This really hurts

Last week I had a really good job interview as a night porter in a very fine hotel.

But during the job interview the hotel manager and me found out that the law in my country doesn't give me permission to work in another job.

We agreed to have a last phone call in this week about the job.

I have called her right now to reject the job. I said in kind words to her that I really would love to take this job but the laws are not on my site. The hotel manager got furious - not about me but about the laws which make it in generally very difficult to lead her hotel properly.

And she said AGAIN that she would have loved it to employ me. Oh WOW!
When I was young I tried so many, many times to get a job in a hotel, in an office or anywhere else. But nobody wanted me because I was "too young and without any experience." I was the one who was always rejected in "the world of work."

And now, suddenly, I am the one who has to reject a job offer. But I can't say that I'm happy about it. 😞

In young years I studied as a hotel receptionist. I was a very good student but it seemed to be destiny that I never got a work in a hotel.

But I like challenges.

And to work in a fine hotel would be definitely a challenge for me:
- Will I really feel well in such a luxurious place? Because I am a very simple person and I am living 1-2 weeks from that price what a hotel room costs there for only one night

- As a social worker I am used to handle different clients: Criminals, prostitutes, abused women, kids, people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol, homeless people and asylum seekers. But would I be able to deal with wealthy, rich people who are "used" to have a "certain standard", who express theirselves in a very different way as my "simple" clients do?
Or would I fail miserably as a night porter in this fine hotel - the finest in my town.

I really like challenges and I would have loved to find out if I worked as a night porter in a luxus hotel as good as in my job as a social worker.

Well, probably I will never find out THIS.

It really has hurt me today that I HAD TO reject this job "officially" because the laws in my country don't allow me a job more... 😞

SW-User

Interesting story, thank you. Hotels are definitely interesting places. In a way, you are just renting a room, and mostly in my country a home is respected within limits, you can't commit murder, etc.

When really there is more to the story. A prostitute can take a room, charge by hour and have clients come and go. Or, a gentleman renting a room could be having them come to their room. And that's just the tip of an iceberg. I'd expect the upscale gentleman who might hire is less frowned than the girl working for a living.

Somehow the hotel has to uphold the standards of a community around while in effect they are transient places?

Heartlander · 80-89, M

I've always thought that work at a hotel would be interesting and enjoyable. Except maybe in housekeeping. We always comment after changing our own sheets, deconstructing and reconstructing the layers, pillowcases, etc., about how difficult it would be to work in hotel housekeeping and having to do this 40 or 50 times every day, and do it alone.

Sorry for that "opportunity loss" experience. I can see the benefit in such laws, but also see it as an infringement on personal freedom.

Would that country by chance be France?

Heartlander · 80-89, M

@Loretta78 I understand :) Restrictive employment laws exist all over the world, but they seem exceptionally restrictive in western Europe.

In the US, there are laws that prohibit barber shops from opening on Mondays. For years there were laws prohibiting textile workers from working at home. And of course when the unions get factored in it gets more restrictive.