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Abstract

for a runway show. The HR representative said it was because they had so many people apply for the receptionist position that they had to keep track of what everyone looked like. After briefly glancing at my resume, she asked a few questions about my experience in hospitality, then complimented my look and outfit, asking if I had ever modelled since she said I had the ‘look’ Soho House liked.After a few minutes, the HR representative went to retrieve the reception manager for the house that I would work at. We chatted for a few minutes about my availability and was offered the job, just like that. Honestly, I was elated to have the job and be part of this secret society known as ‘Soho House’ despite not really knowing what it was before I had seen the job ad.On the first day of the job, I realized nearly every girl on the reception team was very attractive. Most of them were models, actresses, or in between jobs at the moment. It seemed that looks were important to the reception team as we were the ‘face’ of Soho house when members walked in. There was pressure to look beautiful, put together, and pristine at all times.Don’t get me wrong, overall the club’s staff was nice but the reception team was a bit of clusterfuck. There was too much cattiness, moodiness, and jealousy that emerged often among them and other staff. Often at times it felt like I was back in high school with some of the drama amongst the reception team with all the petty arguments, fights, and gossiping. That shit put Gossip Girl to shame before I would start my shift my phone would be buzzing from the Whatsapp groupchat about shift change wars and arguments between our reception team members. I made the wise decision to STFU, keep to myself, and stay neutral like Switzerland among the weekly drama.I ended up spending large chunks of my pay check at Zara buying better clothes to look the Soho House part. I later learned that Soho House gives an allowance to managers to shop with a stylist at Topshop to make sure they always look the part. I ended up doing my hair and makeup hours before my shift to fit in with the glamorous team and environment. Working at Soho House made me more self-conscious about my looks more than ever with me constantly checking my outfit in the mirror, redoing my hair, and feeling insecure whenever an A-list member would come in looking like casual effortless chic while I’m wearing leather pants that don’t fit me and cutting off my circulation.<h2 id="6eef">Your House Manager Ain’t Your Friend and Will Work You to Death</h2>I had the misfortune of having a tyrant for a manager that would go off on the receptionists whenever they was stressed. Between the chain-smoking, non-stop complaints from members, and phone ringing all the time with members demanding to file a complaint over something dramatic that happened to them the night before drunk in the club. Let’s just say working with my reception and house manager was a nightmare. Once, I had a drunk member’s guest puke all over a couch and couldn’t remember where they had put their coat check ticket. In an attempt to check in members and take care of this wandering drunk guest I had called my house manager for help, only to be berated by my manager in front of my co workers, members, and the drunk guest for ‘bothering’ them on a busy Friday night in Central London and figure it out on my own.One of the most difficult parts of working at Soho House was the lack of social life I had working for them. Most of the staff worked long hours, often scheduled to work 6 PM to 2 AM more than few times a week. Despite the glamour and glitz of working at Soho House to my friends in London, I barely saw ANY of them with the long hours I worked and my manager rarely gave me the

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days off I requested on the weekends, due to my ‘commitment’ to Soho House. I worked more than 50 hour weeks at times and despite being paid weekly I ended up getting burnt out quickly and anxious on my days off. The only perk of working there as a thankless employee was that staff meal. I mean, DAMN, that staff meal was good! I dream about some of the meals we were given and the desserts. I will say this, Soho House, you make some fine food, that’s right. You could find me most shifts hiding in coat check at 1 AM chowing down on some chocolate chip cookies I had saved from the staff meal earlier.Some of the managers that had worked there had been with the club since its inception which is why sometimes they would get away with their bad behavior like it was diplomatic immunity. Despite the majority of them being disorganized, biased, and overworked they have all the connections and benefits if you wanted to move on up. If you got in their good graces, heck, you could be meeting a prince for dinner at one of their houses with their connections ala Meghan Markle.<h2 id="bc2e">The Famous Members are Crazy as HELL</h2>For legal purposes, I will not reveal the names of any members that I had encountered, but let’s just say I have some stories that could have made me RICH on TMZ.Like the one time that an actor tried to use the staff entrance to avoid paparazzi without the permission of our reception manager but still did it anyway and ended up breaking the door. This particular member had multiple warnings but still didn’t scare because he was an A-lister. Also we never dared to ask to see his membership card when he came in because he was such a nightmare to deal with.Or about the other time a former washed up actor showed up with a young date old enough to be his daughter and got wasted at the bar to the point the bartenders had to carry him out and call his manager while his young date took selfies with her cocktail with no care in the world.Or my personal unpleasant experience was finding out my co worker was hooking up with a former boy band singer in his hotel room on the clock in one of our houses while I had to cover her absence at the desk. Then when she returned he left the house with a cheeky smile and wink while I grimaced.The things members do when they know no one is watching ( or snapping a photo). That’s not to say that the other famous members that I met were unpleasant because 60% of them were actually quite nice and quite smaller than I anticipated to be honest.C’est la vie. I lasted a few months working at Soho House before I landed a dream internship at my first place of choice and quit my receptionist gig with the QUICKNESS. I learned very quickly that working in central London for a posh ‘members only club’ may have been a good experience and good for my wallet at times ( ESPECIALLY COAT CHECKS ), the toxic nature of the club, the constant turnover in staff, and disorganization of managers and teams — alongside demanding members just ain’t worth it to work long term for such a place. Also, I would like to tell my former house manager what I REALLY thought of him but, alas I have moved on to better things. Somewhere in a well decorated, hip, and half dimmed Soho House in London they’re probably on another firing rampant rage.So, if you want to be a member, go for it. I mean the bragging rights of being a member (that is if you actually get approved and in a timely fashion aka HELL NAH) must outweigh the ridiculous annual membership costs, inability to find a table or seat on a busy weekend at most houses, and extremely loud nights you can barely hear your friends over alternative RnB playlists from Spotify.mic drop</article></body>

