What the heck have I been doing?
this post reprinted from my other blog.
Well, kiddies, I just got home from my job. I signed on at the local hotel as a housekeeper. Maid. Chambermaid. Cleaning lady. You get the picture. This little local hotel has a bar, restaurant, and 12 rooms to let. 2 rooms are used by the owners, and one room still has the stuff belonging to the late father of the former owner. 2 owners ago. (In a small town, things like that happen. Mike sold the hotel to George, and then George sold it to Etinder and Gagan's family. I think they are family, or maybe just Managers, I am not sure. Etinder signs my cheques, anyway.) There is a rumour going around the coffee shops that the hotel has been sold again. This always happens, and the scuttlebut is usually wrong. I know I haven't been told anything. Anyway...
So just when I'm getting the hang of doing the rooms in a prompt and efficient manner, the Chief Cook informs me that I will be doing cooking duties in the restaurant 2 days a week. YIKES! I told them I am not sure I am the one for the job, but everybody keeps telling me, "Not to worry, don't panic, you'll do fine." Right. Hubby and I are the Adult ADD Poster Children. It takes me a long time to get into a routine. Way longer if I have to make up the routine myself as I go along.
Doing the rooms is OK. I figure I have stayed in enough nice (and not-so-nice) hotel rooms in my lifetime, I know what hotel patrons want: cleanliness. And convenience. The first few times I did rooms, it took a long time, mostly because there were a couple of things I had to do, so I thought. Then I had to start arranging the "maids' room" a little.
Now the lady that was the maid when I started is quitting. Yikes. I am not sure yet what happens now, do I get all the maid work? Do I still cook 2 days a week? The maid I am talking about also worked in the kitchen a few days a week, but disliked that duty a lot. The lady that worked in the bar a lot was transferred out of town with her husband and his job, so they have a new girl in the bar. Plus the lady who did rooms, who is quitting, was also working in the bar. I think we may be getting short-staffed!
There was an array of waitresses working in the restaurant, but some of them are finished at the end of June, I guess they are high-school kids who want a fun summer life. One of them is going to hockey school, I think. So my darling daughter, who thought the waitress job was so part-time she needed another part-time job to make enough money for university, had to call off the second job already. I guess that's a good thing. She is so good at the waitress job, it shocks and pleases me no end. Greeting customers, serving the water and taking orders, taking the coffee, soups, salads, the entré (when the cook puts it up, on the "ready to go" shelf with the heat lamps), the desserts, ringing in the payment, cleaning the table for the next customers...whew! And the restaurant has, I dunno, 15 or 16 tables? And the customers fill and vacate these tables in no particular order? Aaaughh! I surely couldn't do this. But she does great, and the tips make the difference between a crummy minimum-wage job(i.e. chambermaid) and a good job.
Hey, I get tips too. So far: $3.06, 6 beer, a chocolate bar, a miniature chocolate bar, and a packet of Kool-Aid. Not just any Kool-Aid either: Mystery Flavour, Mystery Colour Kool-Aid. Woot! That was today, actually, I can hardly wait to make it tomorrow.
So that's what I been doing. Now I am going to log off, and go shower off the layers of sweat and deep-fryer flavour and aroma. Talk to you later.
Well, kiddies, I just got home from my job. I signed on at the local hotel as a housekeeper. Maid. Chambermaid. Cleaning lady. You get the picture. This little local hotel has a bar, restaurant, and 12 rooms to let. 2 rooms are used by the owners, and one room still has the stuff belonging to the late father of the former owner. 2 owners ago. (In a small town, things like that happen. Mike sold the hotel to George, and then George sold it to Etinder and Gagan's family. I think they are family, or maybe just Managers, I am not sure. Etinder signs my cheques, anyway.) There is a rumour going around the coffee shops that the hotel has been sold again. This always happens, and the scuttlebut is usually wrong. I know I haven't been told anything. Anyway...
So just when I'm getting the hang of doing the rooms in a prompt and efficient manner, the Chief Cook informs me that I will be doing cooking duties in the restaurant 2 days a week. YIKES! I told them I am not sure I am the one for the job, but everybody keeps telling me, "Not to worry, don't panic, you'll do fine." Right. Hubby and I are the Adult ADD Poster Children. It takes me a long time to get into a routine. Way longer if I have to make up the routine myself as I go along.
Doing the rooms is OK. I figure I have stayed in enough nice (and not-so-nice) hotel rooms in my lifetime, I know what hotel patrons want: cleanliness. And convenience. The first few times I did rooms, it took a long time, mostly because there were a couple of things I had to do, so I thought. Then I had to start arranging the "maids' room" a little.
Now the lady that was the maid when I started is quitting. Yikes. I am not sure yet what happens now, do I get all the maid work? Do I still cook 2 days a week? The maid I am talking about also worked in the kitchen a few days a week, but disliked that duty a lot. The lady that worked in the bar a lot was transferred out of town with her husband and his job, so they have a new girl in the bar. Plus the lady who did rooms, who is quitting, was also working in the bar. I think we may be getting short-staffed!
There was an array of waitresses working in the restaurant, but some of them are finished at the end of June, I guess they are high-school kids who want a fun summer life. One of them is going to hockey school, I think. So my darling daughter, who thought the waitress job was so part-time she needed another part-time job to make enough money for university, had to call off the second job already. I guess that's a good thing. She is so good at the waitress job, it shocks and pleases me no end. Greeting customers, serving the water and taking orders, taking the coffee, soups, salads, the entré (when the cook puts it up, on the "ready to go" shelf with the heat lamps), the desserts, ringing in the payment, cleaning the table for the next customers...whew! And the restaurant has, I dunno, 15 or 16 tables? And the customers fill and vacate these tables in no particular order? Aaaughh! I surely couldn't do this. But she does great, and the tips make the difference between a crummy minimum-wage job(i.e. chambermaid) and a good job.
Hey, I get tips too. So far: $3.06, 6 beer, a chocolate bar, a miniature chocolate bar, and a packet of Kool-Aid. Not just any Kool-Aid either: Mystery Flavour, Mystery Colour Kool-Aid. Woot! That was today, actually, I can hardly wait to make it tomorrow.
So that's what I been doing. Now I am going to log off, and go shower off the layers of sweat and deep-fryer flavour and aroma. Talk to you later.
posted by Kathen at 6/17/2006 12:21:00 a.m.
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