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| For the Housekeepers 2003, August 25 - 12:08 p.m.
I am through with The Ambassador hopefully for life. I'm really excited about this though it hasn't entirely sunken in yet. I still feel like today is my day off and I will have to go in to work in a day or so. But no; this is the real deal. I am finished. When I was first looking for a summer job in hotel housekeeping, everyone told me that it was the same everywhere and I should just go back to the Days Inn. But it isn't the same everywhere, not by a long shot. Little things were different: there was more time to finish rooms, we all had lunch together, there was an afternoon break, they brought us drinks for breaks, help for those who needed it was a given... all those things helped to make the place better but I think the biggest thing that those little extras did was boost morale. Because the women I worked with there are people I'm going to miss. They were hard working, funny, good people and when I left they let me know that I would be missed too. There was Sandra who always sings an oldies song after lunch break and cracked jokes throughout the day; Darlene, alias speedy gondzalas who had the guts to say things I couldn't; Nelly with her thick spanish accent who would always say during break, "Oh! My rooms are baaaaaaaad," or "Oh, my room are nice today!" Angelina who was always smiling and poking or jabbing to get a joke across though with a very thick portugese accent, I could rarely understand what it was; Colleen who is fun to work with and is expecting a baby in four months and "shitting her pants" about it; Elaine who always called me Sweetie and kept trying to re-arrange my dress bow on me. But they were all happy to know I was getting an education. They assured me that I didn't want to do rooms for the rest of my life, not if I could do something better. They made plenty of jokes though, Cecilia who trained me said, "You come back next year!" with a grave seriousness in her tone just to get me going. I got plenty of hugs, plenty of good-byes and from Darleene, "Think of me once in awhile." I know I will. It's not the sort of job that you just leave, it is the sort that leaves its mark on you. I'm a better person for having worked there. I know I am. These women really illustrated for me that it's how you do you work that is important. It's how much pride you take in your work that will get you through your day. It's knowing that you're good at what you do. It's finding ways to make your day fun in a very tiring job and spreading the fun around. I know that because of these women, I never dreaded coming in to work. That is something I will take away from this, I think. Thank You - 2006, June 7
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