Wow, it's been awhile since the last time I logged in here. Welcome back Ms. Salome aka MicMic!
Now, let me ask you a question. Do
you ever understand the person sleeping next to you? It’s a question that always boggles me.
One
day I woke up and realized, “OMG, I don’t have anyone except career!” That was
the day I remembered what my boss told me, “I am throwing you in the water and let
you swim by yourself. It’s up to you to survive.”
If
I can’t make personal life better, I might as well take care of the opportunity
that my boss led me. I wouldn’t be a hotel
general manager if he didn’t open the door for me. But here’s the twist, people think a general
manager does nothing but “just give orders”.
Well, let me share to you my experience. As a general manager, I must relate well to
people not only to guests but to employees as well. The HR function is as important
as sales and marketing. It’s the life
blood of operations. I am handling different types of people, so it’s quite a challenge
to be level-headed sometimes.
My
bachelor’s degree in Commerce helps me to have a solid financial background
enough to balance the cost against operations. Also, my management experience
in sales and marketing and food and beverage give me insights on how I can
analyze operations through numbers and constant visibility on the floor. These
skills are very important for locally owned properties.
If
you dream of becoming a Hotel General Manager then forget about your eight
hours work mentality. I tried developing
one Filipino manager once and when my boss reassigned me, I was surprised to learn
he insisted working from 6AM-2PM and won’t even volunteer staying few minutes
unless a senior manager would ask him to stay a little bit. I hope his experience with us taught him to
be committed to his job now.
A general manager for locally owned hotel is
on call 24 hours a day. This is on top of the daily tasks studying daily management
report, occupancy reports, operations meeting, executive meetings, going over
room assignments, staff assignments, food and beverage plans and programs,
chasing guest complaints, and getting a call wee hour in the morning with
graveyard shift staff asking help to solve guest complaints that sometimes
turned out to be simple issues of language barrier.
If
I have to name it all, 24 hours are not even enough. Plain
and simple, this is a job that requires total commitment and dedication. I love my work, my owners and my boss
definitely, that I am not comfortable sleeping outside of the hotel anymore. I
get so jealous of employees not showing their loyalty to the property and it’s
becoming a habit for me to install 4G on my phone even I’m on holiday.
If
you ask me what’s my typical day like, have a glimpse of this:
6:30AM
– visit the kitchen and check if dining areas are ready for breakfast
7AM
– walk around the properties
9AM
– browse emails, study daily management reports and occupancy reports
10AM-
operations briefing
11AM
to 3PM- Administrative tasks
4PM
to 9PM – Visibility on the floor
Those
schedules are not static though. On top
of this, a hotel general manager must think of promoting the property outside.
But
what is really the most crucial task of a General Manager? I may mention a lot of things that molds a GM’s
personal life but really there’s only one thing all GMs care about, it’s the
GOP. I may have very nice owners and COO
who offered me an opportunity to grow with them but at the end of the day, the
expectation is high GOP turnover. It’s business after all.
On
a personal side, you may think I have this title and yet posting irresponsible crazy
stuff in FACEBOOK. Facebook is one form
of Social Media that is built to trigger people’s interests through social interaction,
isn’t it? It’s like gossip that interests people’s attention.
Don’t
you enjoy it when you are getting the attention you don’t normally get? You may
describe it as attention seeker but well, what can I do? It makes me laugh amidst
of my heavy responsibilities at work. It’s actually a nice break from all those
seriousness in life.
Well
dear! Forget about me being serious in Facebook, okay? Nothing can boggle my
mind now except messages from my owners and my boss! Let’s put it this way, if
you are in front of me and you hear a sound of Viber message on my phone, my
apologies but please forget I ever thought you exist. They're my priority.
