Ugh. It was approximately 2:36. Did I mention “a.m.”?
We had each fallen into bed just 3 hours prior, having driven 7 some hours after a long day and even longer weekend. We were spent. It had been a great time, but the hours of traveling with still more to go left us each feeling a wee bit exhausted, although grateful for a clean, comfortable, fairly nice place to rest our heads for the evening, prior to resuming our drive the next day.
And then at a hair more than half past 2, the alarms sounded loud. Everywhere.
It’s a little disorienting when the fire alarms flare when sound asleep in a strange hotel in an unknown city… Where am I? … What’s going on? … What should we do?
And without much coherence of thought, trying to look semi-presentable (emphasis on “semi”), we threw on a bit more clothes, maybe a ball cap, flip flops, and got out the door, to the stairwell, and moved awkwardly but swiftly down the steps exiting the building, joining the now jolted, herded crowd of others wondering what to our sleepy eyes should appear.
We saw nothing. No smoke. No fire. Not even a flicker.
Not a fire engine either, for at least 10 minutes.
The crowd grew slightly, although the consistency of ball caps and especially flip flops was indeed sporadic.
Unfortunately, however, as we attempted to do our best undercover work with zero announcement or hotel staff communication combined with the ebony in the evening clouds, one of our investigative trails — noting the time of year and recent weather trends — was to probe local storm activity. Sure enough, one of those sometimes helpful/sometimes terrifying national weather apps let us know that at the moment, there were 6 active severe alerts across the country… 1 of which was a tornado coming straight toward us, only 20 miles to our west.
Yikes. Inside or outside? Fire or tornado?
Let me also now acknowledge the magnified level of difficulty in our collective decision making on so few hours of sleep.
Semi-futilely one could say, we chose inside. What a night.
We sat in the sullen lobby another 20/30 minutes, waiting for which firestorm would first erupt. The half dozen firefighters meticulously searched the areas of greatest suspicion. The clouds outside got darker. But alas, there was no explosion inside or out. The firefighters said the scene was clear; we could go back to bed.
But here was the thing — and here is where we hang today…
What happened was bad. Concerning and confusing. You name it. It was uncomfortable. Undesirable. And it only multiplied our exhaustion. The hotel staff was not responsible for what happened, but they were charged with leading in the moment — figuring out next best steps and directing all those of us (with or without shoes). Yet it was clear they didn’t know what to do. So what did they say to us?
What did they say that night or even the succeeding morning? How did they address the negativity we all so obviously went through? What did they actually say?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
No one on staff said a word to any of us. No one addressed the situation. No one handled the hard. There were no voicemails on our room phones nor any notes slid under our door. There was zero communication.
This, of course, got me thinking…
Sometimes we face challenges that are immense or intense and we don’t know what to do; we don’t know where to start. Sometimes, too, we’re afraid; we’re fearful we’ll fail and then be held responsible; we’re afraid it will then equate to the loss of agency or influence. And so sometimes, we miss the opportunity. We miss the opportunity to problem solve and build the relationship via the hard.
We didn’t need anything from that hotel. We didn’t need a comp room or free coffee or even lunch on them upon return. But had the staff of the hotel simply had any conversation with us, they would have secured a future stay. Acknowledging the issue — respectfully discussing the difficulty and discomfort — builds relationship. Relationship can handle the hard.
I went to bed still thinking the other night. Everyone else quickly crashed back to sleep. It was then that I heard the thunder begin to roll in…
Respectfully…
AR