Working at a hotel front desk can be difficult at times. Especially when you have tricky guests. And especially when you’re working the night shift. Especially when you’re working the night shift all alone.

Everything gets messier at night, and it’s a lot more unpredictable.

Recently, the night desk attendant in this story had to figure out what to do about a wild situation, and because he was working the night shift, he had to figure it out all on his own.

Read on to find out what happened.

You haven’t worked here for over five years…

So there I was, in the doldrums of the night – after the paperwork had been done, but hours before breakfast – when a woman walked in.

Peeking at the cameras, she looked reasonably “not-homeless” enough that I didn’t worry when she went over to the coffee.

That’s when I noticed the wagon. Not one of those folding fabric ones, but an actual metal little red wagon. Piled with a few bags and blankets, stashed cleverly behind one of the portico’s pillars, almost out of view of the cameras.

Yes, it seems this woman is in fact one of the local unhoused population.

Let’s see how this front desk attendant approached the women.

I’m not fussed about the coffee too much, but I followed her outside to make it clear she needed to move along. She was pulling her charging cable out of her bag, so it was pretty clear she was interested in hanging out in our lobby for a while.

I cleared my throat, “Hey there…” Nice and non-confrontational. I was in a good mood.

“Are you new?” This is said in the sneering, mocking tone of a Karen, which takes me aback a bit.

I replied, “I am not, no.”

“You must be new. Let me talk to a woman.” Something about her seemed familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

So I said, “There isn’t anyone else here, sorry. Good night.”

But he never anticipated what happened next.

I headed back inside, but as I was settling back in, I saw that she’d come into the lobby after me.

“DIANA?” she shouted, in my lobby at two am, “LYDIA?”

I tried to stop her, saying, “Hey! I can’t have you shouting in my lobby at two am.”

But she wasn’t bothered, replying, “Whatever… (slightly quieter) Sabrina? Natalie?”

I told her, “No no, that’s it, you need to stop.” But still she continued, shouting, “Excuse me, I’m trying to find my family. Becca?”

And that helped him figure out exactly what was going on.

That’s when it clicked. The names she’d been shouting were those of some of our housekeeping staff, and some of them hadn’t been around in five years.

Now I recognized her.

Most of our housekeeping staff are related. A bit of mild nepotism perhaps, but they were all generally good employees, and got along well. But all families have their black sheep, and this gal was theirs.

She’d worked with us for a while, but the quality of her work went steadily downhill – as did her attitude and personal life.

Her husband was unemployed, and she didn’t want to work full-time. She managed to miss enough rent payments to get evicted, and wound up staying at the hotel for a while.

But that wasn’t the end of the woman’s story at the hotel.

The manager had given her a generous rate, but even that wasn’t enough. She’d mooched a few bucks off her family, generally burned bridges, and became demanding and awful. Also, drunk and loud.

So she got the boot.

After a couple incidents where she convinced family members to let her sneak into vacant rooms, she got added to the DNR list. Stern words were had with the staff, and that was the last I had heard of it.

There were a few more problems with her, but as I work the night shift, I miss a lot of the scuttlebutt around here. As far as I knew, she was gone for good. Until now.

And on the night she turned up, things just kept getting worse.

I told her, “You need to leave, please.”

But the woman insisted, “I need to talk to my family!”

Of course I told her, “They are not here. You need to leave.”

Then she said, “I am federal and I am conducting an investigation!” Okay, that’s an odd attempt at false authority? She’s seeming less rational now. Ahh, yeah, she’s got something going on, brainwise. I’m no mental health expert though.

I reiterated, “You need to leave or I am calling the police.” She grumbled her way out of the door when I picked up the phone.

It sucked. She’s probably not going to get help with the issues she’s got going on. I hope she manages to recover, but it sounds like she’s got some problems that really won’t get better on their own.

It’s really sad that this woman has ended up in this situation – and it sucks that the front desk attendant was put in this difficult place too.

The woman seems to not have been a danger, but she was certainly disruptive to the hotel at night.

It’s clear she needed some help.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

This person commended the night desk attendant for doing his best in a tricky situation.

While others thought that this story was just another sad tale of the government not caring for the homeless properly.

Meanwhile, this Redditor took issue with the sad way mental health is treated too.

Well-meaning people are left to pick up the pieces.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.