I'm sure you're right. When I trained new hires the first thing, always be nice to the drivers. We interact with them 5 days a week and they are also doing a job, they don't work for you. My UPS driver actually helped locate my missing wedding dress that got lost in shipment. This lady sounds like a PITA.
Plus I have never encountered a rude UPS or FedEx guy. They always say things brightly!
We had one for a while that wasn't very nice. She wouldn't greet anyone or respond to hellos. She'd sneak in to get the packages. It was unlike any experience we've had with other drivers.
My theory? The nice receptionist is dying DYING for you to say something about this woman to the higher ups. She probably hates her as much as you do. Do it for the nice receptionist!
This girl is jealous of you Farmer. Clear and simple. She also has an issue with being your subordinate and by "knowing more" about shipping she felt superior for one fucking millisecond. Same thing with the bagels. She has a complex and needs to be called out.
Also, Fed Ex and Fed Ex Ground ARE two separate things yes, but she should have arranged a pick up for you the second that box landed on her desk. Because ya know.....that's her fucking job.
Thank you. I am so glad you addressed this. When I was the general office Admin, I would drive Fedex ground boxes to Fedex myself.
Admin, too. I had no clue that 'ground' was different. It's a lot cheaper! I tried using it once when we were shipping some big/heavy boxes to a meeting ahead of us. NEWP. Did not know you had to schedule ground or take it to a facility. We scrapped that idea to just send stuff 2-day. But live and learn! The mail room knew what ground meant but none of the rest of us knew that!
Nope, no basic skills taught to me. Just the law....which is why I don't have to sit where you are, taking care of shipping boxes for $10.00 an hour
This is really unnecessary, rude, hurtful, harmful, and foolish.
A little anecdote re the harmful and foolish part:
I used to work with a horrible partner who came over with a group with a lot of business. Our department was slow, and they were perceived as our saviors. This woman was so awful to me and every single person below her, from her own assistant to the receptionist to the guys in the copy room.
Fast-forward to several years later, I have gone in-house to a large corporation. One of my good friends here who is a few years my junior turns out to be this horrible partner's assistant from her previous firm! My friend went to law school and became a lawyer after being her legal assistant.
Needless to say, when the horrible partner came knocking on our door to get our business, we slammed the door in her face and cackled. Ok, that didn't actually happen, but it did figuratively.
Moreover, another former colleague of mine called me a few months ago to ask my opinion on the horrible partner because she was interviewing for a job at his firm. After he spoke with me, he canceled the next round of interviews entirely.
Never be unjustifiably unkind to people. There are plenty of people who deserve spit in their face; I say go ahead and spit when necessary. But don't be an asshole to innocents.
She's the receptionist...it's her job to get packages mailed out. If she was unsure about what type of FedEx service you wanted, she should have contacted you. I worked as a receptionist, I encountered this a lot. You don't just ignore the package all together, there could have been time sensitive material in there.
I'm not sure on reporting her. What would that accomplish, exactly? It seems like it is a problem directly between you and her. You already said you don't want her fired, so, again, what is the point of reporting versus directly handling the situation?
You report petty bitches through proper, documented channels. To confront a petty bitch is to validate her petty existence. These are people who earnestly believe they have haters, and say things like, "people either love me or hate me." They're only to be engaged by the most basic of individuals. Or HR I suppose.
Or worse, "you hate me because you ain't me" and "haters keep me going. If you don't have haters, you aren't doing it right."
(Sadly, these are people from my HS posting this on FB. Sigh)
You report petty bitches through proper, documented channels. To confront a petty bitch is to validate her petty existence. These are people who earnestly believe they have haters, and say things like, "people either love me or hate me." They're only to be engaged by the most basic of individuals. Or HR I suppose.
Or worse, "you hate me because you ain't me" and "haters keep me going. If you don't have haters, you aren't doing it right."
(Sadly, these are people from my HS posting this on FB. Sigh)
"Keepin the page public so my haters know where to find me. You're welcome, stalkers."
Nope, no basic skills taught to me. Just the law....which is why I don't have to sit where you are, taking care of shipping boxes for $10.00 an hour
This is really unnecessary, rude, hurtful, harmful, and foolish.
A little anecdote re the harmful and foolish part:
I used to work with a horrible partner who came over with a group with a lot of business. Our department was slow, and they were perceived as our saviors. This woman was so awful to me and every single person below her, from her own assistant to the receptionist to the guys in the copy room.
Fast-forward to several years later, I have gone in-house to a large corporation. One of my good friends here who is a few years my junior turns out to be this horrible partner's assistant from her previous firm! My friend went to law school and became a lawyer after being her legal assistant.
Needless to say, when the horrible partner came knocking on our door to get our business, we slammed the door in her face and cackled. Ok, that didn't actually happen, but it did figuratively.
Moreover, another former colleague of mine called me a few months ago to ask my opinion on the horrible partner because she was interviewing for a job at his firm. After he spoke with me, he canceled the next round of interviews entirely.
Never be unjustifiably unkind to people. There are plenty of people who deserve spit in their face; I say go ahead and spit when necessary. But don't be an asshole to innocents.
Nope, no basic skills taught to me. Just the law....which is why I don't have to sit where you are, taking care of shipping boxes for $10.00 an hour
Wow, what an asshole thing to say. I'm a receptionist and administrative assistant (and I make much more than $10/hour, thank you very much).
