Where do I start? – Stand to attention – Check white gloves –
Uniform correct – minimum make up – no jewellery apart from a wedding ring – buttons done up – skirt to below knee level – low black shoes – black stockings…… hang on a minute this was in my days of training, sometimes I get a bit confused what century is it but it was 30 years ago when I trained to be a housekeeper!!

I start my shift at 7am, my first stop is to get a coffee and then start to look at what is going to happen that day; what VIP arrivals have we got, what special request we have, do we have enough extra beds, coloured linen, early arrivals, etc. I quickly check my emails and voice mail, back in my day when I was training there was no such thing as……. sorry I forgot where I was supposed to be, back to the present now. My next port of call is the linen room to make sure that my Supervisors are in and allocating the work load for the day. The team start to arrive at 8am, I then venture forth from the depths of the dungeons to find a Duty Manager (are they getting younger? in my day they never employed a manager under the age of 40!) and make sure that everything went smoothly from the night before. Next is to check that all the staff have arrived on time I then hold a quick meeting with my Supervisors to explain what the day holds for them. After this I then go and start to do my daily checks.
Again I have to use the new modern gadgets computer, voice mail to check for messages, there is a young lady waiting to be interviewed, I go and introduce myself she just smiles at me when I ask her if she understand English she replies very little with hand signals. I ask her for a name and she smiles again so I then go and find someone to translate, It turns out that it’s the wrong hotel, oh well nice smile. I then start to check the bedrooms making sure that all rooms are clean and that all maintenance issues have been reported and fixed. This is where my job changes and does not have a description, or so I like to think, as I am like a mother to some,one big sister to another, wicked witch to another, oh the list goes on and on. The things the boys and girls get up to would make your toes curl mine often do, but I enjoy listening to it remembering my own carefree youthful days running in the fields with no shoes on, sorry done it again back to the present . This is how my day will continue and I look forward to the next day wondering what tales my team have got up to.