It’s been a stressful week here in the mountains and it’s not over yet. We’ve been victims of the ripple effect, where one person gets upset, then takes it out on the person next to them, and the effects ripple through the entire organization. Obviously, this effect is much stronger when the first person is in a senior position. When you’ve got one senior person upsetting another one (and I don’t mean me and Alex upsetting each other, although that does happen), things can really get interesting. People are not necessarily walking on eggshells, but everyone’s a bit tense and that makes it easy for misunderstandings to occur. Unfortunately, your first thought when someone lashes out at you is not that you are simply collateral damage. The usual reaction is “What the hell???” and then you get mad and graciously share that with the next person to come along. It’s like the movie Pay it Forward, only what we’ve been paying forward is bad karma. So, today we’re all wearing our thickest skins, smiling until our cheeks ache, and attempting to break the cycle. Stress is not going to be the boss of us.
We’re almost down to a skeleton crew. We lost another housekeeper today which means that by next week we’ll be down to one part-timer and one administrative assistant who helps clean rooms in a pinch. That should make the holidays interesting. Truthfully, we were planning to fire the housekeeper who quit today. Let’s just say that her work ethic is so poor one would almost say that she doesn’t have one. The only reason we kept her around was because her sister, who has been our full-time housekeeper for the last two years, gave her notice. She’s getting married and moving to Denver. So now we’re down to less than one, but I can’t be sorry about that. Everything happens for a reason and since the holidays are slow around here, it may still work out for the best. Besides, I’m not afraid of a little soap and water. If need be, I can clean almost as well as I can cook.
At the moment, we have no guests next week. I should be sorry about that, but we can really use the break. Practically everyone who’s left on the staff has asked for time off so that they can escape Pagosa for a while. I’m probably going to let them, although it will leave us in a pinch if we get last-minute bookings. I understand how they’re feeling and I know they’ll do a much better job for us if they get the break they need. Thank goodness the W.’s are visiting again this week. They’re a pleasure to cook for and a pleasure to have staying with us. Things like that motivate us and help balance out all the rest. Everyone may not appreciate what we do, but the ones who do make it all worthwhile. Just remembering that, I feel better already.
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