We have a rule that requires any employee who wants to have a third party pick up his or her check to provide said third party with a signed and dated note. You now have all the background you need for this story.
Today is payday. Checks are available for pickup after 11 a.m. The checks are with the receptionist.
Said receptionist knocks on my office door because “Someone is here to pick up George’s check but he doesn’t have a note.”
Me: “Tell him we’re very sorry but we really do need a note from George.”
Receptionist leaves.
Receptionist returns. “He’s upset. He told me to hand him a pen and notepaper and he’d write a note.”
Me: “Tell him we need a note, signed and dated, from George himself.”
Receptionist leaves.
Receptionist returns. “He’s really upset and insists on speaking to you.”
I follow receptionist to speak to the extremely cranky man trying to pick up George’s check. It is, by the way, George.
Was this a new receptionist? They’re the worst, especially when they happen to be complete morons.
Years ago I had resigned from a company. On my last day, we had a new receptionist. I think her name was Ditzy McDitzmeister. That night, all of my friends asked if I just blew off my last day. “No”, I said, “why do you ask?” “Because I called to wish you a happy last day, and the receptionist said you were out all day.” I was in the next room. All day.
But as someone else hinted, isn’t George a bit of a doof for not conveying that he was not a third party, but was indeed the person whose name was on the check? Do other employees not pick up their checks directly from the receptionist? Wouldn’t he say, “Hi, I’m George McDooferson and I’m here to pick up my paycheck”? Or does he have a Jimmy complex?
I was a brand-new clerical type working in an office where I was pretty much on a first name basis with everyone, but didn’t quite have the last names down.
We had two Mikes- I’ll call them Mike Smith and Mike Jones.
One day, Mike Smith came up to me and said, “So, I got home last night, and my wife asked me why I wasn’t at work yesterday. She said she called and asked for me and the gal who answered the phone said I wasn’t here, it was my day off. We almost got into an argument, until I remembered that we had a new receptionist, and she must have gotten me confused with Mike Jones.”
Yep. I remembered having talked to Mike’s wife the day before. It had, in fact, been Mike Jones’s day off. I had attached the wrong last name to the wrong Mike.
I talked to the plant manager about George and he, the PM, said that George had told him the story. According to George, he offered the receptionist his driver’s license but she said that he needed a note. George, fortunately, is laughing about the situation now. Yesterday, I thought his head was going to pop.
The receptionist isn’t new. However, she has recently returned from a sick leave and, apparently, forgot. My attempts to discern exactly what she thought was going on have failed. I’m hiding in my office, whimpering.
