Elevator of the week. Thanks to my boss, Rob, for giving me this. And for misspelling my name :)
So yesterday
was a rather interesting day at work. Nate and I started walking over to work
at about 2:45. As we were walking over we saw someone we know that works in the
Pioneer Grill walking back towards the dorms. After saying hi, she said, “Oh,
by the way, the fire alarm’s going off in the lodge again.” Nate and I looked
at each other with a look that said, well this should be a fun day.
When we got
closer to the lodge we saw all of front desk staff, activities desk staff,
reservations department, and bellmen sitting under some trees near the
flagpoles, where we’re supposed to go during a fire alarm. We went over and sat
with them, wondering if this was just a drill or if there was actually a fire.
While waiting we saw two fire trucks drive up to the lodge with their sirens
on, followed by several NPS cars, so apparently there really was something
going on inside the lodge. Soon after we arrived, Emily and Jen said that the
agents who’d worked the earlier shift could go home. They also said that, since
Nate, Haley and I couldn’t go clock in, they’d adjust our times so we’d still
be getting paid starting at three. Not long after they said that, Alex Klein
came over to us and said that it’d probably be at least an hour before we could
go into the lodge. In a way it was nice to just sit outside under the trees and
talk with everybody, especially since we were getting paid for it. On the other
hand, though, it meant we’d be really busy with check-ins when we were allowed
back in.
It turned
out to be close to five o’clock before we were finally allowed back into the
lodge. There had been some electrical issue upstairs, and it had taken so long
because they’d had a lot of trouble finding the direct source of it. Just like
we’d all predicted, once we got back, there was about an hour of craziness with
guest trying to check in. There were five of us at the desk checking people in,
and all five of us constantly had guests in front of us for about an hour.
Finally it died down a bit and, one by one, we went to dinner. I wasn’t sure if
we’d get to go to dinner at all because of how busy we were, but we got a lot
of check-ins taken care of pretty quickly after the lodge opened up.
When we
arrived, there were still about eight rooms available, but by the time our shift
ended we’d taken in enough walk-ins that we were at one hundred percent
capacity yet again. We’d really wanted to sell all the rooms- being at full
capacity looks good for the lodge overall (and maximizes profit, of course).
Thankfully, we were also able to avoid becoming oversold. So, after the mad
rush before dinner, it was a pretty stress-free night.
I just got
back from having lunch at the EDR with Nate, Maggie, and a few other people we
know. I go into work at three again, working with Nate, David, and Jen. I’m
pretty sure we’re at full capacity again tonight. Maggie told Nate and me at
lunch, though, that we have seven groups coming in today, five of which are
batch check-ins. So with all of those groups, all we have to do is check our
computer system to make sure the rooms are clean, then hand the key packets over
to the tour leaders. It’s a really easy way to take care of a lot of check-ins
really fast. Considering that, there’s a pretty good chance that one of us will
be allowed to go home early. We’ll see.
Every week
Rob picks one of the desk agents as the “elevator of the week” and puts their
name on the board in the small office beside the front desk (which we call the
fishbowl). I noticed a couple of days ago that my name is up there this week. I
think it’s probably mostly because I loaned that couple my camera charger.
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