As The Inn Turns – Episode 3

Yesterday I started a new young woman as our second housekeeper. I am clinging on to my one remaining lady who is worth her weight in gold, but whose mother is ailing and she cannot do all the hours required as the summer gets busier.

The ‘new one’ arrived on time, she is baby faced and doe eyed. Wears pastels and seems naive for her 24 years. My golden housekeeper and me trained new one for two hours, showed her where everything was and how to do her job in the most efficient way. At the end she sheepishly announced that she had never learned how to iron, so she got a quick lesson in that too. I sent her home with napkins to practice her folding on and sheets of paper with the lists of her duties to read over for homework.

In the afternoon, we received an E-mail from on high alerting us to the fact that new one had actually worked at this inn for two months in the summer of 2007 and had herself an impressive criminal record that included burglary and assault – a little charmer!

I was able to challenge her con act with me because she called us not long after wards to ask me to sign some day-care form for her mini con-baby, whose daycare would be covered by social services if mommy-con had a job. She was pissed in a major way that her ruse had been discovered and proceeded to shriek obscenities and threats down the phone. Richard intervened and dispatched her ass.

Well I guess I won’t get the practice napkins back, but at least she won’t have the chance to get her feelers on our operation. I am getting paranoid however and much to Richard’s annoyance, I am hiding things and locking everything up wherever I go.

Now we have access to a great website where you can look up a person’s criminal record if they have one. You can bet that I will not be training anyone else without first checking up on them there.

Meanwhile on a sweeter note. The Spring up here in the mountains and the forests is spectacular. The rivers and waterfalls are in flood, the trees are budding out and blossoming and we have been treated to some incredible close encounters with wildlife (excluding housekeepers that is) such as juvenile owls, bears, wood chucks, and deer. We have been planting flowers all around the inn and getting out the adirondack chairs and cafe tables on the generously sized decks that overlook a sylvan paradise.

Back to the classifieds “help wanted” next week. In my desperation I stopped by the local Mexican restaurant to plead with the owner to send any of her friends or relatives my way. What I wouldn’t do for a wonderful Hispanic lady right now.Until then I guess me and Goldy will keep it together,

and Richard is my knight in shining armor.

Once Bitten...

Last week I thought that I had settled on a person to be our new housekeeper. She is an older lady but seemed very fit and active, a sporty looking pixie style haircut made her look neat and together. She lives near the inn and has her own car. She has no problem with being called in to work on a moments notice and wanted the work because she was bored at home. I was happy to have found her and she comes with good long term references from other housekeeping work in the area.

I called to arrange for her to come for her first day of training here and as we talked I heard a note of reserved hesitation in her voice. Then out it came. She had just broken her left arm in two places and was in a cast for several weeks. She asked to be allowed to start work despite her injury, but after some consideration I had to tell her that I could not hire her as the job does involve carrying vacuum cleaners and heavy breakfast trays and moving some furniture around to clean. I did not want her healing process to suffer because of the work. So I was back to square one with another week of advertising.

The search for good help is not easy, especially in the mountains of western Maryland. When you find a diamond amongst the lumps of coal you had better look after it well. We need to find a housekeeper who produces sparkling results despite those who leave their rooms looking like a tornado has hit it.

My cousin Susan told me to watch the new episodes of “Upstairs Downstairs” in which the new upstairs inhabitants of the house at 165 Eaton Place are hiring a whole household of servants including a housekeeper. I felt very glad not to be in that position. Finding one person is quite enough hand wringing for me.

Out With The Old

Arriving to work in a new job is always stressful and full of possible pitfalls. One is both learning the job as well as assessing the people already in place. Some of these are long standing employees who, despite their actual position in the establishment, feel a sense of power over the newbie because of the length of their tenure.

We have done an awful lot of cleaning house in the most literal sense since we arrived to start being inn keepers, now that we have the heavy work done, it is the normal upkeep and maintenance of the place, which is very manageable. I was assured by the boss that the two housekeepers who cleaned the guest rooms in the inn were very good at their jobs and I looked forward to developing a good working relationship with them as it was sure to make my life much easier if we all understood and respected each other.

Both of those women are now gone. One left to pursue a career in the medical field for which she had been taking online classes. The other one was too keen on telling me when she couldn’t work due to a stunning array of life problems. Yesterday we discovered that on the days that she did manage to come in she was making off with our tips as well as hers.

Our boss was correct in what she had told us about these two, they did the work well and the rooms were adequately cleaned and looked presentable, but as always there is more to the cake than taking it out of the oven.

Being born a Libra makes it doubly hard for me when everything goes out of balance and there is discord in my life. I hate losing my temper, but when pushed I do it spectacularly.

The inn is feeling much cleaner today. I have hired one new housekeeper who does sterling work and we have the good relationship I had imagined previously. Boss says I can look for another one in May since we get very busy then and through the early fall. The good thing is that whoever I choose, I will be the established employer and not the new kid on the block with everything to learn and discover.

All breakfast tables are not created equal.

It might look like all the other tables, two chairs are neatly tucked under it just like the other fourteen in the room, therefore we assume that it is the location of this favorite table that must be the draw to whoever comes up for breakfast first in the mornings.

Human behavior is all about comfort levels and security, or lack of it. As new inn keepers we have been on a crash course in people’s body language; fascinating and deeply meaningful once you begin to study it. Our guests at the inn are mostly couples taking “getaway” breaks together, some are celebrating special milestones and some are just needing time alone together, away from the pressures of their regular lives. Depending on the personalities of the two people this translates into different behavior.

Some couples want to be madly social with the rest of the guests and some rush to their room with supplies and are hardly seen again until check out time.

The pattern in the breakfast room is undeniably consistent however. This is the favored table. Even if it has been used and not reset and there are other tables fresh and ready for sitting at, people love this one place in the room.

I have looked at it from an objective stance. It is near the window and enjoyable for its views of the grounds and possible deer and wild turkey sightings. It is in view of the wood fire, but not too close for comfort, but what is the clincher I believe is the fact that from this table the guests can see who is approaching from the other rooms in the inn. I think it is an ancient instinct that moves their choice. That of observing the advance of intruders into the space in which they are feeding.

For all our technological advances we have not evolved very far from our early ancestors who sat at the mouth of the cave guarding the fire with a bone clutched in their fist.