Since this past summer, I have been working as a pool attendant at the pool area of a nice resort. What does a pool attendant do, you might ask? Well, not a whole lot. I hand out towels, rearrange chairs, clean up trash, and pretend to be interested in whatever the hotel guests try to talk to me about. It's a pretty easy job, most of the time.
Things I have learned from working there include customer service, problem-solving, listening, and the fact that humanity is completely and utterly doomed. Yep, I have officially lost faith in the human race. That's all there is to it, and it's all due to working at a hotel. Here's why.
Well, people are disgusting. They leave their trash everywhere, refusing to ever clean up their mess, with no remorse whatsoever. The idea that "I don't need to clean this up because someone else will" is very prevalent down at the pool area, something I have seen time and time again.
I've picked up many things, such as cups, silverware, glass, and diapers. That's right, diapers. People will literally leave their children's used diapers down at the pool, something I simply cannot understand. If you leave an empty drink cup or a plate with food remains, then that is understandable. But a diaper? Come on, don't leave that for someone else to clean up. Throwing away used diapers is just basic human decency, at least I would hope.
Speaking of disgusting things, we once had to close the pool and order everyone to get out because there was a "code brown" in the pool. Now, I'm not going to explain to you what a code brown is, but I think you can most likely figure it out. All I can say is that I sincerely hope it was a child responsible for the heinous act, and not some terrible adult who had had way too much to drink.
Other super fun pool incidents that I have witnessed include a race war almost breaking out when somebody started shouting racial slurs which led to the police being called, a guy leaving the spa area and coming to the pool without any clothes on, another guy shouting a large amount of profanity just because we had temporarily run out of clean towels, and several couples attempting to take part in a certain activity while in the pool. Not just one couple, several. I'm also not going to explain what this activity was that they were attempting to engage in while at the pool, but I'm sure you can once again figure it out.
On top of all that, even when they're not engaging in some horribly disgusting event, people just get on my nerves. The weather has, of course, been cold lately, and I've had many exchanges with out of town guests that have gone something like this. They say "cold today, huh?" I reply "yep, it sure is." Then they say, "well, we're from Wisconsin. This is nothing to us." Feel free to replace Wisconsin with any other state that generally has cold weather. I've probably heard them all. Good for you, people. I'm glad you're used to the cold, I also really don't care. It's like they have a strange feeling of superiority because they consider themselves masters of cold weather since they are from a colder state. The thing is, I just don't care.
Those are a few of the reasons why working at a hotel has forced my faith in the human race to slowly dwindle until the point where there is absolutely none left, which is now. Many people are obnoxious and disgusting, and something about a resort environment forces their even more obnoxious and even more disgusting nature to take control. Still, working as a pool attendant is a pretty sweet job and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy summer gig, assuming of course that you are okay with working outside all day and you don't mind your faith in humanity being completely and utterly shattered.
