STOP FRIGGIN JUMPING

[Ieatspoons09]

When you work in the hotel industry you learn two things. First it's full of sucky customers who hate you, and second full of sucky managers who don't care about customers who hate you.

The only thing worse than working in a hotel is working in a hotel with a damn pool. A typical evening would go something like this.

-I see a person dives into 5'0" pool on the monitor behind the desk
-I have to go ask them not to do it again
-They apologize and things go quiet for about 15-20 minutes
-Same person dives in again
-I have to warn them to not jump in the pool again or I will have to ask them to leave the pool room
-Probably about 30 minutes go by, same person now cannon balls into the pool
-I inform them they have to leave the pool area

THEN THE CONVERSATION

- "I jumped in, the sign only says no diving"
- "I'm sorry but no diving implies no jumping and I have given you multiple warnings"
- Person makes a big huff and storms off, most likely swearing their head off
- I have to write a report on the diver

Now that was an average night at the hotel

My favorite one, which also was the one incident that helped solidify my decision to quit this job went something like this.

-Person dives in
-ask to stop
-Same person and a friend dive in
-warning
-They jump in instead of diving
-gave them another warning because I was really tired and it was only an hour before the pool closed
-Same people cannon ball in to THE KID SECTION (maybe 1 to 2 feet)
-I have to ask them to leave

"The sign only says no diving!"
"I also said the sign implies no jumping as well"
"Then your sign should SAY no jumping"
"I have already told you not to jump in as well"
"This is ridiculous!"
"I'm sorry but you two will have to leave the pool room"

(these were grown adults, not children)

Later they come up to the desk "The sign only said no diving"
same spiel again "It doesn't matter, I already gave you more than enough warning"
Two girls storm off

-----

The next day

----

I came into work and a coworker says to me "I'm sorry but the boss says you can't work until you have a meeting"

I then schedule a meeting with the boss

"We have recieved a report saying that you were rude to a guest"

I asked which guests, but I already knew

"Two girls were in the pool room and their mother said you were very rude to them. That you came in screaming like a mad man and told them they had to leave the pool area"

I explained what happened. My boss then said I was the worst worker she had and that I truly embarressed her. This went on for 45 minutes. Me pleading my case knowing full well that this was going nowhere. At one point the owner said "You see things as too black and white, you need more gray"

the only dignified thing I had left to do was to get up and say "Then I guess you won't be needing my services anymore, good bye"

Moral of the story don't work at a hotel, you quit, can't find a job, and are only left with bad memories of guys who yell at you for anything they can think of.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Too black and white? When some idiot is paralyzed from cannonballing into a 2 foot deep pool there will be lots of black and white in the papers for the lawsuit.

Though there might be some red from where they crack open their skull diving into five feet of water...

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

And people wonder why I call people like that "dry pool diving team members."

Guess your boss had more money than brains if she could shrug off something that could easily lead to her being sued back to the stone age.

[Erin]

I wonder if that kid realized that you can easily break a neck, or get a serious head injury diving into a shallow pool. That's the reason behind the "no diving" signs at hotel pools. (most hotels wont have that big of a pool)

I have a cousin who dove into a lake. (not quite the same thing as a hotel pool) but he didnt know how deep the water was where he dove in...turns out it was only a few feet, 4 feet or less. He hit his head on the lake floor, and ended up breaking his neck.

He's been a quad now for about 30 years. He's a really really big guy. He'd probably be over 6 feet tall if he could stand.

Those kids might have thought you were just being a big bully, but asking them not to dive into the pool several times probably saved them from getting hurt.

Of course, if they did dive in, and you didnt come in and say anything, and then broke their neck...they'd be saying that they didnt see any signs and no one warned them they shouldnt be diving into a shallow pool.

[Ieatspoons09]

I actually have a few of these types of stories, when I get around to it, I want to post my tooth brush story, or about how if the internet isn't working on one guys computer but everyone elses the internet is "still down" and has nothing to do with their computer...

Really though I have a ton of stories from that job... That was my first REALLY bad job

[mircea12345]

I was an MOD (Manager on Duty) for a hotel in my hometown and I used to have a problem with the outside pool we offered. Where I am from it's hot and sticky in the summer times and a lot of local parents would want to bring their kids and rent a room and play in the pool for a day or two. My owner thought this was a great source of business and would encourage us to ensure we got these people to stay. I alway had a least 2 different types of incidents every d**n summer.

Incident #1

One summer when I was on duty, I had a quad room in house that was using the pool, and got a complaint from another guest that the pool was being used for a party. I remember vividly, walking back to the pool to see no less than 50 people lounging around or in the pool, while some a** actually had brought a grill and was cooking something. Not only was this a huge fire hazard with all the landscaping we had, but I had inhouse a total of 3 rooms. So we had no amount of guests near this in the hotel. I went and found the "culprit" who seemed to think that because they were paying $49.00 for a room that they had some right to thow a pool party with 50+ friends. Needless to say I kicked them to the curb, but it never fails to amaze me how far someone who pays such a small amount is willing to feel entitled too.

