I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

Remember Nancy from yesterday.

There were three messages from her today when I got to work. Generic messages. Please call Nancy Smith at 555.555.5555.

I add the message to my list.

Of course when I called her back she didn’t answer and I left my standard no detail voice mail.

This is Jeff calling from the restaurant; you can reach us back at 555.555.5555.

She continued to call back throughout the afternoon, but I had a million and two calls to return and didn’t answer.

When I was finally through all the messages, I check the machine, record all the new messages and start over.

Nancy’s message this afternoon was: Hi this is Nancy, I’m trying to make a reservation for tonight can someone call me back?

I knew what she was up to, but maybe I was wrong.

I return the messages as they are written down.

I get to Nancy. I dial, she answers, and I say, hi this is Jeff, I’m calling from the restaurant. You needed to make a reservation for tonight, and she said, OH. NO. NOT TONIGHT. I JUST SAID THAT SO YOU’D CALL ME BACK TODAY.

And wouldn’t you know, before I could say a word the call dropped. And it wasn’t even my fault.

And I didn’t answer a single call from her the rest of the day.

And I’m not sure I’ll answer the calls she makes tomorrow.

And while we are on the subject of phone calls.

I had about six messages from John looking for a reservation for tonight.

He was my first call today.

I dial, he answers and I say, Hi this is Jeff calling from the restaurant, and he says, well that took long enough. I say, you wanted a reservation for tonight. He is angry and says something to the effect that if I can’t return calls in a more timely fashion then blah, blah, blah. I breathe and think about my server from Wednesday and say, sir I had 87 phone calls to return and I’m getting to them as fast as I can.

He replies and says, that sounds like your problem not mine.

He says, we’ve found some place else to eat.

I say that I’m glad that he’s found a place to eat that’s not at my restaurant.

I’m not sure he caught the implication. And I remember that I didn’t deny it when I said to my server, yes, sometime I am rude and arrogant.

He grunts and I hang up.

The first fucking call of the day.

My 2nd call was to Adam just to get a verbal hug.

Then I turned back to my list and made call number 3.