Andrew Rondeau
Andrew is the owner of this website and has been a Leader, Manager, Coach and Consultant for the last twenty-five years.
How Not To Give Staff Feedback
- By Andrew Rondeau
- Published 04/29/2007
90% Of Staff Want Their Manager To Provide Constructive Feedback
Yesterday, on a business trip, I had a 30 minute wait for a train connection. I decided to have some breakfast in a world famous fast food eatery. When I entered the eatery, there were a few customers eating their breakfast and there were a few queuing up to order. After a few minutes, I was ready to order and the member of staff welcomed me with a smile, ‘good morning’ and asked me what I wanted. Now picture the following:
I ordered and as she turned around to collect my order, she said ‘why am I not getting a pay rise, anyway?’. A person replied who I assumed to be her manager, ‘because you’re useless’. She then turned back to me and said with a smile, ‘That’s 95p please’. I paid. ‘Enjoy your breakfast’ she added looking me in the eye. There was no one behind me next in the queue. She turned to her manager, ‘what makes you say I’m useless? No one has ever said that before’.
Manager: ‘you never do anything’
Girl: ‘what do you mean?’
Manager: ‘You only do things when you‘re told to do them’
Girl: ‘Do I?’
Manager: ‘Yeah
Girl: ‘Oh’
By now, I had found my seat and was still listening to the Manager/girl conversation. I looked around the restaurant – a few other customers were now looking as well.
How did the girl feel? How did the manager feel? How did the customers feel?
I would imagine the girl felt ‘unhappy, concerned and de-motivated’.
I would imagine the manager felt ‘good, confident and pleased with himself’ (that’s the impression I got by looking at his ‘that told her’ face).
As a customer, I felt embarrassed, angry and helpless. I wanted the company to know how this manager had treated a member of his staff. I wanted to help the manager and tell him where he had gone wrong. I wanted to offer advice to the girl on how to accept the feedback.
The member of staff wasn’t useless. I felt welcomed, she smiled, and she looked me in the eye. It was good friendly service. Her personal customer service was very good – far better than ‘useless’. According to her manager, she was not very proactive. Maybe customer service was her natural strength and being proactive wasn’t. That doesn’t make her useless.
So where did the manager go wrong? How would have you, as the manager, provided feedback?
Please post a comment and let me have your views.
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7 Responses to "How Not To Give Staff Feedback" 
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said this on 19 Jul 2007 2:24:41 AM EDT
I would have walked up to that manager and gave hima piece of my mind. It's his job to make sure she has things to do, also, she sure seemed nice to you and in the end thats what matters.
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said this on 19 Jul 2007 2:25:04 AM EDT
That's really ... sad.
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said this on 19 Jul 2007 2:25:33 AM EDT
First of all, the manager, if she was indeed telling the truth, shares fault. As was stated before, it is her job too to make sure the employees know what they are supposed to be doing. She also, if she had a problem with it, should have mentioned something before. Seems like the manager is more useless, as she lets things go and build up, rather than nipping it in the bud early.
And that all assumes that the manager was right. Seems to me the girl at the counter gave you stellar customer service - it's rare to see that these days, especially in the morning (I assume it's morning, as you mentioned breakfast) |
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said this on 19 Jul 2007 2:26:01 AM EDT
Thanks to all who have taken the time out to reply.
I agree the Manager was the useless one. The person who served me was great. Don't you find that individuals are often given Managers roles with no or little training and support? Thanks. Andrew |
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said this on 21 Jul 2007 11:21:04 AM EDT
Yes, and it's really sad - in fact it's scaldalous - but it happens a lot. Just because someone is good at their job doesn't mean they'll instinctively know how to get someone else to do that job for them.
You would think a big corporation (I'm assuming it's a big corporation as it's a "world famous eatery") would know better. The manager's boss is the really useless one! |
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said this on 20 Jan 2009 5:40:22 AM EDT
i would have smacked him and said fu*k off do it yourself im leaving!!!!
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said this on 08 Jun 2009 6:51:36 AM EDT
Ouch. The manager isn't fit to be one. He or she should have had examples or data on what was required of the girl and privately told her what she could do to improve and ask what help she needed with that. The girl... I feel very embarassed for her and I would have taken it much much worse, but she shouldn't have had/continued the conversation in front of everyone and should have asked for the discussion to be later. Unless she was looking to have someone complain on her behalf. She should have challenged the manager better, pinned him down to tell her specifics of what was wrong. And looked for another job maybe!
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