A CHRISTMAS FAIRY TALE
Once upon a time….
The fairly lights on the Spa approved Christmas tree twinkled and the smell of sweet orange filled the air as festive candles were lit at a furious pace. The spa printer hummed a festive Carole as it chugged out endless Gift Vouchers. Reception was a swirl of wrapping, ribbons, gift boxes, pot pourri and sparkly smiles as the booking system ground to halt and the prep room had a meltdown.
The hustle and bustle of front of house is counteracted to a quieter place, behind the door, nicely set away from reception, but in earshot so every phone call can be monitored, and there she sits, our hero of this story, the Spa Manager.
Brow furrowed, phone ringing, in darkness aside from the computer screen flickering in front of her. The greatest conundrum of our time lays ahead of her, the festive rota.
It is an intricate balance of staff morale, quality of service, adequate resources, and optimised yield.
Who wants to come to a spa on Christmas day?
Sometimes everyone does, sometimes no one does but having therapists and receptionists cleaning their linen cupboards on Christmas day due to sparse bookings will not result in merriment and may put festive cheer into negative points for the spa team and we only just pulled ourselves back into plus points thanks to the Christmas party.
As our hero begins to disappear into a mountain of Annual Leave requests, shift change requests and requests for more request options, she spots the small box of chocolates provided to her by a loyal guest. The loyal guest had noticed that she had not taken a lunch break for two years so thought these 3 chocolates might help and right now, they did.
She peeled her eyes away from the computer and decided to take a moment to herself, to clear her mind and reset. She kicked off her heels and lifted her weary legs onto her desk, she loosened the neck on her uniform to allow her breathe to deepen and she opened the chocolates, they were relatively small so in her delight she put all 3 in her mouth, jam packed full of chocolate she had a moment of bliss.
Immediately her office door flung open and she was met by the glare of her GM, the FD and Managing Director.
She knew at that point, that for the next 12 months, regardless of budget success, awards, capture rates she would forever be known as a chocolate guzzling monster and she realised…it could be a lot worse. Of course this was in 2019 so little did she know……
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