Some people just think that they deserve more than everyone else. Now, I'm no shrink; I'm not sure how they arrive at this conclusion. I'm not even sure what kind of mind set you would have to be in to think such a ridiculous thing. I know that I have to work incredibly hard, and even then I likely won't get what I want. It is occassionally disappointing, but, hey, it's life. It's kinda like my mother's motto, which is, "Life sucks, and then you die." Obviously, she is an incredibly optimistic woman, but there is some truth to the words in that life is often difficult. Money doesn't grow on trees, and neither does happiness.
I know what you're thinking. This is such a downer blog!! And what in the world does this have to do with housekeeping?!?! Well, my friend, it has everything to do with it. Hang on to your breeches, and I'll give you a slice of the entitled side of things. Just this last month, we had some fancy-pants guests staying at the hotel, the "higher-ups" you might say. They were with "cooperate", we were told, and they were our main concern for probably an entire month before they came. We had to make sure everything was absolutely perfect for them. We were assigned extra cleaning chores, especially dusting...ugh, I really hate dusting. Seriously, how is it that I only need to dust my house, like, twice a year and it's perfectly fine, but at this bloody hotel if you don't dust every single day, there's dust everywhere, suffocating the furniture, it's some sort of curse or something, quite frankly, it's unnatural. But I digress. The main point is, every employee at the hotel had to do all this extra work in anticipation of the arrival of these fancy people, meanwhile ignoring all of the current guests. It seemed a bit, well, rude.
Plus, we do all this work, and what's there to show for it? The guests come, they do whatever they want, including smoke in the guest rooms (um, hello, go outside, get some fresh air while you pollute those lungs, for Pete's sake), and then they leave without a single "thank you, ma'am" amongst the lot of them. Well, excuse me, but it just doesn't seem right. I mean, a few tipped a tiny bit after their extensive day stay, but most didn't tip at all. And most of these people live lavish lives of luxury and travel. They're millionaires. Each one probably spent $40 a day just on the elaborate breakfasts they ordered every morning, but drop a ten-ski for the poor little old maid at the end of the week? Of course not. It's all "me, me, me" in their little world. Not that I'm angry, exactly. I still get paid by the hour regardless of who tips me or not (although it's tragically below what we housekeepers deserve for our hard work!). I guess mostly I am just disappointed. If I was in their overly polished suede shoes, I like to think that I would be generous to my fellow human beings. When did it become acceptable, even praiseworthy, to not share your good fortune? Just something to think about...
