Between the Sheets

Changing Ships

It is time to move on. To change ships as they say; to grab on to opportunity, close my eyes and jump off the edge!

Working here has been great, the people, the learning and even my darling boss, Mr. R. However opportunity is knocking at my door and is knocking hard. Apparently due to the great exposure I received from speaking at the  Trade Show, the interviews and the articles, I've been approached by a few different companies about joining their team. At first I was: no way I am not leaving my team, then I was more open to checking things out. I interviewed for three different opportunities and received three great offers. It felt good to be wanted and appreciated, it felt good to be able to negotiate some conditions to make the transition easier. After much soul searching and talks with my self, my heart and my masters, I took the plunge and I packed my boxes, bags, etc.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed that Mr. R did not ask me to stay, if he had I think I might have reconsidered since I love it here. But his attitude to the resignation was: "When is your last day? Are you giving me enough notice to find you a replacement?" So my last day is in two weeks, the new company will be relocating me to the Caribbean to help open a fabulous new Hotel and Spa. Sounds exciting and as scary as when I took this job, my first as a Spa Director, as many unknowns today as then. I do trust that everything will be OK, since with all its ups and downs this turned out great!

I wish I could take some of the staff with me, but that would be professional suicide, they are asking and they have expressed sadness at my leaving but they are all super excited and supportive for me. I promised them that I would have a guest bedroom at my new place and I am encouraging everyone to take a Caribbean vacation and visit me. My family is very happy: they think my hours will get better. I don't want to burst their bubble yet, having opened properties before I now how hard and how much I'll have to work to get it all done. I am looking forward to creating my own menu, recruiting my own staff, training them in my signature treatments, buying brand new things and having the budget to make those decisions.

Bye bye Mr. R., thanks for the opportunity and the experience. Life does not get any better than this. Caribbean Sea here I come!!!!

Stay tuned for the Caribbean adventure entries of "Between the Sheets - A Spa Director's Diary"

Important Note: "Between the Sheets-A Spa Director's Diary" is Copyright 2005-2008 by Zahira J Coll. All rights reserved. No part of these stories shall be reproduced in any form or by any means, without written permission by the author. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of information contained herein. The stories are autobiographical; however names, characters, places and incidents have been changed to protect identities.

The hidden Micro Machine

Gloria, one of my full-time Estheticians, stops me in the skin care area hallway and in a whisper tells me to follow her. I feel like rolling my eyes and saying "Now what?" since Gloria tends to be a little melodramatic and is always complaining about someone else. However she has helped me uncover some interesting things in the past (that have been important for me to know as the Director) so I control my initial impulse and instead follow her very quietly.

We arrive at our destination; she turns towards a treatment room door. The door is closed with our signal of 'Treatment in progress' (we use these cute ropes and hang them on the doorknob) so I whisper to her that we can not go in. She whispers back that there is no treatment going on and tries to open the door and to my amazement it is locked (we don't lock treatment room doors, it is a NO-NO). So we go into the room next door, close the door and she tells me her story. "Vanessa keeps that room locked when she is not working, we can not get in, and since we are never fully booked in all the skin care rooms nobody notices that it is locked. She calls it her room and nobody wanted to tattle tell on her, but I am fed up with her attitude, and I know that she is hiding a Microdermabrassion machine under the treatment bed, and doing treatments "under the table' and getting paid cash. I thought you had a right to now since you are the Director. I figured you would not want anything like this to take place right under your nose. I know you will do the right thing because, even though you are so young you are smart." Did I mention that Gloria always talks to me like I am her daughter?

As my brain tries to comprehend, analyze and decide what to do, how to do it and what to say, I ask Gloria if she realizes that what she is telling me, if this is indeed true, could cause Vanessa to get fired? And furthermore that I am going to need to conduct an investigation and Gloria is going to have to go to Human Resources and be willing to provide a statement with this same information and how she found out. She starts to make excuses and to try to convince me to keep it confidential, as if someone sent me a confidential letter. I make a quick decision and say,"Tell you what, let me absorb all this, just come to my office in your next break and we will talk about it some more." I knew she had an appointment coming up with one of my members, so I figured while she was in the treatment room I was going to go find the master key and get into Vanessa's room and check if there was a hidden machine first before I did anything. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in their stories and personalities that I start things that had no reason to be in the first place.

To my disappointment, yes we have a hidden microdermabrasion machine under the treatment bed, not very well hidden either because all the equipment that goes with it is in the trolley and the cabinets. So I wonder what else my staff is doing in the rooms that I have no clue about, what other stuff is hidden, am I going to have to start inspecting treatment rooms everyday (that is supposed to be Nat's responsibility). I don't take the machine out, I've learned that when you work for a corporation you need to let the powers that be know about it first since they have a 'protocol' to follow and, like in a police investigation, evidence can not be moved. There goes my day....I call the HR Director, tell her about it, she calls the Security Director to tell him about it, two security officers show up with a camera and 'evidence bags' (I am not kidding). They take pictures, take the machine away and all its implements. HR calls Vanessa at home (she is off today) and asks for her to come to their office immediately. Vanessa calls my line and I tell her, as I was instructed by HR, that she needs to come in person that I am not at liberty to discuss why HR is calling her and that when she gets here we will all discuss it. I can tell she is upset and nervous, but she does not ask anything else and does not try to get more out of me. I spend one full hour with Gloria, she is all upset because she did not want it to turn into such a mess, she did not want Vanessa to know it was her that told me, but HR is going full out with the source and I agree that the documentation has to have what Gloria knows and has known. I tell her she should have come to me as soon as she knew the first time, I tried to reassure her and help her understand that she did the right thing by telling me. No matter how unpleasant this is, or if an employee gets fired over it, it is serious, it is unacceptable and we should not allow anyone to get away with it. In the end after she gave her full statement to HR she was too upset to do any more treatments and I had to call someone else to cover the rest of her shift. I was thanking the Universe that at least it was Monday and we only had a few Facials on the books. I could only imagine the nightmare if she had decided to wait until Friday or Saturday to tell me.

