This week has been the hardest week yet. The amount of
times that I have had to tell myself that this internship is only 4 months, has
been exponential. I never thought that housekeeping would be so difficult.
Every day, I get up at 6:00 AM just to get to work by 8:00 AM. The bus gets to
my apartment at 6:45 AM and gets me to work at 7:10 AM. I wish there was a bus
that left later but I would get to work at 7:50 AM and I do not want to take
the chance of being late, due to traffic.
Monday
and Tuesday were my days off this week. My first time working forty hours a
week in about two years has been exhausting. Monday, I slept most of the day
and stayed in my apartment, trying to recuperate. Tuesday, I went to the Magic
Kingdom with my roommate DM and had a great time. I had no clue what
Wednesday had in store for me.
I
woke up on Wednesday and thought it would be like the other days that I had in
my training. What I did not think about though, was that Wednesday, was the day
I had to start cleaning rooms by myself. I got to work and clocked in. I had
made friends with a girl names DF, who had gone through all of my
classes, trainings, and orientations with me. Her first day cleaning rooms
alone was Monday, so I asked her how her last two days had gone, cleaning
alone. She told me it was the hardest thing she had ever done and that she did
not know if she could do it anymore. (Luckily, through Disney, housekeepers go
through something called ramp ups. They know that their college program
students have never been professional house keepers, so they start you off at eight
rooms for two days, ten rooms for two days, twelve rooms for two days, fourteen
rooms for two days, and finally, sixteen rooms. Every house keeper is
responsible for 16 rooms per day, on their own. There are also two different
types of rooms, normally; checkouts and occupies. In a checkout, everything
needs to be stripped and removed from the room and replaced whereas occupies,
only need restocking, trash taken out, and the bed made.)
DF l and I sat in
the room with all of the housekeepers after clocking in and listened to the
managers talk. They waste time in the morning speaking to us because normally,
when people go on vacation, they are not awake at 8:00 AM. After they stopped
talking, we walked up to the table at the front of the room to pick up our
board (our list of rooms for the day). On top of the boards, they put a door
stopper, so you do not have to worry about opening the door when you go into
the rooms. I was informed that if you lost it, you got a reprimand. This made
me ask what a reprimand was and how to get it. I was not told by a manager
about this, only my trainer, Maria. She explained that there is a point system
in Disney. If you call out for a personal day and do not get it approved, you
get one point. Three points make up a reprimand and if you get three reprimands
in ninety days, you are terminated. My mind was completely blown, when Maria
told me that losing the door stop was equal to a whole reprimand. Anyways, back
to work.
I had six checkouts and two occupies. I ran
all over the place and moved faster than I ever thought I could. Every time you
enter a room, you go to the phone and punch in 665. This tells the front desk
that there is a housekeeper in the room. It is also linked with the computer
system with housekeeping. Unlike other jobs, where you punch in and out once a
day, you have to punch in and out of every room you go into. After you are done
with a room, if it is an occupied, you punch 664 and if it is a checkout, you punch
663. If you do not punch out, the guest’s keys do not work on the room and you
get into very big trouble.
Needless to say, by the end of the day, all I
wanted to do was go to the boss and quite. I thought to myself, “This is way
too hard. I cannot do this” and “I will never be able to do sixteen rooms a
day”.
I ended up getting done
at 4:00 PM, which is a half hour early. My feet ached because I had not stopped
moving from 8:00 AM- 4:00 PM, not even for a break. An unspoken rule of
housekeeping is that, if your work is not done, you do not take a break. None
of the housekeepers at the Contemporary, ever take a break or even eat
anything! I had never experienced something like that in my entire life.
After you are done
cleaning rooms, you take the housekeeping cart back to the linen room and clean
it off. This means removing all of the dirty linens, garbage, coffee cups, and
drinking glasses. Then, you take the shelves with bathroom amenities and other
supplies and replace them with fully stocked shelves. After cleaning the cart,
you gather up your belongings and go up to the office. I work in the South
Wing, in the Contemporary Resort, also known as the training wing. This
building is three floors high and the manager’s office is on the third floor. I
handed the manager my board and he made sure that all of my rooms were punched
in and out for the day. He said I was good to go and I left.
I clocked out on the time
clock in the lunch room and sat down for a well-deserved meal. After I ate I
went to the housekeeping office to speak with the people in charge of the
college program and housekeeping. I walked in and asked to speak with someone
about potentially switching roles. They asked me why and I told them that I
could provide medical documentation that I have severe anxiety and could not do
housekeeping. They told me that it is highly uncommon for college program
students to transfer to another position.
They also told me that if I put on medical documentation it could go one
of two ways; I could get transferred or I would be self-terminating myself by
telling them I would be insufficient in my current position. They told me to
wait until the next day, when Ron, the head manager, came back. I decided to
stick it out and I went home to sleep.
The next day, I met the
most amazing manager I have ever met in my entire life, Ron. The day started
out just like the rest. I woke up and went to work with nothing but a feel of confidence
and positivity. Little did I know, my positivity would pay off. When I sat down
in the room before I started, Ron asked all of the people in the south wing to
stay behind for a meeting. He explained all of the problems that he had gotten
calls about while he was on vacation. The women and men started yelling about
how he does not care about them and reading him the redact. He kept a positive
attitude the whole time and invited them to speak with him privately in him
office after the meeting. When the meeting was over, he approached me and asked
me to come to his office to speak about the previous day.
He took me to his office
and sat me down asking about the previous day. I asked him questions regarding
a possible transfer and he told me it did not happen often. He then asked me
what he could do to help. I replied that I did not feel that I was competent
enough at housekeeping. He then explained that no one can just walk in and
become a house keeper over night that it takes time. He asked me what problems
I had and I explained myself. He told me he was going to do whatever he could
to help me. This gave me a whole new drive to do a great job. Having someone
tell me that I could do it was a great feeling. That day I had another eight
rooms; four checkouts and four occupies. I got done by 2:30 PM and had an
amazing day, I even got a break before going to help other people with their
work.
Friday and Saturday were
very easy as well and I started to get a feel for what I was doing but then,
Sunday came. There was a Princess half marathon so, even though I got to the
bus at 6:30 AM, the bus did not get there until 7:15 AM, normally 6:45 AM, and
we clocked in late to work. When we got to the room, I had six checkouts and
six occupies. I had the same board the day before and I got done really early
so I was excited. Then, all of my rooms were not ready until 11:00 AM so the
rest of my day was completely rushed. I did not end up getting my checkouts
done until 4:00 PM and I still had one occupied room left. One of my last
checkouts had some of the people that did the Princess half marathon so, they
had food, garbage, glitter, and crafting supplies all over! I thought I was
going to break down. I also got my first complaint for not dusting however,
even when you dust, within a couple minutes it just comes back. Finally, I
finished my rooms, cleaned my cart and went to put my board in. Ron said not to
worry about the complaint and that it was not a big deal. I felt so much
better! DF and I went to go get on the bus but we missed it. We went into
the Additional building to the contemporary and got to see their break room. We
were amazed at how bug and beautiful it was. After a while, we got on the bus,
around 6:00 PM, went home, and slept for the rest of the night.
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