I Never Wanted to Be a Supervisor AnywayâJohn is a food server at the Lakeside Inn, a 200-room hotel with a coffee shop and a full-service restaurant called Hummingbirds. Two years ago, John started out as a bus person in the coffee shop, but because of his outstanding performance he was quickly transferred to Hummingbirds and made a food server.Johnâs excellent record continued in his new position. John was always on time, was great with the guests, and was a real team player. When the bus persons fell behind, he helped them catch up without being asked. When another server needed help, John was always willing to take on tables in addition to his own. He also got along well with the cooks. Within weeks at his new position, he knew everyoneâs name and was usually the center of attention in the employee breakroom.As time went by, he won employee of the month so many times it became somewhat embarrassing.Phil Brown, the dining room supervisor at Hummingbirds, was Johnâs boss.Because John got along with the staff so well, Phil asked John to fill in for him every Wednesdayâone of Philâs days off and the slowest day of the week for the restaurant. John seemed to do a good job in this role. Serious problems seldom came up on Wednesdays, and if one did, John would tell Phil about it on Thursday morning so Phil could take care of it.When Phil was made restaurant manager of another hotel in the chain, he encouraged John to apply for his position. âI think youâd make a great supervisor.The job will be posted internally for three days, and Iâm not sure whoâs going to apply, but you can count on me for a glowing recommendation.â Phil not only thought this would be good for John, but also knew that the company encouraged from within; additionally, it would be a feather in Philâs cap if one of his employees took over his position and succeeded in it.At first, John was not enthusiastic about the supervisor jobââI really enjoy what Iâm doing,â he told Philâbut, bolstered by Philâs confidence in him, he finally decided to apply. His interview was with three people: Phil; Philâs boss, Alan, the restaurant manager; and Susan, the hotelâs human resources director. John was outgoing and personable during the interview, and after John left the room, Phil cited Johnâs initiative, high energy level, leadership skills, and high quantity and quality of work as reasons John should get the job. Although Alan and Susan were concerned about Johnâs lack of formal supervisory training, they decided, givenJohnâs excellent record, to give him a chance.The next day, John went with Phil to Philâs new restaurant and spent a week in training. At the beginning of the week, Phil went over a checklist of supervisory skills John needed to acquire and gave him some training materials to study.Throughout the week, Phil helped John fill out the paperwork a dining room supervisor must deal with. At the end of the week, Phil wished John good luck, gave him a pep talk, and told him to call anytime he had a problem.John reported for work at Hummingbirds the next morning, uncomfortable in his new suit and tie but feeling confident and determined to do a good job. It didnât take him long to discover that the biggest adjustment he faced was in relating to his former co-workers. When he was a food server, everyone was his friend and he had enjoyed all the during-work and after-hours socializing the employees did together. But now he was left out. In this and many other ways, his former coworkers made him feel that he wasnât âone of the gangâ anymore. That was bad enough, but he began to suspect that his friends, now his employees, were taking advantage of him. For one thing, they didnât really treat him as a manager. WhenAlan walked through the kitchen, all the servers and cooks snapped to attention; when John walked through, they just looked aroundââOh, hi Johnââor didnât acknowledge him at all and continued casually chatting. Because they knew John so well, they constantly asked him for favors: âCan I trade nights with Lisa?â âCanI have tomorrow off?â âCan Sam and I switch table assignments?â âYou rememberIâm a bowler, right? Could you please not schedule me Thursday nights? The leagueâs starting up next week.â The requests went on and on. John soon learned that, try as he might, he couldnât write a schedule that pleased everybody or didnât have to be changed constantly. The few times he couldnât give employees the day off they wanted, some of them called in sick. John wondered if they were lying,Of course, but he couldnât prove anything and he didnât want to think they would treat him so badly. All he knew for certain was that he felt abused and taken advantage of by the very people he used to be so close to.Despite these feelings, John wanted to preserve his relationships with his staff, and he wanted to please his new boss, too. So he didnât let Alan know about the pressures he was feeling, and he granted almost every employee request. This often meant that John found himself doing his old job of serving customers, busing tables, even filling in forAs the first few weeks went by, he also became disappointed in Marthaâs performance.Martha was the senior server on the staff, and she had inherited Johnâs old role as the âhead server,â the person John counted on to be a team leader and fill in for him when he had time off. But Martha never did the little things that would have really helped him out, and never went the extra mile for anyone. Why couldnât she just volunteer and pitch in like he used to do?That Monday morning started out like most Monday mornings at Hummingbirdsâ extremely busy. The normally big breakfast crowd was swelled even larger by several