I just have to write some steam off.
I honestly feel like she treats me like a slave and not a receptionist. She’s also unknowingly condescending, I believe because of my age and shyness. It’s frustrating.
There is a special incident that makes me wanna write this. But I’m also thinking in general, this woman is not fit to be a boss (I’m a woman too, no misogyny here). For example, she took a phone call regarding the bartender having a drink on the job right beside me, even giggling and making jokes about it. She seems to like me, but I felt like that was a privacy violation towards my colleague and it made me uncomfortable. My boss is a 35-ish woman and I’m only 20, but I seem more to understand how to behave like an adult…
Anyway, last time I worked there came a very extravagant, odd couple of guests with unreasonable demands. As a receptionist, it’s not my job to accommodate crazy requests (they wanted us to remake the bed to their liking and they also wanted us to gather all of the hotel’s largest pillows and put in their rooms): “we’re going to need at least 12 more of these, in each room” (because of course they booked one junior suite per person). I politely declined, but then my boss came and was like “no we have to make them happy and meet all of their demands”.
She wanted me to e-mail the head of housekeeping and tell them to make the guest’s beds according to their weird instructions… since she is my boss I didn’t dare not obliging and I felt embarrassed writing that e-mail (it’s an unreasonable request) and I did highlight the fact that it was my boss who wanted me to contact the housekeeper. Of course the housekeeper denied this request and I wrote in response that I agreed with her, but then my boss saw this and wrote a long, embarrassing e-mail about how we need to accommodate these guests and all of their wishes. The guests, by the way, acted very rude and odd. They’re foreigners and will most probably never come back to this hotel, and even if they did they’re not the kinds of guests you want to have back! I don’t understand why she wanted to put everything aside and “help” these needy, rude people. Most guests are really nice, but these are the kinds of people who makes my job miserable.
Then my boss was nagging on me about the pillow request, even accusing me of not looking into it (which I don’t actually feel like I had to) so I did walk down to the cellar and said “no, there are no large pillows down there”… and when my boss said to me “go remake their bed” (which made me feel subhuman… I know that sounds like an overreaction, but again… it’s not my job to accommodate crazy people)… I walked to the storage and grabbed two small pillows and a new sheet and put into one of their rooms. I’m a human too, not some slave. If they so badly wanted another type of bedding, they could do it themselves. Accommodating them with supplies for that is actually more than what we as receptionists have to do, I feel. There are other guests and other rooms in need of pillows and sheets, we can’t just give them everything they want. Upon that, we didn’t even get a “thank you”.
My boss wanted me to call my colleague in the sister hotel across the street, and make her scavenge that hotel for large pillows. I felt embarrassed making that call but I did point out it was my boss who wanted me to call her. Long story short, my boss made my colleague remake both of these people’s beds which in total took about half an hour.
The most reasonable request these guests had was breakfast in the room every morning, albeit unusual and expensive there are routines in place for such requests. But my boss looked at me and giggled like a little girl and said “I dont know what to tell them, that’s unreasonable”…
Furthermore, she bombards my colleagues with calls because she can’t manage this hotel alone (she’s a “new” manager, even though she’s been there for like 3-4 months. I’m new too, like 2 months, but I’ve worked other hotels before) and I can’t help but feeling she has a crush on one of them, even calling him when he’s out of service… so my boss is like, I’ve called so much already can you call instead? Regarding HER stupid and awkward questions, it makes me seem like the stupid one… and it makes me so uncomfortable to have my name on stuff like that. I feel like she uses me like some sort of human shield for her not to feel embarrassed… how does she think that makes me feel?
I’m sorry. This is a long post already, I could go on forever… just a rant.
Edit: and during all this time, time was stolen from other guests who needed help and service. And all of this made me walk home with an eerie feeling and feeling pushed over
She also seems to skip over basic hotel routines and general common sense. I’ve had worse bosses, heck I’ve been beaten by one, but this is just too much. Should I approach her about this?