Dear Christine,
I hope that this letter reaches you in good health.
I am writing to let you know about a hotel on the South Coast. The rooms are very dirty; they are not sanitized properly because sometimes bed bugs are found in them. The room attendant works very hard and gets the lowest pay in the hotel.
The hotel is a dry weather hotel because when it rains the rooms are flooded.
The kitchen needs to be inspected by the Ministry of Health because it needs upgrading. Sometimes the food there makes the staff sick.
I have also realised that the managers are all for themselves because they don’t care about the workers.
From my point of view, the hotel should be closed down.
– A?CONCERNED?VISITOR
Dear Concerned Visitor
I think a worker at the particular hotel wrote this letter, so I will not respond to the signed name.
Because of that attempt at deception, my initial thought was to dump this letter.
But as it provides an opportunity to speak on a number of issues I decided to publish it.
I understand the frustration of workers who think that their contribution is ignored. I’ve been there; I know that deflated feeling.
But years ago when I felt that way, I was told something that made me realise I was important to my company even though I was at its lowest rung and the managers did not seem to pay any attention to me and what I did.
I was told that since I was employed and paid each week I mattered.
I had to matter because no company, especially one that was not doing too well, would keep a person on their payroll unless that person had a function that was important.
So workers need to recognise that their role is important because if they were not, they would have been laid off.
Therefore, for a worker to say the things this letter writer wrote to embarrass his/her company is disloyal and only serves to undermine the organisation.
What’s more, such an accusation placed just like this in the public domain could lead to a loss of business, and ultimately to every employee losing his/her job if the place is closed.
In other words, potentially everyone stands to lose when a worker maliciously tries to destroy the name of a company, in this case a hotel, in public like this.
Having said that, if the accusations contained in this letter are true, and providing that the hotel’s management know of these things and are making little effort to address them, they will eventually lose clientele and get a bad name in the marketplace.
It is therefore not in their interest to have these problems and not address them.
If as a worker you are honestly concerned about what is happening at your hotel and have been ignored by management, you can anonymously report them to the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association, as well as the Barbados Tourism Authority.
I’m sure both of these bodies would use their good offices to impress on the management the need to fix the problems there so as not to sully this island’s good name.
I trust the next time you have major concerns about your hotel you would use a more constructive approach.
– Christine