Our receptionist would like to get away from her desk at lunch time. My position is finance/executive assistant/HR and I have been told to come up with a schedule to relieve her. Since we are a marketing convention & visitors bureau I suggested getting in a volunteer to answer the phones, putting the phones on night service for the 30-60 minutes or having the part-time personnel help. The only acceptable solution I have been told is for me to answer the phones and/or part-time help. We are a small office of 11 employees. What do others in this situation do?
Submitted by: Anonymous
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What the companies I worked for did is all the admins were involved in relieving. We would have a schedule and we knew which days we were to relieve for breaks and lunch. We had 8 admins and it worked out and gave us a break too. If we have something pressing we would switch off with another admin....it really did work out.
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Angela Howell on
2/23/2009 11:40:34 AM
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In many of my administrative support positions (when I was not serving as receptionist myself) part of the job was covering lunch and breaks for the front desk. As a general rule, it's just a matter of coordinating lunch schedules - receptionist Jane goes to lunch from 11:30-12:30 and admin Anne goes to lunch from 12:30-1:30. I like the idea of potentially splitting it between two (or more) people. If you have multiple individuals, you could even consider setting certain days for each one to cover the phones. Good luck!
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Kelly Olsakovsky on
2/13/2009 5:57:51 AM
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Hello Amy. Having 2 people split her relief hour would keep the burden to a minimum for all involved. And rotation would ease it further. I wish you luck.
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Kelly Watkins on
1/23/2009 11:47:19 AM
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Amy
For our receptionist lunch time, the employees that are in the office during that time answers covers while she is out and that also goes for anyone else who is out.
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Juli Durflinger on
1/14/2009 11:02:35 AM
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Is using voice mail for the hour the receptionist is out to lunch not an option? Program her phone with a general message advising the caller to 'leave a name and number for call back at a later time ' or 'press # for the company directory', etc. When the receptionist returns she may have double duty to return or reroute calls. It'll be cheaper to pay the receptionist overtime for say 30 minutes in the evening returning calls, than getting a p/t worker, and this will be less stressful than training a volunteer who may or show up for day 2.
Also, other employees who aren't admins will balk at being forced to cover the phones. They may resent you for forcing them to do a job they don't want to do (receptionists have hard jobs...it's telecom juggling!) and it isn't fair for you to take on that task when the f/t receptionist is out to lunch.
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STEADMOND SMITH on
1/13/2009 1:45:12 PM
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I would not recommend putting the phones on the night service. Having a volunteer, part-time personnel (already working there) or even full-time personnel taking turns or just regularly taking that hour shift is the best solution.
As for your receptionist, I'm sure she needs that hour away from her desk!
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Anonymous on
12/3/2008 1:31:02 PM
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Good afternoon Amy,
I had a similar quandry with my last employer. We had a larger office with several departments. Anyway, all the AA's were required to relieve the receptionist during the 1hr lunch and breaks. My day was Mondays (more Monday holidays), I would do coverage on those days and if I was unable, I would switch days with someone else. The reception area fell under the "Office Mgr Area" along with the mailroom and those individuals were also trained and assigned a day for coverage. During vacations or long periods of sick time, a temp was called in.
Since you have a small office, you could request that everyone is required to have time on phone duty, so they have a better understanding of the job at hand.
For me, after awhile, I enjoyed the time away from my desk. I could bring work with me, read a book, interact with fellow employees or play solitaire.
I hope this helps you!
Heather
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Jamie on
11/25/2008 10:40:37 AM
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