"He stepped out of the office for a few minutes, is there something I can help you with?"
One day at work, I was chatting with my loquacious boss. He was telling me about things he looks for during interviews as he was in the process of hiring a new part-timer.
"Yeah, I have a series of questions, but there's really one main answer I'm interested in", he said. He continued, "You got it correct".
So I'm sitting there trying to remember his interview questions when he reveals, "It's where I ask what you would say if a patron comes in and asks to speak with the director".
I'd said that I would first ask if there was something I could help them with and take it from there. So when I took a phone call yesterday, and the caller asked for my boss by name (strange since Boss has his own phone line), I told the caller that he'd stepped out (true, Boss was in the bathroom), and asked if I could help.
The man on the phone asked why his son was unable to take his test with us. I won't bore with the details, but these tests are highly secure, and names on registrations for test takers must exactly match their identifying documents or we can't launch their exams. As a testing center, we don't register people for tests, we just administer tests after they register and then make an appointment with us. The man on the phone thought that making the appointment with us secured his son's ability to take the test.
The guy was registered in his mother's name. Apparently his mom registered for him and mistakenly? oddly? helicopterly? submitted her name. Their names weren't even close - different last names even.
We advised him to contact the testing board to correct the name, and we would go from there. I'll mention that the would-be tester is college age, and that registration instructions explicitly state the name requirements.
So the dad was calling to figure out what happened and what his son needed to do. Reasonable enough. The disturbing part of the phone call, for me, was that I could hear a woman on an absolute RANT in the background. Omigosh.
Screaming over and over, "HE NEEDS TO TAKE THE TEST TO-DAY!"..."HE NEEDS TO TAKE THE TEST TO-DAY!"..."HE NEEDS TO TAKE THE TEST TO-DAY!"... at the seeming top of her lungs.
Since this was a phone call, I couldn't see the woman's body language, but dang. I seriously thought she was in need of fast-working medication. Seriously.
To his credit, the man I was speaking with was relatively calm about the whole thing. And to the woman's credit, I don't recall any swearing on her part, but dang.
After briefly explaining the situation, I did take the message for Boss, and Boss called the man back a few minutes later explaining the same thing. This went down mid-morning, and we'd not heard back nor seen the kid again by the time I left in the afternoon.
Crap like this happens once in a while, although I've not ever seen someone registered in their mother's name try to take a test. But minor misspellings, lost or expired IDs, etc. happen and are cleared up with relative ease.
Her ranting in the background of that phone call was replaying in my head the rest of the day. I am/was a bit concerned for her and for the son, who seemed like a nice enough kid.
- Why did she fill out the registration in her name?
- Was she, in fact, losing it?
- Why was the man so calm, like this is typical behavior?
- Why didn't the kid come back?
Well, I hope everyone's okay. He needs to take his test today? Today is now yesterday.
