‘I'm just kind of flabbergasted’: Office receptionist pretends to answer calls instead of actually answering them, partaking in fake conversations to look busy

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Aug 9, 2025 7:00 AM EDT

At the office, we've all been in a position where we need to act like we're doing work when we really aren't. Whether we're putting on a show because we have no work on the agenda today or because we're actively avoiding the work we should be doing, pretending to be busy is a universal experience. The office receptionist in this next story shows us that sometimes, faking doing work is more effort than actually doing the work, and putting all of your energy into playing pretend might set you up for failure.

Usually, office employees spend their time playing Tetris and seeing how fast they can type using an online timer. Others, well… They have full-fledged fake conversations. The office receptionist in this story, whose job description includes picking up the office phone, decides to engage in fake conversations with fake people instead of taking real calls. Scroll below to read the full story, and additionally, commenters from Reddit users who are just as confused as the employee who posted this story is.

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  • "I don't understand why someone would do this."
    via EFFYDESK for Unsplash

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "My receptionist is pretending to answer calls and having full-fledged fake conversations."

    Well, the title says it. I don't know if I'm sharing this for your entertainment or looking for advice.
    via PickleDwickle
  • Our phone system is built so that missed calls are automatically responded to with a Ai chatbot which is capable of handling
    via PickleDwickle
  • basic requests. I work in an appointment-based business. We've always struggled with our younger receptionists returning
    via PickleDwickle
  • missed calls (they would rather text or let the bot handle it), so its been a pain point for awhile.
    via PickleDwickle
  • This particular receptionist has been with us 9 months, and about a month ago we lost our 2nd receptionist, so I've been covering during busier times alongside her.
    via PickleDwickle
  • There were a few times where I noticed she would answer and then quickly hang up and was like "theres no one there". Which led
    via PickleDwickle
  • us to investigate our system infrastructure, etc. trying to find the source of these "dropped" calls. It happened frequently
    via PickleDwickle
  • enough that I spent some more time observing and noticed she wasn't pressing "answer" after lifting the receiver. Which ok,
    via PickleDwickle
  • kind of dumb, but with all the recent changes to the phone system I let it slide after pointing it out to her.
    via PickleDwickle
  • w בבל?
    via Julian Hochgesang for Unsplash
  • BUT last week I was on the phone when another call came through. I can see that the 2nd line is ringing, but from my phone I
    via PickleDwickle
  • cannot see once/if its been answered. But I hear her pick up her receiver and proceed through discussing our services etc as if
    via PickleDwickle
  • shes going to be making an appointment for someone. (Keep in mind I'm still mid-conversation with my own client so theres only
    via PickleDwickle
  • so much I can do/observe in the moment) and although she's "answered", the second line continues to ring (which would occur if yet another call came in) and I think to myself "dang our phones are super busy today"
    via PickleDwickle
  • Then I realized, I had experienced that with her multiple times. before. But never thought anything of it because WHYYYY would someone PRETEND to take a phone call. So now I honestly have no idea how long its been going on for.
    via PickleDwickle
  • Fast forward to this morning. Same scenario. I'm on the phone, the 2nd lines ringing, I hear her pick up. 2nd line is still ringing (though this time I made note of the phone number and I know it wasn't a 3rd call coming through)
    via PickleDwickle
  • She proceeds to go through a whole spiel about scheduling an appointment, and of course I'm again stuck on the phone with my client but I lean back to see if I
    via PickleDwickle
  • can see any kind of indication on her phone display that would show that she wasn't actually on a call. She let this "conversation" go on for at least 30 seconds.
    via PickleDwickle
  • "what service were you interested in?" "ok I have a 12:30pm or 2:30pm on Thursday" "Oh you're looking for Friday - ok let me take a look and see what we have".
    via PickleDwickle
  • And its not every call, she takes and returns plenty of real phone calls. She'll even proceed to return the phone call of the
    via PickleDwickle
  • missed call that she pretended to answer! So I'm just kind of flabbergasted and unsure of how to approach it, because I don't understand why someone would do this.
    via PickleDwickle
  • Editing to add that this is not a sales position or any kind of position where she would need to meet quotas. She's literally just handling customer inquiries, booking appointments, cancelling appointments, etc.
    via PickleDwickle
  • Edit #2 - recorded phone calls won't catch this, she's having "conversations" with a dial tone. TL;DR my employee is pretending to answer calls, will audibly engage in a fake conversation and when the fake conversation is over she will then return the actual call.
    via PickleDwickle
  • rodica This is pretty amazing - she's doing so much more work to avoid doing work. Baffling.
    via r0dica

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terrible coworkers workplace-stories toxic-workplace work coworkers reddit story Office entitled people karma workplace reddit thread reception receptionist entitled people toxic-work-environment
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