I wish that was the end of it, but as it happens, Vanessa had been doing this for SIX MONTHS!!!! And she had help, some of the Front Desk staff knew and one of my supervisors knew. When these other staff members where questioned by HR their standard answer was that "they did not think it was wrong, they figured if the clients wanted it and we (the company) did not want to buy Vanessa a Micro machine, it was outstanding that she had incurred in the expense herself and provided the service to the clients and got paid for it." HR was outraged. I on the other hand could not help but admire the thought and what they had done. It was ultimately about providing something for the clients that the client wanted. It is what the company tells us to do all the time, to go above and beyond each and every time, to move earth and sky to provide the service we are ask to provide. It is not how it should have been done, but they saw an opportunity and took it. How entrepreneurial and clever. The thing is I probably would have done the same to please my clients if I had been Vanessa.

This is a perfect example of how we hire a particular personality because of the way we pay (this Spa pays commission on service performed and $7.00 per hour when they are not performing services) and then we wonder why they do the stuff they do. Since I had arrived to take over this property I had been asking Mr. R, HR and the Finance department to consider changing the pay system we used. I had presented actual numbers vs forecasted payroll expenses if we changed it. I am constantly using the examples of the behavior we deal with in the Spa compared to the other Hotel departments, and have tried to make everyone understand the root of the problem is the commission based pay we are using. They want them to behave like Hotel employees, follow the same rules and do things the same way, but they are encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit and personality by only compensating them appropriately when they have their hands on a paying guest. The micro machine incident had Mr. R, HR and Finances finally understanding what I had been saying. I wanted to hug Gloria! I finally had a situation that was catching everyone's attention and they wanted to hear my analysis, opinions but most importantly how did I tthought we could solve it. The sad part to the story is that Vanessa and the Supervisor got fired, the company felt they had to set an example and send a loud message to the Spa staff about what is allowed and not allowed. The policies Vanessa violated are spelled out in the Employee Handbook so there was no room for her defending herself with the "I did not know" The reality is that she never asked me to consider adding Microdermabrasion and I have been here over a year. (Apparently she had asked the previous Director and assumed I was going to say no too.) So I am out an excellent Esthetician and an excellent Supervisor, one huge mistake cost them their job and career with this company. It is going to cost me long days and tons of headaches to cover the shifts, the duties and the clients. I also know I will loose some clients, they are Vanessa's clients, she brought them with her, she acquired more and she will take them with her, they will follow her and her machine. I can not blame them, we have encouraged our guests to request specific service providers with the way the Spa was set up and I had too many bigger fish to tackle than trying to change that too. Not anymore this has to be fixed.

Mr. R asked me to put together a full analysis of what we spend on commission and what it will cost for us to change to a regular hourly pay. I am honest with him and ask if I can bring in Skip Williams, a consultant that specializes in this concept and that can help us figure out how to make the change and improve our net profits at the same time. Mr. R. is not too convinced about bringing in outside help but asks me to get the information to him to consider it. My HR Director agrees with me and she has been supporting this change since I got here, so I feel like we have part of the battle won and I guess this is one of the wars I will choose to fight. I believe this is the way to go, so I am going to do everything in my power to make it happen, let's see what we encounter in the process.....

Important Note: "Between the Sheets-A Spa Director's Diary" is Copyright 2005-2008 by Zahira J Coll. All rights reserved. No part of these stories shall be reproduced in any form or by any means, without written permission by the author. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of information contained herein. The stories are autobiographical; however names, characters, places and incidents have been changed to protect identities.

The Holidays at Work

We have all kinds of promotions going on this month in preparation for the Holidays. The Spa smells of cinnamon, pumpkin and spice and we decorated with Christmas wreaths and lights and red candles everywhere. I love it! However, my desk is inundated with requests for days off, change of shifts, vacations and all for the same days; it is either Dec 25th, the 24th & 25th or the 31st and 1st of Jan. Unfortunately the days close to the 25th we are open extended hours because of the Holiday Spa Packages we created and the Gift Certificate sales. I had what I thought was the brilliant idea of extending the hours until midnight for the week prior to Dec 24th. I was so carried away in my enthusiasm and in beating my sales numbers from last year, that I did not take into account that everyone would want time off.

