The only reason the ClubHouse Hotel and Suites in Pierre, SD is still in business is because the property sells itself. Unfortunately for customers, some companies are lucky to have a good product or service, but terrible management and employees. In other words, these lucky companies have no leadership.
Normally, I try to approach the experience I have from both sides. However, my experience at The Clubhouse Hotel and Suites has been one of the worst life experiences I’ve ever had. It is the most toxic place I’ve ever worked. This is saying a lot because I was in the Army.
What I Did
I was hired as a Maintenance Manager, even though I was open about having zero experience in building maintenance. This I did not hide in my interview and application.
I performed various maintenance tasks in the hotel. Every morning, the first thing I did was check the maintenance list at the front desk and address any issues there. Some examples are replacing window screens, key card parts on doors, various light bulbs, toilet parts, and air filters.
The other main part of the job was maintaining the pool. I had to be a certified pool operator. I received my certification from bestaquatic.com. Everyday from mid-December until my last day, I checked the pool’s chemistry levels and made adjustments accordingly.
Since we were so short staffed, I also learned the job duties of a housekeeper and a breakfast attendant.
Overall Positive Takeaways
- For being in a managerial position with no experience, the pay was great.
- I received the second largest bonus I’ve ever had, and I was only at the company for a month and a half!
Overall Negative Takeaways
- The hotel was constantly short staffed. This meant more work for everyone that cared. From what I saw, there was no real effort to recruit new employees.
- The hotel brought in foreign exchange students to work. The foreign exchange students got priority in hours. This meant less hours for the regular employees, even though the foreign exchange students performed poorly. This was allowed to happen by the poor leadership.
- There was almost no discipline. It’s almost impossible to get fired from there. You can no call-no show almost limitlessly and not even do your job.
- One person who should’ve been fired well before I got there was still there at least 6 weeks after my last day. Everyone except one person had so many problems and issues with the person. The general manager literally didn’t want that person to do his/her job. That person was among the highest paid hourly employees in the hotel.
- The bonus structure was completely unfair.
- Higher leadership only truly cared about the bottom line. Otherwise, the continual problems they were seeing would’ve been dealt with.
- No one did anything about any toxic leadership. Nothing would’ve ever happened if I didn’t quit.
- There was no leadership training.
- There was no orientation.
Toxic Leadership at The ClubHouse Hotel and Suites
Leadership begins at the entry level. I believe if you can’t lead yourself, you can’t lead anyone.
There is an extreme lack of leadership on all levels at The ClubHouse Hotel in Pierre, SD. Of course, the higher you go up the food chain, the more important leadership becomes. When I approached the general manager about one main issue I was having with him, he immediately became defensive. This is because he knew I got him.
I started to look back at how he acted as a leader. It dawned on me he had no real interest in his staff, even if he called them “family”. He was always talking about taking care of family, but in the end, the only way he did it was by paying them more.
He did absolutely nothing about the issue I brought to him, I knew I couldn’t stay there any longer. The rest of the staff claimed they were getting tired of his antics as well and consistently complained about him. I put in my resignation and the only time it was addressed was when the general manager told me I put in my resignation – 12 days after the fact.
After my last day, I couldn’t believe everyone let me go without standing up for me. Everywhere else I had to leave, people at least would talk to me. Some people even took action. Not at The ClubHouse Hotel and Suites.
I Still Kept Trying
It was hard to accept the fact that I had to quit when I was clearly one of the few who cared.
Before my last day, I got the contact information of the Regional General Manager. I didn’t want to risk contacting her and losing my job. I had only been there for just over five months. The general manager had been there for 10 years. The general manager was a very dishonest person, and I truly believed I would only cause more problems for me if I went higher than him. My claims would’ve been refuted. My entire time there, constantly complained about him, but were afraid to go above him.
I put together a PowerPoint presentation and was willing to make the 6 hour drive to present it to her. However, when I found out she was coming to The ClubHouse Hotel and Suites, I messaged her. She said she would like it emailed to her.
As it turns out, I was right about him. Instead of firing him, they let him ride out his resignation. In my eyes, this was extremely stupid because he did such a terrible job. I saw the general manager job posting online and saw that his base salary was $65,000. It really irked me he was getting paid that much, even after they knew how terrible he was.
This caused me to send letters to many at the corporate level. The environment was so toxic there that my fiancé was cursing daily. She almost never cursed before working there.
Even after all the way up to the CEO knew about the toxic environment and the horrible employees, not much was done. A handful of corporate personnel made their way through the property, but nothing was done about the leadership. The horrible employees and leaders still have their jobs in which they are way overpaid.
What Did I Learn from This Experience?
After all of this, the rest of the staff only contacted me once. It was the breakfast manager, and it was because the A/C unit for the kitchen wasn’t operating properly. However, I guess they lost my maintenance notes. If it was the same issue that happened every time the power went out, the answer was in them.
The fact that only one person in the hotel reached out to me said a lot about the leadership. The person wasn’t even checking up on me. This is the first time I’ve left a job and no one wanted me back. It says a lot about the leadership in the hotel. I know I’m sounding full of myself, but I was very capable of doing a whole lot in the hotel. I clearly showed I was willing to work hard, but that somehow meant nothing to anyone.
It is imperative to act fast when you’re an outsider going into a leadership position. I withheld taking any real action for a bit. Going in and making all sorts of changes right away without giving what was set in place a chance seemed unreasonable.
Toxic leadership and attitude needs to be dealt with immediately. The longer it resides, the harder it is to settle it.
I know I’ll never be able to work again for Regency Hotel Management, the company that runs The ClubHouse Hotel and Suites in Pierre, SD. I threw that away because they clearly would rather have employees and leaders who truly don’t care. “Life isn’t fair,” they say. Oh well I guess.
Hopefully my Indeed review warns some good applicants!