Directing and Commanding.
Heads of hotel departments should cultivate their talents for directing and commanding. Politeness, which belongs to all persons of good breeding and is essential in the ordinary transactions of life, is so minutely cultivated by the heads of hotel departments as to be conspicuous in its absence; some are not even civil, which is the very least that one person can be to another.
I do not mean to infer that an employe is to be forgiven if he gets intoxicated and is late to his work every morning, nor that a sneak, a thief, or an agitator should be excused. To handle help on the forgiving plan in such cases, employers would become sentimental reformers and the worst kind of failures. Sentiment may be comforting, but it is silly when employed in business, under these conditions. Those that desire may practice forgiveness, but when it costs time and money and brings gray hairs to those that are doing the forgiving, it is better to keep as near the line of sternness as possible. Everyone employing labor should be very careful of his manner in expressing his disapproval of the actions of subordinates. A reprimand should never be made in anger. If a grave offense has been committed, reprimanding should be done with great coolness and reserve, if you would look to future events and their probable consequences. Impertinent and forward people may be checked by cold reserve. Often the faculties for transacting business and the talents for directing and reprimanding are considered by fond admirers to be the gift of nature, when, in reality, they are the outcome of self-control and education.
Chesterfield says: "If you are in authority and have a right to command, your commands delivered in sauviter in modo will be willingly, cheerfully, and, consequently, well obeyed."
Attention to Details.
Hotel housekeeping is a science. The crowning excellence, as all acknowledge, lies in giving strict attention to small things. Successful hotel-keeping is an artistic achievement in which everything is in its right place, is of the proper grade, shade, quality, and cleanliness, harmonizing in every particular.
Details are repulsive to the lazy or the listless. Let the housekeeper feel the greatness of her position and the importance of her duties, if she so desires to succeed. Enthusiasm is an element that can least be spared—one that must accompany the housekeeper at every step.
The question has arisen whether the housekeeper should learn without rules, by blundering experience, or should she take what the approved experience of others has found to be the best. No one doubts the answer. The true way is to submit to rules and regulations and methods of experienced and practical hotel housekeepers that have made their profession a life-long study.