Work Related Stress

I feel like I am in limbo at the moment. I absolutely love my job, my employees and coworkers but we are all in limbo and here is why.

There has been a buzz about the owner selling part of the hotel and keeping the restaurant… Nothing has been confirmed as to what is going on. We are all aware the he was/ is selling the building but we don’t know if it is done, in the process or still up for sale.

Many things are starting to change and I can feel the panic starting to build up, especially with my staff. The current rumor is that the owner sold the hotel part of the building and that the buyer was not interested in the restaurant. Little thing to think about is that my department does not fit either one, we are completely combined between the hotel and the restaurant. I am the manager of the banquet department and we have our banquet rooms obviously in the hotel but the food comes out of the restaurant’s kitchen; we are in charge of booking pool parties in the hotel but the restaurant runs the pizzas… there are many examples, but I am simply rambling now. Let’s go back to the main point, the panic.

I have had people coming up to me asking what was going on ever since we discovered that the building was up for sale about 6-8 months ago. Ever since then, I have not heard anything directly from the owner, everything has been word of mouth (let’s face it, in the hospitality industry all you have is word of mouth). We (think) found out that it was sold because the porter on duty saw the owner having a business meeting in one of our banquet rooms and at the end of the meeting he was very pleased with himself.

After that day my porter told me that he was sure the building was sold and I said, “OK, well let’s wait and see what happens. I am sure we’ll be alright.” A few days after that happened, one of the restaurant’s supervisors told me that he was sure the building was sold and the owner was just waiting for the appropriate time to let everyone know. Being that we were so close to the new year we all assumed that he was going to make a big announcement during the N.Y.E party that we through every year… But he didn’t.

He has been acting particularly strange the past few months, starting/stopping much needed renovations to the building, wanting to sell items from the banquet storage room, wanting to rent our storage room space to a business so he has a steady income, not wanting to spend money on necessary things and I have been inquiring for about 2 months about getting my business cards (I’ve been working in this hotel since March 2019…it is February 2020) and still have not received anything. Little things like this cause panic.

Take my assistant manager for example. She is a mother of 3 little boys, 2 are elementary school age and 1 is almost ready for pre-K. Her husband got laid off about 3 months ago and has not been able to find a job. She’s freaking out, not knowing what is happening here and at home is literally driving her crazy. She has 3 little boys to take care of, which is not cheap, she has an SUV that keeps breaking on her with this “beautiful” weather we have been having (it is winter in Saskatchewan, Canada…think -40 degrees Celsius). She has enough on her plate to be having to worry about what is happening in her workplace as well.

What should I do?? I don't want to tell people to start looking for something else, just in case everything comes crashing down in the next few months. I have no clue as to what is going on and the owner won't tell me anything, i think he still sees me as the new girl. The new banquet manager that is too young and to naive to keep in the loop...