Some jobs have to be on call 24/7 to help people in emergencies, and these types of positions often employ answering services to screen their calls at night.

What would you do if you worked for one of these answering services and a caller said she needed to speak with her doctor immediately, but upon questioning, you found out that it was just to check the date of a scheduled procedure?

That is what happened to the answering service employee in this story, so she told the caller that she would not be paging the doctor and that she could follow up in the morning, which really upset the caller, whom she eventually hung up on.

I Will NOT Let You Bother the Doctor in the Middle of the Night. In the End, I Decide if it’s an Emergency.

I recently started working for an answering service. I had no idea what an answering service was beforehand.

Sounds like an important job.

It’s the lady who answers in the middle of the night when you call the doctor, takes your information, and has the doctor call you. Or during the day because people are out in the field, in court, are law enforcement, etc.

You name it, I answer for it. It’s pretty awesome.

Of course, some of the callers are going to be annoying.

Calls are super short and quick. I do some transfers and get your message through. That being said, there is still the rare occasion that a wild customer comes across my line.

This is a story of how I used my power and freedoms given to me to let, who I assume to be, an extremely tired and overworked doctor sleep through the night.

I’m sure time zones will play a big role in this job.

I’m in the PNW and work until 8:30pm. We get calls from all over the states and Canada. I page businesses after hours in the event of emergencies.

Plumbers, roadside assistance, doctors, vet, the essential people of the night. The heroes who come out at all hours to stop sewage from taking over your house, a tree fell on your house, the therapist on call for the crisis line… These people are not always treated as they should be.

What does she need?

It’s nearly the end of my shift and this lady calls in to speak with her doctor.

She and said doctor are in New York. So it’s almost 11:30pm. Customer says if she doesn’t talk with her doctor it could kill her.

Wow, this is very serious.

So, I go into work mode to get her information. After I get her name and number I ask her what’s going on.

She wanted to confirm she had an MRI appointment for the next week.

Yes, some context would definitely be needed here.

Now let me add some context. Yes we usually go by what the caller says is an emergency.

Most usually fit in one way or another. But! In the end, before I bother some poor soul in the middle of the night, I make the final decision.

It is good that the company empowers their employees like this.

We are given that power along with the power to hang up anytime without asking for permission.

The call is just reviewed by management afterwards to make sure the agent made the right call. I can even block numbers from calling in for up to two months.

I’m sure the customer won’t be happy about this.

I obviously know that this is not an emergency so I switch screens and put it as next day while telling the customer it is late and tomorrow is a weekday so the doctor will receive the message and call her back in the morning.

This is not good enough for her. She starts going on this rant about cancer and nodes in her lungs and an MRI is crucial to her health. Which I do not dispute.

This is a call for scheduling, and definitely not an emergency.

I simply tell her that making sure she has an appointment for next week is not an emergency. I understand she may have cancer.

But what’s going to change that outcome by knowing an MRI is scheduled for next week?

She’ll go to the emergency room to check a doctor’s schedule?

Customer then loses her mind and screams that I will call the doctor for her and if I don’t she will go to the Emergency Room and have him paged.

I lost a little bit of my politeness after her tirade.

“Ma’am, scheduling is not an emergency in the middle of the night. If you go to the hospital they may just give you an MRI tonight without the doctor even being paged. This is not an urgent matter.”

Yes, lady. This is the point.

“I don’t need one tonight-”

“Exactly. You will not be speaking to the doctor tonight. You can call after 8am when he is in his office.” I was done and wasn’t going to let her continue wasting my time.

And then the customer paused and calmly, which was weird, said, “Yes I will.”

Wow, some people are just crazy.

“You have a good night Ma’am.” I clicked my disconnect button and went on to notate her message and make clear instructions that until 8am said the customer should not be put through even if she says it’s a matter of life and death.

Entitlement.. I will never understand it.

I don’t see how her boss could have disagreed with this decision.

I’m just glad I no longer have to be a pushover at this call center. They let me use common sense and let me have final say.

I also never received a talking to after that call so my boss must have agreed with me. There would have been a meeting if not.

I totally understand why someone would be scared of the cancer and want to get some help, but come on. Calling a scheduling question an emergency? No way.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about this.

Here is a different take on the story.

This person loves when this happens.

Here is another answering service employee.

An empty threat.

How do some people become so entitled?

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.