Hello everyone. Happy Wednesday. I’m going to be honest. Today, I did not feel like sitting down and writing a blog. With how crazy my life as an assistant manager of a hotel has been lately, I’m just tired. I wanted to spend the whole day sleeping, but I got up and did some things. Today will be another blog of let’s see what comes out, because I have not had the time, or mental capacity, to think of a blog idea. With that out of the way, let’s see what happens.
Choosing Management
When I suggested moving into management to my boss a few years back, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I was just being typical me and trying to see how I could help. The assistant manager had left and there was a lot that my boss was trying to get done. To bring some clarity, my bosses own more than one business. It’s not that they just don’t want to be at the hotel working. They’re always working. So, I wanted to help out and brought up the idea. Slowly, I started to take on more responsibility. The next thing I knew, I was promoted to Assistant Manager.
The Challenges
I’ve never been in management, but I have been in leadership roles before. At church, I was one of the core volunteers when I was at Southland. Other leaders looked to me for guidance and help. I thrived, loving the position and loving that I could be there for the other volunteers. I’ve been a supervisor at a past job. I did not enjoy it so much and found it too stressful. But, yet I still offered to have more responsibility. It has been a crazy learning experience. I don’t know the first thing about managing a hotel. Learning how to schedule people, handle complaints, and bring in more business for a small hotel is challenging. We did look into getting me schooling for the position, but when the pandemic hit, we put the idea on the shelf. Doing interviews, hiring, and I’ve even had to fire one person; this was also completely new.
The Joys
Now, it’s not all stress and doom. If that was the case, I would have walked away long ago. The people that I work with are some of the most encouraging people I know. Whenever I feel like I’m failing as an assistant manager, they are there to pick me up. My coworkers also try to make my life a bit easier as well, especially when I’m struggling with how to schedule everyone. We don’t work for a chain, so being a small independent hotel means we have to work harder for business. We don’t always know what the week or weekend is going to look like, so that challenges me with how many people I should schedule. Having staff that is willing to work with you is a huge blessing.
We also get some regular guests who are an absolute joy to have. They’re more like friends than guests. We have even had guests who buy the staff coffee or cook for them. Small acts of gratitude like this are what keep us going in the hard times.
Right Now
Right now work is a challenge. Business is showing signs of increasing, which is amazing. However, that leaves me with the question, do I hire more? How many should I hire and for what positions? Do I schedule more people on a shift? I’m also covering for a night shift who is on holidays, as well as training another night shift. This means I work a lot of nights. I practically live at the hotel. I know that’s just temporary, and when the other person comes back, that will already be a load off. When the other night shift is fully trained, another weight will lift and I can focus on other things. I will say, the paychecks are nice. After all, I’ll need the money for more trips.
That’s it
So, that’s my hotel life right now. Busy, crazy, and with some rewards. It does make sticking to my blog schedule tricky, but I will continue to do my best there. I am looking forward to the two different trips I have planned. Should hopefully give me some good content. I look forward to the day when I can do lots of different travel blogs in a year. However, that dream will have to wait till I make a decent income from my blogs. Until then, I’ll do my best. Thank you for being there for me and remember, anything can happen if you try.