Why Working at Soho House Ain’t As Fun As You Think

It was 2018 when I joined the ‘Soho House Family’ or as I personally call it, ‘The House of Chaos’.

At the time I had just finished graduate school and was a broke international student from Canada that had spent the last £100 left in my Barclays account. Basically, I was broke, BROKE. My hunt for an internship/entry-level position in my field of study wasn’t as easy as I thought post graduation.

With my rent due sooner than later, I knew I had to jump into action. On a lazy Sunday morning, I hopped on my laptop and applied for any job that was nearest to my borough to pay the bills from waitressing to nannying.

When I saw an ad for a receptionist at Soho House (for privacy reasons I won’t mention which house I worked for) but a quick showed me some hipster dive bar looking club. What really sold me was when I saw that the pay was weekly (YES), was in close distance to my flat (YES), and had free staff meals ( DOUBLE YES), I blindly applied. It took less than a day to get a phone call from a woman from HR to ask me to come in for an interview. I did what I always do for interviews and researched everything I could find about the place’s mission statement, vision, and goals.

For those of you that live under a rock, Soho House was founded in London, in 1995, as a private members’ club for those in film, media, and creative industries. Since then the club has roughly 119,000 members and 30 clubs around the world, including houses across Europe, North America, and Asia as well as restaurants, cinemas, spas, workspaces, and hotels. For most people, Soho House is the EXCLUSIVE place among creatives, celebs, socialites, and in major cities such as London, New York, and LA. Just check out its massive waiting list for membership at nearly 48,000 folks praying to get their black card to coolness, access to A-list events, and their meme famous house drink ‘picante’.

The drink that got many members wasted on a Friday night at Soho House

I mean…even Kim Kardashian got rejected many times for membership. You could say Soho House membership is more than a popularity game as their membership committee, composed of club members, are the ultimate deciders on who gets access to their houses.One major pull of Soho House membership for its ultra important clientele is their iron clad confidentiality clause for their members and staff which includes no photos and no approaching of guests (mainly celebs) in their houses. That is if any of the members ACTUALLY abide by any of the rules (just scroll through IG and see a million photos taken by members wilding out on their tenth picante on 50% off nights for under 27 members, help me GOD, I still get PTSD having to wrangle people to not dance on the couches to Lady Gaga.)

But……I’m here to tell you as a former employee of one of their houses in London that not all that glitters is gold. Here are my top three reasons why working at Soho House was bull$hit.

Soho House Only Hires People They Deem ‘Attractive’ for Front of House

For my job interview, I had a polaroid taken of me. You would think I was at a casting for a runway show. The HR representative said it was because they had so many people apply for the receptionist position that they had to keep track of what everyone looked like. After briefly glancing at my resume, she asked a few questions about my experience in hospitality, then complimented my look and outfit, asking if I had ever modelled since she said I had the ‘look’ Soho House liked.

After a few minutes, the HR representative went to retrieve the reception manager for the house that I would work at. We chatted for a few minutes about my availability and was offered the job, just like that. Honestly, I was elated to have the job and be part of this secret society known as ‘Soho House’ despite not really knowing what it was before I had seen the job ad.

On the first day of the job, I realized nearly every girl on the reception team was very attractive. Most of them were models, actresses, or in between jobs at the moment. It seemed that looks were important to the reception team as we were the ‘face’ of Soho house when members walked in. There was pressure to look beautiful, put together, and pristine at all times.

