I have spent the last 3 days in one of the hottest and most worked rooms in the hotel. The laundry room is where all the behind the scenes work in the hotel really takes place. The longer I have worked in the hotel the more I see how unique the Capital Hotel really is. You won't find many places that have so many different operations all focused on customer service. The hotel offers not one but two amazing restaurants, a private dining operation that handles all major events, and a four star hotel for people who are in a food coma from the restaurants can rest and recuperate. It is such an interesting thing to observe. Because of all of these different entities the laundry stays super busy.
I have arrived every morning at 9 o'clock ready to get down to business. For the most part my days have consisted of standing at a press machine and running stacks upon stacks of napkins, tablecloths, pillow cases, sheets, and duvets through the machine. The press machine shown below in the picture reminds me of a loom(or so I say, seeing that I have never actually seen a loom in person, but to me it would look similar to this). You basically stand in front of it and feed the linen through sending it on several loops that press the linen into a crisp, wrinkle free state. This machine along with every other part of the laundry is hot. With all of the pulling and standing, I leave everyday with a good back, shoulder and foot ache that lets me know I have completed a hard days work. I have been thinking of patenting a new workout that deals with tugging hundreds of sheets, squatting to pick up pillow cases on the floor, lifting things above your head and standing in place for about 8 hours, in a sauna. I just have to come up with a name. I was thinking maybe something like Laundrates or Laundrobics. Case in point, it is just as hard of a work out as housekeeping if not harder.
Today, I went into the press room where the uniforms are pressed. These machines are a little bit different. It basically looked like an ironing board but a lid came down and locked and then you pressed a button to steam the item. It was actually pretty fun and easy to use. The funniest thing to me in this room was the machine you steam the pants on. You attach pants to this machine that looks like it has a butt and it is standing up. Once the pants are attached, you turn the machine on and it puffs the pants out removing the wrinkles and using heat and a little bit of water it steams the pants. It was pretty crazy.
So far, I have learned that people who work in laundry are pretty tough. If I am this sore after a few days they must be super tough to do this job everyday. I have also learned that without the laundry the whole hotel would fall a part. The COO of our hotel is always talking about being a linchpin. A linchpin is technically the pin the goes into the axle to keep the wheel in place. Without the linchpin the wheel would not work and you would get no where. I believe that the laundry department is a prime example of a linchpin. They work tirelessly everyday to make sure everything keeps going. If they decided to not show up one day then there would be no sheets for beds, no napkins and table clothes for the restaurants and no uniforms for employees. I think so far this internship has given me such a perspective on the jobs no one really sees or cares much about but that are absolutely vital to the industry of hospitality. Though its been a tough lesson in hard work, it is a lesson cherished. I can not wait to continue to learn.
Until my next adventure,
Rachel
A little bit of the laundry and the huge washing machines
The press
The press room machine
The funny pant steamer
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