First day

My first day I had to come in at 9AM and sign my employment contract, and all manner of paperwork typical of working with a large corporation. In contrast, the last job I got was just a phonecall, then come to work and oh wait before you go home, yeah, please fill in the tax declaration form, and here's your paycheck, have fun thanks.

Then this young and pretty girl from HR (Why is it that the HR department seems to employ a lot of hot chicks?) takes us on an orientation tour of the hotel's staff area. When you are at a hotel, ever noticed certain doors and sections are marked "STAFF ONLY" or "AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY"? Well, that's were we work. Things are not as flashy as the dimly lit, carpeted, and fine decor of the guest areas. At best, the staff area can be described as utilitarian.

Someone had the brilliant idea that every regular passage into the guest area are preceded by a full length mirror and the words "I am Sheraton" above it. This is an incredibly powerful auto-hypnotic suggestion. Think about it. I'm carrying a tray of food into the dining area and I end up checking myself out before I emerge. Having read that declaration I start to wonder if I am presentable enough to represent the hotel. Maybe try to hide that splash of tomato on my tunic front. The point is I have thought the words "I am Sheraton" and made an effort to embody that establishment before realising this wasn't my thought, it was put into me. Scary.

It was also surprising that some of the kitchen staff remembered me from two years ago. I recognise faces, but lucky we had name tags, it was easy to say "Hello again Rick" when he patted my shoulder to say welcome back. It let the other kitchen staff know that hey, I used to work here. Now I'm wondering why they remembered me when all I did was work Saturday and Sunday over a two month period. I hope they remembered me because I was capable, or at least a nice guy.