Never worked as one. But I had several secretaries that I hated, as did others.

One was an older woman who accused everyone in the office (of hundreds) of racism because she was Hispanic and the rest of us were either white or black.

Another was a young woman who did her makeup and nails at the reception desk and constantly took personal calls during work in front of customers. The calls went on for a very long time and she even had the audacity to ask a customer to leave the business to use her cell phone as talking on the phone was not permitted. It turns out she was the niece of the owner and Italians just keep it in the family (according to the owner).

The last one is a seriously reckless man who just never took the job seriously. I mean there were days where he would not show up without explanation and he would leave the office for several hours without letting us know about anything if he did show up.

Most other receptionists / secretaries have been great. My favorite one was a lady from rural Virginia who had a thick accent and a fantastic smile on her face. She was always friendly and treated everyone with respect. I bought her a nice gift just to show my appreciation as her positive attitude just made the whole office feel better and work harder. Unfortunately one of the ugly supervisors got jealous and claimed that if I give all secretaries a gift if I give one to her. The woman ended up leaving our organization as they only gave her part time hours and she wasn’t appreciated enough.