Too busy juggling to answer the phone

"Hi, is that Jacquie?" "Yes, speaking." "Hi, Jacquie, it's Tom here from [mumbled company name]. How are you?"

"I'm fine thanks. How are you?" I think I might recognise this voice in a minute.

"Oh, not too bad, we had a party in the office last night, so we're all feeling a bit delicate."

I assume that this is a customer who knows me, so I'm obviously being chatty while trying to work out who it is and if they have a company booking that I should know about. The fact that we are quite busy at the time of the call pushes me to move the conversation on a little.

"What can I do for you?"

It then emerges that this person is trying to get me to donate money to something or other and, before I know it, I'm in the net and well and truly trapped. I don't really understand what I'm being asked to donate money to - this seems to have been skirted around - but to get rid of the caller I find myself agreeing to part with my hard-earned cash.

These and other time-wasting customer-research calls from large companies are on the increase - it's just not cricket. Please give us a break and say straight away what you want.

"Can I speak to Andrew? It's Kim." is not a sufficient introduction when, after much pressure, the caller tells me he is selling black bin sacks.

This style of selling is very negative, as we won't buy from people who aren't upfront or who call during service time.

OK, I'll get off my soap box now before I fall off.

I found a great front of house person, following my recent advert in Caterer. The response, as usual, was fairly good with lots of CVs, a few interviews and two people I would have employed. This is the first summer when I really feel we have enough staff, and systems are working well. Taking on new people mid-season is always a little tricky but our present team has a sensible approach to the job and understands our aims.

We are coming up to Daisy's first birthday and although her first year has been a continual juggling act, I don't feel that I have had to compromise either my time with her or with the business. The fact that we live above the shop has made the situation easier, and giving her a proper bedtime from very early on has helped enormously. n

JACQUIE PERN and husband Andrew own the Star Inn at Harome, North Yorkshire

Next diary from Jacquie Pern: 30 September