I know this is tempting fate, but...

The hotel where I used to work caught on fire the other day. $90,000 worth of damage was incurred and nobody was hurt, which is unfortunate. I realize that the way it's worded makes it possible to read that sentence and get the idea that I somehow wanted people to be hurt. Please, make no mistake; that's exactly what I meant. Certainly not any first-responders or guests or employees or any otherwise decent, useful human beings. But select members of the "management team" trapped under a burning I-beam or two? Oh yeah, absolutely.

Okay, not really. Nobody really wants to see anybody burnt up or crushed by flaming debris. Although, in some cases, it's definitely a lot of fun to think about!

See, I spent three years working at that hotel and it was easily the worst company I ever worked for. That stands to reason, since it's the worst hotel in town. Don't take my word for it though; I'm an admittedly disgruntled former employee. Instead, check out these reviews from guests on TripAdvisor.com. The oldest is from over five years ago and the most recent was yesterday. If you scan through, you'll see the same specific complaints pop up over and over again. Chronic complaints left unaddressed for that long should tell you everything you need to know. 

I was eventually fired because they said I had a bad attitude and that guests were complaining about it. I was never shown these specific complaints but I won't dispute that my attitude was terrible. After all, I was miserable. I won't go into specifics, but there were a number of problems with the way staff members (not just me) were treated. 

This was in the employee break area. The bottom line reads "No outside source can help you" and was posted in response to rumors that somebody had contacted the labor department about unfit working conditions.

Worse than any of that was the lack of support from management. We knew the elevators were death traps, we knew the free WiFi we advertised didn't work, we knew the restaurant was lousy. We also knew management would never address any of these concerns and that we would be bearing the brunt of our customers frustration and dissatisfaction. So yeah, I'm sure my attitude was terrible. Still, I think it says something that I was hired as a customer service supervisor for the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team that ranks in the top ten of all pro sports franchises and averages well over 90% in customer satisfaction after being terminated by what TripAdvisor.com ranks as the 87th (out of 158) hotel in Tampa.

There's no question I'm better off now and that getting fired was truly a blessing (I probably would have killed myself by now otherwise) and I know I shouldn't waste time, or risk bad karma, by getting enjoyment from this, but I'm only human. I promise I'll stop smiling while I visualize the people who tormented me surrounded by smoke and flames in a few days, as I transition to being happy while I visualize how they're going to pay for it.