A towering turn
Ex-parole officer hits stride in hospitality biz at One Dalton
At the Four Seasons One Dalton, Janet Shaw lays down the accounting law.
Now the assistant director of finance for the luxury hotel and residence complex, she sat down with the Track to share how she went from a job as a junior parole officer to a career in hospitality — with a recording studio side hustle to boot.
“I had an all-girls caseload that ranged in charges from shoplifting to manslaughter, so it ran the whole gamut,” Janet said of her past correctional profession. “I got them right out of court when they were committed to the state, supervised them through custody when they were in lockup and then post-release in the community.”
“It was chaotic,” she continued. “At its max, I had about 70 girls. I had to keep track of everything, like the social drama and the boyfriend issues and how they triggered fighting and truancy. I had to understand them as people all around so I could then try to strategically set them up for success.”
In search of a calmer schedule, Janet decided to go to graduate school. She was planning on returning to criminal justice on a more administrative level, but she instead stumbled into hospitality.
“When I was in grad school, I needed a quieter job because I couldn’t do school and manage these kids,” Janet said. “I applied to a hotel to answer phones, so I could work in a quiet space and study and write papers at the same time.”
“My life went from this high-intensity, thousandmile-an-hour pace to a really quiet, slow pace, and I felt bored to death,” she added. “I started to get a little nosey and I think that’s how this developed.”
Janet started taking on more responsibilities, handling reservations and tackling front desk tasks. She ended up with a night auditor position, which caught the attention of a controller and pulled her into the accounting department.
“I was halfway through (grad school) and realized I liked this better,” Janet said. “I’m not getting shot at, I’m not chasing kids through the streets, I go home at night at the same time.”
“When I was working in criminal justice, it was around the clock,” she said. “I had two phones, three sets of cuffs on me. I had ankle monitors piled up in my living room. My life was just crazy.”
Now working at the Four Seasons One Dalton, Janet’s work is less stressful. But she still has a chance to tap into her inner enforcer when she’s off the clock, providing backup to her husband, Andrew, as they run EZ
Street Productions, a professional recording studio in their Dorchester home.
“It’s mostly me and she polices me, basically,” Andrew laughed. “It’s always been a passion of mine. I’ve been doing music in and outside of Boston for a long time as a DJ and about 10 years ago, it developed into the recording studio that it is now.”
The Shaws built out their basement, soundproofing it and transforming it into a studio that helps people record everything from music to podcasts.
“It’s full-time in the sense that I have to find time,” Andrew said. “I do have a regular job in electrical engineering, but I do this like every other day, nights, weekends to dedicate to it.” “He’d never say anything, but the studio has become a home away from home for a lot of artists,” Janet added. “We get inquiries from bigname celebrities who are in town. We get producers who are visiting while they’re on tour.”
“It’s become this kind of underground safe space where people can go — we’re quiet, we’ve got security,” she added, pointing to herself and laughing.