And the man fell! Whose Fault?

A lot of service organisations do not believe that they ought to invest in their staff despite the fact that these people are the faces of their organisation. Show me an overworked/underpaid staff and I’d show you an organisation that is going under in so near a future.

Many of these organisations in order to save cost tend to employ inexperienced hands and most appalling of all, do not make any effort in empowering/training them hoping they could make more profit. Alas! The reverse is always the case. Last Friday night, I decided to hang out with a couple of friends to celebrate TGIF (thank God it’s Friday) and we chose this new beautiful spot located somewhere on the mainland. I wouldn’t want to mention names as I’ve not been paid for advertisement (laughs).

When we got to this place the intellectual/psychological disparity between trained and untrained staffs came to fore as the owner of the place saw two of his inexperienced staff misbehave right before his clients.

While we were at the place, a guest walked in with a beautiful lady in tow and in a twinkle of an eye just as the man made towards an unoccupied table to sit, he slipped and fell heavily on the ground to everyone’s surprise and a quick look at the floor showed that there was water on the floor which made him fall. Though it was a surprise to see the man fall, however it was most shocking to find two of the waiters (male and female) who stood aside laughing their heads off instead of rushing to help the man/customer off the floor. It took the shout of another customer who rained abuses on them before they realised that they ought to have gone to help the man up and thereafter apologise but it was too late as their boss walked in just about the same time as they both stood laughing and so got fired on the spot. 

This led to a debate among a few of those present. Some of the customers opined that it was the fault of the owner of the spot who did not ‘train his staff’ properly while others argued that without being trained; ‘common sense’ ought to have made the waiters know that they should have helped and apologised. While another group expressed that service could become considerably worse given the level of staff which could be disastrous to the newly opened relaxation spot, they nevertheless advised that the owner should reinstate and train the two fired waiters as young inexperienced people are easier to work with than some of those experienced but difficult people who claim to ‘know-it-all’ sometimes.

Now the question is, whose fault is it, the employer or the waiters?

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