So, I’m writing this post because I was fired from my previous job. As much as I would love to say it was deserved, it really wasn’t. I simply put my two weeks in because I was tired of being treated like I was a clueless idiot. That, and I learned that my manager was throwing me under the bus to the owner for things that weren’t my fault. That really cemented my decision to quit.
I don’t know what it is with hotels down here in Florida, but they have some messed up office politics. I have never cried so much at a job until I started working in hotels down here; and I’ve been in customer service for close to 6 years.
The only other times I had cried, was when I was a week in to being a cashier, (at my first job,) and I had a mean, old lady berate me because I counted her change wrong and didn’t realize it at first. Luckily, I had a really nice lady behind her, who told me I was doing a great job and that I shouldn’t listen to her. (So, in case you’re reading this ma’am; thank you. I will never forget what you said.)
The second time happened at my short stint as a personal assistant to a car salesman. Yeah, I’m not quite sure what I was thinking. I sadly only lasted three months at that job, before I was let go. I had a really bad two-week period where I backed a new car into a wall, scratched another trying to pull one out of the photo bay, and finally driving a customer’s car back from getting it fixed and t-boning/side swiping another car. That was the final one that terminated me. My parents made me go back to the school where I took my drivers ed to take refresher classes.
That’s the job that doesn’t make it onto my resume.
My job after that was wonderful. It’s been my favorite (other than my internships.) I was a night auditor for a small 68 room hotel. The only downside was that I didn’t have anyone to talk to, so I became an even bigger chatterbox. The upsides were, basically, that it was easy. I ran audit* (that’s what flips a hotels system to the next day,) I did laundry if the housekeepers didn’t get it done during the day, I walked the floors and delivered your rapid checkout folios. I was done by 3 am. My shift didn’t end until 7 am, (8, if it snowed.) Easy-peasy, right? I didn’t even have to deal with too many weirdos.
When I moved to Florida, I got a job working at the front desk of a hotel. I made the mistake of agreeing to do audit if needed (I’ll show you why that was a mistake.) It was great to start off with, I worked two weeks at part-time before being moved to full-time. That was great for another month, then our night auditors quit.
(Here’s the mistake!)
I got asked and agreed to be put on audit. “Only for a little while, until we can hire someone else.” A little while meant 6 months. During that time the front office manager quit, and it took two months to hire a new one. Finally, we got a new one. (She was awesome. We’re still friends. Hi Jen!) She got me off full time night audit, and to relief in a month, (still not awesome. It meant that I had to pull swing shifts every weekend.)
Then she got me off completely. Yay! That was when I straight out refused to do audit again. I had been pulling swing shifts for months.
Then we had our relief auditor quit, yeah, they didn’t sucker me that time. I told her (Jen) that I would walk before I would work an audit shift again. I told her to the general manager that. He was the one who was pushing me to get back on audit. I never worked it again.
Then shit really hit the fan. The night auditor started to hate me, my coworkers on second shift, and the front office manager. I’m not sure when it really turned to hate, there were a few mistakes that could’ve been handled better, but nothing to hate us about.
Anyways, our log book turned into the aptly name ‘burn book.’ I didn’t participate, no matter how much I wanted too. The auditor was really taking shots at me and my second shift coworkers. She rude to me whenever we had to interact, and they always tried to get me in trouble with the general manager. There was one time that I had to walk out, otherwise I would’ve started yelling at her.
The front office manager quit not too long after that, and I followed her a month later. I was so glad to get out of there. So glad that I thought my most recent job was a great place to work. I had cried more times, (until the recent job) than I ever had. The general manager tried to pressure me into working audit, especially after I told him ‘no’. I almost walked then. It was horrible.
The recent job started out great too, and then it turned horrible. I was yelled at, scolded, and micro managed. I was blamed for stuff I didn’t do, which put me on ‘thin ice’ with the owner, according to the general manager. So, I put my two weeks in. I was done. I had cried enough. My eczema was still there; the stress was killing me.
They escorted me out four days after I put in that notice. Just long enough to give a crash course training to the person replacing me.
I knew it was coming. I was close enough to management that I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish out two weeks. I had cleaned out my desk the day after I put my resignation in. So, since they walked me, I applied for unemployment. I did not know you could do that, but according to my family, they basically fired me, even after I told them I was quitting. They’re not going to pay me for the remaining time, which they should, apparently. (Learn something new every day.) So, I filed for unemployment.
I have yet to find out if I got it, or if my previous job is going to pay me. I’ll keep you updated on the whole fiasco though. It’s like a soap opera sometimes.
Morals of this (really, really long) story. Don’t stay in a job that makes you cry and give you health problems. Hotels in Florida have horrible office politics. Never ever, allow six women to work together. (We get catty. Prime example up there.)
Peace out,
Liz
*Note: It’s not usually run until 2:30 – 3:00 am. So as long as you check in before that, you’re good. There’s also a way that we can check you in after that time. It’s a lot more complicated, but it’s cool, we usually don’t mind. (Remember, we have no one to talk to.)
