Chapter 509: Chapter 421: Protesting to the Boss—We Want to Eat Too!
Medron sniffed again in confusion, thinking he was hallucinating. There was clearly no durian pizza here, so why could he smell durian?
Could it be that Elise had it on her?
It’s not impossible when you think about it.
Those two female guests were eating right in front of them, so being so close, it’s possible the scent got on them.
This stuff is like perfume; you can’t smell it on yourself, only on others.
"Elise!"
"Huh?"
"The durian smell on you is so strong, do you want to spray some perfume to cover it up?"
"?!"
Elise was stunned for a moment, then her expression subtly changed. She instinctively raised her hand, seemingly realizing something, and hurriedly put it down.
"Okay, I’ll go spray some."
At this moment, Vanessa was bored at the front desk, browsing through the system backend, checking today’s and tomorrow’s check-in reservations.
Seeing Elise walk in, she raised her hand to wave.
"All done?"
Elise shook her head, kept her mouth shut, and said nothing, heading straight for the changing room.
Vanessa tilted her head in confusion, feeling that something was off, but couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
Half a minute later.
Elise came out of the changing room, her entire demeanor much more relaxed.
She glanced outside, then leaned on the front desk to chat with Vanessa.
"It’s still early, lunch ends at least at one o’clock. Who knows when a guest might rush in with durian pizza."
"Is that thing really that stinky, so much so that the hotel doesn’t even allow it in?"
Vanessa had been extremely curious since receiving a sudden notice from above at ten o’clock in the morning.
She hadn’t even tasted it, nor had she seen what durian looks like. She had never even heard of it in her life.
She had to look it up online to find out what durian actually was.
"Yeah, the smell is quite strong. When you first smell it, you wonder how it can be so stinky. It’s just slightly better than fermented herring."
"When you smell it for a long time, it seems okay, not as smelly as at the start."
Vanessa nodded, just about to say something more, when she sniffed, "Did you spray some breath freshener?"
"Uh... Yeah, yeah," Elise’s forehead broke out in sweat instantly, "After all, I have to talk to guests up close, better to be prepared."
This behavior was actually quite normal. Even Vanessa herself would spray some before going to work every day, considering it normal social etiquette.
But several hours into the workday, suddenly using breath freshener out of the blue... Knowing Elise as she did, there was definitely something fishy going on!
"Did you secretly eat durian pizza?"
"No way!!"
Elise quickly waved her hands, "Where would I go to sneak a bite? Wasn’t I standing at the door the whole time? Besides, how could a normal European eat fruit pizza!"
"I guess that’s true."
Vanessa said this, but her eyes were increasingly filled with suspicion.
This woman was so flustered, there had to be an issue!
The problem was, during work hours, and right in front of a coworker, where would she sneak a bite?
Unless there was a friend she knew among the guests, there was no opportunity.
Asking her directly wouldn’t do any good; Elise definitely wouldn’t admit it, and Vanessa didn’t want to expose her so easily either. Without evidence, Elise could simply deny it.
"Hey, do you think something that stinky could actually taste good?"
"How would I know? I haven’t tasted it."
Seeing Vanessa not pursue further, Elise secretly breathed a sigh of relief, outwardly still chatting nonchalantly but remained on the alert inside.
With Vanessa’s personality, once suspicious, she would not easily let it go until she found the answer.
Luckily, Elise ate by the trash bin. Given the height, unless someone climbed up to look inside, they wouldn’t discover it.
She couldn’t believe Vanessa would climb a trash bin without a good reason; that would really ruin her image as a lady.
"But I heard from those guests that it tastes pretty good, like eating toast with jam. You can have it as a dessert."
"Hmm, sounds kinda nice. Too bad we probably won’t have a chance to try it."
"Yeah, why can’t employees buy it during work hours? That rule is too rigid. We could pre-order and pick it up during lunch, right?"
"It seems like everyone thinks that way. Why not discuss it in our group chat and collectively email the management with the suggestion? The restaurant is in trial operation now, and all policies are being adjusted. We, as employees, are human too; we want to eat delicious food too, isn’t that reasonable?"
"Sure, I think we don’t even need to discuss. Everyone’s talked about it privately anyway. Since you’re free now, just send an email now. If we’re lucky, we might be eating something tasty tomorrow. That’s it; I need to go outside to stand guard."
With that, Elise didn’t give Vanessa a chance to speak, turned, and headed towards the revolving door.
"Hmph, ordering me around. Just don’t let me catch you doing anything sneaky behind my back!"
Vanessa made a face at her back, clicked open the email interface, and began typing away.
