Rukshila Sumali
de Silva Wysocki
Supervisor breakfast service
(ATLANTIC Hotel Kiel)
"My adventure in the hotel industry started in Sri Lanka, where I was born. There I completed my apprenticeship in hotel management and gained my first professional experience.
I came to Germany in 2010. A German family, which was a guest in one of the hotels in Sri Lanka, invited me. After a 3-month language course I returned to Sri Lanka. But I was convinced that my return to Germany was only a matter of time.
And so it happened - in 2012 I came back to Germany. This time with the intention of staying here permanently. I knew the ATLANTIC Hotel Kiel from my first stay in Germany - at that time it was still a construction site. In 2012, the hotel had already been built and was looking for employees. I remembered my visit to the job fair, where I met the first employees of the ATLANTIC Hotel Kiel at the booth - they invited me for an interview. My bad knowledge of German did not allow me to conduct the entire conversation in German, so it was partly in German and partly in English.
>> Luckily, there was a very friendly and open-minded atmosphere during the conversation and nobody seemed to be bothered by my German skills. <<
So in 2012 I started working at the ATLANTIC Hotel Kiel as a service employee on an hourly basis in the hotel restaurant. From that moment on, everything happened very quickly, the work was intense and I had to learn a lot in a short time. There were many moments when I came home exhausted and with aching legs. But I always tried to come back with the feeling that I did my best that day to make our guests happy. In 2017, I was promoted to supervisor. Since then, I have been responsible for running the buffet in the morning hours.
"It is the contact with the guests that I enjoy most about my job."
On the one hand, I really enjoy meeting new people, breaking down barriers and joking with them. On the other hand, many of our guests return regularly and with some I have already built bonds that have survived even the difficult times of the pandemic in our industry.
The most recent change in my life is that I became a mother. In 2020 I gave birth to a son - his name is Antoni. Being a mother is the most demanding role in my life. But it also gives me a great feeling of satisfaction and pride.
It's not always easy to balance working in a hotel with being a mother, especially because I often have to work on the weekends. Fortunately, my husband and I found a way to divide the housework and caring for our son so that we can both be active in our careers while still being able to enjoy our family life."
