He Disagreed

This post continues the theme from the last two days. You may want to read those posts first.

In a manager's program at a company owning over forty ice cream and sandwich shops, I received a challenge to my statement that you can't possibly be managing when you are doing the ordinary work of your department; or, in this case, your sandwich shop.

One manager strongly disagreed. "He most certainly could manage his shop," he asserted.

I've worked with this company for many years. I've debated the argument with other mangers from the company. Since many managers work the grill at these shops, I was usually successful in illustrating how, when you are cooking hamburgers, you really can't see what's going on at the booths behind you. When reading order slips its hard to notice a customer slipping out the door without paying. When slicing and dicing its hard to notice that the customers in booth 34 have been waiting a long time for a menu. Those sorts of examples invariably help me make my case. But not this time.

This manager worked in the smallest shop owned by the company. The grill was at the back of the service area. All booths, customers, cash registers and so forth were within his easy view. And he certainly wasn't going to concede that a flood of short orders would distract him from his managerial duties. He had me on the run. I was losing the argument. Then I had a Bingo moment.

Okay, I conceded. Because your shop is so small, it's possible you can do the work and manage at the same time, although I still think you're going to lose focus as the shop becomes busy and your grill is swamped with orders. But, for the sake of argument, I'll give you that point. Now tell me what's going on in the kitchen. Tell me how the dishwasher is doing. Tell me why the back door was left open and a box of steaks is about to disappear. You see, as he and I both knew, the kitchen including the dishwasher station, food storage and the back door was behind a closed door located behind the manager at the grill. He couldn't possibly see what was going on back there as he was working the grill.

Most managers who attend my programs are working managers. Most of them do some of the routine work in their departments in addition to their management duties. But, because their management duties are their first priority, I always want them to be aware that when they are doing the ordinary work of the department they can't possibly be managing department operations at the same time.


About me: For 25 years, Dan Pelley has presented supervisory management development programs in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. His training and development programs focus on topics of interest to supervisors, group leaders, foremen, department managers, project managers, team leaders, assistant managers, associate managers, office managers, restaurant managers, nurse managers, crew leaders, unit managers, and other first-line managers. Participants also include mid-level managers, executives, and people interested in management topics.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
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