Monday, August 04, 2008

Principled Compassion

Many thanks to employment attorney John Phillips for his tip about this article by Michael P. Maslanka . An excerpt:



I sat. He looked at me evenly and quietly said, "Mike, I am not going to fire you. Not now, at least. You have many good letters. Read my memo later today. Read it, live it."

Relieved, I went to work, focused on the Zen of checking in guests. The memo came out:

To: Front desk staff

Re: Swearing in Arabic

Henceforth, only I will be allowed to swear in Arabic at the front desk. Any staff violating this rule will be terminated.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A mentor of mine once described the owner as having the power of life and death. I thought he was exaggerating - but in my doddering years I understand the import of his words and the responsibility of these types of decisions...