Day 203 - 12 Jan 96 - Page 65
1 Coton explained to me he found it difficult to work with me
2 as I was constantly looking over his shoulder for faults in
3 the restaurant."
4
5 Is that how your relationship developed with Ray Coton,
6 that once you became Supervisor he just felt you were
7 looking over his shoulder for faults?
8 A. I can understand how he would see it that way. I have
9 said to you already that I made it clear that I was there
10 to help and that I wanted to help and that I would do
11 whatever I could to help and whatever it took to get the
12 restaurants on an even keel. You know, what more assurance
13 you want from somebody than that, I do not know; and I also
14 demonstrated that in terms of my activities and the number
15 of times I came to the restaurant to follow up on Managers
16 for him.
17
18 If, however, he had something to worry about -- which,
19 again, with the benefit of hindsight, might explain why he
20 felt that he could not work with me looking over his
21 shoulder, because, clearly, if he was fiddling clock cards
22 (which he has said he was), clearly -- you know, sooner or
23 later, there were so many things in the restaurant that
24 were wrong, sooner or later he may have felt that he was
25 going to carry the can; and, indeed, he would. So, you
26 know, I think I understand his predicament, his position,
27 and I think it is a reasonable one for him to say that he
28 is in.
29
30 Q. Everybody at McDonald's at every level, would it not be
31 true to say, feels that there is somebody is looking over
32 their shoulder to find fault with what they are doing?
33 A. Totally untrue, totally untrue. You quite clearly have
34 got no concept of McDonald's. It is an open culture in
35 which people are encouraged to challenge their bosses.
36 I encourage my current subordinates to challenge me. We
37 work as part of an open culture. I never cease to be
38 amazed at the fact that I can talk to very senior people in
39 the Company quite easily in a very relaxed manner and they
40 encourage me as an individual; and that has pretty much
41 always been the case; though I have to say we have got high
42 standards and Restaurant Managers and, when I was a
43 Restaurant Manager, the same was true. You expect to have
44 a lot of things to do, and a lot of them constitute ongoing
45 maintenance and repair to the restaurant, cleanliness,
46 maintaining the systems and so on in the restaurant. There
47 are a lot of things to do, and it needs some sort of
48 follow-up to help you keep on top of those. That is the
49 position.
50
51 Q. Well, is it true that everybody in the hierarchy is looking
52 down at those below them to find faults with what they are
53 doing?
54 A. No, simply just not true; and it would be a totally
55 unproductive situation if it was. We are a successful
56 Company, as you well know.
57
58 Q. Could not that perception, whether right or wrong, be one
59 of the reasons there is such a high turnover in the Company
60 at all levels?
