Hey y'all, I posted this story before on my hotel horror page but someone recommended I share it here as well.
I worked in the hospitality industry for less than a year and I was the longest standing employee at my property- if that doesn't tell you enough about the working environment hopefully the remainder of this post will.
I worked as a front desk agent at a small property, the owner lives out of state and the person directly below him is my general manager and that is the extent of management- no HR. I was thrown onto desk working sold-out summer nights alone during my first week. I picked up on the job quickly, and I was the best reviewed front desk agent.
On Christmas Day, my GM asked me what room a specific person was in. I was already clocked off heading out the door, and of course I don't have everyone's room numbers memorized. I made a joke “everything left my head when I clocked off” I laughed it off and located the room number. That one joke is what started this whole story.
A month later, my GM informed me she was about to fire me. I asked her why, and she stated that the joke I made on Christmas Day made her feel like I did not care about this job.
- I am a part-time employee going to college, of course this job is not my life.
- I worked my day off December 24th when everyone called out AND December 25th for my scheduled shift- I don't care about the job???
Anyways, I assured her that I do care. I informed her that I used to take work home with me, but it became detrimental to my mental health and I have learned to leave work at work. She did not like that.
January and March became the most stressful months at this job. I worked extra hard, made no mistakes but was constantly blamed for others mishaps. Valentine's Day, we had a guest come in asking to change the dates on his advanced purchase reservation. With advanced purchase reservations WE CAN NOT TOUCH THEM. When you pay in advanced for a 3rd party reservation, they send us a virtual credit card for the exact amount for room and tax- and it will only work for the exact date the reservation was made. The new hire who was working Valentines day had no clue, and changed his dates for him. This later resulted in a lot of trouble for my GM, and she screamed at me about it. Before I could even tell her that I was not the one who worked Valentines day.
Now we get into what happened Saturday. On Saturday I (21 female) was working alone- when a guest came in. He had his dates changed on his advanced purchase reservation (by the same FDA who worked valentines day) and I had to break the news to him that the agent that did that was not supposed to do that and I was unable to check him in. I offered to get him a refund on Monday when my GM came in (I do not have the permissions to do it myself) and that I would need to grab new payment to get him in his room tonight.
This resulted in him screaming at me, he screamed at me harder than I have ever been yelled at before- granted, I do my job right so there has never been a reason to be screamed at. I was very vocal with my manager about this, I have very bad anxiety- I have it under control and it has never affected my work performance but when I am alone and a guy is screaming at me, my anxiety heightened. At this point, guests are crowding around to make sure I am okay. I am crying, asking this guy to leave and blowing up my GM's phone (she gets paid the big bucks to deal with guests like this). My GM never answers, so I call the police. Now, the guest is recording me cry while screaming at me in front of a group of my guests. The 911 operator hears this man screaming, and asks me to hide from him.
My manager calls me back, I informed her the police are here and she said that I made a good call. I had this guy trespassed, they forced him out while he is yelling “just arrest me!”
I calmed down and worked the remainder of my shift, everything went smoothly. I decided to call out on Sunday after all that (I got my shift covered even which I am not obligated to do). I was very anxious, I was planning on quitting soon anyways, and I had tons of sick time saved.
Once I returned to work, my GM pulled me into her office and asked why I had called out on Sunday. I informed her that I did not feel comfortable returning to work on Sunday, and that I needed a little time after dealing with a whole police case. She asked if I was okay to work my shift that night, I told her I was. She then told me when she was on the phone with me on Saturday I sounded “too anxious” and that maybe this was not the right job for me- and then fired me.
I handled the situation as well as I could, even without anxiety I think any young solo girl in my position would have been just as scared. I was fired based on my anxiety that has never affected my work performance.
I will add that I am in an “at-will” state making it really hard to sue based on discrimination- especially since I was fired verbally I have no proof. I need 680 hours for unemployment, and I only had 620. There is nothing I can do about the situation, and that is what brings me the most anger.