Sold
Who doesn’t love a good sale? I’m on the other end of the sale, the salesperson, the person who wants to find you that certain something that’s missing in your life. I decided to go into sales, because I love a good yard sale; not shopping at them, but hosting them. I figured, if I can convince someone to buy my used junk – selling new things would be easy. So, I went into sales – fitness memberships. Do you know how hard it is to sell something that is not tangible? You cannot touch the dream of 6-pack abs or shedding 50 pounds, they’re just words until the person makes it their reality. That’s the hard part, the transition from words to work. It’s called a “work out” for a reason, work is actually involved.
Fitness is all about selling a new lifestyle. You can see how this could prove to be difficult. The sale could go one of two ways: 1. People bought into it, made the right changes, did the work required for a healthy lifestyle and saw results. 2. People thought the gym membership was enough, never came back into the gym until the day they cancelled and blamed me for their failure. There’s really no in between and option 2 seemed more popular. After 16 months of this, I had to get out. I could no longer be blamed for someone else’s’ failure – figure it out, get on the treadmill and things will improve, holding the membership card in your wallet does not count as weight lifting.
I no longer sell fitness. I’m going to concentrate on selling tangible items from now.
A hard save...
Balance and coordination have never been two things that I possess. I’ve fallen down stairs, tripped on sidewalks, missed the occasional step here or there…At first it’s embarrassing – when you trip on a pine cone which brings you down on your hands and knees, you develop a tough skin (and not just from having skinned these areas so many times before). After you fall in public so many times, it’s no longer embarrassing – it’s actually really funny.
My most memorable fall happened when I was in first year of University. I had been avoiding Spanish Class for over a month. You miss one class, that’s ok. But you know what they say…one turns into two and two turns into ten…then you’ve missed so many classes that you are actually scared to go back. Anyway, My friend made me go back to class – it was the review for the final and apparently that was important; I was going to learn an entire semester in one class – yeah right.
The class room was on the third floor – we made it up the first flight of stairs fine, the second flight fine…the third flight is where it got messy…I tripped up three steps…one step is easy to recover from – but three is a hard save. So there I was tripping up the steps in an incedibably crowded stariwell…everyone was staring…there was no graceful way to get out of it, I just had to let it happen and I hoped for the best…
My best included a professor – whom I landed on…which is great, because his crotch is the reason I didn’t break my nose that day…that’s right – I landed face first into this man’s crotch with one hand on his shoulder, the other in his hand….This was not one of my best moments at University – possibly one of the funniest, but not best.
So what do you do to recover…it’s an awkward situation – how you deal with it…for me it went something like this…“I am so sorry”…the man said nothing back – he just stood there…I wanted to fix this situation…I should have walked away, but I didn’t…I decided it was necessary to straighten his tie, dust off his shoulders and gave him a quick pat on the back – I said thanks and told him to have a nice day…He was silent, possibly frozen in shock. I of course had to move on, I had to leave this mess behind – plus I was now late for Spanish.
It's been a while...
So here’s the thing – I had a job, then I lost my job, then I started courting unemployment insurance, then I interviewed for lots of jobs and finally I was able to breakup with unemployment for a position at a hotel…I thought that it would be a great “springboard” for a career at the corporate level – work five years at property level and then move to corporate…that was the dream…also, the errors of my way…
First of all everyone uses the term “springboard” like it’s going out of style…basically it’s a shitty position masked with a fancy title like “Assistant General Manager” that is supposed to take you further in life…in reality the springy position is another bullshit job where you work 70 hours a week; eat, sleep and dream springboard…I applaud those who can spring themselves further in their career with the shit cards they are dealt…however, I’ve done it all at a hotel and no longer want to spring into anything…I just want the corporate office on the 15th floor – I want to make policy not just try to implement it…that’s a hard go.
You’re now asking yourself, why would she take such a job?? Well, as much as I loved my bf unemployment, it was time to start over…try to achieve my dream of making it to the corporate office…so I took the job; the job with all the promise that required a huge investment and no return in sight.
