Saturday's Passage of the Week

In my upcoming book, Service IS The Business (working title) I share a behind-the-desk perspective of what it is like to work at a real San Francisco hotel concierge desk.

Enjoy this brief segment from the third chapter.

Slowly, I was learning the ins-and-outs, the Escher-like passageways, of the hotel business.  I began to discern who was committed to this job, and who needed it as a step leading to the next job or as a resume-builder.  Take the new assistant manager, Joe Park.  He was pursuing a degree in Government from the University of San Francisco (not to be confused with my alma mater, SFSU, or UCSF).  For the record, many well-known politicos were graduates of USF, so Joe was in good company.  

He liked hiring his friends to fill vacant front desk and bellman positions, which actually worked out because most of them were good at it.  Most, but not all.  A few of his friends just did it to make a little extra spreadin’ around cash.  It was common for them to call in sick on the day they were supposed to work, or come in late.  Since the man they had to answer to was their friend, they didn’t really feel the weight or consequences of their actions.  

Most of the time this didn’t affect me; however, one of the most egregious of these guys was a bellman named Henry Sandoval.  He used to joke that he didn’t really need the job, but he liked it because it was good exercise and he could make tips.  I rarely called in sick, even on days I should have.  With the exception of the occasional vacation, I never took a day off.  Henry, on the other hand, called out sick (read: hungover) on many occasions.

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