Is reception suppose to be this hard or am I entitled?

I work in dental, very small practice. We use to have 2 other staff members, one who quit as she was over qualified (her school degree didn’t apply in this country, she was a dentist.) The second being another staff member who hated our boss, to the point where it was affecting the business. And then we have our long term dentist, who quit, who also hate my boss.

When I first started this job, I was thrown into it, knowing nothing it was chaos. I would get nitpicked and blamed, even if the schedule was empty, despite only being there not even a month.

Fast forward to now, I’m stuck doing everything:

- I wake up at 6 AM, because I need to be on time, we ”open” at 8:30 AM, but I am expected to be there by at least 7:50-8. And expected to “set up” for the dental assistant (doing her job).

- I am basically the cleaning lady, because she won’t hire one. I’m expected to throw out the used needles (in the sealed hazard tub), vacuum the floors, sometimes also doing the assistant’s job with the sterilization. My co-worker is also lazy, and messy so I’m expected to clean up her dishes or the mess she makes in the kitchen. I also have to clean the bathroom, take the garbage out, etc. ”Cleaners are too expensive.”

- As typical reception, I’m expected to answer the phones, she doesn’t have caller ID on the phones, so she makes me (if I’m in the middle of assisting her), run and answer the phones. It actually exhausting. I’ve been told off by patients for no reason, yet they be nice to her, probs cause I’m nothing but a receptionist.

- I am now being made to handle the social media, so every day I need to make content, post content, etc. I also was expected to make flyers for other businesses etc.

- Sales aspect, a lot of the times I’m expected to push her reviews & “sell” patients. I have pushed her reviews over 100, and have helped convinced pts to get things they were not considering on, e.g retainers, braces, etc.

- Any minor mistake she breaths down my neck, and tells me off on why I didn’t do it, or say I’m not doing my job correctly cause I didn’t text someone “good morning” when responding to them (which the pt didn’t care, and was happy).

- Sometimes I do the assistants job, as in the assistant leaves early (even if I do a 45-50 hour week), so I have to do both jobs, same day. I do not get this time back, nor compensated.

- The rest of it is booking keeping, talking to the labs, getting everything on time, writing letters for patients (and her friends, or insurance), sometimes she tries to make me do another dentist specialists job and make ME arrange the appointment for them. And the specialists are always baffled.

— I rarely get my breaks, and when I do she either cuts them short or repeats when I’m coming back from break, yet lets my co-worker sit for over an hour. let’s my co worker sit on her phone too not me.

- Usually I get home at 6 pm as well (get stuck going over hours). They are on a 4 day work week, I’m stuck at 5. Even when it is dead at the end of the week and there is no dentist or DA in.

- My boss also has begun ignoring me so I’m obviously no longer liked, so she only talks to my DA, she only communicates with me via work, or tells my DA to tell me something.

- Sometimes if something breaks, I’m expected to fix it, e.g having to re-wire a dental chair.

Posted Jun 3, 2026, 1:19 PM UTC

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