My Forte perhaps?

After my 2nd day at Guest Services I definitely like it the best so far.  It helps that I've finally been given a project and was used for more than just an extra person to help around or shadow someone.  Ron asked me to help him out on the United Airlines project he's setting up because as of this Friday, we have a year-long contract to have the flight crew stay at the Hyatt.  This requires the Hyatt to pick them up on time and bring them back to the airport and a way to make sure we're timely and accurate. 

So Ron asked for my help and thoughts and he let me create this white board that I divided up by flight #, scheduled and actual time of arrival, #of crew we'd be picking up, and which driver would do it.  We ran it by some of the head bellmen to see what they thought and talked more detail about how it'd play it out.

Ron also had me go to the airport with one of the shuttle runs and get out to do some research there for the crew and other guests- what part of the terminal they arrive/depart from and what kind of services are there like restaurants/shops, where our ad was at the courtesy phone and if it's easy to see, and how everything played out when I called requesting a shuttle pretending to be a guest.  It was fun!  I left work on such a high and actually feeling like I was put to use and some of my potential was used.  I've been able to spend more time with Jonathan, the Rooms Division Head which is good since either way he'll be my head boss. 

It's good to finally be excited about work- now it's just too bad that I'm about to leave Rooms to head into my other rotations, but at least I'll be back and know what I have to look forward to! 

Real Situation...part 2

...so the 2nd part of the real situation:

I haven't even been at the hotel long enough to know what's right-side-up, but I know for a fact that it's turned upside-down right now.  

Not only is the summer slow season here, but with this "recession" going on, apparently FL is getting hit worst out of everyone, and the hotel's income statement shows it.  Apparently they've been losing money for months now.  So to cut back they're telling everyone to take vacations, and managers to avoid their employees from hitting overtime.  This causes a predicament in itself though because I've watched manager after manager fumble with the schedule since everyone is gone on vaca and they need ppl working but it's tough to not hit overtime.  So Housekeeping doesn't have enough girls to clean the rooms, so they have to drop rooms (leave them dirty) and even though we're only averaging 40% occupancy, we can't honor guest room-type requests because the rooms are all dirty.  Laundry is completely backed up to the point where me, the rooms Exec Jonathan (my soon-to-be head boss who I also love because he has a really good sense of humor and balance between work and play) and another FD employee folding towels in laundry because housekeeping and the pool didn't have enough supplies... 

It got to the point that they've had to "temporarily terminate" employees who aren't really needed right now even though they've been with the company for 25 years since this hotel opened.  Melissa and I (one of the other CMTs- we recently learned we're a lot alike and are going to get along great- finally someone to explore with!) were SHOCKED to find out the head of convention services and the employment manager (she was one of my favorite employees there) had to take a temp term of 3 months...THREE MONTHS! They can file for unemployment, but still that's nothing easy.  At least the emp.mgr probably had an idea it was coming since she works in HR but we couldn't believe it.  Melissa even talked to Bob, head of HR, to make sure our jobs weren't in jeopardy, but thankfully he and the GM budgeted for us even in the worst of situations...so we'll float through getting trained by managers who are afraid they're going to lose their own job or half of their staff in the meantime...it's pretty weird to see!!  But I guess a good learning experience... come football season (esp with the superbowl in Tampa in January- and YES one of the teams WILL stay at this hotel!!! I'm SO EXCITED!!) things will pick up, but this is crazy in the mean time.

anyway... I write novels...so I need to sign out.  Working tomorrow 9am-7pm (yep they decided our pay based on a salary with 10-hour days...ouch) so I have to get to bed early, like the old person I'm turning into... ;-)  hehe

Peek at the real situation...part 1

By "real situation" I mean 2 different things. 

Part 1:

Working through the weekend being a snapshot at my future... I was in the Front Desk last week (last week? there was no weekend to separate so I'm a little confused...) and had Thursday off to go to Busch Gardens with some other front desk people, including the manager, but of course...good ol Florida...it rained and thunderstormed for the first time in days.  So I had to come in Sat at 3pm-1am for no good reason.  Anyway now I'm all thrown off because Front Desk ended Saturday, and Guest Services started today, Sunday. 

