Two+ Faced

I’m confused.  And I’m riddled with hypocrisy.  On the one hand in my personal life, I’m a fairly strongly opinionated,  passionate, stubborn, hasty, realistic and honest but cheerful  (so I’m told) with slightly obsessive controlling tendencies.  At work, I’m definitely less opinionated, conservative, open, leaning toward optimistic, patient (I bite my tongue VERY hard), professional, polite, and overly excited (for the most part).  My outward appearance usually changes to match where I am as well, on my time off a little bit more fashion forward, trendier makeup and hair, at the office, hair pulled back, glasses, conservative neutral makeup/sometimes more severe, with a suit.

This made me think about the need for a poker face especially in this industry, or the need to have two or more “different faces” or personas to suit the situation and to appeal to different types of customers or consumers.  Regarding my last post on transparency, should I disclose everything being truly transparent?  Does my client/guest really need to know in my personal life that I’m having a bad day, do I need to show a more decisive/hard side, or am I being too harsh?  In certain situations with the right customer or if we’ve built a close enough relationship yes we can chat/laugh about a few personal facts and relationship build, but with those that are on time constraints or less than chatty, real Type A personalities, they want to just see me as the professional business person, and probably prefer to just talk business, get done, and go. 

I relate the cosmetics industry and their general advertising campaigns of before and after shots, and how they identify a need for people to match their different personas with the outside package and the feeling they want to portray.  Their products have the ability to transform even the plainest looking people into visions of glamour and drama, and have countless different ways to make a “day look” and a “night look”, severe or light, suited to any situation.  How do you use your outside appearance to reflect the persona you want to be associated with at your workplace, or personal life?    

I’ve tried to find a balance with my personality to my life’s tasks, and how others see me, identifying the best way to use it, but still a work in progress.

Should we leave the blinds open?

Transparency is a very delicate topic in the hospitality industry, open window and transparent or blinds shut and opaque.  Since we're selling and providing an experience, whether it's flying on a plane to your vacation, dining in a resort 5 star restaurant, or taking a trip staying with your family, we as hospitality industry people want it to be a positive one.  We try to sugar coat sometimes negative things, and in hopes that a positive experience does not have to suffer.  Obviously serious issues, and or things that you anticipate will create a situation personally for the customer/guest have to be disclosed before a disturbance can occur, but in the most diplomatic way possible of course.

When a customer/guest is not happy, they most likely will not return, and may feel the need to share their negative experience with friends, family members, co-workers, and even on a public forum or blog.  (“have a good experience tell 2 people, have a bad experience tell 10-20 people”).  This article written by the chairman/co-founder of TripAdvisor writes about why it’s very important to address these issues when they arise, giving perspective from the hotel standpoint in addition to allowing the customer/guest to have some closure about their issue.  This way, readers of the blog or future potential customers can draw their own conclusions, and the result of accusations hopefully not as damaging. 

One thing about transparency is that you would never want to fully divulge all types of information, relevant or not relevant if you foresee the possibility of this having no ill effect personally for your patrons, and for them to be better off if they don’t know the ugly truth.  For example: I don’t tell you that there was a jumper on the roof this morning at a hotel, neglect to tell you that a part of the wing fell off on an airplane yesterday night (although it’s fixed now), perhaps leave out the fact that we have a bedbug infestation on the lowest floor which is closed and being fumigated, don't show you what your airplane seat or hotel carpet/furniture/comforter look like under a black light.  In certain cases it’s better to be opaque, ingnorance is bliss, and please leave the blinds closed.

How can I be your host?

I have a love/hate relationship with the industry that I've called home for almost all my working life.  I started in restaurants as a busser/host, and a hotel switchboard, then moved through various other positions, departments and companies.

Sometimes the expectations of the industry itself can be challenging and frustrating, being the type of "bend over backwards to please" business. (The strange requests and scenarios alone could be the topic of a whole other blog)  But the exciting fast pace of multiple things on the go, love of good food, interest in new experiences and different attractions, meeting new people, and an insatiable travel bug keep me here.  I wonder if many other people think the same way, it's something that justs in your blood?

I'd like to share some things that I've found to be useful, or interesting, and hope to hear from other people experiences within the industry.  Seek out new opportunity in a different branch or to see what else might be waiting for me out there, and how my experiences can fit.