You Know You’ve Been in Hospitality Too Long When...

Hospitality can be a good way to pay the bills while you’re studying, and a great way to develop skills you’ll need for other jobs. From the boardroom to the classroom, people always like to be treated as valued guests, so hospitality training is a good skill to have.

A stint in the hospitality industry will teach you everything from dealing with irate customers to anticipating their future needs. Like any job, the trick is to know when it’s time to get out.

You know you’ve been in hospitality too long when...

1. You open doors for everyone wherever you go.
2. You answer your home phone with your cheery work voice and corporate script.
3. You start clearing the plates when you’re dining out.
4. When you’re at a restaurant and not only are you worrying about where your waiter has got to, but you’re also noticing that the couple at the next table still haven’t got their order.
5. You never let anyone look after you because you’re always trying to take care of their needs.
6. You can clear an entire family dinner table, wipe it down with a free hand, and then negotiate a moving obstacle course back to the kitchen.
7. All your shoe purchases are determined by how long you can stand in them at work.
8. You do stock rotation in your pantry and make sure the labels are always facing forward.
9. You think it’s more important to wash your hands after eating rather than before.
10.  You go out with friends and you’re the one who is always topping up everyone’s glasses.
11.  You think strawberries are a garnish, not a fruit.
12.  Even at home, you serve sandwiches with a sprig of curly parsley on the side.
13.  You know people’s coffee order before they do.
14.  You refer to regular customers by their order or table preference, but you have no idea what their real name is.
15.  You can’t get your head around the idea that people sitting in offices from 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, think they’re working. Nonetheless, you smile kindly as they complain about how hard they’ve been working all week, and then you take their order.
16.  You don’t check your social calendar to go out on the weekend, you check with your boss.
17.  You either keep your own home as clean as a new hotel room, or you steadfastly refuse to clean once you get home.
18.  You don’t believe that hotel rooms are ever truly clean, so you order new sheets as soon as you book into a hotel.
19.  You’re horrified by the idea of ‘career progression’ within your industry.
20.  You’ve allocated a special ringtone for your work so that when your phone rings on your day off, you know not to answer.
21.  You install anti-fatigue matting in your home because you like the way it feels underfoot.
22.  If someone shows you basic human kindness you assume they’ve worked in hospitality before - and escaped.
23.  You believe the story that hospitality workers had a place at the Fair Workplace Conference, but their representative was busy in the kitchen when they called the vote.
24.  Your idea of a Christmas bonus is either extra hours over the Christmas period or no hours at all.
25.  You know that ‘Entry-Level Position’ doesn’t mean reception.
26.  You hate everyone, but they’ll never know because you give them exactly the same smile every time.
27.  Despite the commonly held belief that the customer is always right, most customers are usually wrong. There was a time when you bent over backwards to maintain that illusion, but you’re over that now. Now, you handball their complaint to your nearest colleague and get on with your day.
28.  You’ve decided that trading shifts is a one-way street.

You’ve just had enough.