CHLA California Lodging News November/December 2022

www.calodging.com November/December 2022 5 HOTELIER PROFILE “Every single one of my employees, there’s a nugget I know about them that helps me connect,” he said. “Sometimes it’s crazy busy like a whirlwind, and they just want to close the door and vent. At the end of day that’s what human resources are all about, the human side. Other places have taken the human connection out, but not us. That’s what keeps me in this industry, in this job, in this hotel.” Alberto said the pandemic also had him reexamining his life, too, and as a result he developed a renewed fascination with gardening— something he has never considered before. He’s been planting trees and growing orchids, a hobby he had never pursued before the pandemic. The lessons he’s learned from gardening successes—and failures—have given him a different perspective that he’s applied to his working life. “Science tells us there is a natural order in life. It’s called entropy—a gradual decline to disorder,” he said. “A tree’s leaves naturally go brown and fall; if you pick a fruit, it will eventually rot; flowers don’t always stay alive, they wilt and die. If you want to head off entropy, there has to be an intervention.” The same is true in corporate life, he said. “Our corporate culture, which I’d like to think is quite positive—will not always remain as positive and conducive as we want it to be by itself,” he said. “We have to consciously work at it—water it, fertilize it, care for it in order to thrive. Unless you have these active interventions, your culture isn’t going to stay in status quo.”  “I like to say we were all in the same storm but not all in the same boat,” he said. “Some people reassessed their priorities and their lives. In our industry, work-life balance has tended to be skewed toward work, but now we’re reassessing, too.”

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTY1NDIzOQ==