Kitchen Management 321 - Discipline

Rationale:

Despite doing all you can hiring, training and motivating people, things will not always go the way they should.  For any of a number of reasons, employees will not always perform the way you expect they should.  Poorly approached, discipline can turn a potentially good employee into a lost cause but done properly, you will be more likely to get the best of the individual and others on the kitchen team.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this module, you will be able to . . .

Explain disciplinary theories and techniques.

Enabling Objectives

1. Discuss the essentials of successful discipline.
2. Compare negative and positive approaches to discipline.
3. Discuss the application of disciplinary measures.
4. Discuss employee termination.

Objective 1

discuss the essentials of successful discipline.

Learning Activity

In your notes:

Discuss in some detail the essentials of discipline.
What rules might be common sense?
Should you try to list all of the rules for your operation or just the critical ones?
What critical rules should be discussed with employees?
Discuss the difference between discipline and correction.

Learning Material

There are 4 key points to consider regarding discipline:

1. Rules need to be clear and understood  by all.  It isn't reasonable to discipline employees for breaking a rule that they didn't know about.  Employees must be told about the rules when they start and be reminded as often as necessary.  However, if you try to list all the rules, you run the risk of overwhelming employees, giving them the impression that your operation is an oppressive place to work.  As well, they are likely to ignore the rules as being to much to remember.  At orientation, hit on the most critical such as being on time, use of drugs or alcohol on the job, theft, etc.  Other, less critical things can be dealt with as they arise.
2. The consequences for breaking the rules need to be clear, reasonable and understood by all.  Some consequences can be fairly easy to determine - if an employee is caught drinking on the job, immediate termination may be the result.  Others can be more difficult.  What are the consequences for showing up late for work?  Things do happen - if a bus is late or the car won't start, perhaps this is a one-time thing and not worth being concerned about.  If lateness is habitual, there needs to be clear but legal consequences.  You cannot dock a day's (or even an hour's) pay from time worked but you might require the employee to stay an hour later or come in an hour earlier the next day.  If the problem in chronic, firing might be the only solution left.  
3. Rules and consequences are fair and reasonable.  If the rule is that no staff eat for free, the consequence for eating without paying needs to be sufficient to be a deterrent but still reasonable.  If an employee is caught eating a hamburger without paying for it, charging or deducting the menu price of the hamburger from his or her cheque will only encourage the employee to be clever enough not to be caught.  Why pay when the only consequence for not paying is to pay if you are caught.  On the other hand, firing the employee seems unreasonable.  One suggestion might be to give the employee a day's suspension without pay.
4. Rules and consequences are equitably applied to all employees.  Nothing will create dissension faster than letting one employee get away with things that other employees are disciplined for.  Be sure that other employees are watching carefully to see how you handle various situations.  If you allow one employee to be drunk at work without consequence, for example, you are sending a clear message that drinking on the job is acceptable, regardless of the rules you set.  Never make an unenforceable rule and always enforce the rules you lay out.  One chef compares rules and consequences to a hot stove.  The stove burns any and all who touch it, regardless of who they are or what reasons and excuses they have.

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Objective 2

compare negative and positive approaches to discipline.

Learning Activity

In your notes:

 Compare positive and negative approaches to discipline.

Learning Material

Negative approaches to discipline involve punishment.  The employee has done something incorrectly and therefore must be punished to prevent it from happening again.  The assumption is negative consequences will prevent the employee from making the same mistake again.  However, if the employee hasn't been properly trained or made an error for other, unavoidable reasons, punishment will only cause resentment.

For example, the employee is late and gets punished, no questions asked.  However, it turns out that he needs to drop his children at day care on the way to work and it doesn't open early enough to allow him sufficient time to get to work.  Punishing the employee accomplishes nothing useful. Or an employee doesn't include black olives with the Greek salad and his supervisor gets verbally abusive ("are you completely stupid or just incompetent?").  

A positive approach to discipline focuses on  more on correction than punishment.  The supervisor needs to find out why the situation occurred and deal with it accordingly.  Once the reason for the error is known, appropriate steps can be taken.  When punishing an employee, why the situation occurred is not considered.  The employee with children in daycare may not be able to change his situation.  Perhaps his schedule needs to be adjusted so he can come in and stay a half hour later each day.   If the black olives were missing because the employee wasn't properly trained, punishment is unfair.  If the employee left the olives off at the request of a customer, you can be sure that he will ignore all customer requests in future.  But what if he just forgot?  Everyone has an off moment.  As long this doesn't happen too often, a reminder should be sufficient.

