Opinions
7 years ago

Hospitality business: Quid Pro Quo culture

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Jobs are a two-way street - give and take. Negligence creates neglect, and that is the moral of this story.
Most times, employees are over-worked and less compensated - not only financially but also bodily - a complete violation of  Humanity 101, which fosters egalitarianism. Yes, that's right, each individual must be scaled just-fully and internal guests (staff) are the noteworthy assets of company stature, whose soundness must be committed to. 
Life is a circle - what goes comes around - or you can call it Karma if you like. In personal relationships, independence and appreciation is the necessity, identically, the ground for employee and employer connection - to avoid clapping deceit. If honest and hard work is expected, then consideration and compassion must be forwarded, in essence a quid pro quo situation - if you give, only then will you receive.
Many hotels in Dhaka city do not even care to meet the basic animalistic instinct: food. This unfortunately affects loyalty of employees. When the staff cannot trust the company with their stomachs, why would they bother to improve the organization?    
Issue does not lie in the separate, kitchen-convenient menu captained by hotels, the concern is rather in the maintenance of nourishing standards - edible food which will work as fuel for passion and devotion in employee work ethics. Dietary needs should be given priority. Many are vegetarians or avoid certain items for religious/allergic reasons. If one single day omits options for them, then it automatically engraves a negative attitude towards the company - subconsciously contriving unannounced reactive consequences: at risk is establishment reputation and progress. One petite way to control such tragedy would account regularizing cafeteria visits of the big bosses - exerting a feeling of fairness by riding the same boat alongside standard staff members, announcing a sense of empathy towards them. True leadership should be encouraged instead of promoting bureaucratic classism. 
During the Ramadan when the Muslims are required to fast, dawn to dusk, eliminating even beverage, long work hours prescribed by the hospitality industry becomes crucial. Hotels must provide extra attention to staff welfare by developing a compromise where the Muslims among the staff can break their fast comfortably, while serving guests. A dedicated iftar alter should be temporarily arranged behind the restaurant area for quick access, instead of impolitely trudging servers and chefs down to the cafeteria during the busiest business hours, impeding service efficiency. 
Similarly, night shift is the hardest. There should therefore be provisions for extra allowance to night shifters along with pertinent food.
The leftover food should be distributed amongst staff on the same day, instead of the next. Serving stale dessert; old, rock-hard bread; and chicken scrap curry (skin and bones) surely ensures cost control, but increases expenditure towards health insurance, when all medication and hospital bills of the sick staff are borne by the hotels. Illness means absent associates, and that vacuum in manpower evidently hampers guest care, yielding service recovery rebates (complimentary meals, discounted room rates and etc.).
If not attended quickly, such problems will seriously  affect hospitality business. The workers' interest in piloting responsibility and functionality will lead to demotivation, and will eventually lead the hotels to a depreciated market value to the current and potential employees through gradual rejection of their partners.
Farnaz Mahbub is a Freelance writer and Assistant Editor at The Travel World.
Contact her at [email protected]
 

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