The Good China: 20 Years of Nostalgia

9.28.2005

This date will always be something that sticks with me in my career. This was the day 20 years ago when I started my first hotel job.

What we AREN’T going to do in this newsletter is recall what we were doing back then, for some of us want those doors to stay firmly closed LOL. However, it’s remarkable to think back on a career I “figured” I would enjoy but had no idea that where it would take me. Often you pick a job or the job picks you, but often most people think it’s either one or the other. It’s easy to assume you’ll go through the career journey without ever getting a complete set of dishes.

The 20-year Anniversary is considered when you receive gifts of Fine China, so it’s very fitting that a few markers really stayed with me

The Tupperware Years

In my early years I went into the role with the mindset “I guess I’ll see what happens”.  These were the times when I didn’t know any better. I enjoyed my job, I enjoyed the people I worked with and started to get better at it. This was a stage where you start with your basic Tupperware: you must use, reuse and take care of what you have because you’re not starting with much.  In hospitality this is where initial impressions are made. When someone is starting out as that front desk agent, cook, or even a new leader this is where people get initial sense of what it means to work in hospitality.

It was here where I realized that this was an industry I wanted to stay in.  To set the stage:  A guest changed hotels but sent their shipment to us by mistake. The guest called and offered to pay to get delivered to the correct location.  I told the guest I’d call them back to confirm their price and arrangements.  Once I found out it was going to cost $40 bucks to have a box walked three blocks. I called the guest back and said something like:

“I’d be happy to walk this over to the hotel for you instead. I’ll call when I’ve brought it to the front desk and reach out to confirm you received it with no issues”

I just thought to myself “Life’s too short to pay this much, and its nice outside too; I can get out of the storeroom for a few minutes”. Imagine my surprise when the guest sent this to my boss:

I think it was here when it clicked: to me what I did never felt like a big deal, but it meant so much to her. This is one of those moments I find myself going back to when I feel down, when I feel like I’m not making the progress that I expected, because I found it at the time what people would call those "formative years"

The First Store-bought Set

This is where you feel “all grown up” and bought your first new set of plateware to eat from.  In our industry this is often the next one (or two) hospitality roles where you build on those early trial-and-error years.  This is a stage where you tend to find the most emotional attachment to that first purchase.  You hold on a little longer, feel invested in it.  Here you tend to not notice things, for example, if the style wasn’t in the color you wanted, or one the plates had been badly chipped.  Working in hospitality, this is where you balance the “celebration” and being objective (instead of being critical).

Mixing and Matching Styles

This part gets fun: This is often where you get to connect with others in the industry and get exposed to different brands, markets, and hotel/hospitality tiers.  Working in Food & Beverage it’s always neat to see the different plate ware restaurants use or go to a restaurant in Vegas and see they use the exact same dishes and silverware that we use on the East Coast.

Working in hotels, this is where you trade/exchange skills, tips, and perspective.  It’s rewarding because when you mix, match, and share experiences in the industry, your vision changes.  You start to get a clearer picture of what you do and don’t like (and how to adapt). Everyone has that plate, or coffee mug in their cabinet that you look at and tell yourself one of the following:

“How long has that been in here?”

“I can’t believe I still had that?!?!”

“I thought I had thrown that away”

Build your table

When choosing a new set, it’s important to understand what purpose it’s going to serve.  Are you securing for legacy, a set for people to admire and pass down through generations, or will it be active, to serve others and create memories?  We are blessed to be in an industry where our skills, our knowledge, and our experiences don’t sit in a cabinet collecting dust.  Hospitality, and those who work in it aren’t ornate, or cut off from the original purpose it was meant to have.

You see many ups and downs working in this industry. We’ve all had days when we’ve dropped a plate or two, and others where we felt like throwing them.

In 20 years there have been plenty of tears, laughter, sleepless nights, long shifts, and days where our teams have pulled victory from the jaws of defeat.  I’m excited to see what the next twenty years (and the next twenty after that) have in store for me. 

#Hospitality