The Halfway Point (Week 5)

This week was my fifth week working here in Dublin. Since my program is 10 weeks long, that means I'm halfway done with my work here. That's pretty insane. In some ways I feel like I'm still just getting the hang of everything. On the other hand, I feel like I've been here in Dublin for months. But either way, there's no turning back now. It's a really strange feeling to describe. But this is what it feels like:

Apparently it's really hard to find a picture of people exactly halfway across a rope bridge.
What ARE you good for, Internet?

This week at work I was trained to do phone reception. We always have at least one person on reception so that if anyone calls in, we're able to tell them where to go or who to contact. It's a really important job that I totally assumed was pretty easy. Damn was I wrong.

How hard is it to be on the receiving end of this all day?

My superiors (read: everyone) wanted me trained on reception in case the regular receptionist was on their lunch break or they were busy or we were short-staffed. Not one to back down from a challenge, I gladly offered my services. I immediately regretted that decision. When someone calls in, you have to:

1. Identify yourself and where you are - oftentimes the person calling is trying to reach someone else.
2. Discover what the person's question is, if they even have one.
3. Figure out if the person calling is within the "catchment area." NCLC only serves people in a certain area of neighborhood. This means that if someone says "I live in Glasnevin," you have to be able to identify whether that's within North-Central or North-East Dublin. If this seems extremely hard, that's because it is.
4. Explain to the caller that they can't set up appointments with the solicitors over the phone, that they have to come into the clinic first. No, you can't... No. You can't set up an appointment right now. You have to... okay they hung up.
5. Once the phone call is over (which will only seem like 3 hours), you have to log ALL the details of the call into the computer under that person's file, or make a new file for that person if they haven't been in before. These people have some sort of fascination with documenting EVERYTHING. I mean, I get that you're a law office, but calm down.

I observed the receptionist do all this stuff effortlessly and then was told "Your turn!" I sat down and, almost immediately, a call came in. I've been getting pretty used to most Dublin accents by now but this was something else entirely. I told told him to hang on a sec, put him on hold, and stared at the receptionist doe-eyed. "I have no idea what he said," I said, basically crying. She picked up the phone, quickly talked with him, and transferred him to the person he was trying to get a hold of. She reassured me that he was hard to understand, but at that point I had pretty much given up.

So I sat at the front desk staring at the phone, daring it to ring. About 10 minutes later someone called who I could actually understand. I took her name and successfully transferred her to the person she was trying to reach. As my coworker picked up his phone and started to talk to her, I performed an epic fist-pump. It's really important to enjoy these little victories.

This is how that call transfer looked in my head.

The rest of the week was pretty normal and went by very fast. I did reception a couple more times with mixed success, but I was proud of myself for stepping up and doing something way outside my comfort zone.