Dear Colleague,
I woke up in a cold sweat last night because I had a bad dream. About McDonald’s.
The clerk at the counter told me I’d ordered too much food. (Are six Big Macs and five chocolate milkshakes really too much food for one person? You decide.)
She said, “You’re a fool to eat that much food. You’ll gain weight. And the next time you come in here, you’ll be an even bigger fool.”
I was really angry until I realized she had a good excuse for acting so rude. She was all by herself in the restaurant! She was not only manning the counter, in other words, she was also cooking the hamburgers, handling the drive-in window, and mopping the floors.
Back when I was a Human Resources manager, we often talked about the challenge of “doing more with less.”
Nowadays, HR managers talk about the challenge of doing everything with nobody.
No wonder I had a client call me the other day and begin the conversation by saying, “My hair is on fire!” (That wasn’t a dream, by the way, that really happened.) I told her to drop and roll. Take a shower. Spray her office with Glade to get rid of the smell. Then we could talk about how to solve her problems.
The difficulty of “doing more with less” is that it creates a kind of negative feedback loop in which your employees get more and more stressed ... creating more friction and frustration with your customers ... which only leads to more stress and anger in your employees.
“So it goes,” to quote Kurt Vonnegut.
If you want to keep this vicious cycle from spinning out of control, you have to intervene. You could offer better pay and benefits. (That’s something McDonald’s might consider.) Improve your recruiting and retention. Train your employees in customer service. Coach your underperforming managers. Re-engineer your organizational structure. Hire more contract employees and/or consultants, etc.
Fortunately, the Trainers and Consultants Network can help you with all of these things. (And more.) Just call me at 202-333-0644 or send an email to Sharon@TrainersAndConsultants.net . I’ll give you the names of three top trainers, consultants, coaches, or speakers who can do the job you need at a price you can afford. And by the way, my service is completely free to you.
So if your hair is on fire because you’re trying to run an entire McDonald’s restaurant with one employee (or if you have similar problems), call me today!
Sincerely,
Sharon Armstrong
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