Incident #2

There have been many times that local kids would ride their bikes through the hotel grounds (it was a very wide open space). I was constantly having to chase them off as they were truly a nuisance for the guest of the hotel. One summer, these precious angels decided that it was hot so they went and rode around the property causing problems, then stashed their bikes and jumped the fence to get at the pool. Now I had several guest using the pool, so these kids thought they would just blend in with the other kids that were already playing in the pool. I got a complaint from one of our real guests that some kids were roughing it up too much and even picking on the kids of that same guest. I went down their and automatically knew these kids for what they were, so before anything I looked around the property. I was able to find their hiding spot for their bikes and took them and locked them up in a storage I had access too.

After doing this I went and got them out of the pool, and asked them where their Room was / Parents were. They lied and told me a room I knew was empty and when called on it, they ran. I walked casually after them and leaned on a wall near where I could see, and watched as they got to the "getaway bikes" and found them all gone. One of the larger boys (maybe 11 at most) looked my way, and I waved and smiled and went back to my front desk and just waited.

About 2 hours passed and the oldest boy and his mother showed up, him looking rather cocky and the mother looking pissed. I waited for them to ask for a manager, and walked out, and glad handed them as I always do. She retold the story to me how I had chased the boys down as they were simply riding by like good little children and threatened them and took their bikes from them for simply riding past the hotel. I listened with a hidden smirk as she told me that her child was a good boy and I had no right to touch him or his bike, and she was going to get the police. I then nodded and invited her to my office to show her something.

I remember the look on the little boys face when she came out of the back office after seeing the video I had of the child and his actions, and I thought I might have to call the police as bad as she was screaming at him. She asked me whether I would give the bike back, and I smiled and told her I had turned all the bikes over to the police as "potentially" stolen items found on the hotel grounds. I know for a fact from my police friend that the bikes were never recovered. Its never nice to mess with a child, I know this, but it seemed like this one needed a simple lesson in life. As well, I really didn't mind sticking it to the little.........

[ralerin]

Snacks are there, drinks are here, help yourself. And here's some brain bleach for ya in my avatar, you're going to need it.

[crazylegs]

Thing is it's not just when people dive into shallow water that it's a problem, if you jump in feet first there's a real danger of completely FUBARing your pelvis into dust. Try swimming with a fractured pelvis, it'll certainly be interesting!

[Mr. Security]

I find it funny that they try and claim that the "NO diving sign doesn't say no jumping" seeing as in order to preform a dive you have to do some sort of jumping motion thus diving is the exact same as jumping so yes the signs do mean no jumping in. This happens a lot in security people will try and be smart asses and try and twist rules to mean what they want

[NateTheChops]

Oh man, I feel for you.

I quit my job for much the same reasons.

"You're nasty to customers" translation "You refuse to sell alcohol and tobacco although you're legally entitled to. And when the customer calls the bullshit hotline they complain about you and so if we cut your hours back that will make everything right."

You can take some small consolation in the fact that after you're gone the hotel will undoubtedly be closed down due to some humungous lawsuit followed by nasty customer reviews and bad press.

[EricKei]

I was kinda confused about why they would not want people *jumping* in (the reason for not diving was obvious) until I re-read it >_<

Thing is, even if the sign failed to say "no jumping"....and it really should say that...the second you told them not to jump, that should have been End Of Story right there. You were there to protect them from getting really, really hurt. Your boss, in this case, was a complete and utter , too.

Here's to bigger and better in the future , and to !!

[jjllbb]

This is classic management behavior.

We enforce their policies, thereby preventing lawsuits, and while their asses are covered by our efforts, they are free to tell us that we were WRONG because a "guest" was unhappy. And that somehow we could have kept them happy AND alive instead of dying in the pool.

grrrr.

[MergedLoki]

There's a guy whos' a regular at the hospital here (in and out every few months).

who... jumped off a too high perch into a pool. got injured. got told by.. police, paramedics, doctors etc. NOT to do it again.

did it again (idiot). and he's not paralyzed from the neck down.

so yes, bad shit can happen when you dive into a pool TOO shallow to be dived into.

I can see the people jumping in and understand their 'but the sign only said no diving' point. BUT regardless when you said 'also dont jump in the pool either please' then yea.. they should have listened and NOT jumped in the pool.

what really sucks is that you're jobless now for following the policy the boss put into place. (and of course IF someone HAD been injured you would have gotten your ass fried for NOT following policy).

gotta love dickhole managers/bosses.

[Samaliel]

Thing is it's not just when people dive into shallow water that it's a problem, if you jump in feet first there's a real danger of completely FUBARing your pelvis into dust. Try swimming with a fractured pelvis, it'll certainly be interesting!

Even if you don't break your pelvis, you might damage your feet, especially the heels. When my father worked in a hospital, he would often see people with the "Burglar's Fracture" (so called because allegedly, burglars would shatter their heels when jumping down a wall or out a window) because they jumped feet first in a too shallow pool.

So, seriously, if they ask you not to do it, you don't do it. Period. If you still do, then you're on your own.

[Digitalpotato]

My sister once jumped into a pool and broke her foot...it was actually pretty low. (seriously that wasn't 3 feet...it was 2 inches below the marker.) Although granted, she DOES have O.I...