Day 268 - 24 Jun 96 - Page 30
1 To control overheads one of the first action plans was to
2 cut staff labour costs. This meant that the shifts were
3 run without adequate staff. However, McDonald's pride
4 themselves on QSC, quality, service, cleanliness. When the
5 stores were understaffed, the quality service and
6 cleanliness were not as good as they otherwise had been.
7 The staff who were working would have to do twice the level
8 of work resulting in friction between staff and management
9 team. Consequently, customers would receive poor service.
10
11 Bossy management
12 It seems in many cases that the majority of the managers
13 are on an `ego trip' and are `power crazy'. This
14 behavioural pattern exists at all levels from senior
15 supervisors down to floor managers. If your post is above
16 store level in the hierarchy system, a supervisor for
17 example, your views would not be noticed at shop floor
18 level. For political reasons, decisions would be executed
19 through the lower levels of management. However, at store
20 level, it is easy to identify the power crazy individual as
21 he is directly in touch with the staff. The simple ways to
22 identify such individuals is by the unnecessary actions
23 they take which make them stand out by the proverbial store
24 thumb, such as:
25 a. The issue of unnecessary verbal warnings.
26 b. Condescending attitudes.
27 c. Deliberate humiliation of staff members in front of
28 peers.
29 d. The constant derision and criticism about staff who are
30 not members of your particular clique to both other members
31 of staff and the management team itself.
32 e. Fabrication of information against unpopular staff
33 members in order to ensure the support of the rest of the
34 team in attempt to get rid of the particular member of
35 staff by making life unbearable using tactics such as
36 1. Reducing shift working hours.
37 2. Placing them on undesirable areas on a constant basis.
38 3. Placing them on that persons "hated area" on a constant
39 basis.
40 4. Condescending and patronizing attitude towards staff
41 member.
42 5. Harassment and making life so unbearable that the staff
43 member has no option but to resign as previous complains
44 are ignored.
45 6. Victimization.
46 7. Discrimination.
47 8. If sufficient "proof" of a crime or misdemeanour can be
48 found, members are asked to choose to resign or be sacked.
49 If they resign they get a reference; if they are sacked
50 they will not.
51 f. Blackmailing staff to work double shifts using terms
52 such as:
53 1. Lack of commitment to team.
54 2. Such lack will be remembered in future.
55 3. Won't get adequate shifts in future.
56 4. Will get poor performance review resulting in lack of
57 pay rise.
58 g. Unnecessary verbal warnings - see copy of my case for
59 race relations.
60
