Try to find The Hotel, A Week in the Life of the Plaza
by Sonny Kleinfeld. Published in 1989, it’s long out of print, but you’ll love
it. Kleinfeld is a journalist who spent a week in the famous New York hotel and
wrote about twenty chapters describing every position from the doorman, desk
clerk and laundry worker to the kitchen staff, concierge, security, bellhops,
housekeeping, and management.
I was impressed at the difficulty of keeping such an institution
running smoothly and satisfying demanding guests. If you want to know the
hardest job in a hotel, there’s no contest. It’s the housekeeper’s.
The book includes a chapter on the hotel doctor that
kept me scratching my head. Mostly, he complains.
It infuriates him that guests wake him up at 1 a.m.
with a bad cold. I’d be thrilled by a call from an exclusive Los Angeles hotel
at any hour. Why was he upset? Did he volunteer for the job? Is he working for
free? I have no problem seeing guests who aren’t very sick no matter what the
hour.
I take for granted that doctors go into medicine
because they want to help people, and unlike other helping professions
(clergyman, fireman, social worker) we’re paid very well. Almost no one calls
me during wee hours unless they feel bad. That may represent poor
judgment, but who thinks clearly when they’re miserable?
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