Trying to avoid burn-out...

...but I don't know how successful I will end up being.

Things at the hotel seem to be sliding down into hell. We are down to only two front desk agents, our single housekeeper gets snagged by the spa twice a week to do the spa attendant stuff even if we need her for the hotel, and my direct manager still isn't back. And we're also covering the spa's email, FB chat, 3rd party chat, and their booking when the spa is closed. And that's on top of dealing with our own work and that of the oral health clinic and physiotherapy clinic that are currently housed in the hotel right now as well!

We have been dealing with my direct manager's boss and she's pretty much next to useless. To say that she passes the buck or flat-out ignores things. She used to be the hotel manager and during that era she was the main reason there was such a high turn-over and the hotel had a lousy reputation. And for whatever reason, the owners decided to give her a higher position! Since then, she has kept undermining my direct boss who has basically stepped into her old position...despite the fact that my direct boss has managed to drive up business (instead of driving it away) and is MUCH better at dealing with people.

We know that we absolutely must hire more staff for all the work that needs to be done for all the properties under our group. This includes the hotel, the bed & breakfast, our various long-term rentals, the spa, and our two other clinics that operate out of separate buildings.

I seem to be the person everybody talks to among the staff, and I'm actually the newest employee out of the bunch. But I suppose it's that I'm a good listener and I validate the other employees' feelings about everything we're dealing with. Largely because I agree with how shitty everything has been getting.

I fully understand that the pandemic has made things difficult and we're trying to deal with that, but we simply can't continue on like we have been! It just feels like all sorts of suggestions have been made by staff to make things better, and the upper management and owners simply don't give a shit. What they don't seem to understand is that by being such tightwads that people are going to stop staying at the hotel - we have a load of repairs that must be done, but they are getting ignored or are getting a slap of paint to make it look like things have been taken care of. 

Pretty much all of our jacuzzi tubs need to have the tubing for the jets replaced because they've gotten bad enough from having sat empty for several months that any amount of cleaning has dislodged the dried-on yuck in them - the ONLY way to get rid of this stuff now is to replace the tubing. I know it, the maintenance guys know it, but we're being told that we can't do anything about it other than to continue blowing them out on a regular basis. Gross as fuck.

We've been getting random leaks in the middle of the ceiling in the basement hallway, and a guest complained to me last night about water bubbling up through the floorboards when they stepped on them last night! It probably doesn't help that our a/c units are installed directly venting to the outside, and when the rain blows the right way water gets in and makes a mess. I don't know if this can be fixed, but it's annoying. Not to mention that we have several rooms with really loud a/c units and fireplaces that aren't working properly if at all. They've apparently all been looked at, but nothing has really changed.

In terms of staff, we need at least one more f/t desk agent, and a 2-3 part-time desk agents so that myself and the other front desk agent can finally get a weekend off! We've been working weekends steady since we came back last August...makes it hard to spend time with friends and family (when we aren't restricted from seeing them). And with the busy season coming up, we will need more bodies to man the desks at the hotel and the bed & breakfast. Plus, the bigger boss wants to have staff on site at the hotel 24/7, which we just aren't equipped to do right now. As it is, I've spent a few nights at the hotel on the weekend to ensure there is somebody available...it's nice to get away from the house overnight, but I can't really do anything fun because if an emergency comes up I have to be sober enough to handle it.

The bigger boss has said that she wants to hire a single person to help cover the odd night at the hotel, but to also go around to some of the buildings to clean. At night. When guests/tenants are trying to sleep. Oh, and they'll have access to the company truck. Big fucking deal. While we DO need somebody to handle the heavy cleaning for our long-term properties (it's been done by the housekeepers at the B&B for ages, and they don't have vehicles to be lugging supplies around with), we don't really need somebody running a vacuum at night or making any real noise when people are trying to sleep! Clearly the bigger boss has no idea what she's on about...ugh.

Not only that, I don't agree with the spa pulling our only regular housekeeper to fill the spa attendant duties. It is not the hotel's fault that the spa can't keep somebody in that position! A very large part of it has to do with the fact that they expect ONE PERSON to work a 10.5 hour shift when it used to be split and shared by 2-3 attendants a day. The fact that they've lost their one dependable f/t spa attendant due to injuries brought on by having to do the job five days a week for 10.5 hours a day hasn't been enough to make them realize that they can't keep on doing it this way. And they lost me from doing it twice a week because it was way too hard on my body - my doctor even wrote me a note saying I couldn't do the job anymore. I felt bad, but my body felt worse.

I have suggested many times that they really need to split that shift up, and said that I would have been able to keep helping the spa out if I worked six hour shifts at the absolute most. It is hard on anybody when you have to lug full baskets of laundry up two flights of stairs to put away, plus gather all the dirty laundry from both floors, and wash, dry, and fold it all before taking the large laundry bin into the staff room to separate it into smaller baskets. And that's before getting into the fact that it is also your job to arrive at least 1.5 hours before the spa opens to you can wash the floors, vacuum any rugs and carpets, turn all the lights in the building on, turning all the wax pots on, turning on all the hand towel heaters on, turning on fireplaces in the rooms that have them, and lighting a bunch of tealights. Then, during your shift you are expected to keep sanitizing things, and replace tealights as necessary. All while trying to stay on top of the laundry. And heaven forbid if there was any laundry left to do from the day before because then you're already behind for your day.

At one point there was a dedicated laundry person who only did laundry while the spa attendant took care of gathering dirty laundry, sanitizing things, and keeping tealights lit. Back then, way before the pandemic, the spa attendant also had to keep water jugs full, a pot of herbal tea made in one of the waiting rooms, gather plastic cups to be washed, run drinks to guests (if the cook was too busy to do it or the cook was off), and run loads of dishes through the dishwasher when the cook was gone for the evening. And then they decided that they didn't need a dedicated laundry person, so they would stagger the spa attendant shifts to ensure that laundry could be done by one person while the other dealt with the other duties expected of them.

Since I stopped being able to do the spa attendant duties they have not been able to keep anybody in that position. I know how hard it is, and I know that if they had more than one person doing it each damn day that it would be MUCH easier for them to keep staff. As it is, if the spa can't get the housekeeper to do the work, they have to pull an esthetician to do it instead - thankfully they get paid hourly anyway, but it means they lose out on tips. Especially on weekends. It's just not right -_-

At some point this week, the other front desk agent and I are supposed to be having a meeting with the bigger boss to discuss suggestions for what we need to do in order to make things work this weekend. I have an ENTIRE list of things we NEED to do to make things work before I start applying at other hotels in the area. If things don't change, I'm gone. I have more than enough hotel and spa experience that I'm sure I won't have much trouble finding work elsewhere...especially after finding out that a nearby hotel is renovating so they can put in their own spa. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for them to post job ads!

In the meantime, I'm going to try to do some work. Or watch a movie. I don't know.

*sigh*