I was not having a lot of success with getting the technicians to volunteer for extra hours, I don't have enough staff to cover all the shifts, and I had no luck finding temporary staff. The thing is, I understand what my staff is feeling and complaining about. I feel as tired and frustrated as they do from having to work so hard during the Holidays, and I too wish I could take time off and spend it with family. Seasons like this make me wonder why I am not at a 9 to 5 Monday to Friday kind of job, and then I remember that I would be completely bored with a job like that and that I enjoy this industry with all its craziness too much to give it up.

This is actually the most difficult time of the year to maintain balance between family and professional obligations and to stay sane, for everyone in the staff. So I came up with a solution that everyone seems to love. I created shorter shifts for the most important days like the 24th, 25th, 31st and 1st; the shifts are 4-6 hours max. I do need more staff to cover all the appointment slots but the staff is more willing to work a completely booked 6 hr shift than an 8 hr one. I wrote all the shifts on little papers, like a raffle. In addition I included a few days off with those dates on them, just 2 per special date. I also added some prizes such as Starbucks gift cards, nice retail products and movie tickets. I had a mandatory staff meeting today and everyone pulled out a shift per date and a prize. (I have more than 75 staff members, creating the chart for shifts took a full day!) Those that got the Day off tickets were so thrilled they willingly picked up extra shifts. Those that got the shifts were still happy because they felt it was fair and fun for all. The prizes were a nice little extra. It felt good to be able to do this and it added to our Holiday Spirit. To finalize the meeting I announced that I am hosting a Spa Holiday Party at my house on the 28th and we are doing it after we close, so that everyone can come, plus that way my kids will be part of the fun and hopefully it will make us feel better about having to work this hard during the season. This is not a company event, so everyone will bring food. I also have tons of products and gifts sent by the vendors so I convinced Mr. R. to let me raffle them off amongst the Spa staff. Everyone is happy, tired, but willing to make it work and we are looking forward to a great, record breaking Holiday Season for the Spa.

I can not wait to see what the New Year brings in experiences, lessons and life!

Happy Holidays!!!!

Stay tuned..........................

Important Note: "Between the Sheets-A Spa Director's Diary" is Copyright 2005-2007 by Zahira J Coll. All rights reserved. No part of these stories shall be reproduced in any form or by any means, without written permission by the author. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of information contained herein. The stories are autobiographical; however names, characters, places and incidents have been changed to protect identities.

The police visit...

As in undercover law enforcement agents looking like they belong in a narcotics movie and not at my beautiful 5 diamond facility but here they were, flashing their badges and scaring my staff half to death (me included).

Yesterday at around 10am I get paged by my Spa Front Desk with a 911 on it, I was in the employee cafeteria in the Hotel building having coffee with the HR Director. My staff does not use the 911 code lightly, they had only used it once before when we had a small fire in the Spa. I assumed it was serious so instead of calling them, I told my HR Director to alert security and have them meet me at the Spa (better safe than sorry) and I ran to the Spa. As I approached the Front Desk and I saw three very scruffy (as in they really looked like they needed a shower) dangerous looking men. Greg at the Front Desk looked like he was about to faint, so I got behind the front desk just in case these guys where dangerous. I am thinking this has to be a robbery or something like it. Greg turns to one of the guys and introduces me as the Spa Director; I greeted them and asked how I could be of service. They all pulled their badges and one of the guys stated that he was Detective Williams, with the 'Vice Division for the LA police department there for an inspection'. He then stated they had to enter every treatment room and locker area. I said, no way, this has to be a mistake; we are a high end Hotel with a Spa, why would they need to do an inspection or go into the treatment rooms?  He says that in our county the Spa is regulated by vice and that they received an anonymous tip indicating we engaged in illegal activities.

I could feel my mouth opening but no words coming out, so I tried again and with my heart pounding really hard I told them it had to be a mistake. No way we engaged in any illegal activities. I explained to them that I had to call Hotel Security and the General Manager before I could let them inspect the facilities. Apparently they did not like my answer and asked to see my Spa facility license and my permit to operate it. I explained again we were part of the Hotel and all the required permits and licenses where handled by the company. I needed to call the GM's office to get any of the information they required. These guys were upset, Detective Williams, the leader, raised his voice and pointing his dirty finger at my face said "Listen Miss I don't care who you have to call, or where your paperwork is, we are here to inspect and like it or not with or without permission we are going into your treatments rooms. Read your city ordinance and realize that we have the right to do so, that we can shut you down in a second and take your little ass to jail, because we have no record of you having applied for the license to be in charge of this place." Now I am pissed beyond words, scared that he may be saying the truth and I could really end up in jail, and super annoyed that Hotel Security was not there yet. If this had been a dangerous situation we would have been dead by the time they got to the Spa.

I decided to try being sweet and nice and not letting my anger show to buy time and to see if I could make this go away without disrupting my guests' experience. I walked from behind the front desk to stand next to these guys and in my softest, sweetest voice I said "Gentlemen, I am so sorry for the misunderstanding, let's try to figure this out, I do want to cooperate let's not be hasty. Would you like some coffee, tea, water? How about we go into my office to discuss what you need from us and how to do the inspection." Before Detective Williams was able to respond my Director of Security and one of his agents showed up and to my relief he was friends with one of the officers. So the mood suddenly shifted and after all the pleasantries, the walking them to my office, getting the coffee etc, they were in a mellower mood but still insisting on doing the inspection.

