A Morning in the Life of the General Manager

I wake up at about 6:30am, though not sure why as I wasn’t planning on going in until 9am today – must be conditioned into not needing much sleep.

In the hotel for about 8am, walk through the Reservations office and empty my tray, it looks like the Reservationist is still asleep, as when I say good morning I get no response, I guess it’s still early

On through the Conference office (empty and awaiting arrival of the team) so I just have a quick look at the day’s business to see if there are any last minute changes. At times function sheets would be better off being blank pieces of paper that the operations team fill in as they go (no, seriously our events team are extremely good with their information). Onto Reception and as always they are “full of beans” I guess that goes with the territory for that type of job.

Next stop I switch the lights on in the bar as it appears the early Duty Manager has forgotten. As I approach the bar I hear the northern twang of Suey who is for some reason always in at about 7:45am even though her shift doesn’t start until 9am. She’s just trying to make sure that she has enough teaspoons and cups to get her through the morning coffees – she mentions that the restaurant staff have taken them all again as they are having a busy breakfast and that she will go through and give them a hand. That’s typical of Suey, always helping everyone else – probably why she got the Employee of the Year Award!!!

Next into the Restaurant, my old hunting ground, there is no-one on the door but a few staff buzzing around, I go through to the kitchen to find the Restaurant Team Leader having a chat with the Duty Manager while he’s eating in cooked breakfast. I ask the Team Leader politely to go back into the Restaurant and look after his guests, he tells me was just asking a question about this evening.

I then have a brief chat with the Duty Manager who tells me we have run out of mushrooms and two staff from Housekeeping are off sick. I ask who’s getting the mushrooms and he tells me the early Porter. I’ve only been in 10 minutes and haven’t got near my desk yet or had a cup of tea!!!!!

Up to my office to find one of our Marketing team sat in the office to tell me about our marketing stats – something that I always struggle to understand (my background is in food and beverage management, and marketing has never been my strong point). At least there’s good news on that front.

By 8:30 the office staff are starting to arrive and with that comes the gossiping about the previous night’s TV and what everyone has done. I’ll check my e-mails and respond where necessary. My PA comes in for 9am and with her comes the first cup of tea of the day (the first of many I may add!) and everything suddenly starts to seem better.

I then get bombarded with telephone calls and if I dare to walk around the ground floor I know that I’ll get bombarded with questions from every member of staff I come across. I made the grave mistake of walking through the conference office yesterday and got stuck in there for nearly an hour – when will I ever learn!!!!!

The rest of the morning is taken up with forecasting sales and wages, then it’s off to the morning meeting to brighten everyone else’s day, or not dependent on the outcome at the end of business the previous day!!!!!

Soon it will be lunch time – a light bite or proper tucker – given my required energy levels, I’ll have some of everything!

It may be Valentine’s Day but spare a thought for 25 ladies who are going to be feeling more blue than pink with the blushes of romance. Where are all the single men?

For those not enjoying coupledom at this noted time of year, a Singles event with a difference – speed dating over dinner – has been organised this Saturday (Feb 16th) at Torquay hotel, The Grand. A positive response was received in droves but from women. In typical new century style it seems to be the women who are making the first move and the men have gone all shy!

Given the amount of people dating on line, has it now become virtually impossible to find true love in real life? Unless some single males in Torquay find the courage to come out of hiding then sea is going to be all that is in the air. This doesn’t bode well for a leap year!

Everyone is in the same position – Single, so men why not to prove women that you’re just as brave as them and you never know you just might find the one you’ve been looking for.

It’s Saturday night and after looking after a large event comprising of people who apparently don’t need any sleep to function, I make my way up to bed at around 4am. I say around 4am because at this point I have no understanding of what day it is, let alone the hour. I console myself with the fact that I am not on the early shift, usually starting at 7am, and can have a lie in, as I have one of those rare things that seem to come round once in a blue moon…a day off!

As I tuck myself into bed with a cup of tea and munch on the biscuits that are supplied in my room (not chocolate chip, but I’ll make do!) I dream of playing in the Premier League, winning the lottery and most of all not being woken up for some emergency between now and when the next Manager comes on duty in 3 hours…not much to ask for is it?

7.02am: Ring Ring, Ring Ring.

Me: Hello?
Colleague: Hey, sorry to wake you, do you know where the keys are, they’re not where they usually are?

Me: Have you looked properly?
Colleague: Yeah, I’ve had everything out, they’re definitely not there.
Me: Do you need me to come out?
Colleague: I’ll look again for you, but I’m sure they’re not here.
Me: Ok, thanks. Ring me back in a minute when you know.

N.B. From how it reads I sound fairly reasonable…not the case. You have to imagine a guy who has had 2 hours sleep, heard the phone ring and thinks it was the fire alarm, once he’s got up and realised it’s the phone, smacked his knee in the dark, and fallen over his own shoes!

7.04am: Ring Ring, Ring Ring.

Me: Hello?
Colleague: It’s only me.
Me: Did you find them?
Person I want to strangle with my bare hands: Yeah, they were in the
normal place, I just didn’t look properly!
Me: Beeeeeeepppppppppppppp!!!!

7.05: back to bed,ZZZzzzzzzzzzz……