Pedro and Felix were good friends who worked out regularly at the Muscle
Man ’ s Gym in their community. By coincidence, Pedro was the Dining Room
Manager in an upscale restaurant in a local hotel, and Felix was the Director of
Housekeeping at a resort with a similar business volume within easy commuting
distance of the community where both men lived. Not surprisingly, their jobs
were a frequent topic of conversation after they completed their workouts.
“ Felix, we ’ve talked about this so many times before, ” said Pedro. “ It ’ s hard
to believe that our employers are in the same basic business, and hire the same
types of people, and yet their philosophies about human resources are so
different. ”
“ I agree, ” said Felix. “ At my resort the emphasis is on, first, the guests, second
on maximizing profit, and third on the employees. We churn through a lot
of staff members who start out with a positive attitude about their work and
whose morale then goes quickly downhill as they are confronted with things
that really shouldn ’ t happen. ”
“ Give me an example, ” replied Pedro. “ Some of your stories are really
fascinating. ”
“ Well, ” responded Felix, “ my most recent stories are really the same old
thing. We use out - of - date job descriptions to recruit employees and, many
times, there ’ s little resemblance between what new staff think they ’ re going to
be doing and what they will actually do. Orientation sessions are done whenever
there is time, training is done on - the - run, and if the staff members don ’ t
learn quickly, top - level managers conclude that it ’ s because they don ’ t care, not
because they haven ’ t been properly trained. ”
“ A lot of our supervisors have been there for a long time and really don ’ t
care about the organization or their staff members. They sure don ’ t treat staff
the way they would want to be treated themselves. ”
“ Performance appraisals focus on what staff members do wrong, not on
what they can do right and how they can improve. There is an ongoing emphasis
on job rather than on career, and many employees seem to just mark their
time until there is a position vacancy at your hotel. ”
Pedro had heard Felix talk about these issues many times before. His hotel
was, in fact, an employer of choice where many persons in the community did
want to work and, subsequently, where employee turnover rates were low. In
fact, Pedro had long ago agreed to let Felix know if and when the Executive
Housekeeper position vacancy at the hotel became available.
Pedro wondered why Felix ’ s employer didn ’ t seem to be concerned about
the problem and wasn ’ t doing anything to address the concerns. To Pedro, they
seemed like commonsense issues that had relatively simple fixes. He realized,
however, that attitudes were much more difficult to change than procedures
were to revise.
After thinking about it for a moment, Pedro said, “ Felix, things are going to
have to change at the resort, aren ’ t they? You ’ ve mentioned that business is getting
slower. Maybe it ’ s because employees aren ’ t treated well and they, in turn,
are less concerned about the guests. We both know that we ’ ll soon have another
hotel in town, and the human resources people there will be aggressively searching
for new staff members. If things don ’ t change at your property, things will
get even worse than they are now. ”
“ You ’ re right about that, Pedro, ” said Felix. “ Our highest- level managers
should already know that they are hurting themselves with their current
employee practices. The point will really be driven home, and it will happen a
lot sooner than they think. ”