Ask and Ye Shall Receive

I don't know if I've mentioned this, and excuse me if I'm being redundant, but I addressed a situation that I wasn't happy with at work and it actually worked out in my favor. Normally I never speak up because I try to be the good worker who keeps his mouth shut and does his job, especially if I'm the new guy. Work, however, was getting overwhelming since I was filling two roles, banquets and conference services (CF). It was nice getting the hours and the big bucks, but it was really hard being at work for so long, and not just for me, but for my entire family. I was at work until 1:00-2:00 in the morning, and on some nights I'd have to get up at 4:00AM to take A to hockey practice. It was brutal.

Not only that, but I much prefer doing banquets because the energy level is higher, the work is busy but constant, the work ends when the event is over, and it's a big crew that works fast and hard. CF works hard as well, but it's a smaller crew and the pace is much slower. Combine that with the fact that CF work begins when banquets end, and you're talking a very late night. Imagine an early morning of hockey and taking A to school, working as a poster boy, then taking A home for lunch. In the afternoon N would have hockey, then we'd go home and have supper, and then I'd have to head in for work, usually until about 11:00 to midnight, or later.

The CF crew is not always as warm and sunny, either. Since CF is small in numbers, we're right on top of each other and have to listen to each other whine. If it were up to me, I'd silently work as fast as possible, get the work done, and go home, but it's not up to me. I don't always know what needs to be done so I'm waiting around to obtain this information, and the clock keeps ticking. It is a bit of a downer, but again, there are plenty of hours and pay is not bad. Then again, money isn't everything, right? I can't tell you what a bummer it is getting home so late on a regular basis, not being able to eat supper with the family or see mom until I crawl into bed. It's just not a health approach to the American Dream.

So I went to my supervisors and said that I'd like to go back to focusing on banquets and do less work in CF. Truth be told, they don't really need me in CF, the guys know their stuff and are perfectly capable without me. Plus, I much prefer the work in banquets, it suits me a lot better in terms of energy and environment. I wasn't sure what was to come out of it but I spoke with some of the captains and they were supportive, so I figured it was worth a try. Over the past couple of weeks things have started to pick up, and lo and behold, my focus has shifted back to banquets. I was even told that I'm not on the CF schedule anymore. Woo-hoo. I told the supervisors that if they were in a bind I could help out, but I would be fine not doing it anymore. I felt sort of guilty bailing on the guys, and they were teasing me by calling me a traitor, but truth be told, they complained the whole time I worked with them and on a number of occasions said they were going to transfer out to another department. One of them might have even been in the process of looking for another job and seemed ready to leave, though I think it would have been a big mistake because they're not going to find a better gig than the Inn. So after all that griping and complaining, nothing changed for them.

Not that that is a bad thing because the Inn is pretty cool about flexibility and the pay is good. I'm not sure why they complained so much other than the fact that some people are just always unhappy and constantly complain. I know I do it all the time, but that doesn't mean you can't do something about it. What's nice is that I made the request months ago and patiently finished out my term in CF until the slow season, so I think the transition was smooth and didn't ruffle any feathers.

I love when that happens. Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Rachel for the pic.