Workers

This is not an unusual situation but it perplexes me nonetheless.  In both of my jobs there are Mexican women who do the cleaning of the rooms and the kitchens and the common areas of the inn.  My job is to get breakfast out, serve the guests, deal with their problems, answer the phone and make reservations.  At the Healdsburg inn, I help with the breakfast dishes, washing and drying when I can.  At the job on Monday and Tuesday I don't even have to clean up after breakfast, the women do that.  I check people in and out, do the office stuff.  But that leaves me with a big time gap in the middle of the day after check-out and before check-in.  I answer the phone, etc, but really there isn't much to do.  I read a lot of books.

The dilemma is this:  while I am reading a book or doing a crossword, the Mexican women are cleaning rooms, doing laundry, getting food ready for the next day, often even cleaning the manager's personal apartment.  I do nothing that could even remotely be called "work" for 90% of the afternoon while they work 100% of their time on the clock.  Add to that is the fact that I probably get paid more than they do (which isn't much, BTW.) It all adds up to an uncomfortable feeling on my part.  There isn't any way around it, there is no real solution to this problem, but it makes me feel fat, lazy, indulged and those are not feelings I like.

Just wanted to get that off my chest, so to speak.  I know this is the way of the world, that things are not fair nor even, that there will always be a real "working" class and a class above them that is supposedly "managerial" but is more like a "not getting hands dirty" class.  I would honestly not mind pitching in and helping clean rooms or cutting up fruit or doing dishes but that is not an option.  The lines have been established and I am not allowed to erase or blur them.

Thanks for listening.  

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