Last night sucked hard. As in, a chrome-off-a-bumper degree of suck.
It began around two in the morning when someone pulled in, declined the last room I had left, and left. Unfortunately in leaving, they dragged the trailer they were hauling down the side of another guest's car.
Their rental car, which was dented so badly that the driver's side door could not be opened.
For which they did not have insurance valid in this state.
And which they drove to town and stayed at my hotel so they could attend a funeral.
I have a brand-new security guard, and while he's nice to look at, he's still learning so he had no idea what to do and neither did I. This necessitated a call to another auditor who's been with the company nigh on twenty years, who walked me through what to do. The police were called. The guest was called. The guest and the police went through their little dance, and the guest ended up getting probably two or three hours of sleep at most before she had to be up.
It was good that she got what sleep she did though, because at just past six-thirty in the morning, the fire alarm went off.
Why did it go off? Because someone burned their toast in the breakfast area. I did not know this, though, and because this was my first fire alarm I had no idea what to do. The breakfast attendant figured out what the problem was, but meanwhile, I'm dealing with call after call after call after call after call after call after call after call to the front desk from guests asking what's going on. I herd them to the lobby.
I call the incoming assistant manager, who calls the general manager, who calls me, miraculously gets through, and directs me through silencing the alarm after about fifteen minutes of continuous blaring. During this time, I've also called the fire department. The breakfast attendant had told me it was burnt toast and told me I'd have to call the fire department to reset the alarm. It obviously wasn't a real emergency, so I asked him if he had the number to the fire department, but he looked at me as though I'd just asked permission to put my finger in his nose and told me to call 911.
I called 911. Upon silencing the alarm, I called them back to ask them to cancel that order for a firetruck (with extra mushrooms, and sauce on the side), but the fire truck was pulling up outside and a very nice female firefighter came in and reset the alarm, and also informed me that herding guests to the lobby won't cut it next time. They have to head out to the dumpster or else we'll get a ticket.
So. All was quiet. People went back to their rooms. Other people figured that since they were up anyway, they might as well have breakfast. All was well.
Then one person came up to complain about the inconvenience of the fire alarm. He got our "Please Steal From Us" Guarantee. Then another person came up for the same reason. And a third.
By this time, it was after seven and my shift was over, but I was staying over an hour until management got in so I could tell her what happened. Just before I left -- my very last encounter with a guest before I got to go home -- a guy came up to inform me in a snotty tone that he used to work in a hotel and that fire alarm went on way too long.
"It's easy to turn it off," he said, "You just find out what zone it's in and shut it off. That alarm went on too long and you inconvenienced everybody."
And then he huffed off.
Here's the thing. Up to that point, I was feeling pretty good. Yes, it was a mess, but I dealt with it as best I knew how, and I thought I'd done an okay job. People in the lobby were laughing together about a shared experience, and everyone seemed happy that no one was hurt and it was nothing serious. Also, lest we forget, the alarm went off because the smoke detector did exactly what it is designed to do, and detected smoke.
However, because of that one person -- that last person, may I remind you -- I have felt like a complete idiot all day long. That was not helped when I came in tonight to find fire and emergency procedures posted on the bulletin board, and my asshole boss only too happy to point out that those procedures are in the employee handbook, and that I had to have signed that I read them eight months ago when I was hired.
Tonight I did not hold my tongue. I told him, "Telling someone something once, briefly, eight months ago, is not imparting knowledge. It is only imparting the fact that there is knowledge."
He was unfazed, and put on that stupid hat of his and left. And I've been fuming and consumed by doubt ever since. Should I really have known what to do from one training session eight months ago? Would you? It really makes me feel stupid, and I hate, hate, hate feeling stupid.
It began around two in the morning when someone pulled in, declined the last room I had left, and left. Unfortunately in leaving, they dragged the trailer they were hauling down the side of another guest's car.
Their rental car, which was dented so badly that the driver's side door could not be opened.
For which they did not have insurance valid in this state.
And which they drove to town and stayed at my hotel so they could attend a funeral.
I have a brand-new security guard, and while he's nice to look at, he's still learning so he had no idea what to do and neither did I. This necessitated a call to another auditor who's been with the company nigh on twenty years, who walked me through what to do. The police were called. The guest was called. The guest and the police went through their little dance, and the guest ended up getting probably two or three hours of sleep at most before she had to be up.
It was good that she got what sleep she did though, because at just past six-thirty in the morning, the fire alarm went off.
Why did it go off? Because someone burned their toast in the breakfast area. I did not know this, though, and because this was my first fire alarm I had no idea what to do. The breakfast attendant figured out what the problem was, but meanwhile, I'm dealing with call after call after call after call after call after call after call after call to the front desk from guests asking what's going on. I herd them to the lobby.
I call the incoming assistant manager, who calls the general manager, who calls me, miraculously gets through, and directs me through silencing the alarm after about fifteen minutes of continuous blaring. During this time, I've also called the fire department. The breakfast attendant had told me it was burnt toast and told me I'd have to call the fire department to reset the alarm. It obviously wasn't a real emergency, so I asked him if he had the number to the fire department, but he looked at me as though I'd just asked permission to put my finger in his nose and told me to call 911.
I called 911. Upon silencing the alarm, I called them back to ask them to cancel that order for a firetruck (with extra mushrooms, and sauce on the side), but the fire truck was pulling up outside and a very nice female firefighter came in and reset the alarm, and also informed me that herding guests to the lobby won't cut it next time. They have to head out to the dumpster or else we'll get a ticket.
So. All was quiet. People went back to their rooms. Other people figured that since they were up anyway, they might as well have breakfast. All was well.
Then one person came up to complain about the inconvenience of the fire alarm. He got our "Please Steal From Us" Guarantee. Then another person came up for the same reason. And a third.
By this time, it was after seven and my shift was over, but I was staying over an hour until management got in so I could tell her what happened. Just before I left -- my very last encounter with a guest before I got to go home -- a guy came up to inform me in a snotty tone that he used to work in a hotel and that fire alarm went on way too long.
"It's easy to turn it off," he said, "You just find out what zone it's in and shut it off. That alarm went on too long and you inconvenienced everybody."
And then he huffed off.
Here's the thing. Up to that point, I was feeling pretty good. Yes, it was a mess, but I dealt with it as best I knew how, and I thought I'd done an okay job. People in the lobby were laughing together about a shared experience, and everyone seemed happy that no one was hurt and it was nothing serious. Also, lest we forget, the alarm went off because the smoke detector did exactly what it is designed to do, and detected smoke.
However, because of that one person -- that last person, may I remind you -- I have felt like a complete idiot all day long. That was not helped when I came in tonight to find fire and emergency procedures posted on the bulletin board, and my asshole boss only too happy to point out that those procedures are in the employee handbook, and that I had to have signed that I read them eight months ago when I was hired.
Tonight I did not hold my tongue. I told him, "Telling someone something once, briefly, eight months ago, is not imparting knowledge. It is only imparting the fact that there is knowledge."
He was unfazed, and put on that stupid hat of his and left. And I've been fuming and consumed by doubt ever since. Should I really have known what to do from one training session eight months ago? Would you? It really makes me feel stupid, and I hate, hate, hate feeling stupid.
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