Don’t get me wrong, overall the club’s staff was nice but the reception team was a bit of clusterfuck. There was too much cattiness, moodiness, and jealousy that emerged often among them and other staff. Often at times it felt like I was back in high school with some of the drama amongst the reception team with all the petty arguments, fights, and gossiping. That shit put Gossip Girl to shame before I would start my shift my phone would be buzzing from the Whatsapp groupchat about shift change wars and arguments between our reception team members. I made the wise decision to STFU, keep to myself, and stay neutral like Switzerland among the weekly drama.

I ended up spending large chunks of my pay check at Zara buying better clothes to look the Soho House part. I later learned that Soho House gives an allowance to managers to shop with a stylist at Topshop to make sure they always look the part. I ended up doing my hair and makeup hours before my shift to fit in with the glamorous team and environment. Working at Soho House made me more self-conscious about my looks more than ever with me constantly checking my outfit in the mirror, redoing my hair, and feeling insecure whenever an A-list member would come in looking like casual effortless chic while I’m wearing leather pants that don’t fit me and cutting off my circulation.

Your House Manager Ain’t Your Friend and Will Work You to Death

I had the misfortune of having a tyrant for a manager that would go off on the receptionists whenever they was stressed. Between the chain-smoking, non-stop complaints from members, and phone ringing all the time with members demanding to file a complaint over something dramatic that happened to them the night before drunk in the club. Let’s just say working with my reception and house manager was a nightmare. Once, I had a drunk member’s guest puke all over a couch and couldn’t remember where they had put their coat check ticket. In an attempt to check in members and take care of this wandering drunk guest I had called my house manager for help, only to be berated by my manager in front of my co workers, members, and the drunk guest for ‘bothering’ them on a busy Friday night in Central London and figure it out on my own.

One of the most difficult parts of working at Soho House was the lack of social life I had working for them. Most of the staff worked long hours, often scheduled to work 6 PM to 2 AM more than few times a week. Despite the glamour and glitz of working at Soho House to my friends in London, I barely saw ANY of them with the long hours I worked and my manager rarely gave me the days off I requested on the weekends, due to my ‘commitment’ to Soho House. I worked more than 50 hour weeks at times and despite being paid weekly I ended up getting burnt out quickly and anxious on my days off. The only perk of working there as a thankless employee was that staff meal. I mean, DAMN, that staff meal was good! I dream about some of the meals we were given and the desserts. I will say this, Soho House, you make some fine food, that’s right. You could find me most shifts hiding in coat check at 1 AM chowing down on some chocolate chip cookies I had saved from the staff meal earlier.

Some of the managers that had worked there had been with the club since its inception which is why sometimes they would get away with their bad behavior like it was diplomatic immunity. Despite the majority of them being disorganized, biased, and overworked they have all the connections and benefits if you wanted to move on up. If you got in their good graces, heck, you could be meeting a prince for dinner at one of their houses with their connections ala Meghan Markle.

The Famous Members are Crazy as HELL

For legal purposes, I will not reveal the names of any members that I had encountered, but let’s just say I have some stories that could have made me RICH on TMZ.

Like the one time that an actor tried to use the staff entrance to avoid paparazzi without the permission of our reception manager but still did it anyway and ended up breaking the door. This particular member had multiple warnings but still didn’t scare because he was an A-lister. Also we never dared to ask to see his membership card when he came in because he was such a nightmare to deal with.

Or about the other time a former washed up actor showed up with a young date old enough to be his daughter and got wasted at the bar to the point the bartenders had to carry him out and call his manager while his young date took selfies with her cocktail with no care in the world.

Or my personal unpleasant experience was finding out my co worker was hooking up with a former boy band singer in his hotel room on the clock in one of our houses while I had to cover her absence at the desk. Then when she returned he left the house with a cheeky smile and wink while I grimaced.

The things members do when they know no one is watching ( or snapping a photo). That’s not to say that the other famous members that I met were unpleasant because 60% of them were actually quite nice and quite smaller than I anticipated to be honest.

C’est la vie. I lasted a few months working at Soho House before I landed a dream internship at my first place of choice and quit my receptionist gig with the QUICKNESS. I learned very quickly that working in central London for a posh ‘members only club’ may have been a good experience and good for my wallet at times ( ESPECIALLY COAT CHECKS ), the toxic nature of the club, the constant turnover in staff, and disorganization of managers and teams — alongside demanding members just ain’t worth it to work long term for such a place. Also, I would like to tell my former house manager what I REALLY thought of him but, alas I have moved on to better things. Somewhere in a well decorated, hip, and half dimmed Soho House in London they’re probably on another firing rampant rage.

So, if you want to be a member, go for it. I mean the bragging rights of being a member (that is if you actually get approved and in a timely fashion aka HELL NAH) must outweigh the ridiculous annual membership costs, inability to find a table or seat on a busy weekend at most houses, and extremely loud nights you can barely hear your friends over alternative RnB playlists from Spotify.

*mic drop*