Work Ethic is dead

ok. there is something that i just cannot stand. above all else, i believe in getting a job done well. no matter what it is. regardless of its importance to you personally. if i tell a person i will do a job, i will do it and well. i have a strong work ethic. and i believe that that is important. so when people start complaining that it is too difficult to do their job, even the simplest and most basic element of that job, it burns me.
i am a receptionist. admittedly i do WAY more than just answer the phone, but the root of my duty is to answer the phones and to give the client to the appropriate agent or take a message. easy, right? well apparently it is too difficult.
there is one agent, Richard, who recently moved to California but for whom I still answer the phones. During the move, many of his clients were bounced around and now many of them don't know who they should be asking for. So often, i have to probe clients for their company name and travel details to figure out who they should talk to. No big. Just part of the job, right?
So one of Richard's clients sent a fax to Lisa telling her about a group who will begin calling to get reservations soon. So Lisa freaks out. Why are they calling her? Why not Richard? What to do?
She comes to us at the front desk to tell us that Richard better do something so that all of these clients don't start calling her. She is not going to be Richard's secretary, she says. Like its beneath her to take a message and pass it on. Well thanks.
So I speak to Richard and for some reason, he says instead of him calling the group leader and telling her that he is the rep instead of Lisa that we should just weed through Lisa's calls to find his clients and then pass them on call by call. A pain in the ass admittedly. I now have to give the third degree to everyone who calls and asks for Lisa.
But here's the thing. That's my job. So I've just got to suck it up and do it.
So why is everyone freaking out about it? The clients are traveling in March anyway - it'll be over and done with so soon. What is the big deal? I could see if someone was asking us to go above and beyond the realm of our actual duties. But seriously, it is the job. And I will do it. Because that is what they pay me to do. UGH.