So they are kicking me out of my job.

[Kilgengoor]

I've been working for eight years. During this time, I've loaded boxes on trucks, waited tables on both restaurants and cafés, called people to ask them bullshit surveys and taken care of various supermarket aisles, until I found a job I really like: to be hotel receptionist. Now, this may sound strange, but I honestly think it is the best job in the world aside from freelance comedian, or actor, or any of those glamourous professions I could never live off of. And now that I finally got the job I wanted, it's the first time someone kicks me out of it.

I don't know if any of you have been through the same, but it's a really strange feeling. I really like this job, and I think I've given all I could for it: I'm always reminding my colleagues to please tell me if they see I did something wrong during my shift, and every time my boss has shown me an error I've tried to correct it and never do it again. We had a meeting about two months ago in which the hotel director told us to be more interested in our jobs, and I've sent any ideas I've come across during this time (which have admittedly been three or four, but hell, I think it shows some interest on my behalf). At around half the duration of my contract I mailed my boss to ask him for an evaluation so I could know what I'm doing right and what not, and improve my performance. I've never received an answer from them, and now that I'm near the end of my six months they are training a new guy and asking me for a meeting in four days. God fucking dammit.

It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't need the money. I've been on my own for the last five years and right now I'm on a school that costs me around 500$ per month to assist to, and that's not counting the rent, food and whatnot. They are kicking me out in the middle of the summer, which is one of the worst times to be unemployed, and one of the best to hoard money if you've got a job. And worst of all, I don't even fucking know why. They have repeatedly ignored all of my questions about how I'm doing my job and all the suggestions they asked for in the first place, and not only that, but they know I'll have to do first year in school all over again because my work shift wasn't compatible with my classes, but between doing a job I want to do the rest of my life and some classes that not only cost me money, but were incredibly difficult to assist in the first place (which another story), I chose the former. And I had to choose the former because I repeatedly asked to be transferred to morning shift only to be ignored.

It wouldn't be so frustrating if they had a reason, which I'll make sure to ask for on the meeting four days ahead. And if I hadn't put so much interest in showing how much I care for working there. Now I'm facing a jobless summer, expensive classes and a job God knows where doing God knows what.

I don't know, I can't possibly think of a reason other than just they don't personally like me. I can't think of any other reason to actively ignore me and kick me out like this. I consider myself a hard worker, and a flexible employee. I guess it's the same feeling than when you get dumped out of a relationship with someone you really care for, if that person paid you for it. So, I'd like to know if any of you fellow Escapists have been through something similar. I'm just ranting here, but I think would be nice to share experiences on the subject.

Also, I'd like to say that I'm also pretty concerned not to annoy my bosses, so I've been keeping my questions/suggestions/feedback on a steady, but not overwhelming flow, do I'd scratch the "goddamn annoying person" out of the list of reasons.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I'm going to guess you dont have a union where you work.

anyway, one thing that is always true is its cheaper to get someone new and pay for their mistakes then keep someone experience and pay for their knowledge. So maybe thats why, cause no offense, but you dont seem to have a high demand important job like say, neurosurgery.

 

[cookyy2k]

So, I'd like to know if any of you fellow Escapists have been through something similar. I'm just ranting here, but I think would be nice to share experiences on the subject.

I just got fired TONIGHT out of th blue so I get where you're coming from. Like you I got no good reason. Atleast you see it coming, I walked in said hi to the manager and he sacked me for some bull reason. Unfortunately it's just the way it goes. I was in that job 4 years, longer than any other employee. Managers sometimes like to do this just to show who's boss to everyone else.

Or perhape was you on a lower pay during the temp contract? If so then it's probably policy to never keep anyone on past that.

In the end all you can do is keep your composure and walk out with your head held high. You did your best, worked extreemly hard, showed interest and a constant willingnes to improve. Sounds like they're loosing a whole load more than you are. There will be other jobs for you but will there be other yous for that job?

 

[Kilgengoor]

One thing that is always true is its cheaper to get someone new and pay for their mistakes then keep someone experience and pay for their knowledge.

