Oh hi, Saturday. Today I wish I want to shop for a Halloween costume, buy some Halloween decorations with the roommate, do laundry like I should have done last week, call my grandma, call my mom, cook some soup, work on my freelance fiction stories, read the mystery thriller I started a few days ago, paint my nails, buy the lenses for my new hipster glasses frames, go to Urban Outfitters to look around, go to Hustler to buy some new lingerie, go to Target and get ideas for our Halloween dinner, watch the Food Network, go for a walk, conceptualize my new 5-year plan and how grad school fits into it, "lose" my AZ driver's license to get sent a new one to my my mom's house to then get one in CA and become a resident here, and maybe order a pizza for dinner.
OH RIGHT. I CAN'T. I HAVE TO WORK TODAY.
There are two reasons why people work in hotels: cheap travel benefits, and meeting interesting people. But there are perils to working in the hotel industry and at my hotel especially. Here's my shit list.
Peril #1: Prepare to never be home.
I work at a small-medium hotel and it only takes 5 people to run it. 2 people in the morning/afternoon, 2 people in the afternoon/night, and 1 person graveyard. So
7am-3:30pm= I feel sick every time I have to up by or before 6am drive, and this shift makes you exhausted once you get home.
11am-7:30pm= As the midshift person you do have little bit of time in the morning but only for 1-2 errands and quickly. You lose all of your afternoon during this shift, and when you get home at 8pm most people have already eaten and are off doing something, and most restaurants and shops close at 9pm.
3pm-11:30pm= You do have the mornings and just enough afternoon for going out to lunch or shopping or cleaning, but if you're going out, you can't fully relax knowing that you'll have to leave by 2:30 and you either need to be in uniform already or need to show up early enough to change in the bathroom.
Peril #2: You will turn into a stressed clock
Like I said above, you have very little time where you can (a) see people and (b) take care of yourself with the hotel schedule so you treat time like it's the precious squeezed commodity that it is. You can't fully enjoy your time because it's either almost over or you never get it so you want to make the most of it. I constantly feel stressed out about my time. I've turned into one of those people who starts the shower water, reads my email while it heats up while also brushing my teeth and finishes brushing in the shower.
Peril #3: You will lose self-confidence
Hotel front desk agents are treated like shit by the guests and co-workers alike. It's a super petty world where you simply can't meet expectations and not filing something in a file means you're a conniving asshole who will be gossiped about. And the worst of it, you can't quit because you're so grateful to have a job and no one wants to hire someone in a bad economy who wants to leave their last job after only 3 months. I feel stuck.
Peril #4: You will not have weekends off, nor will get to travel.
Needless to say, weekends are the busiest days of the week at a hotel. So either get Saturday off and prepare to have to come in on Sunday hungover and annoyed, or get Sunday off to party hard late on Saturday but miss out on the whole day. No one gets both Saturday and Sunday off. And since everyone else does, you can't go on a weekend trip with loved ones.
Peril #5: You will hate old people
Old people who go on cruises are my absolute least favorite people. They are ridiculously obnoxious and demanding and are often in a bad mood for some reason.
Well, I need to go dry my hair and get ready for work. Maybe I'll have time to buy lunch to go. Probably not.
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