It's funny how 'support' translates into telling people they are right (and the other person is wrong) no matter what, when real support would be to look at the situation and try to figure out how to avoid it in the future. If you're getting fired on day 3 or 4, obviously some sort of major problems are going down.
it sure sounds like the boss had to dig pretty dam deep to come up with a reason to let you go
How's that? This person only two tasks to accomplish, one is show up on time, the other is to try to reasonably look like you work there. Failed at half of that, flat-out. Given how many hours you couldn't find anybody to tie a tie? Really? You have time to post on here, but not to go to utube? I only got 87 MILLION hits on that when I Googled it. Many were videos. In no small part, a huge part of any such job in a hotel is to solve problems, hopefully before they even are noticed. What does this say about your future problem solving abilities?
If you are required to show up in a particular kind/style/fashion/color/costume do it or don't take the frickin' job. If you don't do it don't be surprised if your sent home, or even fired. If you're supposed to show up in black, don't show up in brown, dark gray, or navy blue and tell me 'it's close to black'. There is 'black' and 'not-black' and you failed to understand the difference between the two, and you want me to pay you for that? That being said, there is 'tie' or 'no tie' - there is nothing in between.
As for the customer complaint, I doubt that very much he needed to focus attention on some one other than himself.
Oh I don't. People complain. A lot. The more they are spending, the more expensive the product, the more they feel they have a right to bitch. The richer the rich, the bigger the bitch. And you're damn right people listen to them. Money is power. If I start that conversation off with how much I've spent that year in your hotel - or even better, how much money my company has spent there in total - yeah, people will be listening. The bigger, better, more expensive things are, the bigger, better the bitching is, and the degree to which it's taken seriously (particularly in the hospitality industry) also goes way up.
fire them at will, for the most trivial reasons.
Using your appearance is just plain BS as far as I am concerned.
Most people, if they are not union workers, are pretty much 'at will' employees. And not following the dress code is not a trivial reason. That (whatever it is) is the 'corporate image' and for a desk person it's pretty much the core of the job to represent the corporation to the public. There are a lot of jobs that don't require a dress code, if a dress code is hard for you to handle, it's best to seek out those jobs.
Appearance is important for a lot of companies. Sometimes for good reasons, other times for bad - either way it does not matter. Once that is in the corporate culture, it's going to stay there. Want a harsh dress code? Right down to underwear requirement? Read the one for Disney Park employees.
And even if it's not a 'formal code' there are lots of informal ones around, some those work in the exact opposite direction. Don't show up at some major rock club in your beige Dockers with a colorful Izod shirt, the Tommy Hilfiger sweater tied casually around your neck and the Topsiders without sox, they don't hire people who look like that. They don't want cocktail waitresses that look like the career section of The Limited, they want cocktail waitress that look like they were dragged though the slut section at Torrid or Hot Topic and finished the look off at Fredrick's of Hollywood.
Because you didn't drop $50 on each ticket, pay the service charge, pay the parking, get all rocked out to see your favorite band at this super cool venue to have someone who looks like the Pillsbury Doughgirl dressed as Marian the Librarian serving you. It ruins the total effect you're paying for. So too, Mister (or Miss, sometimes they are even worse) Professional Business Traveler does not want to finally show up at the hotel and have some scruffy person to try to deal with. They want (expect) to pretty much find a carbon-copy clone of their lackey/flunky/administrative assistant back at the office who dresses so corporate that thier pajamas have a button-down collar.
To the hotel, Disneyland, and the destination nightclub, appearance (though what it is varies greatly) is very important. And all of them work to accomplish some kind of image projection. To work there is to buy into, accept, and agree to that.
And, the first reason stated was I was apparently too shy which is a bad trait in an aggressive pro-active job position. And, without a lot of work, that kind of thing runs deep and is very hard to change. Five Star, Four Star, Three Star - are not just the levels of the accouterments and services, but also the level and quality of the staff.1 Professional shiny, happy people. Go-getters, outgoing, people pleasers, problem solvers - "Yes Sir! Can Do! I'll see about that right away." kind of people. They have to be aggressively enthusiastic. Which, of course, many people are not. Those people are not well suited to such public positions, in the same why that people with no mechanical skills and who are 'all thumbs' would find my job most difficult.
There seems to be some sort of notion that your job will care about you. That's wrong. They pay you to care about the job. The management of any business, of all business does not care about your problems/troubles/backstory/struggles/trials/tribulations/untold suffering and all that - YOU ARE A POSITION ON AN ORG-CHART THAT IS ALL. That position comes with various tasks/responsibilities/expectations and you're either fulfilling them, or you're not cutting it. And really, nobody in the work situation is really - like reality really - is ever going to really want to hear about your problems/troubles/backstory/struggles/trials/tribulations/untold suffering and all that unless they become your real friend, and then, at that, confine such stories for your off-work sojourns. To the degree that such things come up in a work context, then thats' pretty much the degree that the real work is not being done.
1. I regularly stay (every other month or so) at hotels like these. I work at them, or wind up going to one for something or another every few weeks. The Westin St. Francis, the Embarcadero Hyatt, The Palace, Intercontinental, W or some trendy boutique hotel with lots of stars here in San Francisco are favorites. I've also stayed at my share of blue-light cheep hotels, no-tell motels and cinderblock and still visible chalk body outlines on the carpet so I know the difference. I even worked a desk, at a hostel, which is more in tune with who I am, but the job is the same, it's not rocket science, but it is a lot of dealing with people who may, or may not be, at their personal best when you get ahold of them.