busloads of sales executives who had just arrived at the hotel for a four-day meeting. John was at his desk, hurrying through some reports he had promised Alan would be finished yesterday. He knew it was only a matter of time before heâd be called into the dining room. His three six oâclock servers were trying to take care of the rapidly increasing crowd, and Janice, one of his three seven oâclock servers, had called him the night before to tell him she wouldnât be in till elevenâher basement had flooded and she had to meet with a cleaning crew and N insurance adjuster in the morning. So today of all days he would be one server short for the breakfast crowd.When Johnâs telephone rang right at 7:00, his heart sank. Sure enough, Sally, another of his seven oâclock servers, was calling to say she was sick and wouldnât be coming in. She was a good employee who had never called in sick before, so he fought back his feeling of panic and told her to take care of herself and not worry about a thing. He no sooner thanked her for calling and hung up when the phone rang again. It was Rich, the third seven oâclock server, calling in sick, too. This was the fourth time Rich had called in sick in the two months John had been supervisor, and John knew that Rich had a habit of drinking too much on the weekendâin act, John used to help Rich think of excuses to tell Phil back when Phil was the supervisor. But he really did sound sick this time, so John put aside his suspicions and told Rich to come in later if he felt better.John gave up all thoughts of catching up on his reports and grabbed the . The only people he might be able to call in were Wendy and Maria. No answer at Wendyâs house. Maria was home, but she couldnât come in because she was a chaperon that morning for her daughterâs sixth-grade field trip. She was very sorryâThatâs okay,â John said wearily, and with exaggerated carefulness placed the receiver back in its cradle. It was all he could do to keep from throwing the phone across the room. Instead of six servers for the morning, he was down to three, with a bigger crowd than usual and no one he could turn to for help. Even Alan was unavailableâhe was in a staff meeting with the hotelâs general manager. John grimly straightened his tie and headed for the dining room.Hurrying through the kitchen, he was assaulted by the sounds of a staff under pressure: cooks yelling orders, dishes clattering violently, oven doors slamming.He charged through the double swinging doors into the dining room just in time to see Steve, one of his bus persons, heading for the restaurantâs entrance, holding A towel tightly wrapped around his right hand.âWhat happened to him?â John asked Martha.âHe was hurrying too much, broke a coffee cup and cut himself. I sent him to the doctorâlooks like heâll need stitches.âGreat, John thought as he surveyed the situation. Every table was packed, and the roar of a hundred conversations made it almost as noisy in the dining room as it had been in the kitchen. John couldnât remember the restaurant ever being so crowded, and there was a line of guests extending from the restaurantâs entrance into the hotel lobby, waiting for a table.Taking a deep breath, John threw himself into the fray. He tried to be everywhere at once, waiting tables, pouring coffee, seating guests, running the cash register, and all the while trying not to notice the frowns from guests angry at the inevitable delays in service. Each guest complaint muttered within earshotââWhat kind of a place is this?â âGreat service around hereââhit him like a lash. John fought down the waves of helplessness and frustration he felt and threw encouraging words at harried staff members whenever he rushed past one of them. He was in the middle of yet another long apology to an irritated guest when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Martha at the cash register, standing on tiptoe and waving to him furiously above a long line of guests waiting to pay their bills.He excused himself with a strained smile and hurried over to Martha. âWhatâs the problem?ââI donât know,â Martha said breathlessly, âthe register just stopped working.âJohn stared in frustration at the silent machine; he didnât have a clue about how to get it working again. âWhat did you do?â he barked at Martha.âI didnât do anything!â Martha wailed. âItâs not my fault.ââItâs not my fault either,â John snapped. âDamn it, think! Did you do something before it quit?ââHey!â one of the guests back in the middle of the line called up to John, âI had to wait for my food, wait for my check, and now I have to wait to give you my money? Come on, do something!ââIâm trying to do something, sir,â John said through clenched teeth.âWell, do it now, because Iâm tired of this crap.â There was a murmur of agreement the other guests in line.John grabbed Martha by the arm much harder than he intended and half shoved her toward the kitchen. âGo to my office and get my calculator.âMartha pulled her arm away. âI donât know where it is.âJohn slammed his fist down on the counter. âDamn it, do I have to do everything myself?!â he shrieked.A hush fell over the restaurant. Everyone froze; all eyes turned toward John.Martha blinked back tears and was starting to say something when her gaze shifted past Johnâs shoulder and her eyes widened. John turned around to see his boss, Alan, looking around the restaurant incredulously. âWhat in hell is going on here?