Faking A Smile For Money
On being a hostess
Hostesses have a few requirements; they have to have good manners, and they have to present well. That means a pretty face, a thin body, and a warm smile. They have to be able to play the part — the artificial show of beauty event organizers put together. When companies need hostesses to make their guests feel welcome, it’s not a good sign.
A few months ago I worked as a hostess at corporate events. Doing that type of job, a useless one for money, brought me back to my old marketing days working for a tech giant in London. Yet back then, I was doing something considered admirable compared to standing on foot like a model, there to show people something attractive and make them feel welcome.
I wasn’t glad to do it, but I needed the green dollar bills. I had been out of a job for a year and a half after moving for love to a third-world country with no prospects of employment.
My most recent hostess job was for a mining company’s Christmas Party. It took place in a hockey stadium — that’s how big it was. There were a thousand people. Most were in their prime, wearing expensive outfits, seemingly rolling the gold freshly extracted from the company’s blood hands. I was told the party cost millions; it was decadence at its best.
