Reflection- Interpersonal Communication Problem
The incident happened during my part time job as a waitress in a hotel restaurant two years ago. I remembered vividly it was my second week at work when I was introduced to a new supervisor who will be referred as Jane for confidentiality purposes. Jane had high expectations for every staff workers and was quick to give feedback if she felt the need to. Initially, I was extremely fearful of Jane however, I managed to open up to her after working with her for several shifts and I would often confide into her if I have met any problem during work or even my personal issues.
However, everything changed after the incident. It was during a lunch service when Jane and I were the only staff workers on duty. When the clock struck twelve, guests started to fill the restaurant and as I took orders, Jane proceeded to prepare the beverages. To our horror, we realised that the restaurant had ran out of sugar syrup which is an essential ingredient to make many beverages, one of which is the restaurant's home-made lemon tea which many guests had ordered. I suggested to return to the guests with an alternate drink option which does not require the use of sugar syrup but the idea was rejected by Jane as she did not want to disappoint the guests. She then instructed me to dissolve the sugar with boiling water but the consistency was not ideal due to the lack of ingredients needed and inaccurate proportioning of the water and sugar which had resulted in a slightly different taste and presentation of the drink.
Ultimately, we managed to serve the drinks to all the guests but Jane remained furious about the event and lamented me for my inability to inform her that the sugar syrup was low in stock. Upon checking the purchase invoice, she realised that she had forgotten to order the sugar syrup for the entire month. That night, I reflected on myself about the event and I realised that the incident could have been avoided if I had not assumed that Jane was aware about the inventory and if I had not deemed myself as "just a staff worker" but take more initiatives such as doing regular check on the inventory or verify that the order was made.
For weeks, I felt apologetic but at the same time unjustified for all the blame she bestowed on me. After the incident, Jane and I would only communicate when necessary and until the day I left the restaurant, I remained uneasy and unconfident around her.
If time rewinds, how should I have reacted differently?
Blogs commented on:
Shu Ling
Zakiyah
Christine
However, everything changed after the incident. It was during a lunch service when Jane and I were the only staff workers on duty. When the clock struck twelve, guests started to fill the restaurant and as I took orders, Jane proceeded to prepare the beverages. To our horror, we realised that the restaurant had ran out of sugar syrup which is an essential ingredient to make many beverages, one of which is the restaurant's home-made lemon tea which many guests had ordered. I suggested to return to the guests with an alternate drink option which does not require the use of sugar syrup but the idea was rejected by Jane as she did not want to disappoint the guests. She then instructed me to dissolve the sugar with boiling water but the consistency was not ideal due to the lack of ingredients needed and inaccurate proportioning of the water and sugar which had resulted in a slightly different taste and presentation of the drink.
Ultimately, we managed to serve the drinks to all the guests but Jane remained furious about the event and lamented me for my inability to inform her that the sugar syrup was low in stock. Upon checking the purchase invoice, she realised that she had forgotten to order the sugar syrup for the entire month. That night, I reflected on myself about the event and I realised that the incident could have been avoided if I had not assumed that Jane was aware about the inventory and if I had not deemed myself as "just a staff worker" but take more initiatives such as doing regular check on the inventory or verify that the order was made.
For weeks, I felt apologetic but at the same time unjustified for all the blame she bestowed on me. After the incident, Jane and I would only communicate when necessary and until the day I left the restaurant, I remained uneasy and unconfident around her.
If time rewinds, how should I have reacted differently?
Blogs commented on:
Shu Ling
Zakiyah
Christine
Hi Cheryl,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your problem that you encountered at the hotel restaurant. I understand the difficulty in getting your supervisor to follow your proposed solution as we are usually not empowered to do so. Furthermore, i think it is hard for both of you to come to a consensus at the busiest timing of the restaurant.
Personally, if i were in your situation, I think i would do the same as you. I would listen to my supervisor if she does not heed my solution. Overall, we are still working for them. However, at the end of the day, I would have arranged to speak to her to explain the rationale behind my proposed solution and to clear any misunderstandings. I think that would prevent any personal feelings attached to the incident (as you stated that you felt apologetic weeks after the incident). I would also inform her that we could work together by helping each other to check on the inventory regularly.
I hope that my solution will help you out in the future (if you are working in the service line). We should also regard each "mistake" as our learning milestones. Jiayou!
Best regards,
Shu Ling
Hello Cheryl.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your experience here. It feels like an issue many of us would have encountered at work at least once. I would have felt as apologetic yet unjustified as you did too. However, similar to what Shu Ling had mentioned, I would have arranged to speak with Jane but perhaps after a few days once things had settled down, as communication is key in any workplace environment. Additionally, I believe that this experience would have prompted you to be more proactive at work. Overall, it was a really interesting read! Hope that in the future, you would be able to resolve workplace issues through communication.
Cheers,
Swathi
Dear Shu Ling & Swathi,
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to comment on my blog. Like what both of you had suggested, I strongly agree that I should have taken the initiative to explain and apologise to Jane or proposed solutions such as conducting regular check on the inventory with Jane. I believe I have failed to do that as I was extremely discouraged and fearful of speaking to Jane during that period.
Fortunately, I was able to reconcile with Jane after some of my colleagues and I decided to make a make a trip back to the restaurant for a short catch up. When we were back in the restaurant, I met Jane. Initially, I was afraid and reluctant to speak to Jane however, under the encouragement of my colleagues, I decided to move out of my comfort zone to initiate a conversation with her. The conversation started off with a tinge of awkwardness but as we spoke we start to hit it off like how we used to and we even agreed to meet up for a catch up soon.
That night, I finally plucked up my courage to drop her a text message in regards of the incident. In the message, I apologised for underperforming and inability to resolve the issue at that point of time. Unexpectedly, she replied with an lengthy apology message and explain the circumstances during the incident. After which, we managed to reconcile and I am glad that we had salvaged our friendship.
Cheers
Cheryl
Dear Cheryl,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing about your experience! I understand that it is difficult to deal with conflicts especially in professional situation that involves a higher authority. I would firstly try to understand the situation from both parties involved.
With that understanding in mind, if I were in your shoes, I would firstly apologise to the manager because even as a part timer, I am still responsible for knowing the inventory at the restaurant. However, on the other hand, I feel that as a manager, she should be responsible enough to remember to order the stocks that are crucial to the entire operations. As such, I feel that she should not have just blamed you entirely for this situation. Despite everything that happened, it was very heartening to see that both of you chose to defuse the anger in the moment and came up with solutions like dissolving the sugar to try to replicate the same flavour and even serving an alternative drink instead. Having the understanding that satisfying the guests' needs are more important at that moment.
I hope that this incident brought you greater knowledge on how to handle such situations in the future. I believe that knowing how to resolve conflicts would be very essential for you to communicate with your colleagues.
Best regards,
Natasha and Pei Ling
Dear Cheryl,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this scenario. In it you give lots of details in terms of the problem issue. I'm happy to read all the feedback you've received, hough none of it sepcifically addresses the frameworks fr problem solution that we entioned in class. One that might have been mentioned is that put forth by Thomas-Kilmann. It would suggest just how 'accomodating' you were in accepting the blame for the incident when in fact it seems that Jane should have been empathetic of your position and she could have compromised by serving another drink.
I appreciate your effort here.
Cheers,
Brad