Screening Calls

[Jackie G]

Ok, cool down everyone or I will lock this thread, and this is not the way to start the New Year !!

I think these photos are generic and while they could maybe do with a refresh, they are what they are.  Think about what every photograph illustrating an 'office' story uses, whether in a newspaper, magazine, website, and you will find someone behind a desk, often at a PC, or using the phone.  Stereotyping too!  Nuff said.

Oh, and I wear contact lenses, and occasionally my specs, so I am another visually challenged secretary!

And I have a boss who will not answer his own phone, so I screen all his calls, but not his visitors, unless a member of staff tries to knock on the closed door (it's usually open) and interrupt when I know it's a confidential meeting or some such.

[Atlanta Z3]

My boss and I had an agreement if she didn't answer the call by the third ring I would pick up and try to handle.  Of course there were times when she asked me to answer her phone to get a project completed and then times when I would get a shout out let it go to voice mail!  I sit outside her office (and wear glasses) so I know if she is in.  In my previous company no calls went to the directors or above unless they were screened, very few people had their direct numbers.  I think as someone else mentioned once managers reach a certain level there is a prestige factor in having calls screened however, that doesn't always relate to not taking or avoiding callers.  I found the article to be simplistic as this is basic training for an admin and usually a first day conversation with a boss. 

[gee4]

But it's not typical in companies where I have worked (and work now) where the set up is open plan across all buildings.

Times have changed, we have moved on from that kind of set up.  My company don't receive cold calls as most senior managers or directors take calls on their mobiles because they have given out their number and are easily contactable.  Our work doesn't come from cold calling.

It might be basic training if that's how companies operated in the past, but it's not typical nowadays.

[StephanieP]

I think it's still quite standard for assistants to answer phones for their boss.  I am not doing it in my current role, but in my prior position at the same company, I was asked to do it and did not consider it to be an archaic request.  The corporate switchboard actually transfers anyone who asks to speak to my boss to me (with the understanding that most people she'd really want to speak to would have her direct number,) and in most cases I'm able to resolve the reason for the other person's call so my boss doesn't have to.

I wouldn't consider the photo associated with the article to be stereotypical either - it just looks like a woman in an office to me.  Not necessarily the way I'd dress, but I do see some of my colleagues with their hair up, and we do often wear suits, so it's not unheard of.

I look at the article as a tool that might be useful to an entry-level person who might have limited experience with screening calls.  I don't expect everything I see professional websites to directly apply to my environment.

[forfrom]

I sit in my own office directly outside my bosses office and screen his calls.  Some of his senior reports have his DDI or his mobile but most people call me to ascertain his availability.  Plus we are deluged with cold callers asking to speak to the most senior director so I act as gatekeeper. I can't think of a worse waste of my bosses time than field the cold callers I have to deal with, particularly those who think the CEO of a multi million pound company would be responsible for mobile phone contracts.

[gee4]

The corporate switchboard actually transfers anyone who asks to speak to my boss...

We don't have a switchboard.