January 6, 2011

This day was ca-razy. The dentist brought in an additional receptionist, because he felt like I wasn’t doing enough of his side-projects like paying his bills and writing promotional letters. She started the day before, but when I came in Thursday morning she was freaking out. She was threatening to leave as opposed to work for such a demeaning person. I really needed someone else around and begged her to stay. When the dentist showed up, she cornered him in his office and started yelling at him about how he shows no respect and throws way too much work at her. Somehow I got brought in on all this, and after already working almost 40 hours in 3 days, I broke down in tears and told him I couldn’t do it, that I hated the job. He sent me home for a while. When I came back, I demanded paid lunch breaks, time and a half for overtime, to be treated with respect. He agreed to it all. That was when I realized that without me his practice would shut down, that I was running everything. It still hasn’t gotten much better, but at least I’m being compensated appropriately now. After that day me and the other receptionist, Krissy, went to a dive bar (shockingly in the Upper East Side), drank a lot of beer, ate a lot of pizza, and bitched to each other about what hell that place is. It felt great. I am thankful for her random presence in my life. She made me realize that I have to stick up for myself and that I have to find something else, ASAP.