The phone is ringing at the other end of the line and it clicks as it is being answered. A voice says quickly, “Hello. Will yo u hold, please£¿” Then there is another click, followed by silence. It seems like hours before someone comes back on the line—that is, if you don’t hang up first.

Office calls are, perhaps, the most difficult and the most important part of a secretary’s work. The first impression that a client receives about a business is very often through a telephone contact. A caller who is left hanging on “hold” will get the feel ing that he or she has been forgotten or ignored. If a call is answered rudely, the caller may become angry. And if the call is not routed directly to the right person, the caller may feel that he or she is getting the “runaround”.

Laura Needham is a secretary in the executive office of a large manufacturing company. As a good office secretary, Laura knows that all phone calls must be answered without delay and handled efficiently. She knows that a secretary must be pleasant and helpful, no matter how busy she is or what kind of mood she may be in. She knows she must keep calm if a caller gets impatient or becomes angry; also, of course, she knows she can never allow herself to lose her temper. If she does not have the information the caller asks for, she must know who does have the information. Finally, she knows that one of her most important responsibilities is to “screen telephone calls” and to know which calls to refer to her boss, which calls to refer to other people, and which calls to handle herself.