Interview with Jean Chen, Executive Housekeeper – Four Seasons Macau

Jean Chen is the Executive Housekeeper at the Four Seasons Macau, which opened its doors in August 2008. In that same year Jean was transferred from Four Seasons Shanghai for the opening of the Four Seasons in Macau and to take on the role as Executive Housekeeper there. The hotel has 360 rooms, 84 suites and 2 presidential suites. While in Macau Lycette & Associates caught up with Jean for a Q&A session, by Liz Lycette

Q. What is your cultural background?
A. I am Malaysian Chinese

Q. Where were you born and where did you grow up?
A. I was born in Penang, West Malaysia

Q. What was your career path to date?
A. I discovered Housekeeping by “accident” when I took a job as a Supervisor with an new hotel opening in Penang after I left high school whilst waiting to go to college in Switzerland…I have been in Housekeeping for 27 years since. I started out in Purchasing actually.

Have worked for the Hyatt for about 8 years, Consulting for hotel openings/refurbishments in Karachi, Pakistan, Hsinchu in Taiwan, Beaufort in Singapore, Mines Resort City in Kuala Lumpur, Cititel in Kuala Lumpur, I also worked as Projects Assistant at the Regent in Jakarta and spent around 11years to date with the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

Q. What was your first role as executive housekeeper?
A. My first role as EHK was with the Hyatt Kuantan in Malaysia, 1.5 years after joining them as AEHK.

Q. What challenges did this bring?
A. Honestly found it a bit overwhelming at first as I had to learn how to do the budgets, cope with renovations and an ageing laundry plant that had daily machinery breakdowns, handling people besides your own staff dealing with different ego’s and characters in  the workplace. It was not something you learn at school or out  of a text book.

Q. What are your current job responsibilities at Four Seasons Macau?
A. Oversee both Housekeeping & Guest Laundry department operations, supervise, train & develop people, initiate improvement plans for guest services, cost control,systems,uniforms & linens inventories and purchases, work safety procedures to name a few and execute high maintenance standards for the property in terms of cleanliness…in a nutshell

Q. How many staff are you responsible for? and what areas are you responsible for?
A. I am currently responsible for 120 Housekeeping & Laundry staff as well as the soon to be opened FS Residence Apartments. I have an international team from all over Asia namely Philippines, Myanmar, Mumbai, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Shanghai to name a few.

Q. What would your typical day be like?
A. Start at 7.30am; meet with my Overnight shift Laundry staff & Houseman. Discuss any overnight operational challenges if any – normally around 15- 20 mins.  Do a walkabout for Public areas and meet with the contractor if there are any maintenance issues or projects not properly executed or completed, inspect guest rooms and guest room areas, plan purchases, review laundry production reports, productivity reports, follow up with Engineering on outstanding issues, meet with Managers and supervisors for a morning briefing and evening de-brief, check on next day’s arrivals and work with Room’s Controller on room blockings and last but not least catch up with outstanding paperwork at end of the day…

Q. What are your top three challenges this week?
A. 1) Meet with external laundry on bathroom linen finishing, completing uniform replacement plan for this year and see if it is in line with the budget.
2) Clearing outstanding annual leave for the Room Attendants and Supervisors from 2010.

Q. How did you choose those managers under you? What criteria?
A. Select the right people do not settle for what is in front of you…the time invested to wait for the right candidate is worth it. Less stress on yourself. They must have a willingness to learn, must be hands on and most importantly good attitude with an open mind towards change.

Q. As an expat what advantages and disadvantages does this bring to your role?
A. Advantages – you learn to be creative in tailoring the way things are to be done and to suit the environment you are in. The only disadvantage is probably in the beginning when you struggle to learn the language and at least understand the basics. A great personal advantage is, you get to travel, see the world and widen your social circle.

Q. How do you manage moving from country to country? How do you deal with different cultures?
A. Go with the flow…it must be a country that you can somehow picture yourself living in. I strongly believe that you must be humble to want to learn about the people and show genuine respect regardless of how different they do things from you.

Q. What are your top 3 tips for success in Housekeeping Management?
A. Be willing to be hand’s on when the situation requires to – walk the talk

1. Listen without prejudice
2. Keep yourself up to date at all times whether it is technology, new processes, trends etc- don’t be afraid to share ideas with your counterparts/colleagues in the industry- you have nothing to lose.

Q. If you had to do it all over again what would you do differently?
A. I took a year off work in between my stints…I would have used a part of  that time to hone in on my public speaking skills which is not something we Asians are quite comfortable with. I was lucky to be able to work in Australia and had to learn this the hard way. I learnt public speaking at Toastmasters … many a red face and blushes years later…. as we say in Malaysia. ”now no problemla”!

Q. What advice would you give someone starting out in housekeeping?
A. Learn the basics/fundamentals of housekeeping well, it will take you a long way.

Q. How about your personal life? How do you balance work and home life?
A. My family is scattered around the globe, so we get together once a year if we can for a vacation. I do not believe in “face time“ when I see that I have completed all that needs to be done for the day – I go home. “Face time” in Asian working society means you do not leave before your bosses do, hence giving “face” to your bosses.

Q. What do you do for fun?
A. Travel, yoga and cook for friends…

Q. How do you think housekeeping management has changed since you started?
A. To start with you have to be computer savvy as productivity these days can be easily measured as well as efficiency, all is controlled through electronic processes, you need to know and understand your numbers. How your department’s expenses affect the room’s retention and bottom line. The DOHK is now more involved in decision making processes during set-ups on room’s operations. In fact in some companies, the DOHK’s are part of the Planning Committee team involved in the hotel’s decision making processes.

However, there are still a lot of hotel companies who place Housekeeping Managers on the back burners and only remember them when it comes to getting something cleaned.