The horrible hotel
If you know me then you know that last year I quit my job. I had worked for the Luxor hotel for over ten years before quitting. The place just became too bad of a place to stay. Abusive managers, fights, a guy even stabbed two people a few days before I quit.
http://www.jrn.com/ktnv/news/Arrest-made-in-walkway-stabbing-near-Excalibur-and-Luxor-223151541.html
Now one of the things I quit my job over was the fact that the "security managers" who were in charge of the security department were having a lot of "private parties" in their offices with some of the security officers they really liked. I obviously wasn't one of those favorites. But now I was faced with the fact of working in a place where I could potentially get stabbed, or have to stop a stabbing all by myself because the other officers who were supposed to back me up might be at one of the private parties. These supposed "managers" wouldn't be any help either as they were usually either hanging out in front of the dance club called LAX, or after that had closed they would go down to their offices and start having their own parties. Not much management going on there.
I had written an 11 page letter explaining most of the reasons why I had resigned and then mailed a hard copy to both the Luxor chief of security and the "president" of Luxor. Being 11 pages long it's a bit too long to post here in my blog, but if anyone wants to read it, I'll be happy to email a copy out to you. Just ask, and you shall receive! When I resigned I had 80 hours of vacation accrued. I was assured I would be paid for this, but then Luxor reneged and didn't bother to pay me. Now you might think them holding back the pay for my vacation was because of the letter I had written, but I waited almost two months before sending the letter just to make sure it wouldn't affect my vacation pay. It obviously didn't make any difference because I don't think they were ever planning to give it to me. Vacation is considered a "benefit" and once I resigned they suspended all my benefits. Even though I was assured I would receive the vacation pay when I was out processing, they still didn't care.
Moving on, I had written the letter because hopefully someone would read it and then make a few changes for the people who were still working there. The other night I received a text message from a friend who still works at Luxor saying that things are worse than ever. Nothing has changed, the "managers" still have their private parties and are still abusive to both employees and guests alike. I suggested my friend quit like I did, but he said he needs the job. He doesn't want to try to get another job somewhere else because he would probably have to take a cut in pay. I guess it all depends on your priorities, either work for an abusive company, or take a chance and find another job and start over with your pay.
Now I've been through a lot of bad treatment at the hands of Luxor. For the Christmas season of 2012 employees were offered a free lightbulb. Yes just ONE lightbulb! I didn't bother picking up my lightbulb because if you did go and get it, they would tax your pay for the 99 cent thing saying it was worth $5. I remember a time when for Christmas each employee was given a really large, nice duffel bag and a really expensive sweat type jacket! Of course this was when Luxor was owned by the "Mandalay Bay Corporation" before MGM/Mirage had bought them out. And we weren't even taxed for those gifts! But if you picked up your free lightbulb, you were taxed. Thanks, but no thanks.
Check out some of the reviews for Luxor if you get the time. There are your normal generic reviews that say things like "had a great time" or "great place", but they don't usually tell you why they gave those reviews. Read the bad reviews, these people get pretty specific. *chuckle* Examples of rude staff, old and dirty rooms, bad treatment from hotel managers, hidden fees. These get pretty specific. Now when you work for Luxor, for a while they were making everyone sign a "non-disclosure agreement" stating that you wouldn't post any kind of review about the hotel or any of it's shows or restaurants online anywhere. You weren't even allowed to post anything about the hotel on any kind of social media. So no Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or any of that stuff. If you did and they found out, you could be fired! So you would have to ask yourself why wouldn't they want employees to post about the hotel where they worked? Could it be that the place was so bad, so crooked that they felt the need to try and do anything to keep the people who knew the truth silent? Wow.
As an author I've found the internet to be one of the best promotional tools in the world. For instance I can post something here on my blog and it can be read by people in most countries. So if I owned a hotel or business, in my opinion I would want to treat my employees well enough that if they did post things online about my business, it would be positive. Wouldn't it be great to own a business and see posts about your business that say things like "I love working here!" or "This place is like my second home!" But no, Luxor doesn't want anything posted about it by its employees.
Now on to the good:
http://www.jrn.com/ktnv/news/Arrest-made-in-walkway-stabbing-near-Excalibur-and-Luxor-223151541.html
Now one of the things I quit my job over was the fact that the "security managers" who were in charge of the security department were having a lot of "private parties" in their offices with some of the security officers they really liked. I obviously wasn't one of those favorites. But now I was faced with the fact of working in a place where I could potentially get stabbed, or have to stop a stabbing all by myself because the other officers who were supposed to back me up might be at one of the private parties. These supposed "managers" wouldn't be any help either as they were usually either hanging out in front of the dance club called LAX, or after that had closed they would go down to their offices and start having their own parties. Not much management going on there.
