Navigation

Key Books

You're Not the Boss of Me: Empowerment Strategies for an Imperfect Workplace

Power Freaks: Dealing With Them in the Workplace or Anyplace

Throwing the Elephant: Zen and the Art of Managing Up

[Back to message list] [Reply to this topic] [Start a new topic]

Unethical Behavior

Posted by: elynn85
Date: 10/18/2008 6:19:15 PM

I work at a hotel. We have fewer than 15 employees and i work in an at-will state. The owner of my company hired his brother to do maintenance on the hotel. His brother was supposed to be here at 9am but didnt show up until the afternoon if he came at all, so the then-manager put him on the front desk since she couldn't fire him but had no use for him doing maintenace when he didn't show up for work. Now he is ALWAYS 15-30 minutes late and there's only one person here at a time which means when I'm off at 8am I still have to wait for him to get here before I can leave.

That's all I knew of the situation until recently.

I just found out from our head housekeeper that the reason he doesn't like me making out the housekeeping schedules (the list of rooms each person cleans) is because he pulls them off of their rooms to do his maintenace work (he is still supposed to come in on certain days to fix things). I just had my schedule changed to days so I've been here when he comes in to do maintenace. He sits on our lobby computer for a few hours and then goes home. There have been problems with rooms and I've let him know and set the room "out of order" only to find it being put back in order and rented out just to get the same complaint.

A few days ago the head housekeeper was complaining about how the dumpster is sometimes so full that they can't take out the trash. When I asked her why she told me this. That the boss's brother will come and get our male housekeepers, take them to his house (while on the clock) to trim his trees and bushes, then load the waste in the truck and bring it back to our dumpster.

All of this were things I had a hard time believing until today, mainly because I dont see how someone could be stealing money from his brother like that. His brother pays the housekeepers to clean the rooms and when the rooms dont get cleaned we cant rent them so more money lost, and his brother pays him to do maintenace which he doesnt do either. There have been times that he has been paid to get the carpets cleaned but he has the housekeepers do it with carpet spray and a shopvac.

Let me preface today's story with another one. A week ago I noticed a jeep sitting in the front row middle of our parking lot. I had recognized it but I thought it belonged to one of our regular customers. Then that weekend came and it was still here and none of our regualars stay over the weekend. So I asked a co-worker about it. She said that it was this same guy's car and that it had been in our parking lot for over 6 months b/c it doesnt run, but it just recently moved from the corner to the middle of the lot.

So today I get here and our housekeepers are under the hood working on the jeep! I check the schedule and they are scheduled to work for the day, then I check their time cards and they are still clocked in!

This bothers me to work at a place were it seems so many people know what he's doing but none of them care, but I honnestly would mind my own business if he wasn't calling me nearly daily to ask when he comes to work or remind me to watter down the breakfast, and then the fact that he is ALWAYS LATE--ALWAYS. It's like when you can stand someone so now every thing they do annoys you. I would leave but I'm pregnant and am afraid of trying to job hunt with my belly, I know employers cant discriminate but it's much easier to do so when I dont even work for them yet. I doubt many companies want to hire someone they will just have to give 6 weeks leave soon.

Do you think there is anything that can be done about my owner's brother and his screwed up ethics?

To reply to this topic or add a comment, just complete our 20-second registration process which is free and confidential. If you have already registered, you need to log in.

[top]

Login

Registration is confidential, free, and has a number of benefits.