My Most Stressful Job
I used to joke that I got to spend an entire summer asking people if they wanted to see my giant beaver. It's true. People would come into the tourist bureau and say, "what is there to do in Dauphin?" and I would say, "have you seen my giant beaver?" They would reply no and I would point to the statue of Amisk and say, "there, it is." I thought it was hilarious. No one else seemed to get it.
There were three of us working at the bureau that summer. We were paid from a Canada Summer Jobs grant. My friends were jealous thinking I had the perfect job.
The first day we started in May, all three of us worked that day, cleaning the shack from top to bottom and unpacking all the boxes and boxes of pamphlets sent to us from Tourism Manitoba. One of my dear friends was returning to the position from the previous year. He was the Supervisor and I think he made $.10/hour more than us. Basically, he made the schedule. We were open 7 days a week. He also would bring his typewriter from home once a week to write letters to organizations that we were running short of pamphlets. I think he actually ended up writing one letter.
It was a very stressful job. We had a guest book. For some reason, people were reluctant to sign the guest book. We could spend 20 minutes talking with a tourist giving them a whole assortment of pamphlets and then they wouldn't sign the guest book. Also, it turned out, Dauphin wasn't the hot bed of tourism that you might think it was. Most people who visited Dauphin were actually people who grew up in Dauphin and were coming back to visit relatives. They ended up telling us about Dauphin and the good old days.
One of my biggest fears was realized. You see, our local radio station, CKDM, referred to Dauphin as the honeymoon capital of Manitoba. They didn't explain what that meant. One day, a woman came into the tourist bureau by herself and explained she was on her honeymoon because it was the honeymoon capitial of Manitoba and asked what she should be doing on her honeymoon. This woman was alone. I was still a teenager. I felt that if she needed me to tell her what to do on her honeymoon, her marriage was already in trouble. I pointed out our lovely mall, Fort Dauphin, and asked her if her husband would be interested in seeing my giant beaver as I pointed to Amisk. I don't think she was satisfied because she refused to sign the guest book.
Every morning, one of us would open the bureau at 9 am. Whoever opened did the routine clean-up of the Bureau that needed to be done. We would clean the bathroom, wash the windows, restock the pamphlet shelf, and dust every single pamphlet. It was a huge daily task and although we usually finished by 9:10 am, sometimes it would take us until 9:15 am. So, then we only had 7 and 3/4 hours left to go. The closing procedure was equally taxing. We had to restock the toilet paper in the bathroom if it needed, and check for any tourists that may be lingering, and lastly, lock the door. Our supervisor didn't have a lot of tasks to do, so he created these lists.
We were so excited when May long-weekend came. We could plant flowers and weed them and water them. Something to do !! It turned out, that there was some sort of Union issue so only Public Works employees could tend to the flowers. Its true. We often snuck out first thing in the morning to water the flowers. One time I was actually caught weeding the flower beds in the afternoon. Yes, my supervisor got a call and he was told to have a chat with me and to put a note in my file. He was just lucky that no one had caught him out weeding the day before.
It was also extremely stressful when the Public Works Department would come to mow and lawn and tend to the flowers. It was very stressful to see them out working hard and sweating and we were inside reading a book. We could only imagine what they thought of us. The word "lazy" springs to mind. If it was any consolation, we were also sweating. Although we froze in May, the rest of the months, the Bureau was like a sauna. Occasionally, we had to sneak out to get a breathe of fresh air. It was usually during those times that we were reported.
As there was a washroom, we had access to tap water. I suggested to my supervisor that we buy a pitcher and some dixie cups and some iced tea or lemonade mix to offer to the tourists. This was a radical idea, and although my supervisor was supportive, but he had to clear it with his boss. There was no money in the budget for this. We brought it anyway, out of our pockets. Without liquid, we would likely be at risk of heat exhaustion. Also, it gave our moms something to do as they would bring us a bag of ice. We were taking a huge risk, giving iced tea to tourists, and hoping they wouldn't tell on us, but, it was a risk we took.
