8-30-20
“Can we bring our dog inside?”
“Sorry, no,” I said, slightly muffled through my mask. “One of you will have to stay outside with her.” I glanced at the chihuahua wearing a pink tutu and then at the mother and son owners.
“Great!” the mother said and began gathering up her dog in her arms.
I wondered if they were able to tie the dog to the leg of the table next to me. I was brought back to reality as the mother held out the dog to me.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “She’s friendly.”
For the last three weeks, a new duty was added to the my job at the front desk. Not only would we be checking people in, but we also have to spend several days a week working as door greeters. The idea for the job is simple. Someone stands outside the door and counts people in and out with a tally counter. A second employee stands nearby and answers questions, so the counter doesn’t get distracted.
The above story was an incident from a few weeks ago, when we first started as door greeters. I was working a morning shift, when a mother and son came up with their dog and thought I was offering to hold her on my lap, while they went inside. Needless to say, I was startled. Luckily, they realized that I was not, in fact, willing to dog sit for them. Instead, one went in while the other stayed with the dog, much to my relief.
“You need to wear a mask inside the building,” our location manager said to two guests.
“We have a medical condition and we’re hungry.”
This was another day at the front door. I was answering questions off to the side, when I became aware of our location manager stopping a couple from walking in the exit door to avoid the line. The two wanted food and they cited a medical condition for not wearing them. This is not allowed for this year. If you want to go into the building, you have to wear a mask. But, what were these poor people going to do? They were refusing point blank to wear masks. The location manager headed inside, telling me to keep count of people going in and out, and went to find a Food and Beverage manager, who took their orders and payment outside. At least they got their food, even if they couldn’t step into the building themselves.
It is interesting watching human behavior as I monitor the doors. We can only let 120 people in at a time, not counting on duty employees. Most people will wait patiently in line, until I tell them they can go in. Then, there are people that try and walk in without waiting and sneak into other doors. They don’t want to wait like everyone else and try to make up some excuse over why we should like them in before everyone else. As far as I know, no employee has fallen for that yet.
I know this is a weird year and that everyone just wants the world to return to normal. I’m certainly ready for normal. Until then, I’ll just be a front desk agent and part time door greeter. Just, please remember, stay safe and well out there and no pets in the hotel.