About a year or so ago, my company's phone system changed. We went from having one main number and a series of extensions to each of us having our own direct lines to our desk. This change eliminated the position of receptionist.
Soon after the reception position was axed, we also lost someone in our department.
The vacant desk, however, still remains, as does its dedicated phone line, which people still occasionally call.
This phone still has voicemail set up. The original voicemail greeting – from the since laid-off employee – has been erased, leaving a generic message instead. But the voicemail password is a mystery to all of us. It was originally changed from the former employee's code to some default series of numbers, but this was done by some phone tech guy, and none of us here know the password or even how to get it. (Well, I'm sure we could get it, but that takes work, and we're busy, busy people).
Over the past seven months, I have sat at this desk (it's got a specialized computer/computer program that I need for part of my job) and watched the little voicemail light on the phone blink.
First it was just two new messages, then four. And by the end of the summer, we hit seven.
Over the past two days, that number has reached nine. Nine people trying to call us with, presumably, news.
Now, this could be huge, life-changing news – maybe a meteor landed on the beach, maybe the mayor is having an affair or perhaps the coach of the local sports team just took his Toyota and mowed down a family in a drunken rage.
Then again, it could be a crazy, senile old people calling with "news" which is in fact, nothing. Or it could just be PR/communications people calling to pitch stories that we'll inevitably balk at (sorry, Lanette) because a) they're not that good and b) we don't like being told what to do.
Yep, those messages could be anything.
But I'll never find out because I don't know the password. And I doubt I'll bring it to anybody else's attention, either.
Not until the number reaches 10, at least.
No comments:
Post a Comment