I know for a fact that the attorneys couldn't do a lot of the crap we handle on a daily basis and the office would be in total disarray. So please, respect your staff.
Nope, no basic skills taught to me. Just the law....which is why I don't have to sit where you are, taking care of shipping boxes for $10.00 an hour
Yep, shipping boxes, formatting pleadings so they don't get kicked back, making sure all parties get served properly, e-filing, keeping track of your schedules, managing your files, hanging on to your credit card numbers and identifying information, paying your dues invoices, making sure you're CLE-compliant so you keep your bar license, fielding your calls and e-mails, and generally making sure that your job gets done correctly after you've done the "important" stuff and just handed it all to us in a mess to sort out. Just little ol' worthless admins. How ever do we live with our shame?
Okay...funny things not taught in law school time. So let's all laugh at what is taught at paralegal and receptionist schools vs. law school.
Former boss, that I love dearly and has brilliantly practiced law for thirty years, was part of a "firm divorce" when I was new to the firm. Our half moved and the other half stayed in the old office. We purchased new set of the Ohio Revised Code for our shelves (hey, gotta fill them up even if you use Lexis or Westlaw for everything) in the new space. He was putting them on the shelf when he noticed that there was an oddity and we were missing about half the books...all the even numbers. So he calls Thompson Publishing in a huff wondering where the books were. The gal on the other end of the line was "You've been practicing how long? Thirty years? And you never noticed that the O.R.C. is odd only and there are no even numbers in the Code?" Cue him to extreme embarrassment and wanting to see how many other attorneys in the office would get caught in the same trap. Every single one of them did the same thing.
So, because I'm his work wife and he loves me, he tries to pull the same trick on me. "Hey, come here. What's wrong here? Where are all the even numbers?" (or something along those lines.) I looked at him and laughingly said "David, there ARE no even numbers in the Ohio Revised Code. It doesn't look like you're missing any." He looked at me in amazement and asked "How did you KNOW that?" I told him "It's one of the first things they taught in my Legal Research class. So the lawyers wouldn't try to pull a fast one on us or send us out on a Snipe hunt."
And yes, I learned about FedEx Ground and FedEx Express. As a receptionist. By the other receptionist who trained me or by the FedEx guy, I don't remember which. I certainly would expect the attorneys would have better things to be doing than learning which label is for what purpose because you know what? That's in MY job description. (Or rather it WAS back when I was doing that stuff.) It's something they shouldn't ever have to think about if they have a secretary or receptionist to do that type of thinking for them. They think about the law and argument, we think about formatting and getting it filed and served.
(And, for Susan's benefit, I made more than $10/hour even ten-plus years ago. Shoot, I started at $9 in a small firm twenty years ago. Don't ever look down on the receptionist or the secretary. They're the gatekeepers to the folks behind the doors.)
That's completely unacceptable. She needs to be reprimanded or fired. Please report her.
I can’t stomach that thought.
I think I might write her an email or a note asking what I did wrong to her. I’m such a fucking pansy I know.
I wouldn't do that if I were you. I'd keep things off the paper trail, personally. Can you start small with bringing in some cookies or something because "you guise are great!" If I were going to take the direct route (which I wouldn't, I would totally either avoid or brownnose) I'd ask in person. Maybe use the fedex ground debacle as a jumping off point. "Thanks so much for handling that for me. I had no idea about ground vs express, Blah blah blah." End with something that validates her.
Plus, this, which I just saw later in the thread tells me she really just wants some validation: Oct 23, 2014 11:46:40 GMT -4 farmvillelover said:
I think this stems from the bagel incident.
....
I said “melinda used to save it for me every week.” She said “it’s first come, first serve, every week.”
I might have rolled my eyes and got a little huffy.
Post by tacoflavoredkisses on Oct 23, 2014 18:55:56 GMT -5
Farmer, you didn't start a class war. That fucker @susan3589 did.
Susan, go fuck yourself. I may not have a law degree but I work for attorneys. I am fortunate to make more than $10/hour, but I don't need a law degree to be a hell of a lot better at getting shit done than half of the people, lawyers or not, in my office.
Farmer. I'm sorry she's a dick. Please tell her supervisor. Sometimes attorneys complaining helps fix these problems.
First of all, there is no way that she should be disrespectful to you Bagel Incident or not. What she did was rude and unprofessional. Honestly she sounds like she's insecure and jealous of you.
I'm really liking Miso's advice. Document this incident and any future incidents and be nice to her face from now on. If she was just being a bitch over the Bagel Incident (lol) she will get over it and react positively to you playing nice. If she's just a miserable hag and keeps up her act nail her ass to the wall.
I think this stems from the bagel incident. The other month I was PMSing really hard and really EMO about there being no more pumpernickel bagels left. I asked if she’d save it for me next time. She said “it’s bagels. It’s first come, first serve.”
I said “melinda used to save it for me every week.” She said “it’s first come, first serve, every week.”
I might have rolled my eyes and got a little huffy.
"Actually, it's not. I ask you to save me one then IT'S YOUR JOB TO SAVE ME ONE." I mean, I probably wouldn't say that, but that should have been her reaction. You're her boss. If she doesn't like it she needs to find a new job.
It sounds like she doesn't like women. The other attys you work with are men, right?