The Manipulator
While Tyler's still running his mouth about supplies we probably aren’t going to get, I catch Marlena, the housekeeper supervisor, walking along with this little smirk on her face. That's when it hits me – this whole meeting was a setup.
See, everyone in this room knows we're understaffed in the maintenance department. Only two maintenance guys for a 200-room hotel? During football season? The GM knows it, the front desk knows it, hell, even the breakfast lady who only their for a few hours knows it.
But Marlena? She's been playing a different game.
I can remember all those times they would be three or four new work orders suddenly appearing in the system right before my shift ended. Or how emergency maintenance calls would mysteriously multiply whenever Tyler was "checking wiring" in his hideout rooms. Marlena would always be there, clipboard in hand, looking like she GM or something then goes and tells the GM, "Maintenance still hasn't fixed the AC in 115."
She never mentioned how she just walks around and thinks she’s the maintenance supervisor also. And then she would wait until 1:45 PM to report something that broke at 9 AM.
Right now, she's standing behind the GM, doing that head-bobbing back and forth like a bobble head. "Yes, yes," she says. "Just yesterday, room 512 reported no hot water, and maintenance took forever to fix that problem."
She always has to lie because I remember 512. That call came in while I was unclogging a toilet in the guest restroom, emptying the all the trash and picking up the trash in the parking lot because we don’t have a houseman, and also dealing with a smoke detector that wouldn't shut up in 420. Plus the guest turned the faucet handle the wrong way. All at the same time Tyler was "organizing the supply closet" (translation: napping).
The GM's just believes everything Marlena says like she can’t do nothing wrong. And she writing down everything Marlena says in her notebook.
But the other housekeepers know what's up. They're the ones who see me running up and down these halls like a madman everyday getting the job done, while Marlena plays her little office politics game and Tyler with his disappearing act.
I can feel the tension building up day by day like a backed-up drain that’s ready to blow.
To be continued...