Business and Pleasure

The early stages of business can be difficult. I earn a lot less than I would be earning had I stayed in my job as a Senior Scientist for a major pharma. However, there a lots and lots of perks of working for a company I own. I am doing what I love and I am fully motivated to make it successful.
I now like business trips because they give me a break from the routine. This week I went to the beautiful spa town of Harrogate. Harrogate reminds me very much of Bath but of course it is not as beautiful as Bath. It is difficult to beat Bath. I stayed at the Crown Hotel in the centre of town and it is a lovely hotel. My room was huge. It had a double bed, a sofa, a coffee table, a work desk and a very large bathroom and still there was so much space to move around. The service wasn't bad either although they had no bagels to make me my smoked salmon bagel I ordered from the menu. The girl at reception (I won't name her here) was a little stroppy probably because she doesn't sleep much. She was at reception when I arrived at 5pm and was still there when I came back from the theatre at 10pm. 8am the next morning, I came down to breakfast and there she was again. The worst bit was that she was with another colleague moaning about guests even though I was sitting in the lobby. Sadly, these are things often missed by businesses especially those in hospitality and leisure. Your staff are only going to give as good a service as they receive as employees. You cannot expect an overworked person (and often also underpaid) to treat your customers well. They probably don't even treat their children well. The other thing is that staff may have no genuine way of voicing their opinions and grievances. And if you don't give them a forum wherein they can talk about things that are bothering them without fear of reprisals, they will air them in public.
Its not about your equal opportunities policy, it is usually the little things that make a big difference.

Amie

The Apprentice

The beautiful one has been fired! I can't believe that you can't go far in business just because you are good looking. It just doesn't seen fair. I think beauty and grooming should count.
I hadn't been watching the new season of Sir Alan's The Apprentice. I am never at home when its on and when I am at home I am on the computer. Just as an aside, people are definitely spending more time using their computers than they are watching TV. At least I am. Anyway back to Siralan (as he is called). The task: two pubs for two teams to create theme nights. Make some profit, he who has the most money wins. Simple, yes? No, not quite. There is the small matter of 'the team'. These are not really teams because they are competing for a job. Everyone wants to look good. So when your idea seems better than mine and you are in charge, I will do my best to undermine you. This is the philosophy of the apprentices. Anyway, no matter. The girls won and the boys had to deal with Siralan. Sir Alan fired the good looking one. Now there is no point in me watching because the majority of those people are there because they want to be on TV not because they are capable of running anything more than a bath. I am more upset because I later found out that the boy fired lived in a pub from age 14 and his dad still runs the kitchen in the pub. Oh the irony!

Not laughing, Amiex