Q: Why are hotels staffed by foreigners?

Let me share a short story with you and then I will ask you for your response. I caught up with a friend who was in town for the Olympics and he asked me, "Why are the hotels in London mostly staffed by foreigners? I don't think I encountered any British or English people in my hotel at all, they were all Spanish, Italians, Hungarians, Greeks, Slovakians or other kinds of Eastern Europeans."

My explanation for him was based on languages and economics. Firstly, unless you're talking about management positions, jobs in the hotel industry are not that well paid. Say if you are working at the front desk, helping hotel guests check in - it's not exactly a highly skilled, well paid job - but language skills would still be very helpful. Given how hopelessly monolingual most British people are, it is therefore necessary to get foreign workers who do speak foreign languages from abroad to fill such positions. Secondly, there are plenty of young people in places like Spain and Greece who are unable to get a decent job - and they have taken the opportunity to move to London to work here given the free movement of labour within the EU.

Most hotel staff in London are foreign.

I thought it made sense - then I spoke to my neighbour Donald who used to work in one of London's most exclusive hotels (he's now retired) and he told me I was wrong. "We have been relying on Eastern Europeans for years because the locals are just too bloody lazy. They turn up late for work, they have a terrible work ethic, they are always playing on their mobile phones when they are supposed to be work - you just can't trust them. It's not that we want to discriminate against local Brits - but what are we supposed to do when they are just not willing to work?"

"We had a situation where we had the local Job Centre send their unemployed people to our hotel to apply for jobs like porters, service staff - it's work that is paid barely above minimum wage. We would give these unemployed Brits the job but they would often perform so badly that we have no choice but to fire them. They realize they'd rather be on the dole, living on unemployment benefits than to have to wake up early every morning to go to work. They'll force us to fire them and then they're free to go back on the dole and we're free to employ Eastern Europeans having proven to the authorities that we were unable to fill the roles with local workers. I can't stress just how terribly lazy and useless the locals are compared to the Eastern Europeans - don't get me wrong, it's not like the Eastern Europeans are some kind of miracle workers who are rocket scientists back home in Poland or Latvia, but even the most average Eastern European will outperform the best British worker by a very, very, very long way. There is simply no comparison. As a hotel, we are faced with a choice: either we upkeep the standard of the hotel and give our guests the quality of service that they have paid for, or we hire inept local British staff. It's a no-brainer."

Knock knock, room service!

I suppose I have never ever had to deal with the local end of the British labour market like Donald, so I have no idea what it is like trying to hire staff for a restaurant or a hotel - but what he said has shocked me indeed. Here we are in a country with fine academic institutions like Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, LSE, King's and Imperial but the British system is focused on scholars who will win the Nobel prize or become a prime minister - not the lower end who may end up working in a hotel or a train station.

Now, over to you, my readers in Singapore. I have spent a lot of time last year in Singaporean hotels and serviced apartments and I noticed the same trend - there were virtually no Singaporeans working in such establishments. They were mostly PRCs and Filipinos - where are the Singaporeans? I remember how I had to step in and help my boss with his check out because the PRC lady serving him spoke such bad English my boss (who is Kiwi) couldn't understand what the heck she was trying to say. I had to step in and be his translator and this is at a 5-star Singaporean hotel - my boss was like, "You don't expect something like this to happen in a place like Singapore. What was I supposed to do if you weren't there? I don't speak Chinese, do they expect me to return to that hotel after that experience?"

Do you insist on your hotel staff speaking English?

Given that I don't know anyone in the hotels industry, perhaps you can help me out here. Why aren't local Singaporeans working in Singaporean hotels? Why are they staffed by PRCs who don't speak decent English when your average Singaporean speaks much better English? Would Donald's explanation for the British situation also apply in Singapore? Are you looking for work in Singapore and have you applied for a job in a hotel? Or are you working in the hotel industry anywhere? Leave a comment and let's have a discussion, thanks!

PS. I'm off to North Wales in the morning - will be seeing your messages and comments via my Blackberry whilst in Wales but will be too busy doing Welsh stuff to blog, so until Sunday, hwyl fawr!