Hotel Jerbourg

Hotel Jerbourg is located on the south-east corner of Guernsey at Jerbourg point. It has a restaurant and 32 guest rooms and it was the place I called home for four and a half months while living on Guernsey. The staff at the hotel were of many different nationalities. I was the only Aussie and worked with Spanish, Latvian, German, Hungarian, Scottish, English, Portuguese, Venezuelan, Polish and Welsh. It is the most international team I think I will ever work with. Although we all came from different backgrounds we were able to get along and work as an effective team. At times language barriers caused confusing although we were usually able to laugh about it. Many of the hotel guests also travelled to Guernsey from Europe therefore making it difficult for me to understand their requests.

My contract stated I was to work roughly 50 hours a week although this often meant over 60 hours a week and for no extra money. I was paid a monthly wage of 600 pound no matter how many hours I worked. The 600 pound a month was on top of food and accommodation. I once worked it out to be about 2.50 pound an hour. The hours were long and we often had to back up a late night working with an early start. Throughout the months I worked at the hotel I worked three weddings, each a 16 hour day starting at 10am and finishing 2am the following morning with only 30 minutes off to eat dinner.

I had at least one day off a week but never more than two. I organised to have Mondays off which my girlfriend Jess and I would spend together visiting the sights of the island and the neighbouring islands.

Guernsey do not have a minimum wage which is the reason they are able to pay so little, which is also the reason many Eastern Europeans work at the hotels on the islands. The little pay you get would still be a lot more than they would be paid in their native countries.

The low wages and long hours were what I most disliked about working at the hotel. The staff were friendly and helpful and the restaurant was very rarely at capacity. From the first day I started in the job I knew what day I would be leaving therefore I counted down the days and tried to make the most of my time on Guernsey.