SPECIAL REPORT
that role … It is advancing at a slow pace but you ’ ll see more and more women entering the space in the next five years .
H : What else needs to happen to break glass ceilings ?
Farahpour : Wage equality is one . But also , flexibility , and I think this goes along with the emergence of millennials , too . Companies are helping women get additional resources , and they ’ re OK with people working from home sometimes or having a daycare on site . Having the appropriate resources to make sure that you can do what you need to do to get things done is very important .
Higbie : Another thing that is really important is coaching and mentoring . It ’ s not uncommon to run into women who would be phenomenal general managers , and they may not realize that or have never thought about that because there is a man in a similar position who already has that goal and thinks they should be the GM next year . So , there ’ s making sure that women are open to opportunities , know that they ’ re there and see other women in those leadership roles , which is so critical .
Chapur : My father thought women weren ’ t supposed to work , and when I turned 18 I said I have two options – I work or I party . He said , ‘ No , no . Come into the business .’ Now he has embraced it and now we ’ re trying to develop programs that make life easier for women working with us .
H : Has anybody addressed the # MeToo moment within their organizations ?
Grace : For us it has put a greater focus on harassment and bullying … It ’ s a matter of how serious you take it and making sure that if someone does feel like they are being harassed that it ’ s addressed accordingly and not just pushed under the rug …
It means if someone comes up and says they ’ re starting to feel uncomfortable that you take it seriously and do a thorough investigation to make sure that the person who brought it to your attention does feel comfortable .
The idea of brushing things under the rug is gone , and social media has helped stop that because everyone has a voice nowadays … If we want to be good stewards of our business , we have to take those things seriously because they can get out of control very quickly .
“ THE IDEA OF
BRUSHING THINGS UNDER THE RUG
IS GONE , AND SOCIAL MEDIA HAS HELPED STOP THAT BECAUSE EVERYONE HAS A VOICE NOWADAYS .
”
– LUKUS GRACE
Chapur : It ’ s also important to implement systems that allow people to easily speak up with anonymity with things like WhatsApp or a hotline .
Mabey : There ’ s probably still in our industry a lot of it going on that ’ s not reported because women have a very hard time feeling safe or they ’ re confused . It ’ s so difficult for women to feel like they have a safe way to address it and we ’ re still probably miles away from getting anywhere close to where it needs to be . I ’ m not sure what impetus there needs to be in order to fix that .
Grace : It ’ s also about people feeling empowered , too . If something happens make sure you speak up . A lot of people are afraid of the consequences , so as leaders in the industry when someone does speak up everyone around them is looking to see what happens to that person because that ’ s essentially what they ’ re going to think happens to them . Reactions dictate whether people are going to feel comfortable bringing it up . They need to feel comfortable that they can do it without having any consequences .
Farahpour : As we get females in more senior roles , you will see less and less of this happen .
Higbie : In the meantime what I wouldn ’ t want to see is an overreaction to the point where it ’ s not considered appropriate for my boss , who ’ s a man , to go out for dinner with me when we ’ re on a business trip together … There are a lot of opportunities that you don ’ t want to lose because people are afraid of what it might look like .
H : Is anybody addressing # MeToo and related issues at the property level ?
Sam Gelin : I can ’ t even imagine what it might be like to implement a policy like this across a big hotel group . At our hotel we treat everybody like family so it feels like it ’ s never appropriate to act that way within a family setting , and a majority of the leaders and front office manager are women – and they set the tone .
Corvinos : The more that we level the playing field the better , but it ’ s not only with women . It ’ s also with diversity . We are talking about # MeToo , but we ’ re also talking about diversity and bullying . It all comes down to values and behaviors we adopt from what we see and breathe while growing up … If the values are there from the people we employ and the tone that the company sets is the right tone , as we become more diverse it will start to decrease .
I also agree with Rachel as it creates a real ceiling for women that are afraid that it ’ s going to hinder their opportunity to have an honest or frank conversation and not be misunderstood .
26 hotelsmag . com May 2018