I have decided to publicly share my experience working in the housekeeping department at the Graduate by Hilton in Eugene, Oregon, because I believe our community, and especially guests spending their money there, deserve to know how workers are being treated behind the scenes.
During my time there, more than half of the housekeeping staff I worked alongside were immigrants from other countries, many of whom spoke little to no English. From what I personally observed, some workers faced significant language barriers that could make it much more difficult to understand or advocate for their rights under Oregon labor laws.
This matters because housekeeping at the Graduate was an incredibly physically demanding job with workloads that made taking proper breaks and lunches extremely difficult, if not impossible. We were regularly assigned rooms across multiple floors, sometimes as many as five floors in one shift, while still being expected to complete demanding workloads within the allotted time.
When workers are under that level of pressure, particularly workers who may face language barriers or may not be familiar with their rights, there is an enormous power imbalance. I believe employers have a responsibility to make sure every worker understands their rights and is actually able to exercise them...not simply have policies that exist on paper.
I also raised serious concerns with upper management about tip transparency.
During approximately 7 months of employment (working full time), I received around five cash tips total, which was dramatically different from my experience working at other hotels. Other housekeepers expressed similar concerns, including workers who told me they NEVER received tips aftet they changed management- and they had been employed far longer than I was. The tips I received were also due to checking my room prior to our supervisors, who ended up directing us not to do so once they noticed I was- (huge red flag to not let us check our rooms first)
A few of us repeatedly noticed guest tipping cards being moved inside rooms before I entered to clean them, which raised questions for me about who had accessed those rooms before the assigned housekeeper. There were also thank you notes with no tips (which is not common at all in my Decade+ experience as a housekeeper and Inspector) I cannot personally prove what happened to every tip or claim that every moved card meant money had been left... However, the patterns were concerning enough that multiple employees were questioning whether tips were consistently reaching the housekeepers that were intended to receive them.
I attempted to address these concerns internally and in good faith. I proposed practical solutions, including better tracking of room access and keys (which they also did not properly sign in and out-anyone could grab any key at any point leaving both housekeeper's and guest's rooms vulnerable), more consistent floor assignments (we were assigned up to 5 floors leaving our rooms vulnerable- another red flag in housekeeping) improved communication when guests check out (they never let us know when a room checked out), room-access audits, and greater transparency surrounding both cash and digital tips.
Instead of feeling that these concerns were independently investigated, The General manager and Assistant Manager placed me into a meeting with the head housekeeper connected to some of the concerns being raised and made me tell them the concerns we were having- which also included two other supervisors, all 3 of whom had a very close personal relationship amd/or family with one another.
This also reflects another major issue I observed within the housekeeping department: what I perceived as an extraordinary amount of favoritism and nepotism among people in positions of authority. When supervisors and managers have close personal or family relationships with one another, employees may reasonably question whether concerns involving those individuals can ever be addressed impartially.
After speaking up about these workplace issues, I was written up for attendance despite having only two unexcused absences during approximately seven months of employment and receiving no prior verbal warning about my attendance. Given the timing, the discipline felt retaliatory to me. They also made me stay strictly on the "most challenging floor", despite having stated that they will only give everyone up to 2 of those rooms per board due to how hard they were to clean- clearly another retaliatory move.
I ultimately submitted my two weeks' notice when I noticed I was being targeted for speaking up on behalf of the housekeeping staff. Before my notice period was complete, however, the Graduate ended my employment early after I called out due to a DOCUMENTED serious health condition for which I had provided medical documentation from my doctor for and had been trying to working with management regarding my need for time away from work.
The sequence of events is deeply concerning to me: I raised concerns about tips and workplace practices, was subsequently disciplined, submitted my resignation, and then had my employment ended before I could complete my notice period after missing work for a documented medical reason.
I am not asking anyone to take my word for something I cannot personally prove. I am sharing what I personally experienced, witnessed, documented, and reported while I worked there.
For anyone who chooses to stay at the Graduate in Eugene and wants to tip the person who actually cleans their room, I strongly recommend handing your cash tip directly to your housekeeper whenever possible (not the supervisors to pass it along to the housekeeper) Based on my experience and the concerns raised by multiple workers, I personally would not feel confident assuming that cash left unattended in a room will necessarily reach the housekeeper you intended it for, and they intentionally have their staff scattered throughout the hotel, leaving most of their rooms vulnerable to begin with.
Housekeepers are the backbone of the hotel industry. Many are immigrants. Many perform exhausting physical labor for low wages while facing language barriers that can make advocating for themselves even more difficult.
These workers deserve their breaks. They deserve their lunches. They deserve every tip intended for them. They deserve workloads that do not require sacrificing their physical wellbeing to keep up. And they deserve to be able to report concerns without fearing punishment or retaliation.
I am sharing this because I was in a position where I could speak up, document what I experienced, and walk away. I worry about the employees who may not feel that they have the same ability.
If you stay at the Graduate by Hilton in Eugene, please treat the housekeeping staff with kindness and if you want to make absolutely certain your housekeeper receives your tip, consider giving it directly to them.
They work incredibly hard for it.
P.S. I also want to emphasize the unnecessarily strenuous working conditions I witnessed in the housekeeping department.. conditions that I found especially concerning given that a significant portion of the housekeeping staff consisted of immigrants from other countries, many of whom spoke little to no English and may have faced additional barriers to understanding or advocating for their workplace rights.
Housekeepers were expected to carry much of the linen needed to complete our rooms up to our assigned floors, frequently while working across several different floors in a single shift. We were also required to bring our vacuums downstairs at the end of each day, only to carry them back upstairs the following morning. At the same time, we were not allowed to adequately stock our carts with the supplies we needed, creating additional trips and unnecessary physical labor throughout an already exhausting workday. If we stocked our carts, those in charge would undo it once we clocked off, only for us to come to work the following day needing to prepare our carts, again.
These weren't unavoidable realities of housekeeping. There were obvious solutions: adequately stocking carts and linen areas, keeping designated equipment on each floor, using an equipment sign-out system, and assigning employees to more consistent floors. Instead, housekeepers were expected to absorb the additional physical burden created by inefficient systems while still being pressured to complete demanding workloads on time, and for very little pay (my ten years experience only got me minimum wage pay despite claiming that I would recieve a raise after 60 days- I only got a 4 cent raise after 6 months 😅)
When you combine these conditions with employees struggling to consistently take proper breaks and lunches, extremely physical workloads, concerns about tips, and a workforce in which many employees face significant language barriers, I believe there are serious questions about whether some of the most vulnerable employees were being taken advantage of because they were less likely, or less equipped, to challenge these practices.
I was willing and able to speak up about what I witnessed, and I experienced what felt like retaliation shortly afterward. That makes me deeply concerned about the workers who may not feel they have the same ability to advocate for themselves.
The people doing some of the hardest physical work in a hotel should not also be the easiest people to overwork, ignore, or silence.
❤️🩹