â he demanded.Later that dayâ¦Alan looked across his desk at John and sighed. What could have gone so wrong? This morningâs incident was just the latest in a series of problems heâd had with John ever since John took the dining room supervisorâs job. John didnât seem to understand budgets and was not keeping up with the administrative part of the jobâlate reports, botched purchase orders, unsigned invoicesâthe list was rather lengthy. John didnât even seem to be handling the people-skills part of his job very well. Several employees had come to Alan with complaints that John was playing favorites when it came to scheduling. And grabbing Martha this morningâAlan just hoped she didnât cause the hotel any headaches over that.It had taken a while, but Alan had gotten Hummingbirds under control again with the help of George, the coffee shop manager. After the crisis was past, Alan had left George in charge of the restaurant and had taken John up to his office for a long-overdue counseling session. But now he wasnât sure where to begin.âJohn,â he said finally, âwhat happened? I couldnât believe my eyes when I saw you ranting and raving in front of a room full of guests.ââLook,â John said defensively, âI had my hands full. You werenât around, we were working short-handed, the register went deadâI didnât know what to do. I was doing the best I could. I was never trained for that kind of situation.ââBut John, you had training. You spent a week with Phil; he said you were ready. You worked in the restaurant for two years. I donât know what else we could have done for you.ââYou never prepared me for an emergency like that.ââBut no one could have foreseen what happened this morning!â Alan exclaimed. âBesides, managers are supposed to be able to cope with all the crazy things that go wrong. Thatâs why we put you in that position; we thought you could handle it.ââWell, maybe you were wrong,â John blurted out, âmaybe you shouldnât have promoted me in the first place.â John looked down at his feet and mumbled, âI never wanted to be a supervisor anyway.âDiscussion Questions1. Did Phil and Alan make a mistake in promoting John? Why or why not?2. What should Alan do about John?3. Assuming Alan decides to keep John on as supervisor, what are the immediate steps Alan should take with John?4. If John stays on as supervisor, what are the immediate steps Alan and John must take with other people affected by Johnâs outburst?Resources: AHLEI Supervisory Skill Builders Module 1: You as a SupervisorRead the “I Never Wanted to Be a Supervisor Anyway” case study in Chapter 1 of Supervision in the Hospitality Industry.Write a 200- to 300-word response to each of the four Discussion Questions at the end of the case study, including:Application of the four components of managementCommunication principles presented in Ch. 2 of Supervision in the Hospitality Industry.Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.
Our Service Charter
-
Excellent Quality / 100% Plagiarism-Free
We employ a number of measures to ensure top quality essays. The papers go through a system of quality control prior to delivery. We run plagiarism checks on each paper to ensure that they will be 100% plagiarism-free. So, only clean copies hit customers’ emails. We also never resell the papers completed by our writers. So, once it is checked using a plagiarism checker, the paper will be unique. Speaking of the academic writing standards, we will stick to the assignment brief given by the customer and assign the perfect writer. By saying “the perfect writer” we mean the one having an academic degree in the customer’s study field and positive feedback from other customers. -
Free Revisions
We keep the quality bar of all papers high. But in case you need some extra brilliance to the paper, here’s what to do. First of all, you can choose a top writer. It means that we will assign an expert with a degree in your subject. And secondly, you can rely on our editing services. Our editors will revise your papers, checking whether or not they comply with high standards of academic writing. In addition, editing entails adjusting content if it’s off the topic, adding more sources, refining the language style, and making sure the referencing style is followed. -
Confidentiality / 100% No Disclosure
We make sure that clients’ personal data remains confidential and is not exploited for any purposes beyond those related to our services. We only ask you to provide us with the information that is required to produce the paper according to your writing needs. Please note that the payment info is protected as well. Feel free to refer to the support team for more information about our payment methods. The fact that you used our service is kept secret due to the advanced security standards. So, you can be sure that no one will find out that you got a paper from our writing service. -
Money Back Guarantee
If the writer doesn’t address all the questions on your assignment brief or the delivered paper appears to be off the topic, you can ask for a refund. Or, if it is applicable, you can opt in for free revision within 14-30 days, depending on your paper’s length. The revision or refund request should be sent within 14 days after delivery. The customer gets 100% money-back in case they haven't downloaded the paper. All approved refunds will be returned to the customer’s credit card or Bonus Balance in a form of store credit. Take a note that we will send an extra compensation if the customers goes with a store credit. -
24/7 Customer Support
We have a support team working 24/7 ready to give your issue concerning the order their immediate attention. If you have any questions about the ordering process, communication with the writer, payment options, feel free to join live chat. Be sure to get a fast response. They can also give you the exact price quote, taking into account the timing, desired academic level of the paper, and the number of pages.