Job Search

"Oh you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that.  It's called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar."

- Drew Carey 

 I am looking for a new job.  My years in hospitality are, I feel ( I hope), drawing to a close.  I realized this approximately 4 months after I began work in the hospitality business in the June of 2008.  It turns out that guests, while I'm sure they are perfectly lovely people in other situations, are needy and annoying and ask ridiculous questions ("Do you have a gym here?"...."Um, no. We are a hostel.  You are paying 15 pounds a night to stay in a room with 5 other smelly people in inner London.").

Let us recall some of the more exciting or, at least, ridiculous moments in my past two years + of this thrilling line of work:

-There was the man with a knife who passed out in the hostel I worked at in Seattle.  I got to work at 7:30am to be informed by the night staff that a man was passed out in the smoking room and he needed to be removed from the hostel.  I walked into the smoking room (by myself, not knowing that weapons were involved in this situation) and did indeed find a man passed out in a chair.  He was icky smelling.  I tapped his shoulder lightly... "sir?"   Nothing.  I shook harder "Um, sir, you need to wake up."  Nothing.  I returned to the reception where I informed my coworker that he was still passed out and that I couldn't wake him by shaking him.  "WHAT?!  You touched him?! Dude, he has a knife!"  Great.  Police came. Paramedics came (lots of alcohol = bad).  We told him he needed to leave. Now.  Police escorted him to his room to gather his belongings.  Police walk him to the front desk where he is given a refund for the days he would no longer be staying.  Ok so far.....then he used his arm to wipe the entire contents of the front desk onto the floor (including the tip jar which broke against the wall as it fell).  Racial slurs come out.  My coworker and I stand behind the desk saying nothing as police escort him from the building.  We locked the front door.  I served breakfast to our comparatively normal guests.


-Reception:  "Um, I was never told about the 3 pound charge for non-members."  Me: "It is displayed prominently on our web-page.  Also, I made your reservation for you yesterday over the phone and I told you explicitly that you would be either charged 3 pounds or you could become a member of the organization for a 10 pound charge."  Him: "I'd like to speak to your manager."  "Okey dokey."  Man explains problem to manager. Manager: "Sir, I spoke with you on the phone yesterday when you got mad at Susie about the non-member fee and requested to speak to the manager ."  Man: "Oh".

-"Do you have a gym?"

-"Where would I find the pool?"


-"Can you proof read this email to my lady friend?  I'm trying to come off as desperate and lonely because women like desperate, lonely men."  Me: "Do they really though?"


-"Would you like berry or natural yogurt? We are out of peach this morning, unfortunately."  Guest: "Peach."  Me: "We are out of peach this morning, unfortunately."


-"Good morning, you've reached YHA St. Pancras. How may I help you?"  Future guest: "Is this St. Pancras YHA?"  Me: "Yes."


-Man who was getting kicked out of hostel for being an ass (among other things he yelled at our chef and threatened another guest):  "You think you are soooooo special because you work at a hostel."

The fact of the matter is though that I do not think I am special for working in a hostel.  Hostel work is easy in that it doesn't require much brain juice, but it is emotionally taxing.  Sometimes I deal with people that I feel very sad for.  Sometimes I serve people who kind of scare me.  Sometime you meet really lovely people, who are really appreciative and leave you gifts from their home country.  Sometime you serve people who forget that they booked a hostel and not a hotel.  Sometimes I remind them of this.  Sometimes you can forget that everyone has a story and that you don't know it when you meet them and, most of the time, you will never know it.  Sometimes you judge too quickly and then feel bad when you find out missing bits of the story.  Sometimes when you know someones story it is still hard to have unlimited patience. 

The moral of the story though is this:  it is time to move on.

Sometimes when I get really frustrated at work I try to think about the number one thing that has made me stick around hostels:  my friends.  I have made super friends working at both the hostel in Seattle and here in London.  They are the glue.  

I am applying for other jobs (charity jobs, reproductive health jobs, academic research jobs, funded PhD's etc...).  I don't have one yet, but I am throwing my desire out there into the the living ether.