I excused myself to go to the restroom and instead went to the Front Desk and asked Greg to go into each occupied treatment room and alert the technicians to end the treatments with a complimentary re-booking and a huge apology. I went back to my office and convinced them to let me escort them through the Spa. During teh tour I told them what a shame but we had no treatments currently going on, just a few Hair and Nail Services and we could start there. They wanted to question the guests and the employees. The Security Director, Frank, had already agreed to it. So I said 'no problem you can talk to all of them but I need to be with you at all times'. The guy was really annoyed with me, but his officer (the one that knew Frank) was trying to make things go smooth and kept bringing up the fact that we were a very high end hotel and Frank and I were cooperating that maybe we could do it this way this time, blah, blah. It seemed to be working and Detective Williams was trying to be more polite but he was still scary.

Two hours later they were gone. I had an order to go to the Vice offices at Police Headquarters the next day with my managers and anyone that acted as a Spa Supervisor to get fingerprinted and apply for Spa operating licenses. The Hotel got a citation and a notice of a possible fine to be decided after the report and all the necessary paperwork was reviewed. As per Detective Williams we had been operating without a Spa Establishment Business permit as required by this city. It did not matter that we belong to a Hotel; we are still supposed to have all these permits, pay the fees and follow vice guidelines. Mr. R could not believe that this was actually a requirement so he called the Corporate Legal department and told us not to worry about a thing. At 6pm Mr. R called me to let me know we had to do everything as Detective Williams stated, to gather my team, get petty cash and show up at this guy's office at 7am the next morning or we could really go to jail. He had tried to make it go away but legal had found out that the city had its own ordinance (applicable to our specific zip code) and they treated all Spas as if they were massage parlors of the other kind so we had no choice.

I was upset, not because of what had happened or what I needed to do but because this great company, with a Spa corporate division and access to legal resources, had no clue of what was required to operate a Spa in this city. How could they know everything they needed to know to operate a Restaurant, sell liquor, protect our guests, follow fire codes, hotel permits, etc and not done due diligence when it came to the Spa?  I had a feeling we probably did not know of any specific requirements the city had for our massage therapists or some of our disciplines in the Spa. I needed to do the research and make sure that we were all in compliance. After today I was never going to assume corporate or the management team knew what we needed, it would be up to me to know everything and get it done.

Lesson learned; each state, county, city and even some zip codes can have different requirements to operate a Spa Establishment and different permits for Massage Therapists. In some cases the government offices do not even know what these requirements are, or they contradict each other depending on who you talk to, but in the end it is either managed by the Sheriff, Police, Vice or the Licensing divisions of the City Hall. There is always a written document and I was able to get copies of all the ones that applied to where I was located, but it was difficult and it took a lot of perseverance and patience. The best thing is to get copies of the laws or ordinances and try to do what they require by the letter. Mr. R ended up having to authorize a check for $8,000 to pay the city, which was the total fine for not having the necessary permits and documents. It could have been worse; they could have shut us down, put me in jail, or come and done an unannounced inspection every day if they wanted to make our lives miserable. I guess Detective Williams was not such a mean guy after all. 

Stay tuned.........

Important Note: "Between the Sheets-A Spa Director's Diary" is Copyright 2005-2007 by Zahira J Coll. All rights reserved. No part of these stories shall be reproduced in any form or by any means, without written permission by the author. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of information contained herein. The stories are autobiographical; however names, characters, places and incidents have been changed to protect identities

My To-Do-List

As part of the homework in preparation for a Time Management Seminar, (all Department Heads have to go to tomorrow), I've had to keep a very complete To-do-list and share it with Mr. R and the management team for the last five days.

They don't like my lists because I write too many details on it (I do it so I don't forget anything). According to this new technique we are going to learn, you have to keep it short and sweet because if you spend too much time writing the items and notes on your To-Do-List you are taking that time away from actually doing something. Well, I've wasted more time this week trying to do the homework everyday and fixing my list to "comply" with the guidelines that if I don't learn some really good tricks at the seminar tomorrow I am going to be very behind on all my to-do-list things.  Here is my latest version for what I need to do today; this is the one I will bring to the seminar tomorrow:

• Return call from MS/The Peninsula NY
• Employee of the month submission due in HR
• Finalize next month forecast by 3pm
• Cash balancing training with all Spa FD at 3pm
• RSVP to Hospitality desk schedule coverage needs with my availability
• Create price certificates for event tomorrow night
• Send email to Chef about the Barber guy, OK, Monday at 3pm
• e-mail IT with Spa Soft needs
• e-mail David, interested Spa employees for trainers, next step?
• Finish writing the notes from meetings with Sam and Kathy, take to HR
• Call Ms. April, new to the area, membership inquiry
• Order hamper for female locker area, communication board for break room and prep room
• Post copies of Spa MOD schedule everywhere
• Do staff recs for Nail techs and Hair stylists, post ad, send paperwork to HR
• Write proposal of all Spa menu changes to submit before deadline
• Call LA Fitness to cx my membership, no time to use it
• Check if Meghan's e-mail, about Ms PM. was followed up by Mary or Nat/Spa Soft Inv 63124

I think it is pretty good, I really hope this seminar tomorrow will help with how to stick to your list, how to handle interruptions, etc. How can you do everything you set out to do everyday if between the employees, the guest and the boss you have to answer emails and phone calls all day long? For all my complaining I actually enjoyed doing the lists and then crossing off what I was able to do that day. I can tell from the five days of homework that having to clean up my list and learn how to write shorter notes has actually saved me time. Who would have thought?

