Dramaturgical Analysis

In life we all act differently depending on who we are with and the situation at hand. In almost every situation we act in a different way, with our friends in public, with our family members at home, with coworkers, and most importantly our boss in a work environment. Depending on who we are with you could say our personality changes. As humans we know how to act in every situation, at work you would dress more formal, whereas going out with a group of friends you would dress more causal. Along with our looks changing, we also change our behaviors, the way we talk, sit, the tone of your voice, etc. At a doctor’s office, the receptionist must play a defined role. She has to act polite, caring, professional, and must remain discreet about her patient’s information and conditions. The receptionist is 27 year old Hispanic woman, she works at the doctor’s office from 8 am to 5 pm. She is acting in a professional manner, well maintained, dressed in scrubs with closed toe shoes. I would describe the receptionist as upper middle class social status. The receptionist sits at her front desk in the middle of the doctor’s office and greets all the patients. She is in charge of all the paper work, appointments, and all the patient’s charts. While analyzing the receptionist in her work environment I noticed many front stage behaviors and backstage behaviors (concepts used to describe the relationship between the roles actors play at a given moment and the various audiences these roles involve). For example, she would talk to almost everyone with respect, especially her patients and boss. Then when no one was around, I noticed that she was very rude to her coworkers. By looking at her coworkers facial expressions it was obvious to see they didn’t like the receptionist. When the boss was around the receptionist would act very professional and caring towards everyone. Right when he would leave the room she would start doing different things that I’m sure wasn’t involved with her