"Fire/Water Damage and Condemned? I don't care, sell our rooms!"
The hotel that I work at as FOM had a decently sized fire last week. No major structural damage at the moment, no injuries, and thank god it was in the early afternoon, so most people staying were out and about for the day already. At the end of the initial ordeal, Fire Marshal sticks the scary red paper on the door and tells us that the building is temporarily condemned. No one is allowed to stay on site, and we aren't open for business until we get everything fixed and reinspected. Fairly standard fare.
First of all, the incident happened on a Thursday, and the building owner (guess his name -.- ) wants to have us open by the next day. Everyone on site tells him, in more professional words "you're crazy, shut up". Obviously the building is closed, so he set up a plan where the salaried workers will monitor the building and redirect guests to nearby hotels. Not a massive deal, just a few old people who don't understand that shit happens.
Fast forward to yesterday, and we all get an update from the building owner telling us that we have to open for business by Wednesday. Obviously, this is a terrible idea, and hopefully illegal, but no one in higher management gave him any sort of push back on the matter. I suppose rolling over and letting people in the wet-smelling, half-powered, declared-unsafe building is a better idea than risking their positions. I won't say I don't understand, but what I won't do is stand for it.
So many of our facilities are non-functional or in an uncertain status. Our bar/kitchen is non-operational, as we have to restock all our food items and deep clean the area. Multiple floors are unusable, and the stench of waterlogged carpet is on every floor. The lobby is humid and damp, and we might not even have power to elevators, even when building gets energized.
I was told to take a few days off because I had already worked 5 days straight babysitting the property, and it was well known that I'll likely rip the owner/VP apart if I see them. I also made it clear that I will not honor guests reservations for as long as that sign is on the door, as I value the safety of my team and clients over revenue.
At the moment, I'm drafting my Letter of Resignation. I don't think I'll ever understand how someone can be so up their own ass as to disregard all instructions and try to get money out of people by putting them in a condemned building. The disconnect and greed sickens me.
UPDATE: I suspect someone on the team said something, because we've closed down again for a few more days. Not that it necessarily fixes any problems, and the core issue still remains, but at least things can get done in the meantime.