When I was growing up in Weyburn, we were known as the 'Hospitality Capital of Saskatchewan.' I'm not quite sure if this was because, perhaps, we had more hotels per capita than anywhere else in the province, or if it really was a reflection on our ability to make out-of-towners feel at home.
Last month, as I was working on a story about the Canadian Student Leadership Conference, I did an interview with a local mother of some of Weyburn's own student leaders.
Although I didn't end up using a quote from her, I took valuable information away from our talk. She told me about how her family was, of course, a billet host for the conference. She also told me about the strong bond that her family had created with the billeted children, noting that a number of the visitors to Weyburn promised to keep in touch with their hosts. In fact, the conference schedule also included a student-requested 'evening at home' with the host families!
Now, as a youngster, I was billeted in other towns and cities for various youth conferences, but my experience never produced such sentiments. I don't even recall my hosts' names! Being from Weyburn, I've never been billeted here, but from what I've seen and heard, it is a real treat!
Perhaps it is warmth, genuineness, comfort- in-one's-own-skin mentality, that makes a person hospitable. Perhaps it's simply in our genes. But if it's in our water, not everybody's drinking it.
I dare to say that the hospitality industry, including food and beverage, but especially hotels, often seem to be far below the standards of true hospitality.
True success is actually measured by how we treat ourselves and others. If you treat your employees properly and set them up to help take care of their families, they'll be loyal because they feel cared for. They'll treat your customers properly, too.
'Trickle down' is an effect caused by business owners who care only about their bottom line. This callous attitude finds its way down to the management and then the employees are treated poorly. It's rather short sighted and disgusting to me that the service people, who are on the floor serving, making the money for everyone higher up, earn the lowest wages and are often treated like they are not worthy of basic human rights. In fact, I recently learned that at a certain place of business, in Weyburn's hospitality industry, employees aren't allowed to ask for breaks, or they get fired - well, only if they are hard working, honest and self-respecting, which, of course, makes lazy, dishonest and non-self-respecting managers look bad!
More of us can tell horror stories of working in the service industry, either from personal experience or from people we know who've been there. Maybe some of us have even witnessed bosses mistreating their employees. Countless times, cashiers at tills and servers at tables have told me about their unfair working conditions.
Is it fair? Not at all. Is it right? Nope. But does anybody care? I do, but I'm not about to run a business! Goodness knows, I'm no capitalist - not if people are allowed to make slavery legal in the name of the almighty dollar. How people are treated is more important than money, or else what you have is, definitively, slavery. Call it whatever political term you prefer, but it is what it is.
Recently I heard that the immigrant population will comprise our service industry within a few years. If slavery is becoming legal, through unfair treatment of service employees, and newcomers often have no other choice than to be in service, how far have we really come? The sentiments that fly from the mouths of big business moguls are shockingly similar to what was said by historic oppressors.
If you can't treat service people like gold, you are missing the entire point of being wealthy. If you don't get that last sentence, read all of my columns. If you still don't get it, sell everything you have and follow me.
Opening your home is a profound thing. To all who billeted in September, I commend you. Opening your entire life to make the lives of others better is indeed true hospitality.
