Do you have a receptionist?

by Catherine Woods - Wednesday, 10th September 2008 - - Business comment

What do we think about companies that don’t have receptionists?

To be honest with you, I don’t like them.

I realised this yesterday when visiting an entrepreneur at a “new meedja, darling” office in town.

For starters, I wasn’t entirely sure where I was going (these new media places aren’t big on signage, apparently). Then I found myself standing, like a bit of an idiot, in a room full of achingly trendy men (with asymmetrical haircuts) and achingly trendy women (with perfect hair, who obviously didn’t look like they’d spent the last 15 minutes trying to find their infinitely cool office in the rain), tap-tap-tapping away at their state-of-the-art computers.

And there I stood. Waiting. Trying to catch someone’s eye. Failing.

Eventually some lovely chap (wearing jeans so low that I could see he wore Calvin Kleins) responded to my plaintive calls for help and took pity on me, directing me to where I needed to go (the next room, obviously).

Anyways, it made me think about the role of the receptionist. And it made me think that they really are important.

Call me old-fashioned but I much prefer waiting in reception (even if it does seem like it’s for time immemorial sometimes) rather than standing, like a bit of an idiot, in the middle of an open plan office, trying to elicit a response from the people in there who obviously have better things to do than tend to a journalist (and I’m not being facetious in saying that).

A good receptionist can make the world of difference to a visitor. And I would suggest they’re a crucial part of any office.

Picture source

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