Update: Hotel overnight worker "forgets" second language to get even with boss who won't pay $100 bonus

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 1, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

As a hotel employee doing the night shift, this person plays an important role at their workplace. Alongside working as the night auditor, they were a good person to hire because they speak multiple languages: they know both Portuguese and English, and are currently learning Spanish from another employee. You can imagine why being multilingual would be beneficial for any kind of worker in the hospitality business. Knowing as many languages as possible is key, and since English is one of the most widely spoken languages across the world, that one is especially good to know. Knowing numerous languages was so encouraged at this hotel that there's a nice bonus for any employee who does so! 

However, the bosses at this hotel establishment weren't holding up their end of the bargain. They kept promising that the next paycheck would contain the language bonus money… then the next one… but it never showed up! You'll have to keep reading to find out what the employee did next, but to keep it simple, they acted their wage! 

It's a good reminder that just because your boss tells you to do something outside of your job description, doesn't mean you necessarily have to do it. The managers can pay up or discover the consequences for withholding money from their employees!

While we're talking about money, next up, read about these workers who detailed the reasons they quit their bad jobs, like one person whose final straw was when their "Paycheck bounced, I was done." 

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement
  • 01
    Hotel worker in black vest, name tag, white shirt and orange tie with hair in ponytail stands behind computer and desk
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02

    "Sorry boss, I don't speak Spanish"

