Office Open Except For Lunch

This is appearing in the feed many days after the fact, so while it just recently happened to me it actually occurred weeks ago.

I needed to get my bloodwork done as part of my post-operative followup. That day things were already running late; my wife's parents were leaving to drive many hours home but apparently arranged to meet for breakfast after my 9:30 appointment. The doctor's office must have been running behind. I didn't get in until close to 10:00. After talking with the doctor I had lab paperwork in hand but because of the time I said to go to Panera to meet with her parents for breakfast first then we would go back for bloodwork.

Upon returning to the office I found a sign in sheet at the lab with a note telling people that the registration desk was closed for lunch from 12:00 to 1:00; I got there right at noon. I entered my name on the sheet and waited.

Over the span of twenty minutes I saw several people, some I could tell were employees, leave the lab area. Leave. Not come back. Only a few minutes after I arrived someone shut the lab door as they left and I, the only one in the reception room, just got a sheepish grin as she left.

No one coming to even check the sheet...doors closed...I was there alone. After twenty minutes I had the distinct impression that it wasn't just the registration desk that was closed for lunch. At the tail end of that twenty minutes about four or five people in civilian clothes came in through reception and proceed through an "authorized personnel only" door, ignoring me.

I ended up just saying to Hell with it and leaving.

I had taken time off from work to get this stuff done today. I did not relish the idea of stewing for an hour to pay someone to jab me with a needle when I still had half a dozen things to get done.

This isn't the first time I've run into the "closed for lunch" thing, not just here but with other businesses. I can understand if this is some small operation...but when it's a place with several qualified employees available, why can't the employer stagger break and lunchtimes a little? This isn't a pharmacy where the law requires a licensed pharmacist on duty and many pharmacies have one working for the day and several assistants in the shop.

What about people trying to get stuff done over a lunch break? It's horrible to not have time off to do things. I normally can't get things done because offices and stores close just as I get out of work. I would have been three kinds of pissed to have gone over my "lunch time" to do this just to find everyone "out" and realized I had just wasted my time.

Maybe the lab was just slow and there was one guy drawing blood from someone. I don't know. If there was it would have been nice within twenty minutes to have had some sign of life in there. I was the only name on the list that no one had come out to check. The normally open lab door was shut. The room was empty except for me. Not a sign of another soul.

That's not entirely true. At another window on the other end of the room there was some young guy sitting behind the desk of the physical therapy reception window in the corner of the office (not directly behind the window where people would come up to get information or check in, I saw him because I was at an angle to the window) with his face buried in some book or paper while eating a sandwich. He wasn't offering any attention; I toyed with the idea of asking him the lab was just plain shut down, but he was clearly engrossed in his sandwich.

I had grown so pissed at that point that it was better if I didn't have any bloodwork done just then. My patience was just too short by then. It would have been nice to even just have a simple sign saying that there was someone who would be out soon.

All I would ask is for some consideration for people who don't have a very flexible schedule. You never know how much you can help...or ruin...someone's day, and I was definitely fuming for the next couple hours about this.