My list of stupid rules at my job:
-- We're not allowed to point. We have to gesture in a Vanna White fashion.
-- I can't use my name. I must go by 'Alexandria' because it sounds more professional.
-- We can't say 'help', we have to say 'assist'; we can't say 'transfer', we have to say 'connect'.
-- We can't say 'checking in', we have to say 'arriving'.
-- My boss said something about the way I say goodbye on the phone to people (I say 'bye-bye'). Apparently, that is not professional. I'm not changing it though. What can I say; I'm a rebel.
-- My laugh is too loud; I get shushed a lot by my boss.
Here we are, at Jenny Lake Lodge, during our peak months of July and August. I'm starting to hate my job. Not because of the work, I'm actually really good at my job. And don't get me wrong, I am very thankful to have a job. I'm starting to hate it because the front desk gets all of the complaints for every department and we're expected to have answers or solutions for every problem. I'm not housekeeping, I'm not maintenance, I'm not dining...but when there is a problem with those departments, the front desk gets yelled at. Working at the front desk has shown me like nothing else that people are stupid and rude. Well, just the guests. My co-workers are still awesome and I would do anything for them. But a guest finally made me cry the other week. Cry! Because of a 30 second phone conversation. That's it. We were going out of our way to pick him and his wife up at another lodge so we asked him to meet us in the lobby and he refused. So I asked for his cell phone so we could call him when we got there and he refused. I have seriously never dealt with someone that was so rude for such a minuscule request before. He is a bad person, and the world is ready for him to pass on.
The power went out the other night. We had a really bad storm and a bunch of trees went down and one of the trees brought down the main power line. The power company started working on it immediately. Some of the cabins were out of power, most of the guests were at dinner in the lodge which was running on generator power, and power outages are basically something that can be expected during a storm in the mountains. Completely out of my control, right? Wrong. Apparently, working at the front desk of a hotel makes me capable and responsible for fixing downed power lines. Guests were pissed they had to get dressed in the dark (they have flashlights provided by us), they were pissed some cabins had light and others didn't (the cabins are on 2 different grids), and they were pissed that I didn't have the problem fixed myself as soon as the power went off.
Guests are always angry about the wireless not being fast enough, or not working at all. They come up and yell at us because it doesn't work and they want to know why, as though we have the secret to the Internet and we're just keeping from them. They complain that the lights aren't bright enough, they complain that we're too environmentally conscious (they're on vacation, they're not here to save the planet), the complain that the 5 course dinner has too much food, they complain when we don't make the weather sunny and 70...the majority of our guests complain about everything. I understand that they're are paying a lot to be here (trust me, I'm the one who charges the credit cards, I know how much they're paying), but if I don't understand why some people treat vacations like a job, as though they have to be here. If you don't want to be here, then go. I would rather not have your money then have you make my life miserable with your continued existence.
In other news, I got food poisoning on Monday night. I actually thought my appendix had burst because of the pain, and I knew if my appendix really had burst, I was too far away from any hospital or clinic to do me any good. I was scheduled to work the morning shift on Tuesday, but as I was still on my hands and knees on my front porch vomiting at that point, I thought I would be excused. Alas. My boss told me to come in, I couldn't give him such short notice, and we needed a front desk person. So I dragged myself to work, and luckily when he saw me he allowed me to find someone else to cover the morning shift, so I could go in and work for 8 hours in the afternoon instead. And that's when I started being stupid. I worked my full shift on Wednesday so that was out of my control, but I didn't allow myself time to recuperate by, you know, going to sleep or resting before and after work. No. I would start to feel better so I would think to myself "Self, let's go on a 6 mile hike." Or, "Self, let's go dancing and drinking for 5 hours." Or, "Self, let's go camping with everyone else." And then, surprise of the ages, I would feel bad again. (But I refuse to regret my decision to go dancing or camping, because dancing was awesome and I loved it and our camping trip is probably one of the nights I have had here this summer. But I probably shouldn't have drank so much). So I finally had to make the mature decision to go to bed right after my evening shift on Friday and not get up until my afternoon shift started on Saturday. So on Saturday I finally did laundry and I returned the phone calls and texts I had been ignoring and I was a productive member of society once again. I've been doing reservations for the past 2 days, so I get to sit and rest more.
Hopefully this week I can start training as a busser and/or hostess. I think being a busser would be fun, and they make a lot more money than frontdesk does because of tips, and I would only get complaints about dining problems as a busser. I've been helping out after meals during the last couple of weeks and I really like it. So I mentioned wanting to train and pick up bussing shifts to our dining room manager, and he said that he really needed another hostess, so I will hopefully be trained and work a few shifts as hostess starting this week. Hopefully. And that brings my total number of jobs up to 5 this summer. I am a fulltime front desk agent, reservationist, a bell person who is trying to also become a busser and hostess. I'm pretty excited about that opportunity so this paragraph doesn't involve me complaining incessantly (you're welcome).
My dad's coming to see me in September! I'm excited about that, too. :) I'm taking him to dinner one night at Jenny so we'll get to experience the whole gourmet 5 course dinner that our guests pay so much money for. We're also going to Yellowestone one of those days so that'll be cool too.
I've decided I'm officially no longer part of the ministry team. Which makes my life much less stressful, and I don't feel bad about it, because they were super passive aggressive and used guilt as a weapon and a couple of them were actually really rude to me and I don't respond well to that kind of behavior. So. I'm not going to deal with them anymore. Don't worry though, I still like Jesus. We're cool.
Ummm, that's all I can think of that's being happening in my life lately. Once again, if anyone eants a postcard with a heartfelt messgae or a snarky comment, let me know (and specify heartfelt or snarky, because I can't do both) and I'll send it your way.
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