Luke sat with his clutch bag on his lap and reviewed his wrongdoings. First, he took too long arriving at the correct room. Next time he’ll know that odd numbered rooms are in the north wing and even numbers are in the west. Knocking on the door is a big no-no since the guest is alerted of a porters approach. He should have waited, silently facing the door until it opened. Then, he bent down to grab her cases when he should have crouched, making sure his knees and ankles were together. Fortunately he was facing the guest. Had he had his back to her, she might have seen his under-shorts and underwear is the last thing a guest wants to see. Being a subordinate means he mustn’t make small talk with the guests. His role as porter is to ‘lead’ the guests, not follow them, and similarly, his role of porter is to carry their bags. The concierge had showed Luke the CCTV footage of him escorting the guest. She reprimanded him for putting a bag down when he pressed the elevator button. Again when he put the bags down inside the elevator, and once more when he put the bags down at reception whilst the guest checked out. Apparently, guests’ bags must not touch the floor between their room and their transport, but nobody told him that. No one told him anything.
His final mistakes were getting lost in the car park and failing to keep his purse on his person. The best thing that could have happened would be him getting the sack but that’s not going to happen. What did happen was twenty percent of his salary has been sacrificed until such time he can prove himself competent and capable.
“It’s the same for all of us.“ Gavin told him. “We’re only told how to do something right after we’ve done it wrong, then they can say we’re incompetent and sacrifice part of our salary.“ he explained.
James claimed it was nothing more than a cost cutting exorcise. “They wouldn’t dare try it with any of the female staff.“ he said. “Just us guys… porters, room attendants, janitors.“
“I saw one of the room attendants.“ Luke said. “He wasn’t wearing any make-up.“
“They don’t.“ Gavin said. “It’s just us ’cause we’re front of house…. first impressions and all that.“ he shrugged.
Luke also learned that the room attendants don’t have to shave their legs either because they all wear stockings, and their heels are half the height of the porters’. “Blimey… I wish I’d applied for that job instead.“ Luke sighed.
Luke waited almost two hours before he was called to reception again. This time he felt he got everything right; leading the guest, finding the room, crouching down rather than bending over, not putting the cases on the floor, not making small talk… when he returned to reception he expected some feedback, but got none. He was sternly told by the receptionist to stop loitering and return to the waiting room.
At the end of a very long day that stretched from 9am until 7pm, in which he escorted no more than seven or eight guests to or from their rooms, and spent two hours flanking the door with James… Luke finally arrived home. “How did it go love?!” his mother hollered when she heard him return. Luke didn’t reply. “Oh.” she gasped when she saw him. Luke has never felt such a deep sense of embarrassment as he did when he faced his mother. “Is that the uniform?” she asked. Luke gulped and nodded. “No trousers?” she asked. Luke shook his head. “I thought you said it was a jacket and trousers.”
“That’s what I thought too.” he gulped. “Until I put my tunic on and they told me to take my trousers off.” his sighed. “It’s been awful Mum… no one told me what to do and I got everything wrong.” he grumbled. “The concierge hates, me, the receptionist hates me. I was late getting to my post and some other guy had to stand in for me…”
“You were late? How were you late? You set off in good time.” his mother said.
“Yeah but I didn’t know that clean shaven meant I had to shave my legs as well as my chin.” he sighed, explaining that he got there in good time but then lost a good half an hour having to remove his body hair. “Then I had to put on make-up, which I’ve never done before…”
“You look very blank.” she told him. “Apart from those lips.” she said, before asking if they supplied the cosmetics. Luke nodded and drew her attention to his bag. “Oh I didn’t notice your purse.” she said. Being the exact same colour of his tunic, it didn’t stand out. “You’ve painted your nails too.” she noticed.
“Yeah.” he gulped. “I thought porters were normal… if I’d known I’d be feminised I wouldn’t have applied.”
“Ahem!” his mother said. “Feminised?!” she quizzed.
“Sorry… I mean…”
“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘subordinated’.” his mother said. “I see they’ve put you in heels.” she noted as she looked him up and down.