Message #74986

[deskangel]

Thanks for your suggestions!

I really love the idea about posting signs, but I've thought of it before and the management will not allow this - even if they are very nice signs. :/

But your thoughts on being assertive and having certain scripts to say are very helpful. I do believe you're correct about my being female is a cause for the lask of respect. When one of my male supervisors are with me behind the desk, I have very few problems, but when it's just me and the other female desk worker, ugh...

Our security doesn't seem as tight as yours, as visitors are welcome to bring in phones, cameras, etc. Since our tenants are all sorts of different companies, some of them even have their own separate security procedures once the visitors reach their suite.

One of the major problems I have is when people talk loudly on their cell phones right in front the desk, even when they are not in the process of being checked in. This prevents me from being able to check in other visitors or focus on whatever part of checking in someone I'm doing, and visitors cannot hear my voice or understand my directions. There is an area just to my left that people are welcome to use to work/chat on cell phones, but sometimes they insist on doing it right in front of me!

Yesterday I had to (politely, but increasingly loudly) ask a young woman who was on the phone right in front of me at my desk, facing me, making dinner reservations, to please move away from my desk to that area. She came back later and told me that it was "not good for me to speak to people while they are on the phone." When I told her she should not have been on the phone right there, she immediately wanted to speak to my supervisor and asked for my name! I directed her to my management, and she spoke to my security supervisor (he laughed it off).

I know I should not have retorted the way I did, but her standing and talking there does, in my view, pose a security threat, especially since the tenant she was trying to visit had not given her authorization to check in.

Any help would be appreciated for these types of situations from anyone else, thanks!