Funny thing is, I'm studying hotel management. And while it may seem it isn't, Front desk duty is actually pretty delicate and complex, especially on night shift. It is usually a pretty stable position, because you really need someone who is confortable with his/her work in there since the night shift receptionist needs to essentially check if everything's OK, which usually isn't. The worst thing, however, is that I have a 6-month contract and they should renew me for 6 more months this July. I knew they wouldn't renew it after that, because the manager is somehow terrified of having fix people in her hotel, but that would give me 6 more months of salary.

Anyway, a union won't help me much since they are firing me by not renewing the contract, and they don't really need a reason for that. One thing's for sure though, I'm going to make sure I express very clearly how shitty my bosses are at her jobs by ignoring whatever involvement they asked for in the first place, not to mention any other reason they may pose such as doing any mistakes or not getting along with my companions, which I have pretty much covered because of my interest in this job as I previously specified. I won't say anything rude, mind you, but least I can do is try and make them feel as shittier as I can.

 

[cookyy2k]

Funny thing is, I'm studying hotel management.

There we are, found your reason. Managers and higher ups HATE it when you know more about the business than they do. It's happened to me several times.

 

[Kilgengoor]

Managers and higher ups HATE it when you know more about the business than they do. It's happened to me several times.

It's possible, but then again, why should they ask me to get more involved in my job? And more importantly, this hotel is part of a foundation comprised by my hotel, my school and a hostel. Students do their practice period here, and everyone in here has studied in my school at some point. Only reason I could think of that's connected to the whole thing is the fact that I had to dump this year because I couldn't keep up with the two things, but then again, I'm going for first year again next September.

Anyway, sucks to be fired after four years and out of nowhere. Hope you can claim some kind of unemployement pay and get a nice compensation at least.

 

[cookyy2k]

It's possible, but then again, why should they ask me to get more involved in my job? And more importantly, this hotel is part of a foundation comprised by my hotel, my school and a hostel.

Whatever the reason its unlikely you'll get any satisfying answer, if they even know of one. Is best just to carry on and something else will turn up.

Maybe it's an ecconomic concern? Just noticed the Spanish flag on your profile. Maybe new guy is willing to work for less?

Anyway, sucks to be fired after four years and out of nowhere. Hope you can claim some kind of unemployement pay and get a nice compensation at least.

Unfortunately no... Was a cash in hand job so no legal rights and I'm a student so no unemployment benefit.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

Funny, I just quit my job because I couldn't take the BS anymore. Well, that company's BS, anyway.

 

[KezzieZ]

That really sucks.

I can sort of sympathize since I had a great job a couple of months back and I not only lost it, but I lost it on my birthday. Granted, it was a contract job so I wasn't taken as much by surprise as your situation, but it still really depressed me.

Good luck looking for a new job and I hope you get the answers to your questions before you have to go.

 

[Kilgengoor]

Maybe it's an ecconomic concern? Just noticed the Spanish flag on your profile. Maybe new guy is willing to work for less?

He's a classmate of mine, so figures. Really, only reason I can think of is that they don't like me. It's -and now i don't want to sound sexist- a job basically comprised of women (my boss, the manager, three or four entire departments and much of the reception staff are women) and they tend to send "funny" photos to each other, along with some other "funny" bullshit on their professional correspondence (something like: "Hellooooo! omfg Monday I hate mondays so much anyway here's your reservation hope we can meet sometime I want to tell you about this totally awesome diet I've been on [actual reservation]") which I personally have to swim through day after day. Since I consider myself a sociable guy but also a no-nonsense worker chances are they just don't consider me stupid enough for my job.

Unfortunately no... Was a cash in hand job so no legal rights and I'm a student so no unemployment benefit.

What? For four goddamn years?? Go sue their asses. I think they deserve it.

EDIT: Why the hell can't I get my labels to work properly? u__u
EDIT2: Alright, got them working at last.