A hotel truly is a funny place…here’s how my first day went…no training and I was told to handle a complaint – you’re the AGM, you can do this…no problem…so there I was, in a suit, wishing it was some form of yoga pants, talking to unhappy guests…why were they so unhappy, they just spent close to $300.00 for one night to be off the highway which was a 20 minute drive to the picturesque town that was quoted as minutes away on the website…so once the false advertising charges were laid on me, I knew I was screwed…then the guests went into how the front desk staff was rude and unaccommodating in addition to TV not working on top of the 45 minute wait for appetizers at the hotel restaurant…FUCK…that’s all I could think…how did I get myself into this…I want to be back in my yoga pants watching Family Guy (best show ever) not here listening to these people who want some form of compensation for geography in addition to all the other fuck ups of their evening away from the kids, dogs and cat…what’s a girl to do but give the farm away…I really just want these people out of the hotel; I never want to see Mr. and Mrs. Grumpy ever again…so I comped their stay – I know I should be more concerned about profit margin, but they sent me out to the wolves prior to my morning coffee, so really I couldn’t give a shit about their property or profit. In end the guests loved me…they got exactly wanted they wanted, a free night and I got them the hell out of my sight…win-win! Apparently this is not what the GM would have done, but again he didn’t want to go out to deal with this, so too god damn bad.
Solving the guest’s problems became my thing…Only I had to play by the rules…never give the guest anything, just listen and try to sooth them…the other managers never wanted to take ownership, they just wanted to pass the problem to the next manager…it was like a game…like duck, duck, goose and I was always the goose. Here are the highlights…
- the hotel was blamed for the stroke of a guest’s parent who was watching their house, the stress of house-sitting caused the stroke. Not even kidding – possibly the best complaint I have ever heard, also the most asinine.
-A guaranteed reservation was cancelled to sell the room for a higher rate, however this reservation was part of a room block for a wedding party and the cancelled room was for the father of the groom…who tried to check in after the wedding to find that he no longer had a room…oh the fun.
-A perfume vendor left two cases of samples to be picked up later in the week…upon returning to pick them up, they were gone…the staff had taken them – awesome squared.
-A room was cancelled in error – Mary F wanted her room cancelled not Sally F…so when Sally F shows up to find her room is cancelled and the hotel is sold out, the shit hits the fan…when Mary F is charged the no-show fee all hell breaks loose.
There are more incidents…but I won’t bore you…I have no idea how this property was able to opperate…but it did and it turned a profit…just fucked.
Anyway, after a month of service as the AGM the GM was fired and they demoted me becasue I didn’t have enough years of services to be the AGM…they took $17,000.00 annually away from me and told me that I could work as a front desk agent and work towards becoming the AGM…yay me! The best part was, they wanted me to continue dealing with the guest complaints, because I did that well…forget that…I hated that job and for 17k less you can deal with the shitty complaints. So I had to hustle to find a new job…I couldn’t work there…it was degrading. It took me three days to find a new job. I had to say goodbye to the hotel – good ridence…it was a mistake but I learned from it.
I am happy to report that I have taken a new job where I get to work with an awesome group of people and am very happy
End of Summer...
Happy Labour Day…I love that North America has dedicated a day for those who work….now that I have a job I can officially celebrate Labour Day! I am celebrating this day by working – boo to jobs in hospitality…but at least I have a job – so I will be celebrating this holiday with a smile on my face.
Remember when Labour Day signified the end of summer when you were a kid…the last day of freedom before going back to school…the night before you packed your backpack with new binders, pens and pencils, you laid out your new outfit and hoped to Christ it was cool, your mom packed you a lunch and then you tried to go to sleep but you tossed and turned because you were a little bit sad that summer was over and nervous to be starting a new school year.
As an adult Labour Day is the weekend when you get to sleep in for three days instead of two…It’s the final party weekend of summer – the last hurrah before fall arrives…the traditional last weekend to stop wearing white shoes…the last of the barbeques where you don’t need a sweater at night. Summer may be over but fall is almost here and that means a new wardrobe must be purchased!
I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and is celebrating working hard with a party!
and she's down...
ok, ok…I know, I know…another story involving falling in public…
As we all know diet pepsi makes my world go round….lil bit of an addiction. I usually go through drive through; but yesterday I thought I would mix it up and actually go into Tim Hortons. I made it from the car to curb with no problems…upon stepping onto the curb i missed and went down hard…luckily nothing was broken…just my spirit…thank god diet pepsi heals all.