Seven years ago the Riessersee Hotel was criticized and was even not allowed to train anyone for a year.
But it's all yesterday's news: once again, a trainee has received the state award and many former employees are returning to the company they once wanted to turn their backs on.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
- When Louis March thinks back to earlier times, his stomach feels queasy. Before, when as a trainee he had to work for 36 hours at a time without a break. On New Year's Eve, over the turn of the year. In the past, when even minors had to toil late into the night. Sometimes even were alone in a shift. In the past, when threats and sometimes even violence were still on the agenda. A previous one that would never want March again. After completing his training in the hotel industry in January 2010, it was enough for him. He turned his back on the Riessersee Hotel. Never wanted to go back.
Today March is sitting on the terrace of the Seehaus am Riessersee Hotel. The sun is shining. He has been back in his former training company for a year, working in the young management team with Martina Sand and Rico Haferkorn, which has replaced a hotel director since the crisis in 2015. He owes his return to the woman who sits opposite him for lunch: Dörte Mäder. The managing director has not only brought the resort, which had once fallen into disrepute, back into calm waters. It has lifted the training company into completely new spheres. March found out about this and applied again in 2020. Just like numerous other well-deserved employees who, after the chaos time, which ultimately culminated in 2015 with a training ban for the hostel on the Rießersee, simply enjoy the new work and lifestyle under Maiden's leadership.
Anna Lena Weber from Wallgau receives the state award with a grade point average of 1.0
Anna Lena Weber is also sitting at the table.
The 22-year-old from Wallgau is almost symbolic of the new world that has flourished in the hotel in filet location since Maeger's takeover in 2016.
Weber recently completed her apprenticeship as a hotel manager and even received the state award with a dream grade of 1.0.
“The second in a row,” says Mäder proudly.
Another trainee achieved the same masterpiece in 2019.
A crisis-ridden resort has become a model training company.
Ten apprentices have been successfully trained in the industry since then.
Dörte Mäder knows everyone by name.
Almost everything else has changed as well. The ratings on the “Hotelcareer” page, a portal for hotel applicants, are literally overturning. 80 percent of the current employees there stated that they felt comfortable. Just as many consider the development and advancement opportunities to be extremely positive. That is why Weber will also stay at the Riessersee Hotel. Because she really wants to. “It's so fun to work here,” she says, beaming with genuine joy. She developed her love for the hotel industry at home. Her parents run a small guest house in Wallgau. It was out of the question for her that she was one of the very few in her Abitur class to opt for the hotel industry. And she knew that the industry's reputation was anything but flattering.But she does away with rumors of underpaid and exploited apprentices, and would like to encourage other local young people to opt for gastronomy or a hotel. That is also Mäder's goal. Because many highly qualified and well-paid jobs are still open in the industry, from dishwashers to hotel managers.
Much has rotated 180 degrees in recent years
Employees like event manager Philip Hutner, with whom Weber will work together in the future, can only confirm that.
Like March, he belongs to the ranks of those who have “returned”.
He now even comes to work in his free time to dine with the employees and the boss or just to chat.
“Everything turned 180 degrees,” he says.
Because it was once boiling violently in the Riessersee Hotel. In July 2015, a trainee filed a complaint for assault. In August 2014, an employee is said to have kicked him in the buttocks with a steel toe shoe to such an extent that it tore a tendon. Apparently just the tip of the iceberg. It is said to have often led to further fights. Apprentices were not properly trained. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry then pulled the rip cord and banned the four-star superior resort from providing vocational training. Mäder came as a consultant during the crisis and actually only wanted to stay for a year. But she fell in love with the hotel in a picturesque location - and stayed on as managing director.
Weber will now organize meetings, weddings and other events. In the foreseeable future she wants to start studying hotel business administration and perhaps one day become a boss herself.