Stay tuned........

Important Note: "Between the Sheets-A Spa Director's Diary" is Copyright 2005-2007 by Zahira J Coll. All rights reserved. No part of these stories shall be reproduced in any form or by any means, without written permission by the author. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of information contained herein. The stories are autobiographical; however names, characters, places and incidents have been changed to protect identities.

The Bridal Program - Part 2

The interview with the journalist went so well that we made it in the magazine article. They interviewed a few Spa Directors in the area but our program and my answers and opinions on what brides want from a spa and even hair style trends were quoted many times. Peggy was thrilled, I was happy, the Sales department calmed down and we all took a deep breath. The couples that actually bought the packages were great and very easy to work with. Nat did wonders working out their programs and they are all going through it very nicely. The only downside to the whole thing was that the magazine decided not to do the six week recording of their progress as they felt it would give us too much free publicity. I think the real reason they decided to pull the plug was that Mr. R had told them he was not going to do one page ads in every issue as they had wanted. I have mixed feelings about it, I was glad that there was not going to be a journalist following us around all day for the six weeks but I was sad that we would not get anymore articles about us in the magazines this journalist contributes to. I figured that since this was the first time we executed the program, and having had to implement it with only 24 hours notice it was probably going to hurt us more than help us. We have had a lot of behind the scenes, flying by the seat of my pants, craziness. I don't think I would have been happy with someone writing about my weak, "I don't know what I am doing" moments.

The best part of the whole experience was that Mr. R was so happy that he gave me a raise (for real),insisted I took a much deserved 10 day vacation and instructed me to not worry about the Spa, just rest and relax and re-charge my batteries and to create more fabulous programs. I took the vacation time as quickly as I could scheduled it. I went on a great cruise with my younger son and fiancee but I called Nat everyday to check in and make sure that Mr. R or Sales & Marketing were not creating more chaos in the Spa. When I got back I was contacted by a Trade Show organizer, they had read the article and wanted to know if I was interested in doing a presentation at a Spa Trade Show.

I am very grateful, excited and thrilled that all my hard work, patience and flexibility are paying off with all these great things happening at once. I accepted the invitation to speak and talked Mr. R into letting me do it as it will mean more exposure to the Spa. I am looking forward to implementing all the ideas I had while vacationing and am currently contemplating a Yoga Urban Retreat program next but have not presented it to the team yet. I am going to present it to Nat first and if she thinks we can do it then we will talk to Mr. R. There is no way I am letting Sales & Marketing get wind of it until I am sure we are doing it and are ready to roll it out.

Stay tuned.........

Important Note: "Between the Sheets-A Spa Director's Diary" is Copyright 2005-2007 by Zahira J Coll. All rights reserved. No part of these stories shall be reproduced in any form or by any means, without written permission by the author. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of information contained herein. The stories are autobiographical; however names, characters, places and incidents have been changed to protect identities.

"What Bridal Program?!"

When I arrived at work today I had a phone message from Peggy, our company Public Relations Director, letting me know that a writer for a bridal magazine would be calling me at 2pm tomorrow. They want to interview me in regards to my Bridal Program Packages and the trends in the Spa and Beauty Care industries as it relates to the wedding business.  Huh? I called Peggy back and left her a few messages. I also tried calling the Sales & Marketing Director to find out what "Bridal Program Packages she was talking about?  I was wondering what new thing they might be advertising for the Spa without telling me.

Peggy finally called me back at around 4pm today and explained that they had published a six week Bride & Groom Program that included Fitness, Nutrition, weekly treatments, gifts, plus more, all in preparation for the wedding. She proceeded to inform me that the Catering Department had included it in their Sales Kits and Press kits around three months ago. That it was a hit with the press and the customers. Furthermore how could I not know anything about it since it was my idea, my program! Of course as she is talking I realize I do know what she is referring to but as I tried to explain to Peggy, "This was a proposal I submitted to Mr. R and the Sales Department like five months ago, nobody ever got back to me to tell me it was approved; no one sent me Ad copy to review; nothing is in place at the Spa to do any of it; I had no idea."

Peggy says "That's not my problem; you better get your butt in gear and get something ready for your interview tomorrow. This is a huge magazine. The Catering Department sold four couples the package, they start next week and the magazine writer is going to follow their program and progress. It is huge, it would be the best exposure you would ever get and if you don't have it ready it will be the worst nightmare you could ever imagine, and Mr. R would probably fire you over it." I did not know if to scream or cry. I was bewildered.

How could they be so disorganized, or stupid, to go forward with such a new and huge thing and not involve the person that came up with the idea; presented the program; and is supposed to deliver, talk to the press and make it work? First I was shocked, then I was just mad, and lastly I just took a deep breath (actually a few), prepared some Chamomile tea and started looking for the draft file I had taken to the meeting while praying that I had not thrown it away.

I've always believed that if you can not change or control what is going on there is no use in wasting your energy being mad, complaining about it or letting it ruin your day. Sometimes (like today) it takes a huge effort in moving from a, "Why me? It's not fair! I could strangle them," attitude to, "Let me work it out to the best of my ability and take the bull by the horns."

