A black woman walked into the hotel a few days ago and reluctantly comes up to me at the desk:
Woman: I need a room with two doubles starting tonight for a week.
Me: I'm sorry, we're sold out tonight, tomorrow and Thursday.
Woman: Are you sure you looked correctly? Check again.
(I quickly check again)
Me: Yes ma'am, I'm sure. Unfortunately we're sold out those night's.
Woman turns to my black coworker:
Woman: Sir, can you please check for me to make sure he isn't lying to me?
(my jaw drops at this and my coworker does a double take to make sure he heard her correctly)
CW: Sure, give me one second to look that up for you.
Woman: Ok, I need a room tonight for a week with two doubles.
CW: Sorry, we are sold out, just like my coworker told you.
Woman: Ok I just had to be sure I wasn't being played. Thanks for your help (directly to my coworker, not looking at me once).
Let me start off by saying that I've dealt with some minor cases of racism in my years in working in a hotel. I'm an Orthodox Jew and I wear a kippah at work so I get people checking in and the entire time that I'm checking them in, they're staring at my head and not paying attention. I'm fine with that. They're usually from the Midwest or some small town in Europe that hasn't seen too many Jews come through their towns. I've even gotten called things by people coming back into the hotel late at night after drinking for hours. I can deal with that. But to come into the hotel and act like that in the middle of the day in the middle of Manhattan is not so OK. I don't know if it was because I'm white or Jewish, but being rude like that deserves a wake up call. Welcome to New York. It's 2011. Get over it.
Showing posts with label Frustrated. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frustrated. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
On The Hunt
Why do people make it so difficult for us unemployed folk to get a job? I've been looking for a job for the last three months. That's three months of no income, living in New York and paying off my student loans, rent, car insurance, and putting gas in the car. Oh. I can't forget groceries so I can live. Minor details. But seriously, companies post these job ads that specify that the applicant had to have gone to a 4-year college, graduated with a certain GPA (usually 3.0 or better), 2+ years of experience, etc etc.
I don't really understand what they want. Do they expect the best of the best to be unemployed and currently looking for jobs? I really hope they don't expect to get what they're looking for. The people they're looking for are already secured with jobs from before the recession. They've all gone and looked through the job boards online before, picked out where they want to work, and are now happily (or upset, but stay because of the money) working for whatever company they are with. What's left are the rest of us. The kids who grew up in middle class homes whose parents couldn't afford to put them through a 4-year college, so we had to put ourselves through community college.
Now don't get my wrong, I'm extremely happy I went to community college. Originally, I didn't want to get a college education. I thought it was a waste of time and money. I went to college and dropped out after a semester. After working for a year and a half in a hotel, I decided I was going to get an associates degree in Hotel Management from my local community college. I took out the necessary loans because I didn't have that kind of money, registered for classes, and worked my ass off to get through. I was a C student in high school, but that was my parents money that I was wasting. This was totally different. I was doing this for myself, and I wanted to get the most out of it. After 2 grueling years, I graduated with a solid 3.15 GPA (stupid Banquet Management class!!) and felt proud of myself for going through it. I thought I could take on the field and was ready to do so, until I realized I graduated at the worst possible time in recent history.
Now back to the topic at hand. What the hell am I supposed to do when even the lowest jobs on the totem pole 'require' 4-year degrees? I'm looking on CareerBuilder.com and I barely qualify for what they're looking for in a Greyhound bus driver! All because I have a silly 2-year degree. I guess I'll just have to keep doing what I've been doing for 3 months. Apply to all the jobs I both qualify for and don't qualify for, and wait for someone to call back for an interview. What a waste of time and money after all.
I don't really understand what they want. Do they expect the best of the best to be unemployed and currently looking for jobs? I really hope they don't expect to get what they're looking for. The people they're looking for are already secured with jobs from before the recession. They've all gone and looked through the job boards online before, picked out where they want to work, and are now happily (or upset, but stay because of the money) working for whatever company they are with. What's left are the rest of us. The kids who grew up in middle class homes whose parents couldn't afford to put them through a 4-year college, so we had to put ourselves through community college.
Now don't get my wrong, I'm extremely happy I went to community college. Originally, I didn't want to get a college education. I thought it was a waste of time and money. I went to college and dropped out after a semester. After working for a year and a half in a hotel, I decided I was going to get an associates degree in Hotel Management from my local community college. I took out the necessary loans because I didn't have that kind of money, registered for classes, and worked my ass off to get through. I was a C student in high school, but that was my parents money that I was wasting. This was totally different. I was doing this for myself, and I wanted to get the most out of it. After 2 grueling years, I graduated with a solid 3.15 GPA (stupid Banquet Management class!!) and felt proud of myself for going through it. I thought I could take on the field and was ready to do so, until I realized I graduated at the worst possible time in recent history.
Now back to the topic at hand. What the hell am I supposed to do when even the lowest jobs on the totem pole 'require' 4-year degrees? I'm looking on CareerBuilder.com and I barely qualify for what they're looking for in a Greyhound bus driver! All because I have a silly 2-year degree. I guess I'll just have to keep doing what I've been doing for 3 months. Apply to all the jobs I both qualify for and don't qualify for, and wait for someone to call back for an interview. What a waste of time and money after all.
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