Communication Problem Related to Small

Communication Problem Related to Small Group or Organizational Communication

Real world communication problem: Communication issues at the restaurant where I work

Easter Sunday is one of the busiest days for a restaurant. So it was only natural that extra staff should be scheduled to work on that day at the local restaurant where I work. My manager Carmen did not schedule enough additional employees for Easter, and the result was a debacle. There were long waits for food due to a shortage of cooks, and the kitchen struggled to keep pace serving its special holiday menu. There were also not enough servers which resulted in additional backlogs of orders. Even with reservations, there were long waits for tables. The end result was a restaurant full of overworked, unhappy staff and irate customers who received a bad impression of the restaurant.

Miscommunication was evidenced in this problem scenario on several levels. Carmen stated that she had scheduled enough workers but many people cancelled at the last minute, which, according to the employees, was simply not true. Regardless, this indicates a clear failure of downward communication, or the 'horizontal' chain of communication which is supposed to exist between staff members and the organizational leadership. There are few formal controls regarding scheduling: the schedule is simply scrawled on a calendar in the back room, and there is no verification that people have seen any changes, with the exception of the occasional last minute alterations (like someone calling out sick an hour or two before a shift). Because of this haphazard scheduling, there is frequently over and under-staffing, and a lack of 'tailoring' of staff to the needs of the restaurant at high-priority hours of the day or days of the week.

While Carmen cannot be entirely faulted for the faulty chains of vertical communication that have been instituted at the restaurant, she must accept full blame for how she reacted to the most recent problem. She complained to the owner, Kenneth, about the poor performance of the wait staff and accepted no personal responsibility for her culpability in failing to make sure enough staff were scheduled for an anticipated busy weekend. Even if she cannot be blamed for all of the people who called out sick or did not show up on Easter Sunday, she did nothing to placate the irritated customers. Instead of explaining to them why their food was taking so long or offering free drinks and desserts (common practice when the restaurant makes a major error), she simply ignored the problem.

Carmen's classic strategy in coping with all problems is avoidance -- hoping that it will either go away, or that someone else will 'fix it' for her. Unfortunately, in a restaurant setting where so many independent agents are operating in their own interests, it is necessary to have sustained, coherent leadership: the kind which Carmen does not provide. She can also be quite dismissive for requests for her assistance. During the chaos at Easter, for example, when people asked for help dealing with customers, she said that trying to talk with them or offering them something to placate their frayed tempers was a waste of time and it would distract her from the work she was already doing. Her other favored response is to tell the employee that it is their responsibility to "fix it." This makes people reluctant to ask for her assistance, because she acts as though employees are doing a bad job if they identify problems or even possible solutions. For every problem that employees brought up regarding Easter Sunday, we were given excuses, or outright had our questions ignored.

This type of friction between management and employees is very common in the restaurant industry, I have found. There is often an extreme power differential between managers and employees. Employees often desperately need their jobs as cooks and waiters. Servers in particular are dependent upon managers because they want to be scheduled during the 'good' shifts where they can receive decent tips. They are often forced to look the other way regarding bad managerial behavior.

This is exacerbated by the problem that Carmen is close friends with the owner Kenneth. Kenneth has a similar conflict management style to Carmen. He can be extremely nice when dealing with people casually, but whenever a problem arises like Carmen he makes excuses, avoids the problem, tries to pass it on to someone else, or resorts to texting or faxing messages rather than confronting complaints. Their favorite 'nonverbal' communication strategy is simply not being there.

A failure to listen is one of the most common workplace communication problems. "When people or groups are in conflict, communication between them tends to get worse and worse. As a conflict escalates, people limit their direct contact with people on the other side, because such conflict is uncomfortable or threatening….Eventually all direct communication between parties may be cut off. Sometimes, communication is cut off in protest" (Lack of communication channels/avoided communication, 2005, OTPIC). The sense that there is no one to appeal to, given Kenneth's alliance with Carmen, has caused many employees to despair of ever improving things at the restaurant.

On several occasions, people have tried to force problems out into the open by talking to Kenneth privately, specifically framing the problem in a manner which they hope is persuasive to him (stressing that for the profitability of the restaurant and the greater good of everyone, he must ensure that there is more effective scheduling and a better way to deal with customer complaints). Kenneth's main response is to say "I'll take care of it," but 'it' never gets taken care of, of course. Kenneth needs to set up a formal schedule for all employees, with strict rules about giving the restaurant notice about calling out sick. He also needs to sit down regularly with his staff and listen to what people say about how to improve service.

There is little secret that tensions run high in restaurant kitchens. Even at the cafeteria at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs, according to the publication the Restaurant Door, there was recently a knife fight in the kitchen. "The OTC was an on-going operation whose dining program was in need of major surgery. In fact, the foodservice had consistently been the leading source of complaints from the athletes about their training experience" (Marvin 2012). If the staff is not getting along well, this dissatisfaction inevitably gets communicated, however unintentionally to the customers. Staff nonverbal behavior such as weariness and anger is difficult to shake off when dealing with the public.