I found my draft. (Thank the universe and angels!) I called Nat, (my assistant), because we created the outline together and I was going to need tons of help to get ready. I was not too worried about the interview with the journalist since I knew what the program was supposed to look and feel like. I was super worried about the couples that had bought it and about the logistics of making it work.  As Nat and I sat together to figure things out I realized that my plans for the weekend would be out the window and we were going to have to work all weekend. For a second I had a little voice in my ear telling me to just tell the journalist the truth and to let PR clean the mess, after all I am only human. But my little Jiminy Cricket whispered in my other ear that I could turn this around and make it such a huge success that Mr. R would have to either offer me a raise or leave me to my own devices for a while. Jiminy Cricket's voice won the argument and Nat and I got to work, but the results of our efforts will have to be a story for another day.

Stay tuned.........

Important Note: "Between the Sheets-A Spa Director's Diary" is Copyright 2005-2007 by Zahira J Coll. All rights reserved. No part of these stories shall be reproduced in any form or by any means, without written permission from the author. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of information contained herein. The stories are autobiographical; however names, characters, places and incidents have been changed to protect identities.

Nail Technicians are Extinct!

To see is to believe! To live it is to believe it! When I first started going to trade meetings and local events with other Spa Directors; everyone would comment on how lucky I was that I did not need to hire any Nail Techs; they were jealous, that I was lucky to have as many as I did working at the Spa, etc. they would talk about how hard it was for them to find any and how they let the ones they had get away with murder for fear of loosing them. I really thought everyone was just exaggerating. My luck ran out after my first year anniversary. 

We decided to expand the Salon; we added a great custom built Pedicure sofa (just like in the episode of Sex and the City where they are getting pedicure's together). On top of that we decided to add more great feet and hand treatments to our menu thinking, "Why not jazz it up a little?" As I am forecasting labor and creating the next few months' schedule I realized I just don't have enough techs to cover everything we had plus everything we added. I knew I had to hire at least two new techs but then one of my full-time Nail Technicians resigned to relocate to another State (her husband's fault) which meant now I needed 3! Being a planner I thought, "I better start the process at least 2 months out just in case it is as hard as they say to find candidates."  When Human Resources first posted the position I did not worry too much since I figured I had plenty of time, but after one month passed and they had not been able to provide me with one single candidate I started to panic. 

I took matters into my own hands and (with HRs blessing) visited all the Cosmetology schools within a 30 mile radius.  Sadly, they didn't have any students about to graduate, half the schools eliminated the program because they can't get people to want to be Nail Techs. The cosmetology students do not want to do nails not even with the promise that they can get promoted. I created a referral program at my Spa in the hopes that my existing team members might know someone that knows someone that wants to work with us, but so far "nada". I learned that next time we expand anything I better make sure I have the staff to cover it or that I can at least find the staff to cover it. I tried convincing my boss and HR to sponsor staff into a nail program, it does not take that long and I thought maybe someone in another department with less pay would be interested. But no way, they thought I was crazy, so instead the boss told me not to worry to let HR do their job and he ordered HR to find people. Ha, ha! When we left his office the HR Director and I laughed all the way back, like we can really just make candidates appear by magic. But it is not funny.

How is it possible that we cannot find even one Nail Tech? I've made calls, talked to colleagues, contacted schools, trade organizations and everyone's response is, "Welcome to the crisis, are you crazy? You need how many? No way, you won't find them. "Nail techs are an extinct species."

With no solution in sight and no sleep for a week trying to figure out what to do, I decided to have a staff meeting to go over the plans on the "unveiling" and the tragedy of no new Nail Techs. Yes, a little dramatic but I am dramatic. I knew I had existing staff members with Cosmetology licenses (they can do Nails) and a couple of Estheticians that had started as Nail Techs and still had valid licenses. So I had a plan.......I enjoy convincing people to help out, I don't like forcing them to help by ordering them to do something they are not really required to do. I figured desperate times required desperate measures and it was time to do some serious convincing but in a group setting not one-on-one.  I had a feeling that one-on-one was going to be too hard and they would not feel the pain the Spa was going through. So I used the meeting to create a little peer pressure while explaining the super-need the Spa had to get everyone to pull together as a team, and how we sometimes had to do things we don't necessarily enjoy tremendously but for the good of the bigger picture we would do them for a little while, how because this was so important they would get some rewards for saving the day (yes I used money). I asked for volunteers to cover the shifts we needed to be able to unveil our fabulous new pedi area and I made sure the group knew that we did have team members that had the licenses and experience to do this for us. It worked! We got volunteers to add shifts as Nail Techs, enough to cover the immediate need for a month.

Yes, it is a Band-Aid and I still don't know how I will solve this problem on a more permanent basis.  I do believe that my idea of sending some Spa Attendants, Housekeepers or other Hotel employees to train as Nail Techs and then have them work at the Spa is the ideal solution. My plan is to go back to the drawing board and put together a proposal with expenses and potential revenue to present this idea to my boss. In the meantime I am throwing a party for my staff as a Thank You for being so nice and wanting to fix this, they saved the day and my sanity for the time being!

Stay tuned!

