Ruthanne Mclemore

I'm a PBX operator at a luxury resort, and I'll be celebrating 3 years in June. My career journey has been interesting - I originally went to college for hospitality, but my mother was a broker and got me sidetracked into real estate. I ended up in that field for 20 years, though I stopped and started a couple times because of having children. I lived in Washington State for about 30 years and knew the area really well, which helped me build a variety of clientele. When I moved to Florida years back, I decided not to go into real estate and worked part-time jobs, including retail for a couple years. When my husband couldn't work anymore, I needed full-time work, and I realized it was time to go back to hospitality - that's where I started, that's where I was gonna end. My husband passed away around the time I got into this position. In my day-to-day work, I answer the phone constantly and direct guests to extensions, answer questions about the resort, and try to keep them happy. They might need services from housekeeping or other departments. I take care of the phones because front desk is busy checking people in. I can also do some late checkouts and upgrades to help the front desk. Spring and summer are our busy seasons. What I enjoy most is that you never get bored - it's a variety of people that you talk to, and it teaches me a lot of patience. In real estate, I was always trying to get a deal closed, but in this field, I've had to learn a lot of patience, which is good for me because I need to have a calmer life and not be high-strung. When I first started, we had 5 of us in this little small room, and then I was the only one left, which I found was an achievement. Now we're getting into busy season and hiring more people. It can be a very high, stressful job if you let it be, but I try not to let it be anymore because it's not good for your health. I still have real estate in my blood - I'm still looking at houses for sale and watching the market. I work 45 to 50 hours right now, and at my age, I need to cut back a little bit, but I've got to get some people trained for this department before I can do that.