action plan

What are the facts? Did you need more information?

The first fact in this case was that you aren’t allowed to void something off of a bill without the manager’s permission. The second fact was that I had seen this bartender void multiple drinks off of a customer’s bill. The third fact was that her reasoning didn’t logically make sense, as they wouldn’t have not liked two drinks in a row each. The fourth fact was that she had been doing this for multiple patrons, consistently.

This leads into the lack of information that I possessed, not knowing that she had been doing this for many people on a regular basis. Because I thought this was a one-time occurrence or something that happened on a blue moon, I wasn’t as alarmed as I should have been.

What assumptions were you making? 

The assumptions I made were based on the fact that I thought it wasn’t a regular occurrence, so I assumed that she was just trying to make a specific couple’s night very memorable. In those assumptions, I failed to think about the fact that she may be doing this often.

What was the ethical conflict and how could you have defined your goal?

The ethical conflict was the foregoing of management approval to void items in order to garnish higher tips to put more money in your own pockets. This is essentially stealing, and if I had noticed this at the time, I could and would have held steady to my own affirmations and motivated myself more to fix the dilemma.

This would have led me into defining a goal, and to do this, I would have to start with the conflict and questioning where the problem lie. By doing this, I believe a clear, well-defined goal for me in this situation would be to inform those who are uninformed, thus balancing the power and allowing the situation to play out from there.

Looking back, what were the goals of the key stakeholders?  What sources of support might have existed?

The goals of the key stakeholders are simple, on all ends. First, the goals of the owners are to satisfy guests, own a professional work environment, and make a profit. Second, the goals of management are very similar; satisfy guests, make a profit, and have efficient teams. Third, the goals of the service staff are to satisfy their guests, be treated equally, make as much in tips as possible, and to follow organizational rules. Fourth, the goals of the customers are to enjoy their company, their food, and their drinks at an affordable price.

How could you have used the 4 Lenses of the ELI to create a balanced response or made a more well-reasoned decision about what to do?  Please apply the 3 questions from each of the lenses for this analysis. Note, they might not all arrive at the same answer, but you should try to integrate them into a final response as best you can.

Rights/Responsibilities:

What are the rules? The rules are and were that an employee needs to get approval from a manager before voiding something off of a guest’s ticket. In fact, the bartender should not have had the ability to void a ticket without the manager’s password, but she did.

What are my rights and responsibilities? My rights are to inform anyone about something I believe is being handled incorrectly. My responsibilities are to be an efficient and ethically sound employee for the company.

How do I act in a caring way? By giving the employee the chance to defend her actions and to also inform those that don’t have the necessary information in order to move forward. I can do all of this by being kind and inquisitive, rather than antagonizing.

Results:

What will make me happy? I would have been happy to know that I had alerted management to something that was an issue. I also would have been happy to find out that I was correct in my initial assumptions and that this wasn’t happening often, but that was not the case.

What consequences am I willing to tolerate? I was obviously willing to tolerate the chance that the bartender was duping the company and stuffing her own pockets, although I shouldn’t have been. Now, I’m willing to tolerate the unsatisfaction from the bartender when I point out what she was doing, but to also know that all parties have all of the relevant information.

What are mutually good results? The best result would have been for this to be a one-time situation that could have been corrected after talking with management about the rules. This would have leveled out the playing field and balanced the power, while also allowing the bartender a chance to redeem herself. Because this was not the case, the best result for both parties was to part ways and to start anew.

Relationship:

What is equal/equitable? Equality in this situation was to inform everyone of all the necessary information. Because management didn’t know this was happening and hadn’t been told, the power was not appropriately balanced throughout the workplace.

What is a fair process? A fair process is the one that was set up. This allowed for employees to void items on tickets fairly frequently, as long as it had been approved. They were very liberal about this approval; they trusted their server’s judgement. Without approval being a part of this process, it allows for things like this to happen.

Is the power appropriately balanced? No, the power was not appropriately balanced in this situation. Had I spoken up, it would have been and the company could have saved themselves weeks of losing more money.

Reputation:

What action would set a good example? To speak up and notify management of the situation would have set the best example possible. This shows that it’s okay to alert someone when you think something’s going wrong and that nobody should have special privileges over anybody else.

What virtues do my role require? The virtues required in this situation were integrity, honesty, and fairness. To have integrity and honesty that don’t waiver would have led me to speaking up about the situation. To be undoubtedly fair would have ended with me knowing that the uninformed parties needed to be told what was happening.

What does my conscience tell me to do? My conscience absolutely was telling me to tell management about the situation, and it continued to do so. Even days later I had thought that I should have spoken up and still should, but I didn’t. When I found out about the frequency, I knew that my conscience was correct and immediately felt guilt.

What approach would have been effective?  Dialogue? Adversarial? Questioning? 

I believe a questioning approach to both my manager and the bartender would have been the most effective way to handle the situation. By questioning the bartender, she may have been able to provide some answer that would have made sense, but without questioning the manager as well, I wouldn’t have the full story. If the manager responded to my question by saying he didn’t approve the voided items, he may have looked into the sales figure earlier and seen that she had been doing this frequently.

What would be the most effective way for you to have spoken up in this situation or what would have made it more comfortable to communicate?

I felt comfortable communicating with both the bartender and the manager, but I honestly stopped myself because I trusted her too much and didn’t think that she would be doing something like that. I thought maybe something wrong had happened with the couple and she was making up for it by giving them free drinks, so I didn’t allow myself to think the problem through further.

· What rationalizations did you need to be prepared for?

I needed to be prepared for moral justification, minimizing the act, and diffusing responsibility. I rationalized this situation myself by saying she was doing this to bring more customers in, that nobody was really getting hurt, and that this was something that was going on all over the place. These were all false and all caused by my own mind, without anybody else making any excuses not to speak up.

What part of this decision-making model might have been most helpful for you to consider in this case?  For example, did you rely too much on assumptions and keep quiet as a result?  Was it difficult to consider others or see where they were coming from at the time?  Was it difficult to make a decision or feel confident in your ethics?  Or did you find it too difficult to act and not have an effective strategy for speaking up? 

I believe I relied too heavily on the assumptions that I had made that the bartender was just doing this on rare occasions. This was not the case at all, and if I hadn’t assumed this, I most likely would have brought the matter up to my manager to make sure he had approved the voided items. I did have difficulty deciding whether or not to speak up about the matter, but what stopped me were these assumptions.