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?

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