Unprofessionalism Noticed at the Front Desk

There are two employees at the reception.

Raj: "Has ma'am come in yet?"

Anil: "Who are we to worry about that? They are the sahibs; they can come and go at any time."

Raj: "You are absolutely right."

There is another man sitting in that area. That man looks at Anil, who is sitting on a chair behind the desk. Their eyes meet, and Anil breaks eye contact within a second.

"He did not even smile back? Is he not the receptionist?" That man is thinking to himself.

Anil: "I came around 11:30 am today. I was at home and did not even feel like coming. I eventually left at 11 am."

Raj: "Alright. Good for you. You know, I went to the gym today and spent 2 hours there. My left hand is in pain now. I should be going daily to avoid that."

Raj shows the other person his left hand and points to the muscles that are in pain. He leaves without saying anything further and goes towards his desk. The man sitting in the waiting area looks at the employee behind the desk, still wondering.

"Is he the receptionist? There is no smile on the face of this man, and he is not greeting the employees or the visitors. He does not look like he wants to be here."

Anil: "Are you here for an interview?"

Man: "Yes, I came here on Saturday as well."

Anil: "Yeah. The office was open on Saturday."

Man: "Are they working every Saturday or alternatively?"

Anil: "It's their wish when they want to work or not."

Man takes a moment to respond.

Man: "They told me that they work on alternate Saturdays."

Anil doesn't respond and just looks around.

Man: "I did not see you here on Saturday. This space was empty."

Anil does not respond and looks around.

This is a scene from an office I visited recently. There are two things that did not make sense to me from what I observed and overheard.

First, why was this person so critical of the authority of his organization? I am not saying that I haven't seen it before, but it felt unusual maybe because he was old (maybe about 50). I assume that by that age, people should become professional enough to avoid such things at the office. Also, because I have not seen people of that age complain like this. My best guess is that he has been questioned for his recklessness in the past, which he did not like, and now he is openly criticizing the authorities and still coming late. There was also a lack of gratitude in his voice, even though he mentioned that he has been given a bike by the company to come to the office.

"They will say that we have given you the bike, but you are still not coming." That’s why he had to come.

This means that he thinks the company has given him the bike for their own benefit—which is true—but it also makes his life easier.

That also means that he thinks he is entitled to be allotted a bike - and by extension, to other benefits - like coming at his own convenience. But he might have been questioned for the same, which he did not like because someone who thinks they are entitled to something does not like to be questioned about it.

The second thing which did not make sense to me was how he was made to sit at the front because the person did not have any welcoming attitude? He did not greet people, nor did he talk to people politely. Eventually, it became clear that he was not the receptionist but was just made to sit at the desk because there was no other place for him to sit. Maybe the company did not need a receptionist, and the front desk was empty.

Anyway, this caught my attention because this was a case of someone being put in a position they are not suited for and are not adaptable enough to behave properly.

Another reason I spent time thinking about this was that the person's attitude was possibly giving other employees a chance to complain openly, which creates a negative atmosphere at the company. And nobody wants that.

To summarize, there are 3 problems that I observed here:

1. Criticizing the seniors openly - the criticism is important but it should not be happening at the front desk.
2. Employees are entitled to certain benefits but rules are rules. If you are supposed to be in the office at 10 am, you have to be there. Of course there are times when you can’t make it and that flexibility should be given to the employees. But if you come late for no particular reason and make remarks like that, then you have not been able to come out of our non-conformist teenage phase yet.
3. If you are at the office, learn to maintain the professional decorum. This is not your house or the chai shop around the corner of your street where you can sit and make critical remarks about the government (or the authorities).?

Professional spaces are supposed to be professional. Lastly, there is a possibility that there is no setup in the organization at this point to check and correct these behaviors. The upper management is not able to find out or not being made aware of this or they don’t find this to be an important issue at this point.?

PS: thanks for reading the post. Kindly share this with others who might be interested to read this as well. Until next time....