The chef using correction, or positive approaches to discipline will look at the reasons for the situation and try to find ways to prevent situations from being a problem in future.  This may include rescheduling, re-training or simply reminding the employee of expectations.

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Objective 3

 discuss the application of disciplinary measures.

Learning Activity

In your notes:

 You've caught one of the cooks giving a free meal to a favorite server.  What measures would you take and why?

Learning Material

• Find out why the situation occurred
• Explain to the employee what should happen in such a circumstance
• If the situation re-occurs, a reminder is given, possibly in the form of a written letter depending on the severity of the situation.
• If the employee gets three letters of reprimand the chef may choose to discuss the situation further, or terminate employment.
• The chef might send the employee home to consider whether or not s/he wants to comply with rules and continue working or quit.  If the employee chooses not to return, termination is much easier.  If s/he decides to come back to work, it is made clear that it is on a probationary basis - no more last chances.
• Of course, the situation determines just how severe or lenient the chef will be.  Blatant disregard for rules and protocols will be more sternly dealt with than accidental slip-ups.  In one company, an employee was given 3 disciplinary letters for not showing up for work before he was finally terminated.  Most of us would consider this to be too lenient. 

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Objective 4

 discuss employee termination.

Learning Activity

In your notes:

 Give examples of each of the three "just causes" for termination.

Learning Material

Try as you might, you will eventually find the only solution is to terminate someone's employment.  The first time you fire someone can be quite traumatic but it helps to remember that, if you've done everything right, the employee is essentially terminating himself.  If you did the best you could to hire the right person for the job, trained her properly and provided correction and direction when mistakes were made, then you've done your part.  If the employee is unable or unwilling to comply, the situation is beyond your control or blame.

 When firing someone, it is important that you have all your ducks in a row before you talk to the employee.  If you seem uncertain as to why the employee is being fired, a wrongful dismissal suit is likely (and probably justified).  However, if you have been taking the corrective steps discussed in objective 3 and you have documented situations as they have occurred, it's likely the employee already knows he is getting  fired.  In fact, they'll often quit before they get fired.

It is best to have another manager with you when you fire someone to act as a witness so there can be no question of impropriety or wrongful action on your part.  This is simply a "protect your posterior" precaution.  In the firing interview, you state simply and briefly why employment is being terminated without debate.  The employee may very well disagree with you as no one ever admitted to being fired for good reason.  Again, if you've followed proper procedures, you know you are doing the right thing.  Never allow yourself to be talked out of terminating someone.  If you haven't taken the proper steps, you have no business firing them and if you have, changing your mind will only undermine your authority in the future, with that employee and any others who find out the situation (and they will).  It should go with out saying that you shouldn't be afraid to fire someone when you should.  As well, be sure you have the authority to fire someone.  If the chef fires the bartender, he may find the bartender back at work if the manager doesn't support his decision.

When someone is fired, there are three options as laid out in the Alberta Employment Standards Act.  The person is given notice of termination, severance pay equaling the wage they would have made during their period of notice or some combination.  Detail of notice can be found in the Government Regulations module.  If an employee is given notice, it is likely they will quit before their notice period is up, saving the operation from paying severance pay.  However, you need to consider the potential problems that might occur.  If the employee deliberately sabotages the operation, for example by over seasoning or over cooking product, there is nothing you can do but fire her, which you've already done.  Or she might walk out during a particularly busy rush.  Generally, it is better to pay them out and get them off the premises as quickly as possible.  Note severance pay must be made "forthwith", that is immediately.  This means at the termination interview, not at the end of the day, the end of the week or on the next payday.

Severance need not be paid when the employee is terminated for "just cause".  This includes willful damage, gross insubordination or theft.  If you fire someone for any of these three reasons, severance and/notice are not paid.  Be very sure that you have proof though.  If you fire someone for theft without proof, you may be sued for slander.  Even when you are very sure that the individual is guilty, you must have proof that will stand up in court.

Kitchen Management 321
Last Modified May 2009, Garry Wall
Email to: grwall@shaw.ca