I realized this morning on my very long ride to work that I have spent over half my life in one version or another of the hospitality industry! Starting at the Dutchess County Country Club as a cocktail server when I was 16, to waitress at many different establishments in NY and Boston, to Cater Waiter, to Wedding Planner (god save us all!) to Hotel Sales Manager. And at long last I am finally getting out of the industry. It is like a legalized verison of the mafia with way more people than I can count coming up to me in a whisper saying "how did you do it? how are you getting out?"
I do understand the grass is always green, but here are some of the things I will not miss (some of this is my own list and some I had help with!):
- you open doors for other people everywhere
- you answer your phone with "Good morning this is Katie speaking, how may I help you?" no matter what phone it is and where you are
- when visiting another hotel, a hotel customer has trouble getting his electronic key to work and as a passerby you offered your services to go down to the reception to reactivate the key for him
- You sat at the same desk for 4 years and worked for 8 different Managers
- Food left over from a banquet or meeting is your main staple diet
- You get a strange twitch in your right eye when people say the word wedding (I feel like it will be years before this one leaves me!)
- You smile and say 'good morning' to total strangers in the street
- It's dark on your drive to and from work
- Communication is something your 'group' is having problems with
- You forget what you look like in anything but a suit
- All the work you were hired to do gets done before 9 and after 5
- You're already late on an assignment you just received
- Your boss's favorite lines are: "When you get a minute...", "In your spare time...", "I have an opportunity for you..."
- 50% of the people in your company don't know what you do
- The other 50% of the people in your company don't care what you do
- Vacation is something you roll over to next year, if you are allowed
- You have never paid more than $99 for a hotel room thanks to employee and Friends and Family rates
- Six months is considered to be substantial longevity
- You dial '9' before the number no matter where you are calling from
- When you are walking in public, you have to fight the urge to pick up scraps of paper and rubbish on the floor
- Your toilet paper at home is folded in a triangle on the first sheet
- You inspect your hotel room when traveling
- You call your spouse or partner your "added value"
- You correct people when they use the word free, saying it's complimentary
- When friends visit you at home, they wonder why you always take them on a "site-tour"
- you refer to the wi-fi in your own house as complimentary (I really did this!)
Most of all, you read this entire list and understand it.
Before I say my final farewells to the hospitality industry, I should mention that had my life not taken this path I would never have met some of the amazing people who I now call my closet friends (including my husband!), I would have never moved to Boston nor Bermuda, and I would not still have the amazing Friends & Family Rate hook ups that I will hold near and dear to me for years to come (Or at least until the next trip I plan)