Compared to other things, it’s more important to fill your stomach first.
"Luckily, the boss is easygoing, otherwise I wouldn’t have dared to send this email..."
On the other side.
Wang Ziqin, who was playing chess in his office, clicked his mouse a few times rapidly and rolled his eyes.
"Damn, can’t even get a five-star after eight tries, what the hell! Is there a cheat? Targeting me?"
"Ding ding ding——"
Just then, the email notification sounded on his computer. He gave up resisting, switched the screen back to the desktop, and clicked on the flashing email icon below.
"Vanessa? Emmm, looks familiar, who is this again?"
Seeing the sender’s name, he scratched his head and quickly went through the appearances of the female employees he remembered from the hotel in his mind.
"Ah! I remember now, isn’t this the receptionist downstairs? Why did she suddenly send me an email?"
In addition to welcoming guests, the receptionist also takes care of some miscellaneous simple tasks, such as collating guests’ opinions and feedback.
Of course, from employees too.
After skimming through the beginning of the email, his interest was piqued.
"Interesting, I just mentioned it casually during a meeting, painting big pictures, and didn’t expect her to actually dare to give me feedback?"
Although he hasn’t been a boss for long, he has plenty of experience as a leader. Instances like this, where someone dares to send feedback during work hours, there seem to be no more than three in his memory.
And they were all foreigners.
This is one of the reasons he prefers to work abroad.
Unlike the Great Xia People, who keep everything to themselves and pretend to be perfect employees on the surface, only daring to vent online behind the scenes.
Foreigners truly dare to give direct feedback, tell you everything clearly, and will leave if things don’t go well.
It’s as if the job itself doesn’t seem important to them.
"After collecting feedback for over a month, most employees are not satisfied with the current dining system? They all want to enjoy the same treatment as the guests?"
At this point, Wang Ziqin suddenly realized.
They’re just craving, aren’t they?
Ha!
Definitely craving!
Thinking about the email he sent out over an hour ago, regarding the rule that strong-smelling food is not allowed in the hotel, he shook his head in amusement.
"Didn’t they say Europeans don’t eat fruit pizza? What’s going on, feeling envious watching others eat?"
Of course, he is aware of the restaurant’s daily menu, and even his wife is a die-hard fan of durian pizza.
If it weren’t for his wife having some matters to attend today, he wouldn’t be comfortably sitting in the office playing games, he’d probably be queuing for pizza downstairs.
"Yeah, this current system is definitely unfair to employees, even if I want to buy something I have to queue, it doesn’t feel like a privilege of a leader at all."
Switching back to the game interface to take a glance, sure enough, he was second place, so he simply turned it off.
"The system must be punishing me, I’ll take a break before playing again, it’s just not the right time for gaming, might as well deal with this issue."
No time like the present, he doesn’t have the habit of delaying.
Carefully rereading the email, he leaned back in his chair, lost in thought.
"The issue isn’t major, it’s just about how to balance the employees’ work and dining time."
"First thing’s for sure, when guests are dining, most employees aren’t busy, except for the room cleaners and security on each floor."
"But letting employees dine with guests would increase the restaurant’s burden, indirectly lengthening the time for dishes to come out, essentially making guests wait longer."
"To satisfy employees who want to dine in the restaurant too, without affecting the guests’ dining experience, the only option is to increase the kitchen’s output efficiency."
After going through the entire issue from start to finish, he quickly identified the core problem.
"Increase staffing!"
"I mentioned this before, there are so few people in the kitchen, doing everything by themselves, isn’t it tiring?"
"Considering the time, it’s been over a month since the trial opening, it’s about time to hire more people, isn’t it?"
"Yeah, seize this opportunity to quickly expand the kitchen, and it just so happens Old Lin needs to add a new mode too, staffing is definitely going to fall short."
"We probably don’t need to hire domestic chefs anymore, just get some Old Hei or Southeast Asian folks to lend a hand, or even bring in more foreign chefs, right?"
"After all, Old Lin is there to research menus, and with the two newcomers — one good at home-style dishes and restaurant meals, the other skilled in pastries and baking — it’s almost sufficient."
Having made a decision, Wang Ziqin glanced at the time, planning to head down to chat with Lin Chen and Jonathan about recruitment after lunch.
Since hiring is in the cards, kitchen salaries definitely need to increase significantly.
The main reason for not offering more previously was to prevent bringing in too many salary thieves at once; a solid core team needs to be established before expanding further.
Now seems to be the right time.
With this thought, he immediately sent back an email to Vanessa.
Sitting at her desk in anxiety, Vanessa jolted as if shocked when she heard the email notification.
"Could it be??"
