Luxury hotel manager fired after making vulgar Ash Wednesday remarks

CatholicNewsAgency ^ | New York City, N.Y., Mar 26, 2009

[GonzoII]

Luxury hotel manager fired after making vulgar Ash Wednesday remarks

The New York Palace Hotel / Niklaus Leuenberger

New York City, N.Y., Mar 26, 2009 / 11:56 pm (CNA).- The manager of the luxurious New York Palace Hotel was fired after obscenely ordering a Catholic employee to clean the ashes from his forehead on Ash Wednesday.

According to the New York Daily News, on Feb. 25 the hotel’s managing director Niklaus Leuenberger told bell captain Mike Murray “Wipe that f-----g s--t off your face,” referring to the ashes Murray had received at an Ash Wednesday service.

The 893-room five-star hotel is 55 stories tall and is on Madison Avenue across the street from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The hotel leases its land from the Catholic Church.

Hotel spokeswoman Teresa Delaney told the Daily News that Leuenberger’s employment was terminated as of Monday. He had worked at the hotel since May 2007.

Christopher Cowdray, head of the London-based Dorchester Collection which owns the hotel, flew to New York City to personally end Leuenberger’s employment.

“We take the well-being of our employees extremely seriously and that is why our CEO, Mr. Cowdray, went to New York in person to deal with this matter,” the company said.

Bell captain Murray said the general manager wanted the ashes off, “and he knows he was wrong.” He told the Daily News that he had never been approached on a religious issue before. Murray, who had worked at the hotel for 25 years, also said he had no plans to sue.

Nigel Badminton, who was previously the resident manager at the Dorchester in London, is now the acting general manager at the New York Palace.

Copyright @ CNA
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com)

[GonzoII]

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Lot’s of ‘Happy Ending’ stories around here this morning! Keep up the good work. :)

[WayneS]

Why does it seem that so many managers of “5-star” hotels and chefs at “5-star” restaurants are such arrogant, condescending, jerks?

Aren’t they really just glorified inn-keepers and cooks?

[Izzy Dunne]

Murray [...] also said he had no plans to sue.

I'm sure somebody can help with those plans, Mike.

[End Times Sentinel]

Why does it seem that so many managers of “5-star” hotels and chefs at “5-star” restaurants are such arrogant, condescending, jerks?

I worked my way through college in a 5-Star. Actually, much of the time as a bellman.

Most of the staff were guys in college, and a large amount of entrepreneurs, people who owned investment properties or other businesses who needed a steady income and insurance.

One evening, one of our particularly bothersome managers was eating in the employee dining room when a line worker from another department sat across from him and asked "What's it like to manage a bunch of guys who are smarter, better educated, more successful, and make more money than you? That must be tough, huh?"

Classic.

[St. Louis Conservative]

Kudos to Mr. Cowdray. This CEO has respect and integrity.

[hoosierham]

When I worked in retail in the 1990s;the corporate elite from New Yorkcame in to tour our store and warehouse;the fellows were wearing $500 suits but had the demeanor and speech of local punks.They didn’t consult with the local team,they delivered demands and orders laced with obscenities and threats of firings.I wondered if they got their MBA from the Mafia?

[DManA]

said he had no plans to sue.

Probably because they’ll hire him back after the public attention has shifted.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Inappropriate approach to the matter, granted.

[ETL]

Could you imagine all the things he must have said and done prior to this that didn’t get public exposure. I’d bet the workers there were terrified of him.

[Thrownatbirth]

Niklaus didn’t wonder about the lines of people snaking around St. Patrick’s Cathedral - right behind his hotel?

[ETL]

Niklaus Leuenberger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Niklaus Leuenberger (c. 1615 – August 27, 1653) was a leader of the Swiss peasant war of 1653.

He signed the Treaty of Mellingen along with Christian Schybi on June 4, 1653.

After the defeat of the peasants at Herzogenbuchsee in the same month, he was delivered to the Bernese authorities. He was executed by decapitation and drawn and quartered on August 27. His head was nailed to the gallows, and the four parts of his body exhibited on the four highways out Bern.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niklaus_Leuenberger

[MarkL]

said he had no plans to sue.

Probably because they’ll hire him back after the public attention has shifted.

From the article:

Murray, who had worked at the hotel for 25 years, also said he had no plans to sue.

It was the bell captain who said he had no plans to sue, not the fired manager. I think that it was awesome that one of the top dogs of the company flew out to terminate the manager himself!

Mark

[motoman]

It was the bell-boy who was slandered who stated that he had no plans to sue, not the idiot manager who was fired.

[WayneS]

He wasn’t fired.

His boss was.

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Well no wonder he did not know what he was doing he lost his head back in the 1500’s...lol.

[GonzoII]

Ping.

[Hacklehead]

“It was the bell-boy who was slandered who stated that he had no plans to sue, not the idiot manager who was fired.”

He turned the other cheek. I wonder where he learned that?

[DManA]

Thanks.

[beethovenfan]

“Nigel Badminton”??? Sounds like a character in a Monty Python sketch.