Inn Perspective: The Elusive, Mythical "Break"

Hello to you, my hyper-cephalized friend, and welcome to this week's edition of "Inn Perspective" on TPP.

This week's subject: Breaks at work...or a lack thereof.

Working front desk makes you a master at multi-tasking.  You answer phones, send emails, write down requests, solve problems, give directions, make reservations, and check people in and out.  All of these tasks are done in combination at random in varying densities depending on if people show up early to the party or not.  (Side note...when we say "rooms are guaranteed at 3 PM", we actually mean 3, not 11, not 12, and certainly not 9 AM.)  I think I've increased my typing speed to a velocity that makes light and sound jealous, and I think everyone can hear me typing from about a mile away---"CLACK CLA-CLACKCLACK SPACEBAR!" 

Anyway, doing all this at once makes you rather tired after just a few hours and damn near ravenous by the time the fabled lunch hour comes by.  Hell, right around lunch, I start feeling like that anorexia patient all my doctors seem to be convinced I am.  You'd think that after about 4 hrs, I would be given about 30 minutes to eat a nice meal and rest my feet/knees/back. 

Yeah, well you thought wrong...

Two people work the front desk at a time, which means if either of us actually want a break, we have to abandon the other and make them take on twice the work load while we eat.  Thus, because we are decent people and know what it's like to be alone with guests coming in and the phones ringing off the hook, we eat as fast as we possibly can.  10 minutes, tops.  What's more, lunch is only available for a "1 hr" window of time during the day...except for once housekeeping gets in there, all the food is gone within a half hour.  So pretty much, you better like drinking left over chicken juices, or rush to get your sustinance as soon as it's put out.  Because of this, one of us always has to eat his/her lunch cold, which sucks.  Working at night?  Basically if the restaurant is too busy to take your order, you either have to wait until 9 or 10 to eat, or your choice is soup or soup...and you have to run and get it yourself as fast as you can.

So now that you've seen what I deal with, you will be able to empathize with me when I tell you this story.

"An Apple a Day Makes You a Big Fat Jerk":

One day we had a few guys with some company that I'm not going to name in house.  They were all pretty demanding and were taking up most of the rooms on the first floor of our building, which only made it worse since they were CONSTANTLY at the desk.  One of them came up to me and my coworker and asked where he could "get a snack" since he was feeling peckish.  Our restaurant hadn't reopened for dinner quite yet, and neither had our lounge, so we politely directed him to the vending machines located in our lobby.  Outraged, he exclaimed, "I don't want that crap!  I just want a god damned apple!"  We were offended, but we're trained to make it look like we really give a shit, so we calmly pointed out that our hotel is situated right next door to a grocery store, where he could purchase as many apples as his jerk-face heart desired.  "No, I want food HERE.  You're telling me that you have a restaurant and a lounge and I can't get a god-damned APPLE??!!"  At this point, I was about ready to find one and chuck it at his head, but my coworker saved him from a fruit-induced concussion by yours truly.  He went over to our cafe and by some divine miracle, found the guy an apple.  My coworker charged him $1.50 for it (which we do for all fresh fruit), to which he grumbled, "This should be free..."  I'm sorry, you're staying in a room for half the price we normally charge, have been nothing but a complete dick, and I haven't eaten in SIX HOURS, so you can pay your god damned dollar and 50 cents. 

You see, I'm stuck in this fishbowl.  He has free range to leave the hotel at any point in time to meet his needs for produce to fuel his douchebag engine.  I, however, don't get to leave.  I get whatever they happen to have, even if it's just a nasty grainy red delicious apple. 

...so hungry...no escape...

The Resource:
I honestly cannot stress enough the importance of foresight if you work a job like mine.  If you know you're not going to be able to eat until 9 or 10 PM, you should think about it and eat a relatively large lunch.  Working a job like this, in which you get fed every day, kind of takes a toll on what you have in your refrigerator.  So what's one to do when one has very little in the ol' ice box, yet needs to eat like a ravenous crow (haha did you see what I did there ^_^)?  Behold!

This website literally allows you to check off every damn thing in your fridge or pantry and comes up with easy recipes for you to make!  Isn't that AWESOME?!!  This is great for the uninspired chef or the constantly starving college student/front desk agent.  It will even tell you how many of the ingredients on the recipe you actually have and how many you will need to purchase, so this is totally a money-saver.  Why pay for groceries when you have 3 meals sitting in your fridge, right?  And it's not just meals...they have recipes for tasty snacks to bring to work as well!  Then when you're in the back for 30 seconds trying to shovel food into your face, you can take comfort in the fact that you do indeed have a treat waiting for you in your bag.

Or you could bring your own damn apple.  Whichever.

Next week's subject: Clear heels in the lobby--why dressing appropriately is important.

That's all for now!  Tune in this Wednesday for another installment of The Pocket Protector.

Until next time, dweebs <3