The Spanking Writers

It’s tough being back at work, back in the real world, after our long Christmas - birthday - New Year vacation. One can’t help but reminisce fondly of lazy mornings by the pool, cocktails overlooking the ocean. I’ve been reflecting that training staff for posh hotels like the ones we stayed in must be a real challenge, with picky guests who’d find fault with every minor slip.

I’m sure the girls who made up the bedrooms so neatly each day receive thorough training, though. They’d work in tandem with a more experienced member of staff, learning as they go, before being allowed to work alone.

Their manager would obviously check their early solo efforts, to make sure they met the resort’s exacting standards. One room would be picked at random each day and inspected especially thoroughly. For each mistake, the young lady could expect to receive a stroke of the tawse on an outstretched hand. The assessments would continue – one whack here, four there – until the new team member had achieved perfection for three days in succession.

One could also picture a new graduate fresh from a top hotel school, yet – as with all management trainees – starting by learning the minutiae of her trade. She discovers that one of the managers is someone she knew at college; he’d graduated in her fresher year. They’d flirted; she’d not taken it any further. And guess who’d organise the rotas to make sure he was supervising the maids on the day of her first solo run?