 

[twistedmic]

Is it possible that you're going to get a promotion, or at least moved to a different area, rather than get fired? Maybe the job, or shift you have now is the 'new guy spot' and now that you are not the 'new guy' anymore you're about to be moved to a better position or to a better shift, maybe even to another hotel that's part of that chain.
Try to be positive about the meeting.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

So wait...are you being laid-off outright because a meeting could be for any number of things.

Anyway, It sucks if you are being laid off, especially if it's a job you do enjoy. Personally, I used to work at Blockbuster and I freaking loved that place. Then my store closed but that was going to happen anyway. Still, it sucked seeing that place go under. I found out thanks to a facebook wall post and confirmed with my manager about a minute after.

 

[Kilgengoor]

[promotion]

[promotion]

[promotion]

Alright, there's a slight possibility of, if not a promotion at least a transfer. As I said, my hotel is part of a foundation in which there are two establishments with different job positions in each one, and my contract says they cand send me pretty much anywhere they want anytime they want. I could get promoted to paperwork in Reservations or something like that, although the oldest receptionist comes from there and if someone should get back there it's him, same for the position inmediately above mine. I could be transferred to the hostel's reception, or to Restaurant or Housekeeping but that sounds really unlikely. Still, I'd prefer to be pleasantly surprised than to outright booted off.

I'm actually pretty calm about it. My school has some sort of employement service which gets job offers on a regular basis, and I've worked enough to earn an unemployement pay. This job, however, was pretty good since A) Granted me some kind of scholarship which decreased the monthly school fee, B) Let me work on the hotel they take most of the proceedings out of for the class lessons and C) I work with a security guy who is actually quite fun to work with.

Luckily I've got a month to prepare and cope with all this shit, and hopefully I'll be able to get some clear answers in about four days, which I'll make sure to post here even if just out of politeness.

(...)

The next week its said to my co-workers and to my folks "He had 3 strikes against him" There was only 1 incident and I didn't even get a warning. It was after 6 months...

Funny thing is, I do believe bosses tend to be tragically misguided about their employees on a regular basis. Just last week after a particularly complicated shift I told the morning receptionist "man, sorry to tell you but you'll be pissing blood today." Next day my boss sends me an e-mail telling me she wants to speak with me about talking inappropriately to my colleagues, and when I finally get to speak with him he tells me that he knew I was joking and he knew exactly what I meant when I told him, but that my boss misunderstood it when he told her. One of the reasons I want to speak with her is so I can ask her what the hell she actually thinks I am, since it would seem pretty logical to assume that after continously ignoring my e-mails and not even fucking saying hello to me when we cross paths she could perhaps have a wrong impression of me. Acually, my idea of a boss for all these years has been of somebody that not only does his job better than his/her subordinates, but also cares for it more as well. Turns out, I seem to have been tragically wrong all this time, or maybe I've just had some incredibly dedicated bosses all the time up until now.


I'll also ask her why the hell did she assign the new members of the reception staff with other receptionists to learn the ropes of the night shift instead of with me, since I'm the person who spends more time on that shift and knows better how everything works (I actually kind of streamlined everything since everything from the checklist to each process was a total mess). This is actually one of the reasons that makes me think my boss is kind of passive-aggressively bullying me, school playground-style.

 

[cookyy2k]

Acually, my idea of a boss for all these years has been of somebody that not only does his job better than his/her subordinates, but also cares for it more as well.

Really? I've never had a boss anything like this.

I once told my boss during a staff meeting for a bar job that if trading standards came in we'd be screwed. She disagreed then after setting out my logic used the whole "well I know better otherwise you'd be manager" line. This was follwed a month later by a £2,500 fine from trading standards and a manager who get a warning from the owner and a very red face at the next staff meeting since everyone was these during the argument in which I was right.

In my experience managers are just the ones who play the game better, you don't generally get promoted for being the best at the job or for showing initiative. Just for being the best at playing the game.

