Decisions

Up until this week I was trying to decide if I wanted to try my hand at being a conference services manager or a catering manager. Basically, the conference services manager services (but doesn't sell) functions or meetings with over 30 sleeping rooms. The catering manager sells and services meetings and functions with under 15 sleeping rooms (primarily weddings and other social functions).



After this week, I have made up my mind. I don't think I ever want to be a conference services manager. There are 3 reasons for this-



1. At least at the Wigwam the conference services managers never seem to get a day off. One of them has only had one day off in the last year.

2. They always seem very, very stressed out. I don't think any job is worth being that stressed out over. I never really saw this side of the conference services managers until this week. I was in the back hallway and happened to witness a conference services manager screaming at one of the setup supervisors over something really petty. Later the conference services manager found me and apologized that I had to witness that. He said that he was just really stressed out. I asked if his job was normally that stressful and he replied that it was. Even though this is only one person's perception, I took it into consideration.

3. When you are dealing with large groups that have meetings and functions spanning several days, there are inevitably about a million changes to the original schedule. I don't mind changes but dealing with this all day every day would drive me crazy! At least when you are dealing with weddings there might be a lot of changes but you can only change one event so many times.



I am very grateful that I am getting to spend some time as an Executive Meeting Specialist for my internship. It has allowed me to see how other departments run and to come to this conclusion.