My Career: 'You have to be unflappable in this role'

Name: Marta Marcinkowska 

Age: 49 

Lives: Carrigaline, Co Cork

Job title: Accommodation Manager at the Metropole Hotel in Cork. 

Salary bracket: Over €40,000 per year.

Education background: Academy of Economics, Wroclaw, Poland. Faculty: National Economy (full-time studies). Specialisation in International Business Co-operation.

Hobbies:

Doing small DIY projects around the house, like making macramé for flower pots. I also love looking after house plants. Watching movies and reading books might sound like a cliché, but I take it to the next level by focusing on Japanese writers and collecting DVDs from my favourite directors.

Describe your job in five words:

I manage a team of over 20 employees to maintain cleanliness in 100 hotel rooms and the lobby area, while coordinating cooperation between other departments.

Describe yourself in five words:

Organised, problem solver, level-headed, all-seeing, hard-working.

Personality needed for this kind of work?

First of all, you have to be unflappable - calm and not easily affected by stress. Working with people on both sides, from your own team members to the hotel guests, requires you to act quickly while maintaining excellent manners. You also need to be highly empathetic to understand everyone's point of view, naturally organised to keep track of everything, and have a sharp eye for detail. In hospitality, flexibility is everything because no two days are ever the same.

How long are you doing this job?

I just celebrated 20 years of my work in the hotel and 15 years as a Manager.

How did you get this job?

Back in secondary school, I studied economics and accountancy, and I followed that up with a master's degree from the University of Economics in Wrocław, Poland, writing my thesis on National Business Cooperation. Having this academic background helped me understand the financial and administrative side of the business, and it gave me a strong foundation for personal development.

In reality, I actually started from the very bottom as a cleaner in Ireland. I was then promoted to supervisor, and later to Accommodation Manager. 

I am convinced that my attitude, consistency, and hard work are what helped me get to where I am today. 

Along the way, I met a few inspiring leaders whom I looked up to and learned a lot from. I also got the opportunity to take part in the Trainee Management Programme and two levels of the Aspire programme, which really helped me develop my leadership skills.

Do you need particular qualifications or experience?

I think the path I took was the best way to become the Accommodation Manager. In general, everyone who wants a leadership role in hospitality should have strong experience working on the floors before they start leading people. It is mostly the experience you gain over time - by dealing with problematic situations or even challenging people, and learning from scratch how the work should be done - that helps you become a strong professional. But on the other hand, you should also do all the training and courses possible connected to the industry. Learn how to train people and how to become a good leader through courses like time management, conflict resolution, or communication skills. Finally, observe the people around you. See what behaviour works and what to avoid, watch the good leaders, and learn from them.

Describe a day at work: 

I start before I even clock in. While walking through the yard, I always check if the linen delivery or any other deliveries have arrived, because I need to know this to delegate work to my linen porter.

Once inside, I start by opening the stores where the accommodation assistants keep their trolleys, linen, and cleaning products. I check the roster from the previous day to see if everyone finished on time and sign it off if everything is correct. Then, I read the handover notes from the previous day from the duty managers and reception to see if anything important had happened since I left the hotel.

Next, I look for anything I need to act on immediately, such as special guest requests, baby cots, or early arrivals. I make sure the room allocation matches what the guests want, checking if they have allergies, if they prefer a shower, and so on.

After that, I start dividing the rooms among my housekeepers based on their hours and additional duties. I try to balance the number of departures (rooms where guests are checking out) and stayovers (rooms where guests are staying another night) to make it fair for everyone. When the main lists are ready, I note down any extra jobs that need to be done in the rooms. I also write a daily to-do list for the linen porter to ensure proactive tasks get done, and I check the public areas to highlight what the public area cleaner needs to focus on today, on top of their standard routine.

When my team arrives, we have a short briefing. After the meeting, I finally have time to prepare for the next day: working on the roster, answering emails, and ordering linen or cleaning products. Then, at 11am, we have a short inter-departmental meeting with one person from each department to coordinate our goals for the day.

After that, it is time to handle special requests from the general manager, cover receptionist breaks, and deal with lost property queries. Then, I start checking rooms to ensure they are perfectly ready for the new guests arriving. These and many other tasks fill my workday until the very end.

How many hours do you work a week?

I usually close my week with 42 hours or a bit more, but I am also reachable after my working hours if something goes wrong.

Is your industry male or female dominated?

These are just my own observations based on my workplace, but accommodation itself was always dominated by women. This has changed now, and in my department, over a quarter of my employees are men right now.

Does this affect you in any particular way?

What really matters to me is people's attitude, hard work, and how we work together as a team. Having a mix of both men and women actually brings a great balance to the department and makes the atmosphere at work much better.

Is your job stressful? How? Rate it on a scale of 1-10:

It can be stressful at times, as working with so many people always brings some challenges. I would rate it a 6, or maybe a 7 on the more difficult days.

Do you work with others or on your own?

I work with others and I interact with many people during the day.

When do you plan to retire or give up working?

Accommodation management is a very physically demanding job, but as long as I am able to cope and stay active, I will keep working.

Best bits:

What I like most is that I can plan my own day, and if I need a break from office work, I can stand up and organise a storeroom or check a few rooms. I love it when days and weeks run smoothly, and I always hope it is because of my good planning. There is huge satisfaction in seeing the work done well, and it is definitely never boring.

Worst bits:

Even though I love my job, the worst bit is that your brain doesn't always switch off. When you manage a big department, you sometimes worry about things even when you are at home. It’s hard to completely stop thinking about whether everything is running smoothly.

Advice to those who want your job?

My main advice is to start from the bottom. Work on the floors first, because you need to understand how long it actually takes to clean a room and how physically demanding this job is. This experience will make you a much stronger leader because your team will respect you more when they know you’ve done the work yourself.