Leverage and supply-demand dynamics are always a big deal in the hotel industry, and it's noteworthy that in most big, cycle-ending economic downturns, hoteliers have been the beneficiary of holding the cards in the labor market, with strong demand for jobs but limited supply.
That's been turned on its head this time around, with the labor pool nowhere near pre-pandemic levels even during a summer where leisure demand boomed.
Now I've heard a lot of extremely reasonable takes on why that might be, including the fact that the hotel industry isn't a particularly hospitable environment for its own people right now. But I've always heard plenty of hoteliers opining something along the lines that people simply aren't working because they're being paid not to, implying the issue right now is tied to some sort of laziness or abuse of government aid.
But when considering why they might be having a hard time recruiting or — even more importantly — retaining talent, hoteliers and industry leaders need to be looking inward.
Long-time readers of these blogs will be aware that one of my favorite go-tos when I'm in a need of a check-in with the ground-level realities of the hotel industry is the Tales from the Front Desk subreddit, which is primarily composed of hotel employees commiserating about the worst aspects of their jobs. In my semi-regular lurking of that community, I found a post that I think is indicative of the problem I think hoteliers need to recognize.
In a post from roughly a week ago, a member of that community recounted the joy they took in walking out of their job as a housekeeper and inspiring others to make the same decision. And what was the major driver of their decision to cut bait on their job, that particular hotel and quite possible the hotel industry entirely? Bad management.
"Three days ago, we had 80 check-outs between the five of us," they wrote. "There were 13 rooms assigned per person, six total check-ins and nine rolled rooms. The [assistant general manager] demanded the housekeepers clean the nine rolled rooms. When the housekeeping team learned of this, we all walked down to her office and tried to appeal to her reasonable side. We'd have over 50 clean vacant rooms by the end of the day, so what harm will rolling nine do? She was aggressive, dismissive and disrespectful, interrupting everybody who voiced their concerns."
The post goes on to elaborate that there was no demand that would justify having to have those rooms cleaned and the heavy workload doing so would require.
Hearing someone described as "aggressive, dismissive and disrespectful" to line-level staff leads me to think this manager has a real lack of empathy and understanding
That's before the post even gets into why that day was the straw that broke the camel's back, including management heaping more and more responsibilities on their line-level employees, withdrawing COVID-19-related hazard pay almost immediately after employees returned and not supplying people with the necessary equipment to do their jobs.
If you don't feel like clicking through to read the rest of the post, I'll fill you in: The poster ultimately leaves after a somewhat dramatic dice roll to decide their fate, and a handful of their colleagues were inspired to do the same soon after.
Taken on face level, this leaves our mystery hotel with a severe staffing shortage in the midst of a labor crisis and a small army of people ready to let anyone who wants to know just how bad of a work environment it is. Does that sound like a winning formula for hotel operations in 2021?
It's long been a truism that people don't quit jobs, they quit managers. This isn't new or innovative thinking, but it matters more today than ever before. You need to care about your people. You need your general managers and their team to care about people. In the face of a cruel and unforgiving world, you need to let your employees know you have their back so they can be the best possible version of themselves, which includes being the most productive version of themselves.
The hotel operators that take that lesson to heart are going to be the ones who win the next cycle.
What do you think? Let me know via email, on Twitter or on LinkedIn.
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