Lunch Hour

Stole away from work for an hour, and am home in the cool and quiet. I need to get back out there and into circulation but am finding it impossible to move. There is bad news today. The other sales manager at my property, T, is giving his notice today, and in the world of hotel sales managers, that means he'll be "walked" -- or told to clean out his desk and be done at the end of the day. Giving notice turns you immediately into persona non grata -- you might steal clients if we give you the basic two weeks! -- hence the washing of hands, the near instantaneous abandonment, the tossing of the sales manager into the cold and lonely world.

The ramifications for me are pretty obvious. I'll be taking over whatever deals, clients, or groups he has out there, and in addition will be responsible for responding to everything that comes into the office. I will, of course, still be responsible for my own deals, clients, and groups. There will be just me, the Director of Sales and the Catering Manager. This will go on indefinitely, or until they hire another sales manager.

This is a worrisome proposition, the waiting for a new guy/gal to get hired. It took them fully two and a half months to hire T, during which time I was not only new but also alone at my hotel. Let's just say this can't happen again.

Aside from the workload, there is the morale factor. The Director of Sales has created a singularly dysfunctional department and this puts me right back in the position of being the sole prop for her lunacy. At least when T was here, we could bitch about things together, and could strategize ways to mitigate the bullshit, or to detour her idiotic roadblocks. Without an ally, we'll be back to square one: inexperienced me having to rely on her ad hoc regulations and muddy thinking to somehow fill the hotel.

But lastly is the sense that he's just the first guy to jump from the plane successfully. I'd be lying if I weren't looking around, too; he was just ready to make the leap first. But my leads to date aren't panning out like his are, and I have to keep making money first and foremost. Hence the frustration and the hastily grabbed lunch hour. I'm honestly jealous and freaked all the at the same time. Either way we can say that the next month or so is going to be a lot more hammer-and-tongs than expected.