Important Note: "Between the Sheets-A Spa Director's Diary" is Copyright 2005-2007 by Zahira J Coll. All rights reserved. No part of these stories shall be reproduced in any form or by any means, without written permission by the author. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of information contained herein. The stories are autobiographical; however names, characters, places and incidents have been changed to protect identities.

One Year Anniversary!

Wow! I can not believe a full year has gone by since I made the life changing decision to become a Spa Director. It has been such an intense year that I feel as if five years have passed. I am not 100% sure that is entirely good, but in this year I have learned the equivalent of five years, and the life lessons I have experienced make me feel five years older!

It has been difficult, frustrating, delightful, enlightening, weird and funny all at once. Sometimes I have to remind myself of the reasons why I wanted to be a Spa Director. I remember the first conversations with my staff when I was deciding to leave Human Resources and I have to smile at how naive I was in what I expected.

The obsession to do it right, the demands of the job, the hours needed and the pressures I have to put my family through is what makes me sometimes wonder, "Why oh why? What do I like about it that keeps me doing it?" I equate it to a relationship, when I only see the bad and negative I need to sit down and make a list of the things that made me fall in love with this originally; a list of the Pros so that I don't see only the Cons. If I ever get to the point of it being too much, or where I am only seeing the negatives, that is when I have to stop and change courses because it will mean I have burnt out. I had a great friend when I was at Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa, she was energetic, full of life, new to being a Spa Director but a total "go getter"; she had spunk and intelligence. At some point in her career she wrote about her burn out, the reasons the job became too much and her decision to leave it. She continues to be in the business as a consultant, educator and inspiration to others. I always keep her story in my head and in my heart and I hope to one day exit as graciously as she did, and still keep my love and passion for this industry. In the meantime and since I am proud of having made it through this year, I want to continue to learn and experience this wild new career that I chose, I need to remind myself of the things I do love abut being a Spa Director and some of the lessons learned this past year.

• I love working in a place where I can burn candles, listen to meditation music, work out and evaluate a massage treatment as part of my duties.
• I have learned about nutrition and life balance.
• I've experienced and learned about Reiki, Shirodhara, Craniosacral and Polarity treatments. Some of these philosophies and disciplines were so foreign to me and know I feel I've been around them my whole life.
• I have met some of the most enlightened individuals and true energy healers. (I've met some weirdoes too, but I am concentrating on the positive here!)
• I know how to read a Profit and Loss statement and create a budget dealing with millions of dollars. Furthermore I know how to manage that budget efficiently and effectively and I enjoy it.
• My job requires me to look and feel healthy, be knowledgeable about the latest skin care products, the latest techniques, and I get free salon services. What is not to like about that?!
• By making sure the Spa is running effectively and efficiently I am contributing to the client's well being. I make a difference in their experience and my staff's everyday experience. I can influence the energy of those around me.
• I touch the life and attitudes of my coworkers. One act of kindness a day is all it takes to make a better world, the Spa industry provides me with tons of opportunities to make acts of kindness.
• I get to meet celebrities of all kinds, up-close and personal. I get to go to events with celebrities even if I can not talk about it, I love being part of it; it's like being a kid in a candy store.
• It provides me with the income to provide for my children in a way I only dreamed possible when I was beginning in the Hotel industry.
• I get to travel to the most beautiful Resort/Hotel destinations in the world and attend great events that I would have never been part of if I had stayed in HR.
• My children and family get to enjoy the places I work at and they are educated in having a healthy mind and body. They know more about skin care and massage therapies that most adults will ever learn in a life time.
• I have a new family, my Spa family and I love them.

Time to celebrate, here is to my first year and the many more to come! To all the Spa Directors out there that paved the way before me, and to all that are going to start this journey, embrace it.

Bring it on!!!

The TV Show

It’s been three days of getting things ready, clean and fixed all for a 5 minute possible segment in a TV Show. If the lighting is right, if the temperature holds, if the sun decides to shine and the shadows are not in the wrong shape, and there are no problems with production the day before, we, the SPA might be honored with having a small part in this show. The Hotel is already in it, they have used one of the Restaurants, the Lobby Lounge area, the Gardens and the Tennis courts. The Spa is still not really in the plot, but it might end up in the plot, who knows how they decide these things. Of course the IFs don’t really count, since we have to be ready for it at a moment’s notice anyway and my staff is driving me insane. Not to mention that I am practically living at the Spa trying to jump through hoops every time any of the PR people, the show producing assistants, the Hotel PR people, my boss and the personalities’ managers ask for something.

Yesterday took the cake, someone called and asked for a full Pedicure between takes for Ms. Star, the treatment had to be performed in the middle of the tennis court! At first I almost said NO, how do I get my Nail Technician and the equipment she needs, water, etc. all the way to the Tennis Court to perform this treatment, but then I realized this was really my moment to shine and show everyone how creative my team (myself included) can be. If I could have predicted how the experience would end I would have followed my instinct and said NO, but I didn’t. We get all creative and figure that since we had read that Ms. Star uses Evian water to clean her face, and we had no water source near the tennis court, we would use Evian water for her pedi. I picked the technician very carefully, making sure she was not going to faint from touching Ms. Star’s feet. My boss insisted that the Spa Director had to be present at all times during this treatment (a smart move on his part but I did not think so at the time). Off we went, schedules apparently are very fluid when you are filming, I had blocked 3 hours of my Tech’s time to do a 50 min. treatment, and she had appointments after that. I was sure that would be enough, I blame my lack of TV experience on that one. I hardly have any Nail Techs and they are always booked, so blocking three hours was causing issues at the Spa Front Desk and with the Tech because she felt she was losing money, of course the treatment was comp in our PR department’s efforts to get mentioned a lot in the show credits.

