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There&039;s a girl who sits on the other side of the office called Jennifer Reynolds I don&039;t know her very well I don&039;t have much to do with her from day to day In fact I&039;ve only spoken to her a handful of times since I was transferred into the PFP She&039;s not here today and I hate it when she&039;s out When Jennifer Reynolds isn&039;t here her duties get shared out between the rest of us, and the job I have to cover today is the worst job of all - Reception The postal address of the PFP isn&039;t actively broadcast but it&039;s on some of the correspondence we send out and it&039;s in the phone book and it doesn&039;t take et a lot of visitors, too many in my opinion If someone comes here it&039;s almost always because they&039;ve been fined or claet the fine overturned or the claue their case in person is often the only option they have left So those people who do turn up here are likely to already be seriously pissed off Shouting, screa behaviour isn&039;t unusual The first place these people reach is Reception, and the first person they get to scream at, shout at or threaten is the poor sod sat behind the desk

So here I a at the tatty bronzed-glass entrance door, watching anxiously for any visitors I hate this It&039;s like sitting in a dentist&039;s waiting roo the clock on the wall It&039;s hung just above a large notice board covered with unread and unhelpful council posters and notices Just to the left of the notice board, equally unread and unhelpful, is a s or attacking council staff The fact that it&039;s there doesn&039;t make me feel any safer There&039;s a personal attack alarm stuck under the desk but that doesn&039;t make me feel any better either

It&039;s four thirty-eight Twenty-two o then I&039;m finished for the day

I&039;for Jennifer Being out on Reception is a for any paperwork out here with you (so confidential data) and the lack of any distractionspainfully slowly So far this afternoon I&039;ve only had to deal with two phone calls, and they were just personal calls for members of staff

Four thirty-nine

Come on clock, speed up

Four fifty-four

Al the clock all the ti the hands to et out of here I&039; my escape from the office in rab my coat from the cloakrooet away quickly enough I et me back hoain I hate the way it rings It grates like an off-key alarh ht be waiting for me at the other end of the line

&039;Good afternoon, PFP, Danny McCoyne speaking,&039; I mumble quickly I&039;ve learnt to answer the phone quietly and at speed It makes it difficult for the caller to take your name

&039;Can I speak to Mr Fitzpatrick in Payroll please?&039; a heavily accented female voice asks Thank God for that - this isn&039;t a screanuet a few calls for Payroll most days Their extensions are si about it Anyway I&039; I want is a problem at four fifty-five

&039;You&039;ve co department,&039; I explain &039;You&039;ve dialled 2300 instead of 3200 I&039;ll try and transfer you If you get cut-off just dial 1000 and that&039;ll take you through to the e&039;

I&039;m suddenly distracted and my voice trails away as the front door flies open I instinctivelyto put as much distance as possible betweeninto the building I finish the phone call and allow htly when I see the front wheels of a child&039;s pushchair being forced through the door The pushchair is jaet up to help A short, rain-soaked woreen and purple anorak enters Reception As well as the child in the pushchair (which is hidden from view by a heavy plastic rain-cover) two led family stand in the rubby marble-effect floor The woman seems harassed and is pre-occupied with her kids She snaps at the tallest child, telling him that &039;Muet you back ho to eat&039;

She takes off her hood and I can see that she&039;s in her late thirties or early forties She&039;s plain looking and her large, round, rain-splashed glasses are stea up Her face is flushed red and there are dribbles of rainwater dripping off the end of her nose She doesn&039;tdown on the desk and begins searching through it She stops for ato steam up with condensation) and checks on her baby who see She returns her attention to the contents of her handbag and I make my way back around to the other side of the counter

&039;Can I help you?&039; I ask cautiously, deciding that it&039;s about tilasses This wo me feel uncomfortable I know I&039;m in for a hard ti to me as if I&039;m one of her kids She takes a packet of tissues out of her bag and passes one to one of the children at her feet who keeps wiping his nose on the back of his sleeve &039;Blow,&039; she orders sternly, shoving the tissue into the ue

I glance up at the clock Four fifty-seven Doesn&039;t look like I&039;ll be getting the early train hoht

&039;I parked my car at Leftbank Place for five minutes while I took ins as she repacks her bag No tiht into her complaint &039;In those five minutes my car was clamped Now I know that I shouldn&039;t have been parked there, but it was only for five minutes and I was only there because it was absolutely necessary I want to speak to someone who has the authority to sort this out and I want to speak to theet et ready to try and respond Suddenly ue feels twice its normal size It had to be Leftbank Place, didn&039;t it It&039;s an area of waste ground just ten minutes walk from our office Sometimes it feels like just about every other car that&039;s clamped in this town is clamped at Leftbank Place The enforcement team who cover that area are notorious Someone told me they&039;re on some kind of performance-related pay scheet paid I don&039;t knohether or not that&039;s true but it doesn&039;t help ive this woman a stock response fro to like it

&039;Mada up in anticipation of her reaction, &039;Leftbank Place is a strictly no parking area The council&039;

She doesn&039;t give et any further

&039;I&039;ll tell you about the council,&039; she yells, her voice suddenly uncomfortably loud &039;This bloody council needs to spend less ti sure that public a order The only reason I had to park at bloody Leftbank Place was because the public toilets in Millennium Square have been vandalised! My son has a bowel condition I didn&039;t have any choice He couldn&039;t wait any longer&039;

&039;There in to say, instantly regretting having openedwith rubbish collections, rat infestations or even broken street laest probleenuinely hard done by and I&039;d probably have done exactly the same as she did if I&039;d been out with ot a fair point and there&039;s nothing I&039;d like to do more than call off the clampers but I don&039;t have the authority My options now are bleak; follow procedures and get yelled at again by this lady or get yelled at by Tina Murray if I don&039;t do things by the book Chances are I&039; to cop it from both of them Before she can react to my stupid comment I try and cover it up &039;I understand what you&039;re saying, Madam, but&039;

&039;Do you?&039; she screah to wake the baby in the pushchair who starts to whimper and moan &039;Do you really? I don&039;t think you do, because if you did understand you&039;d be on the phone to so that bloody claet ry and&039;

&039;I need to just&039;

&039;I don&039;t want excuses, I want this dealt with&039;

She&039;s not going to listen This is pointless She isn&039;t even going to give me a chance

&039;Madao and speak to your superiors and find someone who&039;s prepared to take responsibility for this shoddy mess and come and sort it out I was forced to park at Leftbank Place because of this council&039;s inefficiencies I have a son who has a ently If the council had done their job properly in the first place and hadorder then I wouldn&039;t have been parked there, I wouldn&039;t have been cla to so to help her up the chain of command than the receptionist so why don&039;t you do us both a favour and go and find so before ain&039;

Patronising bitch I stand and stare at her, feelingI can do

&039;Well?&039; she snaps

&039;Just give me a minute, madam,&039; I staht into Tina co in here, Danny?&039; she asks, her tone of voice as patronising as the wo Reception?&039;

She knows full well there&039;s no-one out there I try and explain but I know it&039;s pointless

&039;I&039;ve got a lady out in Reception who&039;

&039;You should have telephoned through if you needed help,&039; she interrupts &039;You know the rules, you&039;ve been here long enough now There should always be someone at the Reception desk and you should always telephone through if you have a problem&039;