As the only graduate at my place of work you'd think I'd have done better in 4 years but no, never got promoted to supervisor or given extra responcibility, just sacked with no reason while people who didn't even pass highschool maths or English were promoted ahead of me. I fully believe this is due to the fact the manager is in the exact same educational state so relates to those people better. In short I had nothing in common with the manager so was never even really on their radar. I don't think it was intentional I just think the people they relate to will pop into mind when promotion creeps around.

 

[T8B95]

I feel for you mate. I had to leave my job six months ago when I left to go live in another country for six months, and now I'm desperately searching for another for summer. You probably didn't do anything wrong--they found another guy to do your job at a lower cost. Yes, it sucks to be you, but hopefully something will turn up. Stay positive.

 

[Kilgengoor]

Welp, it's confirmed: I'm no longer a Receptionist. Not in this hotel at least.

I'd like to point out I've been waiting for everything to be said and done to post this in here, and yesterday I got to speak with my manager. It's been a pretty tense week actually, with a lot of e-mail interchange, backpedaling and statements that could very easily be taken as threats, but I've been pretty much assured aren't. Short version: As I understand it they are officially not renewing my contract for a bunch of mostly minor infractions they didn't warn me about (albeit some of them are pretty obvious and I just kinda pushed my luck, I have to admit) a bunch of mistakes I did in my job nobody has told me about in my six months here, the fact that they apparently prefer to renew the whole department because there have been some slow months and the big bosses have taken that particular managerial decision and finally a whole lot of misunderstandings that I think we could have cleared by just speaking like human beings. As for the long version, I think I'm losing this job solely because of the mistakes no one told me about.

My reasoning goes like this: I spoke with my boss and she very passionately pointed out a series of comments I allegedly had been telling to my colleagues in which I'm implying they are kicking me out because she doesn't like me, speaking to the same co-workers in a very offensive manner and so on. When I asked her why she didn't tell me that before so I could straight it out, she answers that she's just been telling me everything as she hears it, and since she's been warning me on that for the last month and apparently the decision was taken at least at the beginning of May, this can't be in the list of reasons. Also, a bunch of the "minor" stuff (such as smoking outside the hotel at 5 AM just on the day when the director decides to fucking come four hours early) has happened in that time, so scratch that one too.

I feel like I don't need to point out the fact that even if the misunderstandings were made before it'd be a bullshit reason since I've never been serious on any of them, I have never spoken to a coworker in an offensive way, they were contextually correct, I've never had the possibility to defend myself against somebody heard I told somebody else, and even more, I told each thing face-to-face to coworkers I felt were smart enough to take that appropriately. Turns out I've been wrong once again.

They also told me four basic things that royally pissed me off which I'm going to list, bullet-point style:

1- They warned me about the fact that they'd stop doing me a discount in my school bill if I didn't get back to regular classes (which I left because I could only sleep 4 hours a day but kept paying because "hey, let's at least try") but I didn't tell them "that's OK, yeah, make me pay full price for it". That one is apparently my fault for assuming that they'd do what they were threatening me with, which I felt was implied at the moment.

2- They deny the existence of the mail I sent to my boss asking for an evaluation, which I'm positive I sent. Moreover, the manager knew I wanted to speak with my boss, and reportedly "found strange" that I didn't send the mail. Nothing more, nothing less.

3- They want "someone who is focused on classes". They are taking for the job an ex-classmate of mine who is ON THE SAME FUCKING TIME TABLE AS ME. Plus, I passed everything up until the second trimester, which starts February. My contract would expire on January if continued.

4- I failed to assist and pass the exam on the subject my boss gives at my school. While vaguely vinculant, I find inappropriate to make one thing affect the other.

As for all the errors and everything, yeah. I apparently made a lot of mistakes every night. But the thing is, while she pointed out some of the issues at me she didn't send me anything about the ones they are allegedly using to kick me out, and now that I think of it, she's never warned me about those mistakes, ever. It's also not a big deal, the only cost for that kind of error is mere time (adjusting prices and whatnot, if you are interested), and something I could be more focused with if they just fucking told me. Additionally, I've been asking my colleagues day after day and week after week about how I was doing my job. To tell me if there were any mistakes, and each and every one of them just replied "no, everything's fine, I didn't see any mistakes on your part." So while I understand I've been doing mistakes, nobody has taken the time to point them out.