We arrived 20 min. prior to the scheduled time, we stood behind the production lines for 2 hours (it was 80º and I am wearing the required black business suit, nylons and all). While we waited we had a few other actors approach us asking if they could get a pedicure too, we had to say no and explain that we are waiting for our cue to take care of Ms. Star and we could not start them and then not be available for her, etc. Well that pissed them off, the comments we were getting were, “Are we not important enough for you?” “Who do you think you are?” “Don’t you know who I am?” I tried suggesting they go to the Spa to get whatever they wanted but it was all, “if Ms. Star can have it here so can I!” My technician wanted to go home, she was intimidated, hot and cranky. I was getting cranky myself and I was sweating, I just wanted to rip the nylons off and sit in my air conditioned office. We only have to wait one more hour to fulfill the commitment we made and then we can go back to pretending things are normal.

As I am counting the seconds to the end of this three hour ordeal, dreaming of a tall Iced Tea, of ripping off my nylons and the air conditioning in my office, I am also contemplating how to talk to our darling PR Manager about avoiding these situations in the future without sounding as if I don’t want the publicity for the Hotel and/or the Spa. I am wondering, as they make these deals, do they really understand what it takes to perform the treatments under these conditions? Do they understand how difficult it is to take care of the paying guests and try to take care of a full production crew just to get 2 minutes credit on some show that who knows who will be watching? Sometimes I don’t get how they make the decisions or why, so maybe if I sit with her and have her explain things to me and I get the opportunity to share with her what I really need to be able to make this happen without disrupting our peaceful Spa environment, then maybe it could be better next time.

My day dreaming got completely interrupted by a Production Assistant tapping my shoulder to inform us that they want to film a scene in the Spa and that they will be there in 10 min., Ms. Star would have the Pedicure in the Salon after all but it had to be emptied of any other person. I had to say NO about her treatment in the Salon at the same time that I am making frantic calls on my cell to let everyone know to get the area we had blocked ready for the TV crew. I asked to speak to Ms. Star’s manager to offer an in-room service, a garden service, anywhere but the Salon since there was no way I could empty the salon with such short notice. Apparently my logic and my answer created a commotion and Ms. Star marched straight to us to tell us how “inefficient, inconsiderate and incompetent we were”. Before I could say a word my tech (who did not like this particular actor anyway) got in Ms. Star’s face and said that the one that was an “inconsiderate b---- was her, and after watching her for two hours trying to get her lines right, she was not even a good actor anyway and she would not touch her dirty feet for all the money in the world.” Ooops! To write everything that happened after that would require a book. Let’s just say that I had to immediately kiss a lot of butt, eat a lot of s----, suspend my tech, call the PR staff, call my boss and promise everyone I would fix it.

Then I went running after Ms. Star, sweet talked her into accepting the treatment in our Presidential Suite, convinced her that she was great and we were stupid and performed the Pedicure myself to avoid my boss from firing me too. At the end of this 12 hour day as I was cleaning the supplies and getting ready to leave the Suite, one of the celebrities that was around came by. I was covered in sweat, my business suit was sticking to me like glue, I could not wait to get under a cold shower. I was also completely mortified by the whole series of events. He asked me my name, introduced himself as BP (like there was any possible way I would not know who he was) he pulled me into his arms and gave me a big hug and kiss and said, “Thank you for doing this, you fixed the rest of my day, cause if she stayed pissed she was going to be pissed at me.” I almost fainted!

Today as soon as I arrived to work my boss calls me into his office to let me know that Mr. P had written a very nice letter of apology on behalf of Ms. Star and the misunderstandings of yesterday, and asking us to not fire the Nail Tech (which Ms. Star’s manager had demanded we do). The letter includes a thank you for “her wonderful approach and professionalism” (talking about me!) and how I had saved the day. It went on to explain that even though the Spa would not be in the show, since he (Mr. P) was one of the executive producers the Hotel would get the promised credits and he was going to personally tell his publicist to promote that the Spa offered the best treatments ever. My boss was so happy he forgot everything he had said and thought the day before, he kept saying I was the most fabulous Spa Director ever and he almost hugged me and that would have been really weird, so instead he told me to go home and take the rest of the day off because I deserved it. I was elated and got in my car right away, did not even think twice about leaving, I was looking forward to sleeping for the next 12 hours. As I was driving home I could not help but say a little prayer of thanks for Mr. P being normal and nice, and asking the universe that we never get picked for any other TV show ever; it is too stressful and surreal!

Important Note: "Between the Sheets-A Spa Director's Diary" is Copyright 2005-2007 by Zahira J Coll. All rights reserved. No part of these stories shall be reproduced in any form or by any means, without written permission by the author. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of information contained herein. The stories are autobiographical; however names, characters, places and incidents have been changed to protect identities.