    I work at a hotel as a night auditor, and this malicious compliance begins with a small bit of information I was told when I was initially hired for this position. When I interviewed for the position, and this is very important later on, I was told by the HR lady that
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 03
    the hotel paid a bonus ($100) for each foreign language I spoke well enough to serve our guests. Management cleared my $100 for speaking english after I passed through their evaluation period (my main language is portuguese).
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 04
    At first, I was glad to be working in the night shift, mostly because my colleague then, Mr. Castillo was from Guatemala, so whenever any guests that spoke spanis showed up, he handled it and in turn, I handled any english speaking foreigners.
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 05
    Naturally, he did a lot more work since the amount of spanish speaking guests we receive is significantly larger than our english speaking ones. Meanwhile, Mr. Castillo was in the process of learning english and I had taken an interest in
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 06
    spanish so we helped each other out. Not long after, Mr. Castillo got himself a job paying several times over what the hotel did and sadly, left me. My new colleague, a newly promoted bellboy didn't speak english (though he
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 07
    could understand some) and didn't speak spanish at all. In fact, he didn't even try to improve any of his language skills while I slowly kept improving my spanish, trying to use more and more of it everyday to serve our dear guests. As of the start of this month, I
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 08
    spoke to our frontdesk manager and asked him in plain spanish, what did I have to do exactly to receive the $100 bonus for speaking spanish. He was surprised but said nothing more since the front desk got busy with check-outs and my shift was up, but a few days
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 09
    later he mentioned he spoke to HR and informed them I was speaking spanish well enough to receive my bonus, and now he was just waiting to hear back from them. A few days later, the HR lady asked me what size shirt I wore since they
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 10
    were going to be ordering new uniforms in the coming weeks, and took the opportunity to ask her about my bonus for spanish and she mentioned they were talking with our director about it. A day later she informed me they wouldn't be paying me
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 11
    the bonus for a foreign language since it was on file that I was already receiving it. I replied I was receiving a bonus for english, not spanish and she said she would speak to the director again and within a few days, all would be made well. Now I'm not really in a hurry to
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 12
    get my bonus, but it would be nice if they had cleared it already, as it would show up in my next paycheck, but guess what? They didn't. Our director talked to HR again, and my boss and told them that, even though I am serving our dear spanish speaking
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 13
    guests, in spanish, I don't in fact, speak spanish. I'm far from fluent, but I can explain how the hotel works, direct guests to where they need to be and assist them with what they need, be it finding a pharmacy at 3am, getting a cab to go out and get
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 14
    drinks, or even hire an escort (yep), but apparently it isn't good enough for our director and my manager said he can't really afford to fight him on it. Okay, no biggie I guess, maybe we'll try again next year when I can speak a little better I thought. However, the
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 15
    cruel and unforgiving gods of the hotel industry gave me the perfect opportunity to strike back... Earlier last week we received a large group of 30+ spanish speaking tourists, which in addition to our normal occupancy,
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 16
    meant we were effectively sold out for the week. Big groups are usually a minor incovenience when you're checking them in, but an even bigger problem when checking them out. Especially if they're 1 person per room, which means you basically have
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 17
    a huge load of rooms to check-out, one by one, while an endless line forms in front of the front desk. 80+ checkouts aren't unsual for our hotel on friday mornings, but 110+ is a problem. Normally when the morning shift has a workload this big, our
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 18
    front desk manager comes in early to help, but he couldn't this time since he took a personal day since his mother fell ill. That left our director with only one choice, to ask the night audit to stay late and help until our reservations people clocked in and could then
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 19
    replace us at the front desk. See, my colleague doesn't like staying late, especially since he works. at a second job with his father in the afternoon, meaning he only has the morning and early afternoon to sleep. I don't
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 20
    like staying late on fridays because of the amount of check-outs, which means it'll be forever before you can take a breath and even more so before you can leave. However this time our director didn't even ask my colleague and instead told me to stay late because we
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 21
    would have a sizeable workload and about a third of it would require someone that spoke spanish, or it would slow down everything to a crawl. I told him I would not be staying late that morning and before I could get another word him, he started
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 22
    yammering about how I'm. wrong and I should be more of a teamplayer and the he would be very grateful for it. Wanting to get back to my sleep, I told him to ask my colleague and he said he couldn't, that they needed me and when I asked him why, he clearly
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 23
    stated "We need 2 spanish speakers that morning to make sure everything goes OK with the checkouts." Not one for missing an opportunity to get payback, I replied "Sorry boss, I don't speak spanish", turned off my phone and went back to
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 24
    sleep. UPDATE: Sorry for holding out on the aftermath. I wrote this during my shift and as I was putting on the finishing touches, we had a server crash and I spent the next hour and a half trying to restore our
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 25
    backups and get the camera system up again. UPDATE - Aftermath: After I woke up and turned my cellphone back on, I had several missing calls from the hotel and
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 26
    two missing calls from our frontdesk manager (good guy). I called back the hotel but the afternoon shift picked up and they didn't know anything so I called my manager's phone. He answered and asked me what was going on
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 27
    Woman with black hair and black shirt hands item to hotel worker
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 28
    because the director was furious about me "hanging up on him" and that I was "refusing to work". I explained to him the situation in regards to my bonus for speaking spanish, and since the hotel was trying to hold out on me, I was going to withhold performance.
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 29
    Anyone who's ever worked costumer service know how much damage withholding performance can do, even if it just a little. In the end, my manager begged me to stay until our reservations people came in at 8AM (my shift ends at 07:20AM). I agreed on
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 30
    the condition that I would not check out anyone who spoke spanish. He reluctantly accepeted and said he would back me up in the following shitstorm that would happen. What happened was that the group came down for
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 31
    breakfast precisely at 6:40AM, finished at 07:10AM give or take and went back to their room to collect their belongings. At this time, the two front desk attendants of the morning shift had arrived, as well as our bellboy, plus, there was me and my colleague
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 32
    waiting to punch out and go. We had already started checking people out and this day was particularly busy, we had 3 or 4 people waiting to be checked out, and it doesn't help that we only have 3 computers for 4 people to work with, with another computer for us
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 33
    to check the cameras. When 07:20AM came up, my colleague quickly picked up his things and left and I took over his spot. At this time the first few people in the group started coming down and they already had to wait since we were all checking out other
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 34
    people. A few minutes later I got the first one but I told them I couldn't check them out since I don't speak spanish and asked them to wait for my colleagues to become available. In the end I ended up refusing service to 10 or so people, which started forming a line
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 35
    right in front of the front desk, which only grew since other guests assumed they were all in line to be checked out. My colleagues on the morning shift were not happy at all, the guests were less than satisfied, and when the first of our reservations people
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 36
    showed up at 8AM, I logged out, punched out and went home. By that time, there was a 20+ line of people waiting to be checked out by 2 overworked recepcionists, only one of which spoke spanish.
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 37
    In the ensuing shitstorm. that happened, the hotel's director arrived at 8:30AM in an attempt to minimize the anger of the human centipede who formed in the front desk, started chatted with the guests and otherwise trying to distract them so they would be less angry
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 38
    and avoid giving the hotel a poor review. I got a mild chewing out by my manager for "poor work ethic" instead of being written up. True to his word, he backed me up when the director called him and HR for a meeting regarding my actions (you can't demand someone
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 39
    speak a language that you know they don't right?). I still haven't got my bonus for speaking spanish, and I let my manager know that I will not be speaking any spanish while on the job until they give in and give me my hard earned bonus.
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 40
    UPDATE 2 - TL;DR: Management denies my bonus for speaking spanish, demands stay I late to help check out spanish speaking guests. I agree, but refuse to speak spanish since management themselves said I don't speak spanish so they wouldn't have to
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 41
    pay me a bonus for speaking spanish. I refuse service to lots of guests, chaos ensues in the front desk, I clock out before the hotel implodes.
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 42
    UPDATE 3 - So due to the number of comments asking about how the bonus works, I'll just post it here. It is a monthly bonus, and the way to hotel pays it out is by adding it into the base. salary, instead of specifically outlining it on a separate item on our
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 43
    pay stub. This means that it is straight up a pay raise, and as such it interacts with other things that go into our paycheck that use our base salary to be calculated. This means that the $100 bonus easily snowballs into being $150 - $160 when
    via u/Classy_P*ro
  • 44
    you take into account the +20% we get paid for working nights, +10% for handling live money, + overtime, + paid time off, + vacations.
    via u/Classy_P*ro

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

boss workplace-stories hotel guest jobs hotel job bosses work hotel employee hotel staff workplace payment money
Scroll Down For The Next Article