Today, I have the pleasant task of presenting a seminar on blogging, and a dinner presentation on new social media, in sunny and beautiful Ventura, California.

As I write this post, I’m able to gaze out the picture window from the bar (coffee only, equal, and non-fat milk) across the green lawn, shrubbery and palm trees to the deep blue Pacific Ocean, and morning fog in the distance.

The wide variety of greenery, surrounding the lawn, masks Interstate 10, and its traffic noise. Barely audible, it sounds more like a waterfall than a highway.

Last evening, I had dinner with a close friend, who is a catering manager (imagine that). She has a wonderful job, at a great property, but suffers from something many of her peers do, all over the United States: understaffing.

Oh, she, and her staff, are getting it done, but it’s not pretty. When last interviewed by personnel, she made a very subtle and telling comment. “I never see the sun, anymore.”

She works in a stunning part of the country; the world in fact, and doesn’t see the sun. Translation and interpretation: She gets to work early enough, and leaves late enough, that there is little contact with the elements.

When taking a catering manager to lunch or coffee, I always made it a point to take them off-property, if at all possible. Primarily so I could have their full attention. I never imagined that they had become so cloistered that sun-depravation was now an issue.

Certainly, my friends in Las Vegas, working in city-size casino hotels, suffer some of the same symptoms.

So, while you’re working on relationship building, take a catering manager off-property, and get them reacquainted with daylight. You have no idea how much they will appreciate it.

written by Andy Ebon \\ tags: blogging, daylight, Online Social Media, Pacific Ocean, renewal, sunshine, Ventura NACE