I think we all realize by now that the companies we work for don’t really care about us.
I mean, most of them aren’t outright evil, but if we gave up on our lives or quit, they would just hire someone else or move on.
That’s just the way it is in the modern world, I guess.
Yet for some reason, some companies are still surprised when their employees treat them the same way.
Look at what this guy did when he realized his employer didn’t value him at all.
Background: Around 2017, I worked at a small 36-room condo hotel on Marco Island, Florida. The property was owned by a small venture capital firm run by two wealthy siblings and one of their sons.
I was brought on board by a colleague who was hired as General Manager.
Since this was a new/small operation with virtually no industry knowledge or expertise, the GM and I were essentially responsible for making real changes to the property, while also taking on multiple tasks in different roles thanks to our industry experience.
He and a few other people held the fort.
There was only one other office worker, a grumpy old lady (ironically her real name was Karen, lol) who basically just did the billing for the condo owners and sat in the back whenever possible.
I myself was responsible not only for daily presence at the reception, on the phone, as concierge, for assigning daily housekeeping tasks and conducting a short night audit.
Most importantly, managing business revenue strategy/competitive environment and online room inventory with our own website and major OTA companies like Expedia/Booking/Trivago etc.
2017 was a record year for us and my revenue strategy brought the company tens of thousands of dollars more than in previous years.
Then things started to go wrong.
Then in the second and third quarters things slowly start to go wrong. My colleague, the GM, resigned for personal reasons that had nothing to do with his job performance.
This reduced the number of office staff to two people: Karen and me.
Karen had planned this month-long trip to Italy two years in advance and was determined to go.
She flies off when news arrives that a severe hurricane will hit the island in a few days.
Keyword: Hurricane Irma.
For those unfamiliar with hurricane classification, Irma made landfall in the United States as a Category 4 hurricane.
This is amazingly powerful.
For reference, Katrina (which devastated New Orleans in 2005) was also a Category 4 storm.
Needless to say, everyone was on high alert and making evacuation plans.
He had to accept a significant pay cut and nobody cared.
During my evacuation – I was neither on duty nor being paid by the company – the company’s accountant called me on my personal phone and asked me to explain to her the steps to remotely conduct the audit of the property management system.
In hotel computer systems, the “day” doesn’t end until you tell the system that the day is over and it’s time to run reports/tally up the numbers, so if no one is there to do the auditing, the hotel is permanently “stuck” on the previous day.
I spent about two hours on the phone with her during an evacuation after a natural disaster and was never compensated for it.
Irma eventually reached the island where I was working and the entire surrounding area was without power for about a week.
When we returned, we all found our rooms in ruins. Some of our rooms on the top floor had had their walls and roof blown away, and we were slowly trying to pick up the pieces.
My work hours were cut from 40 to about 16 hours a week because the damage from the hurricane caused a sharp decline in business.
I was getting into increasing financial difficulties and was forced to use up all of my accrued paid vacation days and holidays to continue to receive my full salary, because I was just a single guy, 24-25 years old, living alone, and the company offered me absolutely no opportunity to return to a full-time position.
Even the CEO rejected him.
I sent an email to the CEO, who I spoke to every week in revenue meetings, explaining the situation and asking for a possible advance to tide me over for the time being.
The email I got back was essentially one sentence that went something like this: “OP, we’ll be back open soon, thanks.”
A bold strategy. Let’s see how this works out for you, considering I’m literally the only person running the hotel operations at the moment.
So he found something better.
Within a week, I secured an interview for a better-paying job closer to home, aced the interview, and kept it completely to myself.
The CEO’s brother (the CFO) flew in to be on site on the first day after reopening, when business operations began to return to normal.
The day before reopening, I received a call at the office from the HR department of the new company confirming the job offer and asking me to come in later that day to finalize everything.
He couldn’t wait to drop the bomb.
I called the CFO and asked him to come into the office because I wanted to talk.
When he got there and asked what was going on, I immediately told him I was quitting.
He: “OP, you do realize that this will make our opening tomorrow more difficult, right?”
Me: “No offense! Just as your company has financial concerns that prevent you from keeping your only employee here to run the hotel, I too have financial concerns that prevent me from staying here as I have bills to pay. You will be open again soon, don’t worry!”
He gritted his teeth and said, “… fine.”
I handed over my key to the property, got in my car and never looked back.
Satisfaction!
I bet Reddit liked this too.
It was *kiss from the chef*
Some days are better than others.
He should have seen it coming.
It’s hard to take your eyes off the scene of the accident.
The fame!
This guy is definitely getting better.
To be honest, I hope this is not the case for the company.
If you liked the story, check out this post about a clueless CEO telling a web developer to “act like a paycheck”… and it leads to 30% of the workforce being laid off.
