little more exciting, and I have all new clients to deal with. I even get to answer phones here! Maybe “get” isn’t exactly the right word since the sound of a phone ringing is more anxiety-inducing than thrilling for me, but it’s something new to do nonetheless. Even more entertaining than answering the phone is the impressively disorganized lawyer on this floor who has kept me amused for nearly five hours now with his amazing inability to conduct interviews in a timely or professional manner. He has had about six women come in to interview to be his assistant today–which, I might add, he clearly is in desperate need of–all of which have overlapped with one another in some capacity. I’m not lying when I say he even forgot about one candidate who was waiting in a different meeting room since he took too long with his first interviewee. He forgot about her. I can’t make this stuff up.

At one point, there were three women here all to interview for the same position. THREE! It was awkward, to say the least. Meanwhile, I’m right in the middle watching it all unfold, feeling like Pam from The Office in one of those classic scenes you can find in any given episode where Michael is making a fool of himself as Pam looks on from the front desk trying not to lose her composure. With one applicant still in the meeting room and two waiting in the lobby, he proposes that they will make it work by turning it into a group interview instead. What a fabulous idea! I have never felt so grateful to be me in my whole entire life. Group interviews sound like my worst nightmare; interviews are terrifying enough as is, let alone having your competition right there beside you as you try to bullshit your way ahead of them without coming off as a total a-hole or saying something super dumb and embarrassing. No, thank you! Even worse, this was just sprung on them at the last minute! If I’m going to be forced into a group interview, I at least need to know a week in advance so I can let my anxiety take over my life until I almost die of dread and anticipation. Seriously though, showing up to what you think is a regular interview and finding out right before you go in that some other applicants will also be in the room judging you once you’re already there and it’s too late to back out would be an almost traumatic experience. So I am not exaggerating when I say I was over the moon that I was just the measly receptionist observing the situation and not one of the poor candidates thrust unwillingly into an on-the-spot group interview.

Aside from dealing with the cringe-worthy but amusing behaviour this mess of a lawyer provided me with today, my new responsibilities on this floor also include collecting the mail from the mail room downstairs and delivering it to the three floors leased by the company I work for. While this certainly isn’t a challenging task, it does mean that I get to leave my floor for a solid five minutes and take in some new scenery. It is spectacular! If there’s anything this job has taught me, it’s to appreciate the little things. Who knew fetching mail could be so exhilarating? Anyone with a life would think that is the most mundane and unremarkable activity of all, but for someone who has become accustomed to doing absolutely nothing all day, it is truly a treat! I am thrilled about my new responsibility. Especially because there is essentially no way I could mess it up, so it’s purely a fun excursion out into the world with minimal risk of causing any damage or getting yelled at. Yay for quasi-responsibilities! I am thriving, at last!

The last bit of excitement I will gush about is my new lunch hour. (In case it wasn’t quite apparent before how monotonous this job is, I think my enthusiasm over mail delivery and a changed lunch hour says it all.) Previously, I was always relieved for lunch at 11:00, which is early and meant that the last five hours of my day dragged on for eons. Thirty minutes makes a world of difference in cases like these, and my new 11:30-12:00 lunch break makes the last four and a half hours feel significantly less tedious. Oh, and I get to return to my old floor at 11:00 to let the receptionist go for her lunch, which just means another expedition away from my floor! Really guys, this is exciting stuff. I know it’s mostly sad that this minimal level of eventfulness brings me this much joy, but after two months of routine boredom, it sure feels good to shake things up a little. I also realize it is sad that picking up mail and covering lunch on a different floor is considered “shaking things up,” but these are the small excitements of my life right now and I am cherishing them with every ounce of my being.

So that’s it for my first day on the 28th floor. I would mention that the view from up here is incredible, but I don’t get to see it in my window-less world, so unfortunately I don’t have much to be excited about on that front. I snagged a peek when I got a quick tour last week and man is it ever spectacular, but those views are reserved strictly for people with real jobs who pay real money to work here and not for silly receptionists like me. But it’s okay, I’ll stick to being happy over mail pickups and slightly later lunch hours.

Happy Monday, y’all! May everyone’s week ahead be as eventful and thrilling as my day today. Wouldn’t that just be a treat?!

Tal