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.

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.