What she did was find a need and fill it. Receptionists and office administrators are different roles. Sometimes they overlap (like in small offices), but they’re often very separate. A firm where I worked had both and we were smaller than the staff on the TV show. Our office admin ( what we called office manager) handled all our day to day ops: conference room scheduling/management, office supplies, break room supplies, distributed petty cash, was responsible for most filing/organization, all the miscellaneous stuff that made everyone’s job easier. Our receptionist handled front end stuff: taking and distributing initial client calls, answering questions, scheduling consults, greeting clients and getting them settled in, preparing anything they needed after meetings, etc.

Pam was smart to do what she did. It shows ambition and she called the company’s bluff.