So this is Christmas...
Time for the Always Care Top 10!
We launched the Always Care Community in February 2023. We’ve posted every week since. In six weeks we’ll hit our first anniversary of uninterrupted publication.
To everyone that has followed us from the start and joined along the way,
THANK YOU!
It’s always kind of scary to put words to screen, hit publish, and suffer the fear every author suffers every time they publish. Will anyone read it? Will anyone like it? Will anyone care?
THANK YOU!
For reading, for sometimes liking, and for caring!
Substack kindly keeps statistics and tells us if posts are popular. As the end of the year approaches, it’s time to revisit the posts our readers most widely embraced in the inaugural 11 months of the Always Care Community.
To keep you all in suspense, let’s count down from 10 - 1.
NUMBER 10
It’s the question every C-suite should ask themselves more often. It’s the question that earned me a trip to the principal’s office in fourth grade and it’s the question I asked our senior leadership while everyone else was applauding like North Korean politicians trying to impress the great leader.
Number 9
In the job interview that ultimately kicked off my career, I was told I was too old and too educated to become a security guard. Throughout my career, I’ve been an outsider. Not extroverted enough to work in hospitality. The wrong background to work in security. Nonetheless, I rose to the top and was awarded the highest individual honour a hospitality company gave to its employees and was chosen as the number 1 security executive in the world by a jury of my peers.
Number 8
When a restaurant chain tells you they miss you, it’s a lie
Chain restaurants have taken scripted service so far that they are boring guests and chasing employees away. The disconnect between marketing and reality is immense. This is a story of a restaurant that emailed us daily, told us how much they missed us, and said they were waiting to welcome us back. It’s the story of what happened when we answered their call. Did we get red carpet treatment and a warm welcome?
Number 7
Surreal stories from the hidden world of hotels. Episode 1.
The first in a series we didn’t know would be a series until we started writing it. What did we find when I followed an insurance inspector around a 500-room hotel for a week? I could offer you pretty good odds if you were willing to bet that you could guess, but the bookies office is closed. In any case, this article led to a still ongoing series of surreal stories.
Number 6
Confessions of a Hotel Elevator Operator
If you’re in an English-English-speaking country, the title should read “Confessions of a Hotel Lift Operator”. From heads of state to rock royalty, hotel security people ride elevators/lifts with some of the world’s most interesting people. They can even be used to deceive entire police forces about which route a visiting dignitary will use when the arrive or depart.
Number 5
We’re into the top five! This was episode two in the surreal stories series. What would you do if you arrived at a hotel in the middle of the night and were told on arrival that your CEO’s guestroom safe had been emptied during his stay? What would you think if you were escorted to the floor he was staying on and were met by the top brass of a country’s police and security services? What would you do if the CEO, wearing a bathrobe and slippers, emerged through the crowd and said: “This is all your fault!”?
Number 4
A surprising entry, just missing out on a podium place is a story of bureaucracy. Sometimes it works better than other times. Why would I write about bureaucracy?
made me do it. In , he asked people to share their best (or worst) immigration stories. As someone who knows what John Irving meant when he wrote “An immigrant is an immigrant all their lives” in his wonderful book, Son of the Circus, I contributed four articles to Nolan’s series. This one was especially popular in the Always Care Community.Number 3
The world lost a legend when Pogues frontman Shane McGowan passed away in November. His song, Fairytale in New York became a Christmas legend. In hotels, Christmas is a time when similar fairytales, the ones without the Hallmark happy ending often play out. Some surreal, some sad, and all of them a reminder that everyone on this planet is a human.
Number 2
Why Plastic-wrapped Bananas and Sweaty Cheese Don’t Impress Hotel Guests
I was so happy that this post was number 2. Over on LinkedIn, this was my runaway most popular post of 2023 with over 300,000 views! It’s a silly, satirical poem. Only an algorithm could think it contained educational information so valuable that it should be spread far and wide. Fortunately, Substack’s algorithms aren’t as dumb as LinkedIn’s. But not by much! This post still came in second…
I know.
Everyone is wondering what’s at number 1!
Here it comes!
NUMBER 1!
If I was happy the banana and cheese post came second, I was even happier that this post went to number one. When you have the fortune of spending your entire corporate career at one company and that company goes from a minor regional player to a globally recognized leader in its field, you know you’ve been part of something special. You also know that you’ve been colleagues to legendary leaders, and this, our most popular post of 2023, is a shoutout to some of the best of the best!
That’s a wrap on the Always Care Top 10 of 2023. Thanks for all your support in our first year!
One more post will hit your inbox before the calendar flips to 2024. Fittingly, while the most popular post of the year was a shoutout to legendary leaders, the final post of the year is a semi-fictional story from the shadows called “Corporate Guy”.
Stay safe, Always Care
Written with the clarity of hindsight, the accuracy of a faded memory, and countless creative liberties, 87 Stories is a journal of how my gap year lasted four decades, made me an emigrant, an immigrant and gave me a life I never dreamed of.
In addition to my love for writing, I’m a professor, an educator, and a consultant with a passion for hotels, hospitality, and keeping people safe during their travels.
I’ve been told that my specialty is saving bacon.
Thanks for being part of the Always Care Community. Your support is my motivation and I’m genuinely grateful that you’re here. Please share, subscribe, and connect with me.
Excellent 'Top Ten', Paul. Congrats on an exciting 2023. Here's to more fun memory-making in 2024. Cheers!!!
What a year! Congrats, Paul.