For me, this means that I work from 8 in the morning until about 7 at night which is very tiring but I am happy to have the extra hours as it means a bigger paycheck. However, the cumulative effect of working so much is beginning to take its toll on the cleaning staff. Each morning we are issued a master key and a clipboard containing all of our Arrivals (rooms to deep-clean before people arrive that day), Check-outs (rooms to clean after people leave) and Services (rooms to clean/tidy up while guests are still there). Lately, the list of rooms to clean has been growing longer and longer.
The maximum number of rooms that each housekeepr is supposed to get per day is 14 where each deep-clean is supposed to take 45 minutes and a service should take you 15 minutes. Depending on the combination of services/arrivals/checkouts that you receive, sometimes this math works out to an 8 hour day and sometimes it doesn't. Considering we are maintaining about 300 rooms, that is a LOT of cleaning and a need for a large number of housekeepers.
The increased amount of work for the housekeepers has caused quite a few negative effects such as: people calling in sick, injuries, quitting, quick/sloppy work and rooms not getting done on time. To combat this, our supervisors have tried to improve things and keep us happy in a number of ways. First, instead of working five days in a row, we have started working four days on, two days off. They have also started hiring many workers from temporary agencies to help out with the work (which is appreciated, but means that a lot of training has to be done). Today, to show their appreciation for our efforts, they bought us ice cream.
The past few days I have been given a helper from a temp. agency. I love having a helper not only for the company but also because I can make them do the things that I don't want to do which are, namely, making the bed (it is killer on your back), dusting (dusting is lame but it has to be done) and vacuuming (I hate vacuuming - esp. the rooms with stairs). I concentrate on the bathroom and with the two of us working together we can knock out a room in no time.
During this morning's briefing, we were warned about Thursday and Friday of this week and cautioned to get plenty of rest, eat healthy food and mentally prepare as those days were going to be particularly hard since the hotel will reach about 80% occupancy. Luckily, those just happen to be my two days off. Win.
Is there anything you can't get in NZ that you miss from the US?
Hey Kate! Good question. I am still thinking about this one but so far the only thing I can come up with is Root Beer and anything by Hershey's chocolate as everything is "Cadbury" chocolate here.
Housekeeping staff make a big difference in keeping a facility comfortable for staff and clients, but they often go unnoticed. To let your housekeeper know how much you appreciate her hard work, go out of your way to honor and thank her. Thanks a lot.