Who: Anne and Constance When: August Where: The Versailles What: Working Rating/Warnings: Low, bit of bad language Status: Complete
Constance entered Anne’s office after checking all the rooms, “Well the building itself is sound, the rooms are spacious and the suites have the best views as they should” she said smiling as she sat down in front of her friends desk. “I’m meeting with the linen supplier tomorrow as well as two potential launderers” she said looking at her clipboard briefly, “Did the chef come back to you about the local produce?” she asked.
“Umm, yes, he’s got a couple of local supplies that look promising but I need to go over the numbers with him. That’s this afternoon...if I can get this damn spreadsheet to print off,” she grumbled as the computer once again locked up. “Sorry,” she apologised for her use of strong language. It was a very rare occasion when she used it and only when she was particularly frustrated.
Giving a chuckle Constance smiled, knowing her friend must be very frustrated. Anne had a much more refined way of speaking compared to herself. “Computer trouble still?” she asked, Constance still used paper notebooks a lot of the time.
Anne sighed heavily, pushing her hair back from her face as she sat back in her seat away from the computer. “Yes. I’m meeting with someone just after lunch to try and get it fixed, or upgraded or whatever they can do. The systems just aren’t capable of keeping up with what we need them to do, they’re older than I am!” she sighed. “I have a feeling upgrading the IT could end up being rather costly, but we need it to run this place as efficiently as possible,” she explained.
“Don’t worry so much. If it’s what we need then it’s what we need” Constance said, as practical as ever, “We’ll see the return by giving such a good service people will come back again and again and that’s our aim” she reminded her. She knew Anne wanted to impress her father but some things were necessities and even he knew that.
“I know, I was just hoping to have this place turning a significant profit as soon as possible,” Anne shrugged and reached forward to examine her cup of tea, disappointed to find it empty. “I want to show Father that we can make this place successful. I know there are a lot of people back home who don’t think it can be successful and I want to prove them wrong,” she told Constance.
“I know you do but that also means making the smart decisions, like not running on a half arsed computer system” Constance told her, “You’ll prove people wrong but only if you make decisions because they’re good ones and not just to try and prove others wrong” Anne was a good CEO but she just needed the confidence in herself. And something Constance wasn’t lacking was confidence.
Anne sighed and leaned forward on her desk, running her hand over her hair before nodding. “I know, you’re right, you’re right,” she took a deep breath, straightened in her seat and smiled up at her fiend, game face on. “So, I’ll take down the figures for the chef by hand instead of waiting for it to think about printing off and once the techno wizard Mr Stark is sending over look at updating all the records on there. How are you doing with front-of-house and housekeeping staff? How many of the original crew did we keep and how many vacancies do you think we need to fill?”
Constance smiled, she needed to keep her friend on track sometimes. Anne worried too much about showing others she could succeed. Her father obviously had faith in her and Constance knew she could do it but she always wanted to prove herself.
“I think we’ll need two receptionists, luckily we have a couple of really good concierges” she smiled, “Maybe three or four more housekeeping staff, mainly mornings for room changes” They had managed to keep a number of staff who wanted to move with them and were being settled in the area, “I’ve got the figures here” she said handing over a copy of the staff numbers.
“Good, good, ok,” Anne paused to think for a second. “Well there was a lady who replied to my post on the ValarNet who might be interested in a part-time front-of-house position. Do you think we should advertise more on there for potential staff?”
“I think that’s probably a good idea, appeal to the locals and it gets the word out that we’re here too” she said with a nod, “Did you get the contact details of the potential front of house girl?”
“Great, so shall I put an advert up on the Net and see what, if any response we get,” Anne asked, casting a side-long look at the computer. “Assuming I’m ever able to get online again,” she joked. “Yes and I gave her the address of the hotel too.”
“Don’t worry just make a note to do it once this IT guy sorts everything out for you” Constance said, “Oh excellent, I’ll look forward to meeting her then. It’s all exciting isn’t it? I mean this whole place is lovely and the weather is blooming marvellous”
“Yep, uh...post-its, where did I...ah, here,” Anne muttered to herself as she checked the drawers of her desk. Pulling out a pad of post-its and a pen, she made herself a note, sticking it to the front of her diary when finished. “I know, it’s great, I kind of wish we could take some time off and just enjoy a day at the beach or something,” she smiled.
“Oh I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time for that once we’re up and running” Constance said, “We should make sure of it, maybe even do a few team building things for our different teams at some point” All down the line once they were set up of course but building morale was an important part of retaining staff.
“That’s a great idea, we should start off as we mean to go on,” Anne nodded approvingly, writing herself another post-it note. “I’ll see if there are any people in the area promoting that sort of event for us to look into in the future. I think we should definitely aim for some kind of event or something around Halloween and Christmas and uh...what’s the other big holiday they have here in the autumn?” she asked her mind going black as she closed her eyes to try and help her remember.
“Halloween could be fun, we could do some kind of themed thing. I know they go overboard here for that” Constance said before trying to remember, “Oh thanksgiving. The big turkey thing” she grinned, they’d have to get used to different public holidays and things being out here.
“I know, I’m quite excited to experience all the different holidays they have over here,” Anne grinned excitedly. “Thanksgiving, that’s the one! We should have a great big turkey for all the staff,” she said. “I know that’s probably thinking too far into the future but it’s nice to have something to plan for,” she shrugged. “Anyway,” she shook her head and looked back at the computer screen and saw it was working and printing now. “We should be getting on, are you free for dinner tonight? Fancy trying out the Italian around the corner?”
“It’s always nice to have something to plan for” Constance agreed then grinned, “Does a bear shit in the woods? Of course count me in for dinner. Italian sounds good”