Please Don't Help (long)

[SqueakerBot]

I recently started two jobs, one that takes three hours a week doing yardwork, and a maid at a hotel. Neither of these jobs should have customer interaction, right? Well, technically the maid job only sees the aftermath, but I did get a "customer" at the yardwork one. Maidery isn't all that bad, feel free to skip it.

Maidery
Maybe it's different in other hotels, but when you're at mine, please don't help us in the following ways:
-Dumping your bedding in a pile on the bed.
-Removing the rubber mat from your bed.
-Wrapping your bedding up in a pile to hide the fact that you had sex. It doesn't hide it, it keeps the smell from airing out.
-Hiding the glasses. They should go in the bathroom sink, or next to tray you got them on. They should not go in the nightstand.
-Above all, DO NOT wash the bathroom with the little soaps we give you. I get yelled at for taking too long when I have to clean your soap scum off everything, and I do have to clean it anyway.

I don't care if you didn't tip, I don't get the tips anyway, so please don't help in an attempt to feel better.


Yardwork
So I work at a church mowing lawns, sweeping the sidewalks, and watering the plants. I'm not a parishioner, I'm not even religious, I just work there. This is important to remember. I was nearly finished with mowing the lawn when a man walks past very slowly. He walks halfway up to me, so I stop the mower and ask if he needs help.
CG = Creepy Guy
SB= Me
SB: Hi, do you need help with something? (Thinking maybe he needed directions or wanted to know the churches hours even though they're clearly posted.)
CG: No, No, I just mumble mumble sit and watch mumble mumble.

He had a strong accent, and was carrying a bag with lunch items, so I figured he was just asking permission to use the picnic table to eat lunch at. Not a problem, go back to my work. Suddenly I see lightening. Hm... clear sky all around, no thunder...
Turn around and the bastard has a camera. I was not hired for my bravery, and my phone isn't working properly so I couldn't call a friend, so I just ignored it. I didn't really want to provoke an attack if he was that sort. Finish up mowing and he comes up to my shed to offer help in untangling the hoses.
CG: You... you need help? I help you?
SB: No, I have it.
CG: um, um, when is the church, um, when is it open?
(Relaxes a bit, think maybe he's new here and is trying to join a community or something. )
SB: 10 on Sundays.
CG: No, when is it open?
SB: !0 in the morning on Sundays.
CG: When is the Bible study?
SB: 10 on Sundays.
(I start taking the hose around to water the plants. He follows..)
CG: When can I study the Bible?
SB: Here it's only 10 on Sundays. Other churches have other times.
CG: When do you study the Bible?
SB: I don't.
CG: Where do you study the Bible?
SB: I don't. (this repeats.)
CG: When do you work here?
SB: (deciding I'm not working alone anyway for a while after this) End of the week usually.
He wanders away, I think that's the end of it, until I go get my broom. He's waiting for me to get done!
Luckily a friend of mine passed and rescued me, and I've gotten my guy friends to agree to help, but still.

Oh, and he also mentioned he was a post-doc, which means he's probably been here for a bit too long to be excused for that behavior..

[Exaspera]

For all we know post-doc, according to him may be the rehab center doctor from which he was just released.

Welcome!

[Gidgetdigit]

[QUOTE=SqueakerBot;745236]

Maidery
"Maybe it's different in other hotels, but when you're at mine, please don't help us in the following ways:
-Dumping your bedding in a pile on the bed."

You are right. It may be different at other hotels. I spent a good portion of my youth in Eastern and Central Europe, and this was the norm, on the day of checkout.

"I don't care if you didn't tip, I don't get the tips anyway, so please don't help in an attempt to feel better."

Really? So all my tips in an envelope on the pillow have been in vain? They don't go to the people who are cleaning the rooms? You learn something new every day.

[TelephoneAngel]

Sorry

I thought leaving the bedding on the bed in a pile would be helpful.

Also I'm guilty of leaving the glass in/on the nightstand without thinking to put it back.

[SqueakerBot]

Gidgetdiget: Well, other hotels give the maids tips. Mine doesn't. Which is actually good since if they did I'd get paid a dollar less per hour, I just don't need to be tipped in help.
TelephoneAngel: It was more the uh... fluids... that had been buried in the pile. We don't wash blankets usually, just sheets, so it's a bit more work when it's in a pile, but not too bad. I am not a fan still wet cumstains hidden in the pile, though. I can't avoid them that way.

