Thank God for vacation. I’m scrambling around packing random things, and cleaning my kitchen so the person watering my plants doesn’t judge the week’s worth of dishes in the sink. I feel like I have never been more ready for a few days off, and a chance to get away to a change of scenery.
Today I finished up ten consecutive days of work, and I am ready for a mental break. Especially after the slight mental hiccup of last night. I was working an event, and I could practically taste my vacation days, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. So there I was in the office making an invoice, sending out e-mail photos to the press, counting bottles of wine, answering brides e-mails, writing notes to my boss about upcoming events while I’m out of town etc. So of course in my multi-tasking mode, I naturally answered the phone when it rang. Why I thought that I needed to answer the phone at 9:00PM I have no idea. Obviously the person calling knew we were not open, and she was expecting to get voicemail, and with all my balls in the air, so to speak, I was not exactly in the best frame of mind to be answering questions.
The woman on the other end started rambling on about how our website says that we are a great spot for photo shoots, and she started asking questions, which were all perfectly reasonable considering that it really does say that on our website. Sadly for this woman, it was at this exact moment that I seemed to lose all normal brain function. I could hear the words she was saying, but was suddenly utterly unable to answer anything she was asking/ really comprehend the conversation. Clearly this is exactly why my boss wants us to have at least two days off a week, so our customer service doesn’t suddenly take a downward spiral…
I was trying really hard to pull it together and answer this woman, give her a quote, a number, anything helpful, and I just sat there and stuttered and stammered, and made a complete ass out of myself. Granted, this is partially my fault, because if it says it on the website, I should be able to quote a price for it, but this was one of those things that we put on there, and of course no one has ever in the history of Red Ridge read that one paragraph on our website, and called us up and asked us to quote a price. No one!
I could hear myself muttering on, and I sort of panicked. I was kicking myself for answering the phone. If she had just left a message I would have picked it up in the morning, and I would have been able to reference the website, think it over rationally, check with my boss, and come up with a reasonable price, and call her back in a professional and timely manner. I would have had time to think and act rationally. Instead, my over-worked, over-multitasked brain just shut off, and so I simply stopped rambling and said the first thing that I could think of that would get me out of the situation quickly. “Well, actually, I’m not the person who does events here, and so I cannot give you a price quote, but I would be happy to talk it over with her, and have her give you a call tomorrow.”
In a moment of sheer mental collapse, the only thing I could think to do was to lie through my teeth. Let me just say that I have been at this job for two-and-a-half years, and I have been the event coordinator for two. Two who years of experience behind me, and yet ten consecutive work days had turned my brain to utter mush! As soon as I got off the phone with her, I sort of chuckled, and then began to worry a little bit. My mental thought was "well that is one way to take care of it!" and then fired off an e-mail to the woman who had put that particular tid-bit on the website, and asked her to please make up for my lack of mental capability, and quote this woman a decent price.
In my defense, had anyone else taken the phone call, almost the exact same thing would have happened (probably minus the stuttering and awkwardness). In general, all event phone calls go through me, even though there is a detailed event pricing guide in the office (but clearly not detailed enough) everyone directs all the event questions to me. Had she spoken with anyone else, they would have essentially told her exactly what I told her… And in a sense the event coordinator really was unavailable in that moment…
Thankfully everyone in my office completely understands where I was coming from. We are all a little frantic this week, and have been putting in a lot of hours, and it seems like we can never quite keep up with all of our projects. I came into work today and told my manager the story, and we both laughed about it until we cried. I still can’t believe that it actually came out of my mouth! Of all the excuses I could have come up with, a simple “I’m not entirely sure of the pricing on that” would have worked, but instead I went to the lengths of denying my position… perhaps I was just desperate to not that the responsibility for a mere moment. Perhaps I was jealous that everyone else on staff gets to use that explanation. Perhaps I need to take more mental health days…
Thankfully my boss thought the situation was pretty funny, and her only comment was “hmmm this is probably a good time for you to go on vacation for a few days!” The manager ended up calling the woman back, ( I was contemplating doing it, but thought it might be awkward if I tried to disguise my voice) and thankfully all ended well. At least we all got a good laugh. You know you have worked too many hours when you flat out lie to customers about what your job is, and your ability to help them. In retrospect I should have just said that I was the night janitor or something.
Thank god for a few days off, filled with camping and beer, and the great out-doors, and no late night business calls.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment