I work at a food distributing company as a secretary. I manage things behind the computer like emails, filing papers and accounting tasks. I work in the same office as my boss and I listen to her answer phones and talk to her clients knowing all the right things to say to satisfy them but at the same time get what she wants. It seems so easy and natural, which made me think it wasn’t a hard thing to do. Occasionally, she will be too busy dealing with other workers or customers and I would have to answer the phone calls. To my surprise, it is not as easy as it seems. Some clients are hard to understand or speak too fast for you to keep up with the order and you have to know how to ask them to repeat what they are saying with out offending them. You also have to know how to make small talk with them so they feel like they are taken care of at a personal level. You have to pick your fights and learn when to give in and let the client have it their way and when it is appropriate to reason with them. Sometimes, she would be yelling and furious because the employees messed something up but once the phone rings, her tone of voice changes completely and suddenly becomes very friendly and cheerful. I would like to learn how to respond according to other’s reactions and on a professional level. It would be great to be able to obtain the skill to be likeable and make people want to talk to you.

-Winnie Yan