A bit of hotel griping.

[Tsiyeria]

Welp, I've been gone for a super long time! Mostly because I've been lucky enough to have career-field jobs with minimal customer contact.

I wasn't sure if this belomgs in MiM or not. This seemed a safe place to put it; if I'm wrong, mods, please let me know.

At the end of January, I found a between-jobs job at... Economy Hut hotel. I knew going in that I would only be here for a few months, so I came in willing to put up with a lot, fueled by my memories of hospitality horror stories I've read here on the CS forums. But really, it's not the customers or the coworkers that make my life difficult. I'm going to put these in order of how much they bother me.

My paycheck has never been right. Not once has my paycheck matched my hours. I keep very careful track of my hours, overtime, and what those hours translate into in money. And it's never off by very much, almost always less than an hour, which in minimum wage means about fifty cents or less. But it still bothers me.

She leaves notes everywhere. This in itself doesn't really irk me. However, the content of the notes disturbs me. "The pool is not to be opened because [reason]. If it is open we will be fined. If you open it you will pay that fine." (Is that even legal?) "There can be no overlapping times." (They require the person leaving to stay until the drawer is counted down.) "[Name] was [other name] not here at 1105? Is that why you signed out at 1115?" No, I signed out at 1115 because that's when I stopped working. Also, why is this note in public? You have my phone number. Call me and ask.

Food safety is not really a thing here. Seriously. I just came back from three days off and the seal has broken away from the door on the fridge we use to store breakfast items. This means the door can't hold a proper seal. Second shift didn't know about it, and I sent a picture to my manager, but hecause the owner is so cheap I don't think that's getting replaced anytime soon. To me, that's a food safety issue.

How common are these issues with hotel management? Especially the payment issues. I really enjoy this job otherwise, and I'd like to think there's a magical place out there where people get paid for the time they worked. No more, no less.

[smileyeagle1021]

Being cheap is definitely common with hotel management. The hotel industry has a very low profit margin overall... it is a very feast or famine industry... and no matter how much you prepare for the times of famine, it will always put a strain on the budget. Also, during times of plenty, managers won't want to spend a lot of money, because they don't know when the next slow period will come that will start eating their reserves.

[KhirasHY]

My paycheck has never been right.

She leaves notes everywhere.

Food safety is not really a thing here.

1. You can file a complaint with the labor board in your area if you believe your paycheck is being modified, which is a pretty serious offense.

2. In most areas that I know of, it is not legal to force an employee to pay a fine incurred by a business. I don't know where you live exactly, but in most (if not all) of the US, that is the case. Your local Dept. of Labor can answer any questions about that fully. Edit: AFAIK you can still be written up if you do something that causes a fine, since that's an internal thing, but they can't take it out of your paycheck in most places.

3. You can make an anonymous complaint to the Health Department regarding the storage areas for cold food not being properly sealed. A health inspector will pay the hotel a visit, and can fine them for this. The inspector does not have to state that they are there as a result of a complaint (though I can't guarantee whether they would or would not say something), but it's amazing how fast a fine will get something like that fixed. Again, if the hotel tries to take the fine away from the employee's paychecks, it is extremely unlikely that it is legal. Confirm via #2 to be sure, but I doubt you would be in any danger.

Finally, IANAL, but any case in which labor rights are explicitly violated by a company generally opens them up to lawsuits. Just make sure your ducks are in a row before you start anything, and all should work out fine. Just remember the CS.com mantra:

Document everything in writing! Document, document, document!

[TheSHAD0W]

Even if it's not a food safety issue, not repairing the door seal is penny-wise but pound-foolish, since it's using a lot more electricity to compensate for the leak.

[Caractacus_Potts]

Well I think we know why your paycheck is under a little each week. I would say your manager is fixing you and your coworkers time cards to get rid of those "mistakes" you all keep making where your times overlap at the begging of/end of shift.

It would sure make her life easier if you would just punch out and stay while off the clock to count down.

[bhskittykatt]

The other possibility regarding your hours is if your employer does quarter-hour rounding periods. You'll have to ask your employer about this. One thing to keep in mind is that the FLSA allows rounding as long as it doesn't always favor the employer (it should "even out" over time).

[KhirasHY]

Well I think we know why your paycheck is under a little each week. I would say your manager is fixing you and your coworkers time cards to get rid of those "mistakes" you all keep making where your times overlap at the begging of/end of shift.

It would sure make her life easier if you would just punch out and stay while off the clock to count down.

If this is the case (and it's not just rounding off), you should have a way to be able to check your time card to verify your punches. If they are being edited, that is usually a labor law violation. My run-in with the Manager From Hell involved problems like that, and it's a pretty serious offense if they get caught.

Edit: Just document, document, document, and call up your local Dept. of Labor and ask them for advice. The call can be anonymous, and they will give you good info.