Operations Team VS Support Team

After many years on the field, I see that some basic things are still not clear for many so called hoteliers.

A very basic question in many discussions is:

“Who is responsible for serving a steak to a guest or changing the bathrobe in the room?”

A beginner will answer:

“Easy! The server and the house keeper”.

We all know that it is not true; the responsible is the entire team.

A server delivering a dish to a well-dressed table, a cook preparing the dish on a well washed plate by the steward with a well maintained dishwasher machine by the engineering team, which is using parts purchased by the finance.

A bathrobe delivered to a room by the house keeper, well washed and ironed by the launderer and again we can call in all the staff and

departmentsinvolved in the good running of a laundry.

Everything is crystal clear, right? One Hotel = One Team, no discussion.

Is the satisfaction of the guest high? It’s because of the team.

Is it down? It’s because of the team.

Although, there is the "de facto" separation in "operations team" and "support team".

The operations team is the one delivering the final product to the guest, all those “ladies and gentlemen” playing with their faces, and, I would say, the business card of the hotel as well (Kitchen/Stewarding, F&B, Room Division, Front Office and Security).

The support team is the one, of course, supporting, in order that the operation team can deliver at its best all the times

(HR, Engineering, IT, Finance & Purchasing, Sales & Marketing).

And here we start with the issues: HR that does not hire, Engineering that does not fix, IT not responding..., Finance that does not purchase, Sales & Marketing that sells whatever they want... I can spend hours to list samples, but, even

if they have different duties and completely different jobs, I have to recognize they have two "fils rouges" connecting them perfectly:

- they are professional liars, I mean, Pinocchio is a debutant compared with them;

- when things go wrong, they immediately drop the shit on the operations,

I mean, they are so fast that a Lamborghini is a snail compared to them.

Fortunately I met few exceptions, they are professionals and I can just bow to them,

but I would like one day to finish addressing the majority of the support team as
"those off in the weekend” or “state workers”.

Nothing personal, just realistic, if the hotel is a 24/7 business, the operation team is present 24/7

and the support team has to be flexible and do what they should, just supporting at least 12/7,

unless they are so smart and proficient to dothe expected and more in their 8 miserable hours shift.

I really hope to be wrong, or maybe I’m just a human magnet attracting jerks in my neighborhood.