I’ve been hitting up a neighborhood eatery for several years now.
It’s adorned with funky artwork, airs an eclectic soundtrack and offers a menu featuring everything from a burger slathered in peanut butter to a tasty rotation of hand-made sausages. One week it might be venison, the next chorizo.
No matter the encased meat of the week, the Notorious D.O.G. is my go-to item.
I always feel comfortable stopping in. Not in a “Cheers” way where Norm and Cliff anchor one end of the bar and Frasier Crane holds down the other end and everybody knows my name, but instead for its casual neighborhood vibe.
As good as the food, drink and atmosphere are, what I’ve particularly appreciated is the staff camaraderie. It’s a talented young team that with few exceptions has worked together since my initial visit. I’ve often mused that it must be hard to crack this employee roster since the faces have been familiar for so long.
I even wondered whether there was profit sharing or an employee stock ownership plan to retain the team. In an industry where turnover is regularly 60 percent-plus, they were an employee-retention oddity.
Ultimately I concluded that this team just enjoys working together. So I wasn’t all that surprised to find out that they’re cool with sharing the wealth by pooling their tips.
What a novel concept that in our “Eff you, I got mine” working world, a group of 15 or 20 people pulling for one another’s success allowed them to share the work and reap the rewards.
It was not unusual to see one of them serving one night, hosting the next and behind the bar on another visit. As a collective they have each others’ backs.
If one server has a table that requires a lot of attention, another server or busser covers for their colleague by doing the little things — refilling water glasses or taking an appetizer order even though it is not their table. The team attitude provides amazing customer service, solves problems on the fly and perhaps most importantly keeps the locals eager to return.
About six months ago, though, I noticed a change at the restaurant. Some of the funky artwork disappeared.
The music went from eclectic to predictable. The weekly Notorious D.O.G. rotation went static. And most notably familiar faces were gone.
I discovered that my favorite little eatery had changed ownership.
I get it. Change happens. For those of us who take comfort in the familiar, we need to adapt. That, or find another restaurant that serves tasty, encased meat.
Over the next couple of visits it was clear that other changes were underway. New staff members were inexperienced, which is understandable, but they also seemed indifferent to the legacy of customer service that built up over the years.
Since the staff was still pooling tips, it presented the risk of a breakdown in trust between engaged longtime servers and indifferent new people manifesting itself in an atmosphere of apathy. The delicate dance of having each others’ backs, which had served employees so well, threatened to descend into a clumsy series of missteps that frustrated all staff members and irritated patrons accustomed to a high level of service.
Building a cohesive staff is a challenge all managers face. Engaging and retaining them truly tests that person’s ability to manage people but also speaks volumes for employees’ willingness to set aside their own interests for the good of the organization.
Even in the best of economic times a mere one-third of employees say they are engaged in their work.
That means you have a whole lot of your workforce who at best are indifferent about their work and a big portion of them who couldn’t give a rat’s tail about you, the company’s goals or mission statement.
What can you do? You can gamble on an exodus and hope to rebuild what likely has become a demoralized staff or worse, an ugly, toxic mess.
Or, realize and appreciate the current camaraderie and learn the nuances of what sustains it through employee engagement.
Sure you are going to make changes. It’s your shop now. But too many bosses make change just for change’s sake. Can I toss out a cliché? Why fix what isn’t broken?
Sadly, I still don’t feel that old level of comfort. I’m probably not the lone patron who noticed a swing in the employee engagement.
Swapping out wall hangings, reprogramming music and curbing the fare might be one thing. But a slippage in service is noticeable, and it’s also notoriously bad for business.