Training and training and cleaning and cleaning

Housekeeping has become much more interesting now that I'm in control of teaching and training.  My neurons are firing in ways that they haven't for a while, and the organizational details can be overwhelming but mostly make me feel alive.

My crew seems like they're going to be really good.  Granted first impressions can be wrong, but they all want to do well, want to work hard, and have interesting things to say.  They'll be turning over a cabin by themselves for the first time today as a sort of "final exam."  I've hidden a few things in easy-to-miss places for them to find. Here's hoping.....

After quality is up to 4-diamond standards, efficiency will be the trick.  Quickness comes with time and real time constraints once guests are here, I think.  It's harder to teach perfectionism if you don't start at the beginning.  That's my theory at least.

I had to give a 15 minute talk to the whole staff yesterday.  I started with a somewhat revised/abbreviated history of Boston and the Boston Commons (with stick figure pictures of people, their cows, and private v common grazing land.)  Decided that the "Tragedy of the Commons" has not only been repeated in our fisheries and throughout human history but also in the history of common staff areas at the ranch and asked people to decide to be better than what we, as humans, tend to default to (destruction of common areas, overgrazing, overuse of shared but limited resources.)   Then I got into the details about where to find chemicals, what towels and TP are "guest only," and why if you take a vacuum, bottle of disinfectant, etc. you should put it back where you found it.

I honestly think I received more compliments on that 15 minute chat than on anything else I've done in my life.  Not sure if that's a testament to how nice my coworkers are or how beautiful my cow stick figures are.

Things have been busy, but hopefully I'll have time to post sometime in coming weeks between cookouts, game nights, barn dances, cleaning, meetings, and other "managerial responsibilities"