[fireheart]

TelephoneAngel: It was more the uh... fluids... that had been buried in the pile. We don't wash blankets usually, just sheets, so it's a bit more work when it's in a pile, but not too bad. I am not a fan still wet cumstains hidden in the pile, though. I can't avoid them that way.

I'm in a country that traditionally does not tip: staff tend to get paid fairly well.

As for the quote above, first of all
Secondly:
Thirdly, if you ever end up cleaning my room, my boyfriend and I always use a towel.

[bainsidhe]

Now wait a sec, I'm still stuck on the tip thing. If someone tips, where does it go? When I tip, I'd certainly want it to go to the person cleaning up after myself.

And I'm afraid I also bunch up the covers, thinking I'm being helpful. They're not ew-worthy, but I never realized it made things harder.

[siead_lietrathua]

what about folding the covers? hubby always laughs because i leave the blankets, sheets, towels and whatever all stacked in neat folded piles on the beds.

also i hope the tips go to the cleaning ladies! after a convention weekend we usualy tip a large amount since we know what hell the cleaners will have to endure at the worst of our geek kind.

[Jester]

Also I'm guilty of leaving the glass in/on the nightstand without thinking to put it back.

I might leave the glasses ON the nightstand, but who leaves them IN the nightstand?

Gidgetdiget: Well, other hotels give the maids tips. Mine doesn't.

So where DOES the tip money go? And let me ask you this: your hotel doesn't give you the tips, but do they provide envelopes for guests to "tip the maid"? Because if they do, that would be really, really sleazy of them.

Myself, I don't go out of my way to "help" the maid, but I also don't tend to leave things too bad. Towels on the floor in the bathroom, sure, and I don't make my bed, but I also don't leave the place trashed. And if I'm lucky enough to have sex, I don't try to "hide" it, as I am pretty sure that hotel maids are quite used to that sort of thing anyways. Kind of one of the occupational hazards.

[Whiskey]

Now wait a sec, I'm still stuck on the tip thing. If someone tips, where does it go?

Its profit.

Also, not washing the blankets?!

[Megg]

Most hotels don't wash the bedspreads, this is why it is always the first thing I take off. Eww. The tip thing is bothering me, DO they provide those little envelopes?

[SqueakerBot]

Most hotels don't wash the bedspreads, this is why it is always the first thing I take off. Eww. The tip thing is bothering me, DO they provide those little envelopes?

I have no idea if they provide the little envelopes. I doubt it, but the owner checks the rooms first. Either she pockets the tips or no one has tipped so far. So far she has been more then fair to me, so I haven't bothered to check to see how shady she is.
And as I said, she could pay me less if she did give us tips. Most people I know will only tip a dollar or so to a maid if they bother to at all, so it's the difference of making a base $6.40/hour plus tips split with whichever girl was working with me that day, since we might both clean the same room (one doing bathrooms and one doing beds), or $7.40 an hour.
AFAIK, most hotels give the cleaning ladies the tips, especially large ones. I work for a family run one, so the practice is a bit odd.

If it was up to me, I'd wash the bedspreads. However, I will state our sheets are near sterile when I put them on, and there is more than enough of the top sheet to protect you from the blankets.
@siead_lietrathua: neat piles are fine. It means I don't have to go hunting.

[bainsidhe]

Two things:

1) Your boss is an ass. If I tip, I'm tipping YOU, not a money-grubbing ass-hole

2) Eeewwwww! I don't cover up with all the sheets, because it's too many layers and hot. I often find the top bedspread to be the most comfy to cover up with. If you're suggesting I have other people's slime on me for doing that...gross! Isn't that a code violation of some kind??

[Raventhistle]

2).....and that is why I only sleep with the sheets. maaaybe with the blanket pulled up to my hip, but I get warm at night anyways. I've been known to bring my own shawl with me for my shoulders. It's just not money-efficient for most hotels to wash the blankets all the time. I'm sure they have some sort of schedule (bah! words I have to look up to spell! :P) and wash them once in a while..but they aren't the part of the bedding that gets a lot of body contact...theoretically. So, no, it's not a health code violation.

However, if I do spill something on the bedspread I do pull it off and pile it on the floor, in a "this needs to be washed" kind of pile. Whether it gets washed or not, I dunno, but I do try.

[Kristev]

Remember this trick for hotels. It's something mother taught me. "Bring your own blanket."