I was Skyping with a friend on the other side of the U.K. this morning. My friend is currently working in a fast food restaurant while looking for a job in H.R./Learning and Development, having recently completed a masters degree in Human Resources Management. While we were speaking, her manager at the restaurant called her. According to him, she was supposed to be in work at 11.00 this morning, despite not having finished her previous shift until 00.30 this morning. His tone of voice sounded quite threatening on the phone, although I was unable to hear exactly what he was saying. My friend excused herself from the conversation with me, saying that she had to get to work as quickly as possible, as there was no-one else there apart from the manager. My friend was not, in fact, due to be at work until midday.
My first reaction was to be angry with the store manager, but then I started to look at the bigger picture. Perhaps it is the whole culture of the business that is at fault. Maybe there is a climate of fault-finding and not praising. I know my friend is trying to deliver great service to her customers, my question is – is the culture of the company she is working for supporting that or destroying it?
As I said to her, hopefully she will herself learn from this experience, and when she is eventually successful in securing a role in H.R. or L&D, she will promote a culture of supporting the front line people in the business rather than destroying them.
We have forgot how to manage. People like your friend’s manage shouldn’t be managing. How things are said is far more important than what is uttered. Hopefully this guy will get short shrift from their boss and recognise how lousy it feels.
Thanks David and good to hear from you again. In my opinion, this guy might already be getting short shrift from his boss, and that might be the reason for his behaviour. In my experience, we tend to use those ‘above’ us in the hierarchy as role models, so if a manager is shouted and screamed at by his or her manager, they may go down that road themselves, despite subconsciously knowing that this is unproductive behaviour. Who ever went and smiled at a customer and delivered great service after they had been shouted at by their boss?
This indeed is not the way forward to internal customer satisfaction or development but a strategy to diminish the managers hunger for power and domination. The example mentioned by you Mr. Graham is a true reflection of the above mentioned. This brings me to think what would be the organisation’s culture then? What would be its strategy for external customer satisfaction? What would good look like to them 🙂
I think that is a good question, Hina. I don’t suppose that store manager ever gets time to think about what good looks like. He is probably spending too much time keeping his boss happy to worry about what good looks like for him!
Heya i am for the first time here. I came across this board and I find It
really useful & it helped me out much. I hope to give something back and help others like you aided
me.