We did have one event that kept us going for a week. There was a lovely lady who opened the first bed and breakfast in Dauphin. She would come in about a week to give us more pamphlets. We looked forward to her visits, not because we needed any more pamphlets, but because she was always willing to sign our guest book. One day, a person signed the guest book indicating that they had a very pleasant stay at the Bed and Breakfast. This was our first comment ! We phoned this woman right away. She came down immediately to see the comment. All of us were excited. And, she came in every day for a week to relived with us the entire stay of this person at her B and B. We also relived the moment when they signed the guest book. It was something to do.
But, it was a very stressful job. So few would actually sign the guest book that we had no choice but to make up names and locations for tourists. We used to beg our friends to come in atleast once a week, not only to sign their names but to make up names and sign them. We weren't that great of forgers so we could only forge a few signatures a day.
The other informal thing that we did at close-down was to take pamphlets home and to throw them out. We only took the mass produced government pamphlets. We never would throw up any of the local businesses who provided us with pamphlets. We did have a secret hiding place that we would hide some of these pamphlets.
This may not sound like a stressful job, but it really was the most stressful one that I have ever had. You see, even though we were paid by government grant, The President of the Chamber of Commerce had to sign our cheques. She would come in every second Friday after 4 pm to sign our cheques. She would carefully study our hours as detailed by our supervisor. She would add them for herself and re-figure out the deductions. She never found a mistake but it took her about an hour to sign our cheques. This was before ATMs and before banks were open on Saturdays. We felt she deliberately didn't sign our cheques until there was no way to cash them until atleast Monday. This was just petty.
And, every second Friday was the only time she would come in after 4 pm. Every other day, seven days a week, she would make a "surprise visit". It wasn't a supportive "how is it going?" visit. It was a check-up to see if we were working. She literally counted the pamphlets to make sure we were giving them out and she also counted the signatures in the guest book. When she wasn't stopping in, she was driving by. She was the one who reported me weeding the flower beds. She also reported us when we were outside and not inside waiting for tourists. She disallowed the iced tea, so we had to hide it when she would come. One evening, I was working the close-up and a guy who was cycling across Canada came in. He had already checked into his campground and he just wanted someone to talk to. Believe me, we weren't run off our feet. He stayed and we talked about 20 minutes. The President called because she had been driving by and saw that the same tourist was there for 20 minutes. I thought she was calling because she was checking on my safety. No, she was calling because I was spending too much time on an individual tourist. Deep sigh.
We had lots of ideas to give us things to do. We wanted to put floats in our parades. The Chamber President traditionally rode in a car and waved, therefore, no float was needed. We offered to walk alongside to hand out candy or pamphlets. No budget for candy. We thought we should have gotten matching t-shirts to advertise events. We even thought of approaching event planners for sponsorship. No. We had lots of ideas. All declined.
It was a stressful job because we had no way to influence the amount of people who came asking for information. If people came, they were given great service, but we couldn't make anyone come. Further, this constant monitoring made us distrust and disengage. We got a phone call when one of our friends stopped by as that was inappropriate socializing during the job. We sat in our sauna getting more and more bitter. We really stopped caring.
At the start of the summer, we were three enthusiastic students with a great work ethic and lots of ideas. By the end of the summer, we were completely disengaged. We became annoyed when a tourist came in because it interrupted us reading. For our final cheque, we phoned her and told her to come and sign the cheques prior to noon so that we could all go to the bank on our payday and if she didn't, we would call Service Canada to report her.
I hate being a tattle-tale and that didn't sit right with me. Unfortunately, I supported this because I felt we had to stand up to this bully.
I couldn't wait for the summer to be over. I certainly learned a lot about employee engagement. It is not rocket science. When you people who are underemployed, give them the opportunity to shine. Involve them by letting them try their ideas, even if they seem ridiculous. The more you engage your employees, the more they engage your clientele. Richard Branson said the successful company is one that provides excellent service to their employees and then doesn't worry about customer service because he knows it will be great.
That was a long long time ago. The shack is no longer there. I love Dauphin and I was proud to grow up in "the friendly town of progress and beauty" but that stressful job challenged my love for Dauphin. No one wants to do a "meaningless" job and they certainly don't want to be "micro-managed" while they are doing it. Engage with employees. They want to do meaningful work. They want to earn their paycheques. You don't have to spy on engaged employees because they are eager to showcase what they are doing. It is just common sense.
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