People...

On Oct 7, 9:04 am, Jay Honeck wrote:
For those of you who exist in the clarified, rarified world of upper-
echelon corporate life, or hang out with pilots all day, it's hard to
remember the wide range of human behaviors that exist. I, too, once
existed there, and clearly remember walking the halls of the Fortune
500 company, finding it easy to believe that the whole world was
populated by intelligent, hard-driving "doers".

When you run a hotel, however, you see the entire panoply of the human
experience, often in the same day. Over time you realize that the
world is split unevenly between "doers" and "takers", and it's
sometimes hard to tell which side is winning. After a day like
yesterday it's hard to even believe that we've lumped so many
different creatures under the one title "homo sapiens".


"A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of Government. It can
only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse
(a liberal gift) out of public treasury. From that moment on the
majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits
from the public treasury with the result that Democracy always
collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a
Dictatorship."

We are there. The takers have won.
--
Gene Seibel
Tales of Flight - http://pad39a.com/gene/tales.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.

While not 100% on-topic, if you have a chance, view the movie "Idiocracy".
Warning: foul language, lousy acting, and weak script, but if you stick
with the precept of the dumbing-down of society, it's a funny but sobering
view of where we could be heading.... Basically, a 2005 guy who's the most
center-of-the-bell-curve goes into a hibernation experiment, gets forgotten,
and wakes up 500 yrs later - as the smartest guy in the world.

Carl


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ps.com...
For those of you who exist in the clarified, rarified world of upper-
echelon corporate life, or hang out with pilots all day, it's hard to
remember the wide range of human behaviors that exist. I, too, once
existed there, and clearly remember walking the halls of the Fortune
500 company, finding it easy to believe that the whole world was
populated by intelligent, hard-driving "doers".

When you run a hotel, however, you see the entire panoply of the human
experience, often in the same day. Over time you realize that the
world is split unevenly between "doers" and "takers", and it's
sometimes hard to tell which side is winning. After a day like
yesterday it's hard to even believe that we've lumped so many
different creatures under the one title "homo sapiens".

On Saturday we:

- Hosted a gathering of Swearingen SX-300 pilots in our Jack Knight
Meeting Room. These top-notch pilots held a seminar on formation
flying, and then spent the day thrilling the city with formation over-
flights. They're doing it again as I'm typing this. (If you're not
familiar with the SX-300, I suggest doing a web search. It is about
the coolest single engine plane out there.)

- Dealt with a couple of Wayne's World look-alikes, who -- at 11 AM --
staggered into the lobby so stoned they couldn't feel their feet,
looking for a suite. Mary took one look at them, loudly pronounced
what she was smelling in their presence, and told them to hit the
bricks....

- Took a call from a former guest who -- a week ago -- claimed to have
tripped and fell entering the Mustang Suite. She has supposedly gone
to a chiropractor three times, and is threatening to sue us if we
don't compensate her in some way.

All of this happened between 11 AM and 1 PM. Call it "The Good, The
Bad, and The Ugly".

Next time you're sitting at your big desk in your corner office,
gazing over the city whilst sipping your third latte of the day and
sweating your stock options, try to remember that the real world is
just beyond the smoked glass...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Sun, 07 Oct 2007 09:43:16 -0700, wrote:

And no, I'm not flying while distracted (like Jay got lambasted upon
after a hard day at work in a recent thread). I'm distracted by flying
from the distractions of everyday life...

Isn't that amazing? It all just falls away during pre-flight.

I've recently started studying Taekwondo, and it's the same: as soon as I
start the warm-ups, the various demands and pressures of the day just
seem to fall away.

[Admittedly, mine are nothing like those of an ER MD.]

- Andrew

Jay Honeck writes:

We have now hired seven people -- quite literally all seven who have
applied. One never showed up for their first day; one turned out to
be bipolar, and I literally had to call the police to get them out of
here; one showed up late their first two days -- I fired him on the
fourth day; one stole money from us but left before I could fire her.

How much do you pay them?

How much do you pay them?

Part-timers start at $8/hour plus commission.

Considering this is an entry-level position, in a town with 34,000
college students, I find it quite remarkable that we're having so much
trouble finding good people....
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ps.com...

- Dealt with a couple of Wayne's World look-alikes, who -- at 11 AM --
staggered into the lobby so stoned they couldn't feel their feet,
looking for a suite. Mary took one look at them, loudly pronounced
what she was smelling in their presence, and told them to hit the
bricks....

- Took a call from a former guest who -- a week ago -- claimed to have
tripped and fell entering the Mustang Suite. She has supposedly gone
to a chiropractor three times, and is threatening to sue us if we
don't compensate her in some way.

Ironically, of the two, Wayne and Garth were probably the least worrisome of
them all. (Can't afford frivolous lawsuit attorneys.)

-c

Ironically, of the two, Wayne and Garth were probably the least worrisome of
them all. (Can't afford frivolous lawsuit attorneys.)

We're not normally so rude with the college kids, but we had a meeting
room full of pilots doing a seminar, and Mary wanted them *out* before
Garth and Wayne could cause any trouble.

We've learned to set a "tone" with kids that age, which is then
communicated back to their group(s). Our hotel was known as "Party
Central" under its previous owners, and it took us several years to
finally get the message to the frats and sororities that we are "off
limits".
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

For sitting at a counter and signing in a few guests?

Damn........Righteous bucks.

Well, I think so. Funny thing is, the pay isn't mentioned in the ad,
so it has nothing to do with our recent lack of applicants. We used
to run the exact same ad, in years past, and get dozens of people
applying.

One problem we've discovered is that we have incrementally added
services since we opened five years ago that make the job more than
"sitting at the counter". When you add these tasks a little at a
time to a worker, over a period of years, they seem insignificant.
When you're training a new person from "zero", however, they can seem
overwhelming.

Things like knowing how to run the Kiwi flight simulator, for
instance, can take more mental horsepower than some people are able to
produce. Between that, and delivering breakfast baskets to the proper
suites, we're discovering that there are a lot of people who simply
can't perform.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck writes:

How much do you pay them?

Part-timers start at $8/hour plus commission.

Considering this is an entry-level position, in a town with 34,000
college students, I find it quite remarkable that we're having so much
trouble finding good people....

How much does an apartment cost per month in your town? What about groceries
for one person?

Jay Honeck wrote:
How much do you pay them?

Part-timers start at $8/hour plus commission.

Considering this is an entry-level position, in a town with 34,000
college students, I find it quite remarkable that we're having so much
trouble finding good people....

I don't.

Only because my company is in a college town
and I have exactly the same problem. And being
in California, I'm offering about 25% more
than you.