Super long. tldr: quit on the spot on the moral, ethical and procedural high ground and now I'm in the gutter.
I worked for a backpacker hostel chain in Australia for over 5 years in various roles of front office reception as a lacky and supervisor, group booking management, housekeeping and, a bit of management work on the side(helping out for free).
I have always been very down the line regarding policy and procedure, specifically regarding safety, security and, guest comfort. At times I gave bosses and bosses bosses headaches regarding a decision I made or my conduct in general but nothing ever came of anything as I always followed company policy and procedural training to the letter. Clean record.
The incident: nice guest comes to reception around 11:30pm explaining the electronic key lock to his door isn't working. After troubleshooting for about 30 minutes I could not fix it so we both returned to front desk so I could move him into a different room. All good so far.
At this time his room mate, bad guest, comes to the desk saying his key dosent work. While I have the first guest waiting I quickly explain to bad guest the situation and that he'll have to also change room.
What followed was over 45 minutes of this guy basically behaving like a 4 year old toddler. I got the first guest into his new room relatively quickly while dealing with bad guest. I explained in explicit detail what the issue with the door lock was, reasons why he had to move room(fire safety and security of the room being the big ones).
For over 45 minutes this guy just stood there acting like a toddler. Refusing to move, responding with “why” or “I don't want to”, this type of person is the hardest to deal with, anyone who has worked customer facing roles will confirm. The first 15 minutes was spent explaining to him the reasons why, then another 10 minutes de-escalating his poor behaviour after he began to obfuscate and tried to spin around what I had said. After realising this man child could not be reasoned with I then spent 10 minutes pointing out the hostels guest code of conduct specifically two things, guests must follow reasonable direction from staff at all times and not behave in a way that upsets the comfort of stay of other guests, giving him more time to change his mind and room move, he did not.
I was friendly with him the whole time, speaking clearly but in a firm/stern manner. No aggressive body language. During this time while speaking with him I had processed his room mates room move, provided minor first aid for another guest and checked in two late arrivals.
After 35 minutes I finally informed him that further refusal to move room “could” result in him being refunded and asked to vacate the property. He continued to refuse for another 5 minutes so I decided to inform him that he is no longer a guest due to breaching guest code, had 20 minutes to gather his belongings and return to reception where I would then provide a refund for unused nights including this night.
He continued to refuse to move an inch so I informed him of trespass and liquor licence laws. He still refused to budge so I called police to attend to assist in his removal. He continued arguing with me so I gave a bit more detail on some liquor licence and trespass laws including disruption of business and failure to vacate when asked which can result in fines of over 7k.
This got his attention and he finally decided to gather his things from the room. When he returned he wanted to argue some so I simply said if he continues to waste my time and disrupt the business and comfort of guests in the reception and bar area that I would insist of police officers to issues the above mentioned fines. He decided to finally leave after receiving his refund. Police arrived 30 seconds later and left once I explained he had vacated.
All of the above followed company policy and procedure regarding problem guests, fire safety, de-escalation, refunding etc. No one was hurt, there was no violence but most importantly the other guests could return to enjoying the hostels facilities.
What followed was a meeting with my direct manager where he gathered a detailed verbal report and nuances of the incident. This is normal and by the end of the meeting it was implied all was good and nothing further to worry about.
Later in the week a second meeting was organised with the same manager, this time for an hour where I was informed I was likely to be formally warned for misconduct relating to guest services but a decision had not yet been made. I reminded him that I followed all company policies and procedures and that I would like the outcome of the decision before I returned to work for my shift, implying I would not return until I received the outcome.
Two days later I to call this manager in the evening outside of office hours for the outcome as my next shift was due to start later that night. He informed me I was being formally warned for misconduct and that it was verbal, not written. I again reminded him that no policy had been breached but to no avail.
I simply asked him if this decision was final with no option to escalate and he confirmed it was. I then politely informed him that I resign with immediate effect explaining that the holding the upset feelings of problematic guests above the companies staff and its own policies and procedures would lead to more incidents like this in the future and that they would increase in severity.
He disagreed with me for the last time and asked me to confirm my resignation in writing, I declined saying verbal is fine, just like my unjust warning and hung up.
Edit. My boss admitted I followed the policies and procedures correctly. I was being warned for “weaponizing the policies against a guest”. This was the deal breaker for me, it's accepted policy to do this to de-escalate a situation.sorry just though I'd add this little piece of info.
edit 2. Despite how long this post is, I have left out a ton of info giving further context and recent changes within the company that show how shitty they are/have been. I'm not worried about being outed, I'm already in the gutter. It to protect the few people left there who I had mutual respect for. Cheers
Fuck him and that company. Some credit, they did pay out every cent dollar owed to me but still, fuck them and that 30 something man child.
All of this was over a month ago.
Some follow up since then. I am now broke(a death in the family and the cost of transferring within the company to this position in accordance new city 6 weeks earlier drained my savings) and navigating the red tape bureaucracy of collecting a government hand out and emergency housing assistance. Currently standing in soup lines and sleeping either in a park if the sun is up or train station/bus terminal once closed which have a police and security guard presence.
Knowing where I ended up, in the gutter, I would not change my decision to leave that company with immediate effect. The moral, ethical and procedural compass is to strong in me. I'll be fine though, the resume is outstanding and I can sell ice to Eskimos, it just might take a while as the school year has finished and it's backpacker arrival season so the job hunt may drag on for a bit
Cheers for reading this if you made it to the end.