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What is this?
Is it any wonder there is no workplace loyalty?
Published Monday, October 12, 2009
Recently I stopped at a fast food restaurant in the area. I stepped up to the counter, placed my order and stepped back to wait. Another gentleman arrived and did the same thing and stepped back to wait at my side. We didn’t expect fireworks while we waited for our food.
Soon the manager found something wrong with the way an employee had changed the milk. This manager proceeded in a loud voice to holler — yes, I will use the word holler — at her employees. This manager berated her employees up and down and in a loud voice that could be heard throughout the entire restaurant. The problem did not seem to be that serious an offense to the onlooker, but it led to a 10-minute tirade.
The gentleman and I looked at each other and at the same time said, “I am so glad I don’t work here.” Most of the employees in this fast food restaurant at the moment I was there were teenagers.
Afterward, I wondered if the employees had been adults whether the manager would have dared to treat them the way she was treating these teenagers. The teenagers went about their job still treating customers with respect as this manager treated them with little respect. Because of her reaction, I had to wonder if the manager actually got her point across by her method rather than explaining the problem in a calm voice without letting the entire establishment know she was unhappy.
Julie Seedorf
These teenagers may eventually become a manager or a boss somewhere in the workplace. How will they treat their employees? Will they learn by example or will they learn by remembering how they felt to be disrespected?
Another friend and I recently had a conversation about the workplace. She had recently retired from a management position. She told me that part of her job was to listen to unhappy employees and find a solution. I asked her why they were unhappy.
She replied: “It’s not the money; it is the lack of appreciation for their time and talents. The upper management is very hard to work for, and I could not do anything about that. These employees just want to feel appreciated.”
In recent weeks there have been many stories in the news about employees being let go from a position that they have held for a long time. The employees weren’t given weeks notice, they were given minutes notice to vacate and leave their jobs.
I find it interesting that if a person quits a job they are required to give a week or two-weeks notice, but management is not held to that same standard. Is it any wonder that we do not have loyalty in the workplace anymore?
With the economy struggling, people who still have their jobs know that it is crucial they keep these jobs even if they are unhappy with their job. Could managers and bosses make a difference just by the way they treat their employees? Would making their employees feel appreciated help the stress level of their employees and improve the quality and production of their company?
I have to admit I saw red when this manager person was yelling at her employees. I held my temper and sat back and watched and did nothing. It was not my place to intervene at the time, but had all the customers in the restaurant wrote to management, maybe the environment would have been changed.
It is also very easy for me to judge what happened that day. Perhaps this manager was getting pressure from her manager and the effect was a trickle-down from corporate. Everyone is trying to keep their jobs in the best way that they know how. It creates stress, it creates anxiety, it creates fear and it makes us behave in a way we didn’t know we were capable of behaving.
There are many good companies and many good managers who have learned that treating their employees with respect and showing them appreciation keeps people happy. It increases production, work attendance and loyalty.
The workplace is different in 2009. Companies are bigger; people are becoming a name without a face and a number. Orders get passed down through ranks so they can be carried out by other people in the company. We may feel helpless about the decisions made for us that we have to pass down to others. Individually, we do have a choice in the way we carry those orders out and pass them down to others.
What is your management style? Does it make or break your employees?
Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send e-mail to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net or visit her blog at www.justalittlefluff.blogspot.com.
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Comments
Posted by momlady (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 8:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is SO TRUE! People would actually work for less money if they felt more appreciated. I have worked for a man who taught management classes: every day when I went home, he found a way to express appreciation for the work I had done that day. You would think corporations would figure this out.
Posted by realtree (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 9:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
you should have dropped a line or email to corporate! I had to do the same after a manager berated a teen at another fast food restaurant about the way he was mopping the sitting area with about 25 customers watching! just because they are young does not mean an adult can treat them this way they are supposed to TEACH THEM!!!
Posted by anasgrammy (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 10:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)
i don't think anyone has the right to berate and hollar at their employees for any reason. if theres a problem it should be handled in private not with a full audience. how embarassing that had to be for the employee. i know one person who lets their position go to their head and hollars at adults as if they were naughty children. its humiliating to the employee and that affects the work you're going to get from them. a happy employee is a productive employee.
