From the Front Desk
Lamplighter:
FEATURE
BY RENÉ RIVERA THE WEB OF RECEPTION
20
For every organization, there are positions and titles that have unique perspectives with respect to their place of employment. This is no more particularly true for those whose positions require them to engage with large numbers of people each day. Those with positions in the military or those who work as first responders occupy such positions that may require engagement with many people while providentially developing a grounded connection with their work environment. Although nowhere near as psychologically demanding as roles occupied by women and men in the armed forces or by first responders, the position of receptionist provides such grounded connections and a sort of ‘bird’s eye’ perspective of its respective work environment. However, there are few such receptionist roles as enjoyable as that of a school receptionist—specifically, receptionist employed at The AllenStevenson School. The receptionists of Allen-Stevenson have been identified as they who ‘man the front line’ between our school and the world beyond. We are the gatekeepers. We are the school liaisons who manage ground-level communication between the community and our school. We traffic information and the flow of pedestrian traffic. We maintain an itinerary of daily activity on anything and everything community-related to be offered out with ‘on-the-fly’ inquiry. The reception staff also operate in an often fast-tempo environment that can have us engaging with the same hundreds of families on a day-to-day basis for years as their boys progress from kindergarten to graduation. That frequent engagement enables our connections to reach further and wider within the School and its community than the connections of most of the other faculty and staff.
Working the reception desk at Allen-Stevenson does not come without some measure of notoriety. As the work environment is warm, friendly, and engaging, we enjoy interaction and personal connection with everyone from the kitchen staff to the academic office very frequently each and every day. And as we not only work in support of the education of children (as any position where one might work with children is typically recognized as being entrusted only to people of good character), we’re also fortunate enough to be employed by a school ranked as one of the very best amongst its peers. Given that, the enjoyment of notoriety often extends beyond the School as we are also fortunate enough to be associated with the School’s brand popularity. This is often made evident while walking about on the Upper East Side on any given day or evening when randomly greeted by members of the many Allen-Stevenson families. To that end, we’re almost famous! When allowed, we are sometimes permitted the opportunity to wear various other ‘hats’ within the School to participate in teaching an occasional class or with coaching an athletics session. On those infrequent occasions, we may be addressed as ‘teacher’ or ‘coach’ by the boys. That sort of engagement with the boys provides us a rare honor, for although the environment at Allen-Stevenson is open and all-inclusive, there really is no place for anyone at Allen-Stevenson unless they’ve been assessed to be several cuts above their peers in capability and education (a fact that many employed at Allen-Stevenson
