SRPs celebrate MLK: surviving holidays in the service industry
Having just come off a holiday weekend in a heavily-touristed locale, I was thinking last night and this morning about SRPs – Spoiled Rich People. The way I see it, poor people often have an excuse for being crabby and pushy. They’re on the brink, they’re against the wall, they need this, whatever this is. From my limited experience working in hotels and ski areas, though, some rich people seem to think that because people kowtow to them at their business or at their hospitals (physicians, in my hotel experience, were the most likely demographic to be pricks, worse even than lawyers), people should kowtow to them everywhere. Of course, my wife spent three days guiding a certifiably rich (not just wealthy) family earlier this year and they were the most pleasant folks you could ever meet – relaxed, fun and generous – which is as it should be. They’re rich, they ought to be able to put up with a bit of inconvenience, because when they’re not on vacation, they don’t have to put up with dangerous inconveniences like not being able to afford rent or health insurance.
But on the holiday weekend, the regular nice people who happen by accident of birth or dint of hard work to be rich people, seem to fade into the background against the noise and whining of the SRPs who are always crying that they should get special treatment. You would think that if they show up at 11:00am for a 9:00am trip they would apologize instead of berating service people who say they aren’t sure they can still get them on the trip. But no, being SRPs, they believe that whatever they want, they deserve.
Ski resorts are, of course, magnets for SRPs, which is why I’ve had a love/hate affair with them since I was old enough to think about such things. Skiing is fun, but few types of recreation scar our landscape or attract as many SRPs as golf and skiing (but since I don’t golf, I don’t think about that one much). All around our very small, non-beautiful-people ski area, people were crying and whining over who knows what, and I mean adults and twelve-year olds. I had the coolest nine-year old, AJ, skiing with me at the end of the day and we went by a kid who towered above him and looked noticeably older who was crying over absolutely nothing. He lost his ski getting on the lift in the chair ahead of us. At the top the liftie slowed the chair way down (fixed-grip chair) for him to get off and the kid took a minor fall, then picked himself up long before we got there and cleared himself out of the way. The kid was crying and the SRP mom was going on about how the liftie should have stopped the lift and so on and so forth, all of which I disagreed with, but whatever. As we skied by, though, I spied AJ look at him with utter contempt and then he looked at me and said something like “This must be a hard job when you get kids like that.” I said “That’s why I’m having so much fun teaching you” but I thought “The place is full of crying kids and SRP parents this weekend” (and to be fair, crying kids and exasperated parents who are doing their best to keep their kids from becoming SRPs).
So thinking about all this, I came across this quote from Bode Miller in Newsweek online talking about his friends:
Look, a lot of the people involved with the U.S. Ski Team—the people that I’m representing—are unbelievable a–holes. Rich, cocky, wicked conceited, super-right-wing Republicans.
In other words, the prevalence of SRPs in skiing goes right to the top. Meanwhile, also at Newsweek, was the ultimate article about SRPs. The article concerns SRP Americans who are propping up the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe with the money the provide in order to go big game hunting. The lead photo is some SRP Martha-Stewart look-alike with a dead leopard over her shoulders and a huge smile on her face. The second page photo is some self-satisfied looking American SRP smiling triumphantly while a giraffe dies (it doesn’t even look dead yet). So not only do they inflict incredible pain and suffering on some animal in the name of sport at some touristy hunting ranch, they are also encouraging the Mugabe regime to confiscate ranches in the name of land redistribution and then, in actual fact, turn them and their profits over to regime insiders, people officially labelled as enemies of democracy by the US government.
Of course, the folks that we see in hotels and golf courses and ski resorts are not usually guilty of egregious SRP crimes like these, but it nevertheless infuriates me when they bitch and moan at someone who has no power to change the situation, who makes in a year what the SRP family will spend on this one week of vacation, and who, as it turns out, is trying to be fair to everyone, to serve people in the order they arrived and who doesn’t know that back home in your SRP life, you’re used to special treatment because you’re the boss, the attending physician, the senior partner or whatever. Actually, in the tourist industry, those hard-working poorly-paid folks are trying to make it a great vacation for everyone, especially those who are not used to special treatment back home. So to help potential SRPs, here are some warning signs. Consider these statements:
- I’m in a hurry. I need to go to the front of the line.
- Nobody told me to be here on time.
- If the service isn’t perfect, I’m going to give that guy a piece of my mind.
- My time is worth more than his.
- I can’t believe this uneducated service person is telling me what to do.
If you find yourself answering yes to any of these questions while on vacation, you may be an SRP and should seek counseling.
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technorati cosmos
January 17th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
Yes, Ranter as you say, your vacation and my existence bodes well for the legislation. These SRPs can conjure delight at the prospect of crossing a picket line, snicker at dishonoring a boycott, or if they are not interested in the prospective discomfort of watching the little people, they can avoid the whole event in its entirety with the proposed whisper over the phone:
An Argument for the “Right to Know” Legislation
It sounds horrible doesn’t it? Imagine that, someone telling a prospective client the truth about the prospects of their investment or in this case a visit to a hotel.
Too often, I think we let our businesses get away with too much spin or misrepresentation. Something a jury of one’s peer’s might find offensive as say scaffolding outside a bay window or even the smell of a freshly painted room; there’s a bit of an odor of disingenuousness wouldn’t you say?
I am a traveler, say to a very elegant, somewhat famous hotel and I’ve been in a plane for 14 hours and the plane was delayed. I am tired. I get there, well actually I am about to be driven up to the portecochère and there’s a great number of strikers outside.
Well, I have two choices. If I am from Europe or from just about anywhere, I might understand immediately the implications of people out on the line. There could be few inside to accommodate me or perhaps I would not like to cross the picket line. Because it’s a very nice hotel, should one assume that I might see a strike as a bit of a capitalistic sport?
“Oh, look at those poor people out on the line. It’s winter. It must be cold outside. I say give them a little run for their money. Teach them to respect those who provide them with jobs. I hate those filthy bastards, so low class, immigrants, all of them!”
“Or I could say my father used to be in a union? I remember his involvement. How he went to meetings and tried to up the wages for himself and his fellow workers. I cannot cross that line. I have to respect the memory of him. I know what he would be thinking if I crossed the line. He would be rolling in his grave.”
No matter how you look at the event of a boycott or a strike, it’s like the question: “Would you care for a smoking or a non-smoking room?”
“Do you care for the bay view or that of the mountain?”
“Do you need a Queen-size bed or a King?”
“A roll-a-way, perhaps?”
All of these are contingencies to the visit.
So, is a boycott or a strike, both of which would imply that there’s a bit of a strain on services at a hotel something worth mentioning? Wouldn’t you like to know?
The argument then goes to the details of a potential visit. Doesn’t it make sense that a guest is apprised of a boycott or a strike? Or have we become so callous that the hardships of the workers of an establishment are less important than the décor or the expectations of a guest? If not, than shouldn’t the company be required to include it in the advertising that certain aspects of the institution have its variations? Just like questions of a potential girlfriend of her new-found love, “Is there something I should know?”
Mario Savioni
1305 Boulevard Way, #313
Walnut Creek, CA 94595-1214
Savioni@astound.net
Http://www.Savioni.com
925-256-7142