I had written an 11 page letter explaining most of the reasons why I had resigned and then mailed a hard copy to both the Luxor chief of security and the "president" of Luxor. Being 11 pages long it's a bit too long to post here in my blog, but if anyone wants to read it, I'll be happy to email a copy out to you. Just ask, and you shall receive! When I resigned I had 80 hours of vacation accrued. I was assured I would be paid for this, but then Luxor reneged and didn't bother to pay me. Now you might think them holding back the pay for my vacation was because of the letter I had written, but I waited almost two months before sending the letter just to make sure it wouldn't affect my vacation pay. It obviously didn't make any difference because I don't think they were ever planning to give it to me. Vacation is considered a "benefit" and once I resigned they suspended all my benefits. Even though I was assured I would receive the vacation pay when I was out processing, they still didn't care.
Moving on, I had written the letter because hopefully someone would read it and then make a few changes for the people who were still working there. The other night I received a text message from a friend who still works at Luxor saying that things are worse than ever. Nothing has changed, the "managers" still have their private parties and are still abusive to both employees and guests alike. I suggested my friend quit like I did, but he said he needs the job. He doesn't want to try to get another job somewhere else because he would probably have to take a cut in pay. I guess it all depends on your priorities, either work for an abusive company, or take a chance and find another job and start over with your pay.
Now I've been through a lot of bad treatment at the hands of Luxor. For the Christmas season of 2012 employees were offered a free lightbulb. Yes just ONE lightbulb! I didn't bother picking up my lightbulb because if you did go and get it, they would tax your pay for the 99 cent thing saying it was worth $5. I remember a time when for Christmas each employee was given a really large, nice duffel bag and a really expensive sweat type jacket! Of course this was when Luxor was owned by the "Mandalay Bay Corporation" before MGM/Mirage had bought them out. And we weren't even taxed for those gifts! But if you picked up your free lightbulb, you were taxed. Thanks, but no thanks.
Check out some of the reviews for Luxor if you get the time. There are your normal generic reviews that say things like "had a great time" or "great place", but they don't usually tell you why they gave those reviews. Read the bad reviews, these people get pretty specific. *chuckle* Examples of rude staff, old and dirty rooms, bad treatment from hotel managers, hidden fees. These get pretty specific. Now when you work for Luxor, for a while they were making everyone sign a "non-disclosure agreement" stating that you wouldn't post any kind of review about the hotel or any of it's shows or restaurants online anywhere. You weren't even allowed to post anything about the hotel on any kind of social media. So no Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or any of that stuff. If you did and they found out, you could be fired! So you would have to ask yourself why wouldn't they want employees to post about the hotel where they worked? Could it be that the place was so bad, so crooked that they felt the need to try and do anything to keep the people who knew the truth silent? Wow.
As an author I've found the internet to be one of the best promotional tools in the world. For instance I can post something here on my blog and it can be read by people in most countries. So if I owned a hotel or business, in my opinion I would want to treat my employees well enough that if they did post things online about my business, it would be positive. Wouldn't it be great to own a business and see posts about your business that say things like "I love working here!" or "This place is like my second home!" But no, Luxor doesn't want anything posted about it by its employees.
Now on to the good:
A Really Positive Place in Las Vegas
After I quit my job I got myself together and decided to go back to school. Security isn't really a good job and it's not very challenging mentally. I love computers and so registered for a PC Repair class and a class to introduce me to information systems. I registered at the College of Southern Nevada. And every time I have dealt with anyone from the school, they have been welcoming, friendly, and always tell me that if I have any issues, questions, or just want to say hi, they are available. I have to buy one book for school and it will be pretty expensive, but I do think it'll be worth the purchase. If I have to pay a bit to learn a new trade, then so be it!
Yesterday my brother was nice enough to give me a lift over to the Henderson College of Southern Nevada campus (they have a few campuses in town) to get my school ID. Everyone was friendly and helpful. Each time I deal with this place it makes me want to go back and take more and more classes! So far I really love the school and I haven't even started class yet. That's coming soon. From all I've seen so far, my classes should be quite a positive experience. I'm really looking forward to school and 2014. I'm ready to leave the bad behind me and move on to the good. My advice to any friends who still work for Luxor would be to walk away. Don't wait until you end up getting hurt there. Go back to school and learn something neat! Move on to something positive!
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