A house bought on credit, a permanent contract at the Orpi agency in downtown Aurillac, a van fitted out to go away for the weekend with her companion: this is the new life of Marjolaine Guibal, 30, since she left the hotel business. She spent ten years there, including several seasons as receptionist at a holiday village in Super-Besse (Puy-de-Dôme). “Without the Covid, I would still be there!assures this graduate of a license in commerce. The pandemic was a click. We had to confine ourselves, the hotel was closing, and I had no accommodation of my own. I realized that was no longer possible. »
Like Marjorie Guibal, many employees in the world of tourism (hotels, restaurants, campsites, leisure parks, etc.) have changed their lives over the past three years, accentuating the recruitment difficulties experienced by this sector. The long periods of closure or slowdown in activity linked to the health crisis, in 2020 and 2021, have accelerated their awareness, in particular of the impact of their working conditions on their private life. And this, even if the people we interviewed also speak with nostalgia of their former profession, of the collective, of the pleasure of the service, of the “family spirit” that emanated from it. Or the feeling of freedom provided by this possibility of working as a seasonal worker, winter in the mountains, summer in the sun.
“When you are in this sector, you work when everyone is on weekends or on vacation. You miss everything: birthdays, parties, weddings, life, what! »expresses Delphine Palatan, 39, who, for fifteen years, was a housekeeper in several hotels in Savoie. “The Covid was a moment that allowed me to think about myself”, declares the one who has started a process of reconversion to become a trainer, “with normal hours, Monday to Friday”.
“At one point, I was tired of sacrificing myself”continues Rodolphe Lucas Gome, 38, ex-butler in a five-star hotel on the Basque coast, and who left the sector at the end of 2020. “I worked 40-45 hours a week, I replaced colleagues at the last moment, I said goodbye to all my holidays during the summer… And overtime is not always paid. » He has since created his digital marketing company.
None of them say they regret their new life, even Lucie Ha, 30, who says she won ” a little less “ today than when she worked indoors in the catering industry. She now officiates in a charcuterie located in the halls of Poitiers. “I hire early in the morning, but at least I have two consecutive days off. I have my evenings, the schedules are square. For the life of a couple, it changes everything »she comments.
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