In Reply to: This is not McD policy posted by Tom on June 29, 1996 at 10:30:22:
Obviously there will be differences in a company's written policy procedures and how it actually conducts itself in the "market-place". A degree of naivety must be self-evident if you believe that because something is certified as company policy it will automatically be diligently obeyed. Take for example one of McDonald's counterparts - Pizza Hut. I happened to worked there for two years and observed precisely how the system operates. It was company policy then to place 16 slices of pepperoni on each supreme and other similarly based pizzas. When however it came down to actually doing this I was instructed to only place 12 or 13. When I asked why this was so, I was told it was towards the effort of cost-cutting. In amazement I protested that it would be to the detriment of the customer. But in my own naivety, I didn't realise the importance of presenting good figures to one's superiors. A situation in which all store-level managers consistently find themselves. On one hand they are berated for actions such as the one just mentioned and on the other hand they must maintain miniscule levels of costs.In this tug-of-war something must give way. Exactly the same principles I'm sure were responsible for the manager's actions in the "cooking dirty meat" situation. If caught by his/her superior they would likely be heavily reprimanded in a fashion such as the manner descibed gloatingly by you - "I have sacked two superiors for doing such things". What your obviously didn't realise was that through your subtle pressure to avoid costs, the personnel were trying to please you by not wasting food. In short, upper-level managers live in an unrealistic and idyllic company environment which places pressure on subordinates to tow the line on company policy on one hand yet fastidiously contain costs on the other.