After a particularly heated discussion with my boss on the 15th where she seemed really concerned about my comments in which I call her a nazi-werewolf witch that feeds on the tears of children and my grades on her particular subject, but did actually take very little time to discuss my many, many mistakes, I received an e-mail from the director telling me how much disappointed they've been with me, how much she disagrees with almost everything I told my boss, and -wait for it- to keep certain comments about the hotel for myself because Barcelona is really small and she can straigh fuck up my professional future. I replied with an actually very polite mail telling them that they didn't know shit about why I failed the exam, why I stopped going to school and most importantly, what I've been really saying, while denying taking part in a slander campaign about our establishment. Then I sent one to assure I had thoroughly re-read the e-mail trying to make it as concrete and unoffensive as possible, and finally I sent a final one in which I told them that I was taking everything back.

I know I probably shouldn't backpedal so abruptly, but I don't really want to get angry with them. I abhor being angry with anyone and I just want to make myself clear on certain issues I think were not properly treated. And that's it. Yesterday morning I got to speak with the director face-to-face just to make sure she understood what I sent her on the e-mail burst. At least (thankfully) she told me that the "keep those comments to yourself" issue was more of a warning since she had been hearing things that she found really strange I'd say myself. At least someone believes there has been some heavy misinterpretations, for which I'm quite grateful.

So... it's probably going to be unemployement pay for now. I can't really afford to get myself head-first into another year in this school (about 750$ just for the sign-up, 450$ or so each month) and I need a driver's license (I went to a job interview four days ago, it's very likely I won't getting it because I don't have a license, textual words) which is also a lot of money. I'm going to try with public schools in which is WAY cheaper to get this same kind of education, but I missed the pre-signups and I'll have to hope they are still available next week. If I can't get in hostel management I'll try with another one, or maybe take a year off this trainwreck of an education I've been trying to get for the last 6 years.

Anyway, I'd like to thank all of you who have showed some interest in my particular issue. I even got a private message asking me about it, which has been a really nice moral boost for me. You're a pretty awesome bunch of people.

Also, just tell me if you know of any understaffed hotels

 

[Kilgengoor]

Looking at the tone of your final post, and the clear communication problems you are having in a communication based industry, including what you admit is an abusive way of talking to coworkers, plus taking a job that created scheduling problems for you that you tried to unload on them, I can understand why they wouldn't bother to renew your contract. People are on their best behavior in their initial months, if you don't shine it isn't a fit.

I'd like to make myself clear on one thing: I have never had a misunderstanding with no-one of my coworkers, or at least I've never had that impression, in which case I'd fixed it as soon as possible. But yeah, I didn't completely, perfectly fit in and that's why I'm losing the job. That I understand.

 

[KiKiweaky]

1. They have repeatedly ignored all of my questions about how I'm doing my job
2. My work shift wasn't compatible with my classes

Ok I had somebody do something like this to me before.... (not in a job sense but you get the general idea) I was working with a foreign guy before and he was desperate to improve english. He basicly turned me into his personal english teacher by saying 'correct everything I say when I get it wrong'. It was alright for all of 5 seconds and then it just pissed me off, stop being so concerned about what your doing. If your doing something wrong your boss will tell you, it seems to me like you just annoyed them with constant questions.

Also you consider yourself flexible but you clearly arent, most serious employers wont even give you a job if your life outside work (school/college) will interfere with the times they can call you in. My brother mentioned he was in college in an interview for a part time job in a supermarket and they asked him to leave the interview.

Look at it from your bosses point of view, you have an employee who cares somewhat about their work, but still has other commitments. You cant commit fully to your job as you have outside interests conflicting with your work schedule. Why go through the hassle of chopping and changing shifts when they can just hire somebody who will be available when they want?