I’m getting more and more used to housekeeping now. Since I have to do 2 different buildings, I have only 16 rooms. If all 16 rooms are occupied, I can usually finish by 1 P.M or earlier. If I have around 3 check-outs and the rest are occupied, I can finish by 2 P.M or earlier. Unfortunately, yesterday I had 11 check-outs. We had a meeting in the morning so we could not start until 8:30 A.M. Then 8 of my guests wants to check-out exactly at 11 A.M so I could not start cleaning the check-out rooms until 11 A.M. I was only able to clean 3 check-out rooms before 11 A.M, so I got behind. Also the day before yesterday night, I had a fever and resulted with a strep throat the next morning. I wanted to call-in sick but I didn’t want them to think I was being irresponsible with my rooms, and we get points for calling-out sick so I decided to go to work. It turned out really bad. Around 2 P.M I still had 5 more check-outs to finish up, so my manager was really mad and told me I was really slow. I tried to hurry up. Until 4:30 P.M, I had only 2 more check-out rooms, and that’s when another manager came to check up on me. She found out I was sick, so she started helping me with another room, while I did the room next to that room. Then around 5 P.M, my manager came to yell at me again, and helped the other manager with the other room. After I finished with my room, I went to help their room and we finished around 5:30 P.M.
Housekeeping is a really stressful job both emotionally and physically, and it really matters how a manager treats us. If the manager is someone who’s understanding, it can help the housekeeper a lot emotionally and it makes us feel really greatful.
This morning when I went to work, I found out my manager gave my section away and made me do two different villages. After I finished with one village, I had to walk around a lake, and cross two bridges in order to get to the other village to clean the rooms.
On the good side, my usual houseperson missed me today and I hope my VIP guests missed me too because we started talking and understanding each other more. Too bad I lost my section though… But I did meet new people and they were all very nice to me. I really enjoy talking and meeting new people and hear them talk about themselves.
I was also able to talk to a full time worker today. I found out that they gave her section away to me, which they then took away and gave to somebody else who got deployed to our resort recently. She became a floater, which is what I currently am. One time, she came to work and they did not have a board for her so they told her ADO (authorize day off) on the same day. She lived quite far so she got mad and didn’t want the ADO, so they had to come up with another board for her. Then when she was doing that room, they told her the person who the board belonged to came to work, and took that board away and gave her ANOTHER board to do. I was shocked when I heard this.
I heard in NY, the hotels make the room boards balanced for their housekeepers so that they don’t have too much check-outs in one day. Here, it is different. Even when we have 16-17 checkouts, we are still excepted to finish every room within 8 hours, which is impossible since check-outs have to be cleaned thoroughly with more detail. If we can’t finish the rooms by 8 hours, we get a point. But if we finish the rooms by 8 hours, but they are not up to standards, we get a point. Housekeeping is a really hard job. If I can successfully become a housekeeping manager in the future, with the experience as a housekeeper, I will definitely be more understanding for my housekeepers because they all work very hard.
Fiona, as I was reading this I thought of myself. I completely agree how difficult it is and overwhelming mentally and physically. I was telling my roommate if in the future I do become a manager I too will be very considerate and more understanding as well. Even when I lodge at a hotel as a guest I will make sure I tip them as well. Because I know for sure that it is a tough task.