Front Desk was fun- the manager is young and fun but can still get down to business and is honest with me, which was nice.  It was kind of an off week because I'm doing a quick Rooms rotation now, but will be back later for 11 weeks to really get into it.  So I did some online training I had to get out of the way, shadowed and helped out the front desk agents, attended Rooms meetings and kind of followed around Nate, the manager.  I definitely found out that since the FD is the face of the entire hotel, they have allll the interesting and sticky situations to deal with.  They put out all the guests' fires and try to keep them all happy, which isn't an easy job. It was really good to come right from Housekeeping to FD though because they go back and forth a lot on who's fault a problem was and I think I had some enlightening/reminder information for them on how it was all happening down there as well.  I know that's the hope and goal of the program, so it's good to see it following through.

Now I'm in guest services, (pic is of the front drive of the hotel) which is in charge of the bellmen and valet, shuttle drivers, and ensuring VIPs are taken care of.  Noon check-out today was really busy with a huge group checking out and getting the 2 bellman back and forth to rooms to help them with their luggage on request.  I actually really like it so far, because you get a lot of guest interaction but don't have to deal with as many sticky problems, while having more people management simultaneously.  It also seems like these employees could use some new management- they know they can walk over the 2 managers there (there's a "guest relations" manager: Ron, who I'm with now and deals with the VIPs, and then Chris, the Guest Services Mgr, who deals with the employees and was also a CMT not long ago).  I was helping at the door today and one of the guys told me about how often he calls in sick and takes breaks when it gets too busy...I reminded him that I may be his manager in a few months and if so he's getting fired - he was about my age so I could joke around with him about it, but I was definitely serious... lol.  :-)  They said they had a woman manager once and she was the best because she was really involved and helped them out- and they thought another one would be a great idea.  They told me they'd put me in the hall of fame of I installed automatic doors, which I think they should so there'd be 2 less positions to pay... I'm absorbing all the "ways to be a good manager" tips for sure. 

...speaking of paying people that brings me to part 2 of the "real situation"... 

The Apartment

So Josh and I drove down to Tampa in mid June to scope out the area and find an apartment for me.  We were able to stay in the hotel, which was good to see it from a guest's view before seeing it as an employee, annnnd nice to stay in luxury for a little! 

So after surviving some crazy rain storms, on the third apartment viewing I decided I found my own!  There was a special so I got a month free and was able to afford the big one-bedroom with a "den"!!  I tried so hard to keep a poker face, as coached, but typical Toni, I couldn't contain it and halfway through looking at the apartment I was giddy.  Josh and the leasing agent (who's husband is now my Honda mechanic too- convenient!) just had to laugh at me.  Signing that lease with MY name on it was sooo exciting!!!  ...until of course I had to pay the first month's rent a few weeks later and felt a little tight on cash... Welcome to the Real World!

soooo I don't have much furniture yet, mostly cuz its EXPENSIVE moving into an empty apartment!  But when Gwen came down with me a week or so later, we still had to enjoy a cocktail in the Den on our makeshift furniture.  We blew up my pool floats, laid in the dining room, and took that picture of living room.  The other picture of the pool and pond is the view from my balcony and outside the front door.  Not too bad.  Rent money certainly stretches a LOT further here than in Boston... 

Background Check

...where to begin...

Well my apparently tech-savvy mother was the one who suggested I set up a blog for everyone to follow me through and stay updated on the newest adventure of my life: working at the Hyatt in Tampa!

So, the background: I started at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay as a CMT (Corporate Management Trainee) where I'm doing a 5 month program and then will get placed at Hyatt somewhere in the Rooms division, which is all the front-of-the-house stuff including the Housekeeping dept, Front Desk, and Guest Services.  For 9 weeks I rotate through each and every department in the hotel for a few days to a week in each, and then have an 11-week concentration in Rooms.  

So far so good.  Check out the link above and look at the pictures and stuff.  The hotel is beautiful and right on the bay.  A little set apart from other things, but right in between downtown Tampa and St Pete/Clearwater. 

I've done HR, Housekeeping (yes I actually helped clean a room!) and now I'm at the Front Desk.  Yesterday while I was hanging around and helping with "lobby duty" the GM asked how I was doing (he remembers all our names and shakes my hand every time I see him) and said he heard "I was the next allstar" so that was incredible!!  Hopefully means good things :-)  Even if it was a lie, at least he thought to say it to me!  We'll see!!