Oddball Update

I don’t think I’ve detailed it on here previously, but it wasn’t long ago that my wife applied for a job at the local Ritz-Carlton resort. She’s always made hospitality her #1 career choice, and ever since arriving in the U.S. has aspired to work for the Ritz. She finally got her chance at the beginning of the month—she applied, checked out and was handed an official offer, being welcomed with open arms by some very friendly young women over at the local Golf Resort. Unfortunately, the day before her orientation, some jackanape manager called her and said that the Ritz needed to “withdraw” the job offer. As for the reason, he said “something went wrong in your second interview.” I swear that’s all the man said. And no one would say any more, despite our asking.

Shortly after this dismissive phone call, we went through a flurry of further calls wherein my wife’s (former) future manager called up and told us basically what was happening, but not why it was happening. She revealed that whatever had happened, my wife would never again be able to even apply for a position at any Ritz-Carlton property worldwide, as something had supposedly disqualified her that they wouldn’t reveal. The woman furthermore begged us not to reveal that she had spoken to us, then said she could not talk to us any more and we could not call her. It’s like the goddamn CIA or something you see in a Denzel Washington political thriller. I wanted to laugh because it was all so pretentious; like, this hotel chain is guarding national secrets or something. I can’t believe how seriously some people (and businesses) take themselves. In the grand scheme of things they’re snot on flypaper, really.

So anyway, we went down to the resort and expressed to the man who’d called us how disgusted we were with how the whole situation had been handled, and demanded a written explanation as well as his personal apology. He was all capitulating and everything, and promised to mail the letter out that evening. Three weeks later, we’ve received nothing, so I think it’s safe to say that in yet another CIA-like conspiracy coverup, his superiors probably put a stop to that. If he ever intended to do it at all.

What’s cool is that one of my colleagues here at work actually knows some people of rather lofty position at the local (and regional) Ritz-Carlton company, and they’re furthering a behind-the-scenes investigation of this for us. Last night my wife and I drafted a letter to the hotel’s General Manager detailing everything that has happened thus far, demanding that the situation be investigated and professing how severely this has impacted my wife’s career situation—the company she’s spent years of her life aspiring to work for has completely and permanently shut her out. It’s one thing to apply for a job and be denied, even permanently, but the circumstances are so dubious that we can’t even be sure the criteria used to evaluate her were accurate, trumped-up, or even hers!

So my colleague’s friend, who works at the Ritz, is going in to see the General Manager personally. Apparently he’s some kind of corporate politico / legal wiz because my colleage says he has an innate ability to twist ANY words to his favor, and based on his initial findings, he already knows that “something is going on here” besides just my wife’s supposed failure to meet the Ritz’s corporate standards. As we suspected, that’s not the real reason for the offer retraction at all. The real reason still remains to be seen.

At this point, my wife has no interest in working with the Ritz-Carlton anymore, after how they treated her. They’re apparently a bunch of thumbs-up-the-butts who apparently devote most of their time and attention to mindfucking their employees and arranging their politi-corporate chess pieces just so, rather than “serving ladies and gentlemen” as their slogn supposedly purports. I hope that my colleague’s contacts get us something closer to what we really want: Some satisfaction in the acceptance of responsibility, some piece of evidence that the whole organization is not just business as usual after screwing us royally. What would be even better is an explanation of exactly what went wrong, not just some piss-off dismissive comment or stories of national secrets. And if the Ritz would expunge this cocked-up decision that prevents my wife from applying to work with them in the future, that would be the ultimate gesture. She’d never take the morons up on it, that’s for sure, but the principle of the outcome is what’s important.

As this story unfolds, I’ll have the latest news for you here.

Categorized as Life