I worked night audit for a year at a hotel and loved it because I could mostly be alone, take care of my duties, and then relax or study for a few hours in the middle of the night. I was lucky enough to have a cool boss who encouraged me to do my own things to pass the time during the night as long as I was awake and attentive to any guests. I’ve seen lots of reddit stories about how that’s pretty normal for the job, especially since it’s usually hard to find people who want to work nights.
I moved and I’ve been applying to tons of hotels to get a similar job. Only ONE of them had something about being able to work on your own projects during downtime. And the one I just applied and interviewed for this morning was really bad. She told me that unlike most places, they like to have two night auditors on duty. Weird, and already made me worried about the job because having to spend the entire 8 hours with someone else overnight basically already ruins the job for me. So I decided to ask as politely as possible if, after all my duties are done and no guests are around, if I could study for my degree. She said no. “We’re paying you to be here so I don’t think so. There’s always something to do, we like to keep people busy since you’re on the clock.”
Ugh. Heard that before. Hard pass. It was especially awkward because I sensed the interview was going too well, and I was at risk of getting myself hired into a nightmare, so I told her it sounds incompatible and I left. It’s just so frustrating, particularly with jobs like this that have an expectation of being a LITTLE more lax in return for working nights. And no one will hire me for the jobs I actually want until I have my degree that this would intentionally slow me down on achieving. Just sucks!
Any advice for other jobs where I could spend some time studying? Thanks