Posted by standingby (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 10:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
With the job situation now, it seems employers feel employees should be grateful or something to have a job and are forced to put up with this type of unacceptable treatment. When and if the economy improves and more jobs open up you can bet people being treated this way will be gone. Respect is earned, not a given. The old saying " a happy employee is a productive employee" holds true in any job setting. My heart goes to the young adults or others working in this type of situation. I think coporate should be made aware, although they probably are the ones that teach this type of behavior to the management in these places!
Posted by BabyGotBack (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 1:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Julie Seedorf: Actually, it is your place or right to say something. You are the customer and this manager made you, as the customer, feel uncomfortable even though the tirade wasn't directed at you.
There is nothing wrong with speaking your mind in those situations - how else are people going to learn? I don't care what kind of pressure that manager was under, that doesn't give her the excuse or right to talk to someone like that. It upset the environment of the restaurant and that impacts everyone there.
I hope that manager is reading this and feels like a fool. Respect people!
Posted by amauer (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 2:18 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Although I have seen similar actions, and agree with most you have said, employees are NOT required to give two weeks notice. The most common way of quitting these days is to just stop showing up for work. Inexperience and poor training is the main reason managers abuse their staff. It is rampant on both side these days. I was at a very busy pizza place recently and an oven was malfunctioning. You would not believe how rude the customers were to the staff who helplessly worked on. One man yelled at and demanded a staff pay him his change out of his own pocket or he would walk out without paying. This was while the cashier was trying to reload the receipt roll! This surly older man I would not doubt attends church on Sundays. The last thing the kid said was "have a nice night!" He even looked like he meant it.
Posted by BabyGotBack (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 3:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
That is out of line as well. I would have told that man to put a sock in it and pipe down. What a jerk. And I hope he reads this too and feels like a jackass.
It is all about respect for others.
Posted by 1PoopedMom (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 3:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I wish you would have called or written to the owner or corp hq. Teens being abused in workplace settings is a quiet epidemic. This includes teens being physically and sexually abused as well. We teach our kids to respect authority and so they often feel confused when workplace abuse occurs and don't report it or mention it to their families.
Please, if you witness teenagers being treated inappropriately on the job REPORT IT. Also if you have teenage family members in the work force, take the time to explain to them that they do not have to endure abuse of any sort and ask them to always report any problems with authority figures or anyone else.
Posted by crzy_mama2mny (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 4:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
babygotback....I like the way you think! Mean people suck!
Posted by mar (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 5:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree, that all abuse and harassment should be reported to the company. Anyone that has to endure that to make a living very much deserves apology and even compensation. ....and if that manager doesn't get reprimanded, and business continue like that, they should expect to be OUT OF BUSINESS SOON.
The Names of these businesses should be posted on a locally known site, so that owners can be made aware, and the owners should have to post a response to what was done. Some consolation to both the abused employee and the persons who watched.
Very good article to be put out there. I hope this column will make change! I realize that some employees are challenged by certain positions, or not interested in working (just getting paid) and it can be difficult.....but a Manager has to at all times handle people with dignity and professionalism, or find another type of job.
Posted by RobinRussell (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 7:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I also had a similar situation like this at one of the fast food resturants in town. I found the name of the man to contact, as I didn't think confronting the manager doing the belittling would do any good at the moment. My concern was if they would mistreat the teenagers in front of a store full of customers, what were they doing and saying to them in the office!? The regional manager was glad I had called and told me he had not heard anything like this before. Yet I had heard from several people they had the same experiance at the same resturant! If everyone of those people had called to complain and expressed their disgust at what took place perhaps the environment might have changed before I experianced it. But change cannot happen if management does not know it's going on! Don't be afraid to stick up for these teenagers who are still learning how to work! I even told the regional manager that I wanted to know for certain he was going to take care of it and make sure it doesn't happen again!
Posted by BabyGotBack (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 9:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you crzy_mama2mny!
RobinRussell - good for you for taking a stand and doing something. We need people to take action.
mar - good idea to get this information out there for the public to see.
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