Guide to Hotel HousekeepingPalmer, Mary E. (Mary Elizabeth)
General
Guide to Hotel Housekeeping
Palmer, Mary E. (Mary Elizabeth)
Home economics; Hotels
Too many housekeepers of the present day neglect the small things. They
want to draw large salaries and let the house take care of itself, while
they visit with the guests and gossip and have a good time. The clerks
are kind and do not report to the manager the little complaints that
come to the office every day; but the housekeeper's conscience should
tell her that she is not earning her money.
The housekeeper that is above her profession, is not interested in her
work, and that is trying to get into some church society, had better not
engage in hotel housekeeping, for her housekeeping duties will require
her constant attention at the hotel. There will be some difficulties to
settle at all times, which will require her presence. Maids work better
when they are conscious of a vigilant overseer. They take more pride in
their work when they know that every nook and corner is being inspected
by the housekeeper. Especially is this true if the housekeeper is
successful in commanding the respect of her subordinates.
The housekeeper that lays the blame of some grave mistake on her
assistants is not worthy of the name of housekeeper. Had she been there,
attending to her affairs, it would not have happened, for she would have
prevented or stopped it.
The housekeeper, by diligence, attendance to her duties, and by
economies, figures greatly in the success of a hotel, and makes her own
position. The position does not make her. Then it is fairly reasonable
to suppose that such a housekeeper should make her own salary; that she
should command and receive her price; that she should be paid according
to the amount she is really worth, and not the fixed scale that the
hotel pays. If a housekeeper can show by her books, by her management,
and by her economies, that she is worth more than her predecessor, she
is entitled to more pay, and by all means should receive more pay. The
average salary paid a housekeeper is not enough to properly clothe a
housekeeper. After her laundry bills are paid, what has she left to lay
up for the "rainy day," to say nothing of an old age, when parsimony and
incompatibility of temper and "set ways" make her, in any place, an
unwelcome personage.
_The Faithful, Efficient Housekeeper._
The housekeeper that sticks to her post and is always looking after her
work is surely worth more to her employer than one that has worn the
carpet threadbare in front of her mirror, or one that puts in a great
portion of her time at the bargain-counter, or the theater, or with a
novel in her hand. Surely, the hard-working housekeeper, the one that
makes her occupation a study and is always at her post, is worth more to
her employer than the housekeeper that is trying to do society "stunts,"
to ring in with people of fashion, to "out-dress" them. But the majority
of hotels pay much the same salaries to housekeepers, good, bad, and
indifferent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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