A Boise Summer

I have not written a single blog about moving to Boise, summer or my job at the Hampton Inn. First off I will say that moving to Boise was the best decision I have made in a long time.  I have not only been able to live without the stress of bills and roommates who don't clean, but I also have the most awesome supportive loving parents I could ask for. I really enjoy living in Boise, even though it was an extremely hot summer. I joined a gym and tried really hard to commit myself to working out. It's been going alright, I'm making it more then when I was in Florida. I also picked up riding horses again with my mom. I'll write a different blog post about that later. 

Lets talk about the job. Way before I moved, my dad used his contacts at work to find me contacts for a job. I ended up getting a job at Hampton Inn in Nampa, Idaho. Te basic of the job was that I was supposed to book group blocks and meeting rooms for the hotel. Coming in there was little to no training and I basically just asked my manager questions when they came up. Besides that, the job started out great. The general manager, Deb, was leaving the hotel to go to corporate and Erica, the former Director of Sales, was going to take over GM. During this transition, Erica was acting as the assistant GM. A title made up for her so they didn't tell the rest of the employees Deb was leaving.

When I began the job, Erica was great. She was friendly, asked questions about my family and personal life, and talked about herself as well. At this point, Deb was the problem. She was not extremely computer savy and did not deal with stress well, making her tantrums frustrating as she took them out on the staff. As time went I heard several complaints from employees about Deb and there dislike for her.  In June things began to take a huge turn for the worse. Dustin, our CEO came for a visit. During this time, he informed me of the transition in management that was taking place this year. I of course already knew because Deb told me, but she forgot so Erica didn't know I knew. At this point Erica's personality took a turn to the things she was going to do as a manager to make the hotel better. She began trashing Deb behind her back to me and letting me know all the things she disliked about Deb management style and the things she wanted to change.  She talk bad about Neal, the front desk manager, and about how he was worthless and basically lazy.  Deb and Erica were sharing an office and Erica would often go work somewhere else because she didn't want to be near Deb and she would tell every little thing that was annoying her about Deb. Then they finally decided to announce to the staff that Erica was taking control. Things got really bad now because Erica became a tyrant. I could not do anything right in her book. She was constantly picking at everything, contradicting herself to find new things to pick on and had no idea the meaning on constructive criticism. 

I could go on and on about all the crap that happened at the hotel and tell you a bunch of stories but I, not going to. The most important thing to know is that in the last three months, 15 people have been hired and quit, and it's a 22-25 person staff.  So lets just say it was a bad situation and there were many things said to me during this time that would make you think these are awful managers. Trust me, everyone whose heard the stories thinks so. 

The last month I have been interested in finding other opportunities and getting closer and closer to quitting. Ideally I wanted to have a new job lined up and give a two week notice, but unfortunately I was pushed to my limit this week. It all started with my decision to visit a friend in Utah over the weekend. When I was coming back my car decided to act up and I knew I needed to get it into the mechanic. My mom was out visiting my sister so for two days I ignored the issue and drove her car. But she came back and I made an appointment to take my car in after work, however they let me know there was no way they could get it done in three hours and asked if I could bring it in earlier. They said they would drive me back to work and it would be quick. So that morning when Deb arrived I asked her if it would be ok to take a quick lunch and take my car over. She said she didn't really see a problem with that but I needed to ask Erica as she was completely responsible for management operations now.  After Erica arrived to work, I gave her about two hours to get settled in and then I finally asked her if I could head to lunch to get my car over. (Oh I should probably mention I was working the front desk, which was not in my original job description). She acted annoyed, but said yes and I left, was gone for twenty minutes and then was back. As soon as I got back, she started in with a lecture about how I can't be running personal errands during work. I told her that I just asked to take my lunch break, which I thought I had, in which she told me employees working the desk do not get lunch breaks and usually work 8 hours straight through. She said that since I was covering the desk we would need to have a conversation after my shift so we can talk about my job and how I need to make the hotel a priority. And this was my official breaking point.

Since I had taken in my car, I had to text my mom and ask her to come pick me up. Then I went in and quit. Deb was really confused and wanted to talk about the problem. I told her all the issues I had with them and they continued to make excuses and justify behavior. In the course of the argument, Erica told me that it was unacceptable I went to Utah over the weekend. Even though I only went on my days off, I should have been in town just in case I was needed. Anyway, to make an already long story end, there was a lot of back and forth to that extent and then I said my mom was waiting and I needed to leave. 

It's very much relief to be out of that horrible situation and I'm glad I have supportive parents to lean on. Now I'm off to figure out what I'm going to do now!