Interesting to watch the new documentary shown on ITV tonight covering the life and times of those who work in the Savoy a hotel build in 1889 with 268 rooms and managed by Fairmont and recently refurbished at the cost of 100 million.
The documentary promises to show us how the other half, well the other 1% of us, live and what those who work there get up to. I shall be keeping an eye on this programme purely because I am curious.
Tonight's 'episode' has already shown us some colourful characters. I was particularly concerned however, putting on my TU hat, to see how the Chief Butler elected to tell us all that he uses his 'gut instinct' when selecting 'suitable people' in his opinion, to do the job and doesn't just rely on what qualifications they have on paper. Now I don't want to pick on this guy who is probably quite good at what he does and genuinely believes in the methods that he uses but his methodology needs looking into, we live in a meritocracy and appointing people on gut instinct is not the right thing to do, not according to the Cipd or the TUC!. I would imagine that he didn't mean what he said and was just showing off? Well I hope so.
Apart from this incident the hotel looks splendid but I am sure that neither Unison or the TUC will be holding their next conferences there! Good documentary though and worth watching and following how things progress?
It looks like Sean Davoren is a PR company's worst nightmare. It also seems that he treats his butler staff like naughty children. Some of the training styles which were presented by Davoren is out of date and patronizing. People who stay in hotels these days are not looking for servants who quiver at requests; they look for confident up to date 'assistants' who can hold conversations about current events and have knowledge about various topics - yet Davoren's butlers would most likely stand in a corner with trays held high above their heads.
ReplyDeleteGreat comments thanks and yes I don't want to be a spoilt sport but I feel that we are in the 21st century and someone threatening one of his workers on camera even if he thought it was a joke is somewhat not acceptable? Has Mr Savoy seen the first programme? He will never be able to shop in Sainsburys again! Sorry but the chief butlers behaviour is unacceptable!
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