Melonie Johnson had her work lower out for her. She solely began her job as president and chief working officer of the Borgata in Atlantic Metropol
Melonie Johnson had her work lower out for her. She solely began her job as president and chief working officer of the Borgata in Atlantic Metropolis on Could 29 amid the raging coronavirus pandemic that pressured on line casino closures throughout the nation.
Simply days earlier, the nation had been horror-struck by the police killing of unarmed Black man George Floyd in Minneapolis, which triggered protests nationwide, some turning violent.
“Throughout this present local weather, there was simply a lot occurring with Covid-19, Black Lives Matter,” Johnson recounts, about getting the decision asking her to maneuver from MGM Resorts’ Nationwide Harbor property in Maryland to New Jersey. “Relocating from Virginia, to Atlantic Metropolis, was considerably scary for me. However I knew the corporate wanted me at this property.”
Although new to New Jersey and all of the challenges of a metropolis that was struggling to burnish its model even earlier than the pandemic, Johnson is not new to casinos. She joined MGM in 2015 as president and COO of the Gold Strike On line casino in Tunica, Mississippi earlier than main Nationwide Harbor. She had additionally labored for Caesars and for a number of Hollywood casinos.
However the Borgata job requires a brand new form of nimbleness due to the virus that continues to unfold unabated in lots of components of the nation.
Johnson presided over a closed on line casino for the primary month — with out ever assembly most of her workers face-to-face. However she knew lots of them had been scared, coping with disabilities or caring for members of the family at excessive danger for an infection.
“We’re all human beings first, and take into consideration how you’ll need to be handled and begin with that. It is like, how are we going to open this enterprise,” Johnson instructed CNBC. “We will not simply be greenback targeted … All companies are in enterprise to make a revenue. However proper now we have to place humanity first.”
Nonetheless, Johnson says when she requested employees to come back again, 94% of them stated, “Sure.”
However simply because the New Jersey cleared the best way for casinos to reopen on July 2, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy put the brakes on indoor eating due to rising an infection charges across the nation the place eating places had reopened.
That created an enormous, speedy headache for Atlantic Metropolis’s casino-resorts that wanted to determine easy methods to feed on line casino guests and resort visitors.
Caesars, Laborious Rock, Ocean On line casino and others on the famed-boardwalk cobbled collectively out of doors eating choices or “to-go” meals and opened July 2.
The Borgata opted to delay opening for one more three weeks.
“We held again till we felt that we had been prepared. And we might present the expertise that our visitors had grown to count on.”
Now with out of doors cafes, meals truck and in-room eating, the Borgata reopened, by invitation solely July 23rd — and can welcome again most people Sunday.
The workers who’ve come again will discover a very completely different office with plexiglass shields, obligatory masks and a brand new boss.
Johnson, the primary African-American girl to guide an Atlantic Metropolis on line casino, is assured in Borgata’s means to get well and makes it clear security for workers and prospects is the highest precedence.
When requested about her first day in a brand new job, in a brand new metropolis, reopening amid a pandemic and the way it’s going, Johnson replied with a smile, “Higher than I might have imagined.”