Fucking pissed ok.

Just want to rant.

"Hello Vicki, I know this is a long email but I really want you to read this please. First of all, I’m not trying to be rude to you and you can correct me if you think I am wrong. I feel like I really need to say this because all my team members were visibly upset after Friday’s episode.

First of all, you said 9 times out of ten, we the events people are expected to polish and setup. However, having worked in nearly a hundred of banquets held in a 5-star hotel, none of the events people that came in did any of that. The events people walked in 3 hours before their event starts and everything was done. It was all done by the banquets people. That’s what the banquets department is for. And that was the role the hospo staffs were for Friday night. If the reason the hospo staffs are not supposed to do the setup because we did not pay them, then that answers everything. But don’t say that we’re supposed to deal with all the banquets logistic because that’s just not how it is out there. I believe it should have been their responsibility because if these hospo staffs go into IT expecting to just turn up on the day with everything done, they will have a hard time in their IT. The events team are not paid to organise this event because it is part of our learning environment and the same goes for the hospo staffs. Doing the setup and clearing is part of their learning course and I am shocked they think that just because ‘they are not paid’, it is not their responsibility.

There definitely is a distinction between hospo and events. That’s why our core subjects are different. Throughout Term 1 and 2, the hospo students underwent training in a number of dinners and worked in kitchen to gain experience while the events students had all their subjects in classes about event planning and all. I’m sure all lecturers are aware of the units in ICMS.

Secondly, none of us ever said we do not want to clear/serve or ‘do the dirty work’. We were all prepared to work hard and get our hands dirty on this event. The guys did all the heavy carrying and the girls worked hard with the cutlery and decorations and admin stuffs. At one point, I seriously didn’t think we can have everything done by 6pm and we certainly would not, if Andy had not brought in the whole Marketing department to help us. They are our client and they did not have to do it. For this, I am SO grateful to them and will find a way to thank them. Paul had Bim and Gisele to help us and as always they are awesome.

During the dinner, it was not just Henrietta who helped with clearing. All the girls helped too. And the girls did so much during bump in. Like you have told us earlier on, this is not a bitchfest. But sometimes there are things that only the people in the events team know. Henrietta was largely absent throughout the bump in session. Paul, Jamie and John carried in all the tables and staging. Liz, Paul and I dealt with the decorations, I brought in all the items from functions storage, the Marketing dept with the Evented girls minus Henrietta polished everything. Daniela and Jamie went out to get items we needed and flowers for Anne Marie. Henrietta kept on asking Liz ‘What am I supposed to do?’ when Paul had clearly drawn up a list of ‘who’s doing what’ on that day. The only thing Henrietta polished was a few forks and every time she said ‘she has to do something downstairs’. There was nothing much to do downstairs at that time at least according to our runsheet.

And that so-called supervisor named Danial who thinks ‘it is not his job to do this, do that’, why is he there in the first place? Paul could have easily assigned one of us to replace him. That way, we wouldn’t be just standing around like he pointed out. Jamie did an absolutely wonderful job at the bar especially when it was his first time. Danial was going on about how we had no system whatsoever on how the beverage flow is like. A few weeks before the dinner, we confirmed with Melissa on the amount of beverage to order and she was alright with the number we gave her. I gave Nina our beverage numbers so she can order them and I was told that the college has some stock at hand and we can always use them if we run out as long as we record the number and pay them. And this supervisor is now complaining about how we are short on beers and all? Confusing.

We all helped the hospitality staffs with clearing. It wasn’t directly our job but we still did. But to do that and still be crucified for it, that’s a bit uncalled for. We may not be as experienced as you are , Vicki but if we knew the functions dept was going to wash their hands clean and go ‘It’s not our job to prepare this’, don’t you think Paul would have got us to get everything ready to go by Thursday? The team is not a bunch of lazy students who think that we are somehow entitled or anything. We just wished we were told earlier on so preparations can be made.

The only fault on our part is not confirming with the function manager on our respective tasks and expecting a 5-star service from functions when it clearly is not.

I firmly stand by my team and can say that on Friday, we were performing at 100%. Everyone knew what they were doing and with the extra stuffs to do, they were working even harder. We took everything we learned from the golf day and make sure we nail this event. Paul has been an exceptional leader for this entire event from start to finish and we were all in this together as a team."

No offense to hospo people ok.