Pondering the world

... and then there were none

In less than a week, I went from having two housekeepers to having none. 

I made the decision to terminate one Tuesday rather than wait, and boy, did she give me attitude.  She huffed out saying it was better for her anyway, so we suspect her "appointments" during working hours (stupid!) have been job interviews, and now she doesn't have to worry about giving notice.  Since we weren't thrilled with her work, I wanted to cut my losses early.

We had decided to wait it out with our main housekeeper to see how much longer she continued to miss work.  Since August her attendance has been very spotty, but she had been very good about calling to let me know she wouldn’t make it to work.  But the last 3-4 times she hasn’t come and hasn’t called.  I went back to her timesheets since August and found that out of 35 days scheduled to work, she’s missed 16.  Not a very good track record.  Today was the last straw—once again 10:00 came with no housekeeper and no call.  So we tighten our belts and live without housekeepers for a few months during the slow season. 

I just don't get it:  show up on time, do the work, pay attention.  Is that too much to ask?  Guess so....

two steps forward, three steps back

It's been a tough weekend.  I spent the entire day Saturday doing laundry while the two housekeepers did the cleaning, and I still didn't finish until 6:00 p.m.  I think I sat down for five minutes to grab a very fast lunch. 

Yesterday my scheduled housekeeper didn't show up and didn't call.  I left her a "where are you?" voicemail but haven't heard back yet.  The last time this happened, she ended up in the hospital.  I hope she's okay.  But that meant I had five rooms to do by myself, after we finished two seatings for breakfast for 18 people.  I didn't even get out of the dang kitchen until nearly 11:30.  Needless to say, nothing else got done except the three rooms I had to finish for people checking in and all of the laundry.  Steve helped me strip the rooms and make the beds and did some of the laundry, but then he returned to being the office lackey.

Innkeepers, as a whole, try to take on too much by themselves.  We go to the national conference every year, and the continuing theme is that the innkeeper should "work on the business, not in the business," meaning I should be doing the marketing, networking, improvements, website, etc., rather than slogging it out every day doing laundry and housekeeping.  I think it was Seth Godin about a year or two ago who said, "hire out that $10 an hour job," because no amount of money can pay for the things the owner has to do, and no one else can do those things for you, meaning the marketing, networking, improvements, website, etc.

Ask any innkeeper--getting and keeping reliable staff is the most difficult part of the business.  If I'm working in the business, I'm not making any improvements.

Two steps forward, three steps back.