Team Discipline

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gr8nailz

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I'm curious and would like to get my fellow Geeks opinions on this.

Earlier this morning I received an email sent to all staff from my salon & spa owner stating that if any member of staff were "caught" with their cell phones on the salon/spa floor other than in the breakroom, their phone would be confiscated.

I called my team leader to find out what the hell prompted such a harsh email. She told me that apparently a handful of our 50 staff members have gotten in the habit of using their phones on the floor in front of clients...big no-no. She assured me that none of the nail spa team members were guilty of the offense. I figured as much since I'd never seen any of us do this.

Our handbook clearly states that cellphone use is confined to the breakroom or outside the salon/spa and anyone not adhering to this policy will be subject to disciplinary action.

My opinion is that rather than discipline an entire team of 50 in a mass sweeping email, would it not be better served to discipline the handful of offenders one-on-one, face-to-face?

I'm really looking forward to your opinions especially those of salon owners.
 
I can only say from a UK point of view.
I do not allow mobiles to be on the salon floor, or in the rooms. I don't even like them to be on in the staff room unless people are actually on their break.
Sadly you always get people who feel that rules are for everyone else and not them, or the numpties who think it is their "human right" to have their phone with them , and that the salon owner cannot tell them what to do.
The easiest route for a salon owner is to impress upon everyone the rules of the salon. That way they are not singling anyone out. If you give a warning, the numpties will alway claim "you let xxxx have her phone, you are victimizing me".

Sadly, salons have to be run in a state of defense due to difficult and litigeous staff. Everyone has to suffer in the long run.
 
I don't think it's appropriate for an employee to spend time on their phone during work hours full stop. Why? Because they are being paid to work. Even in an office where you are not client-facing, it's still not right. If I were an employer I would be strict about this. But there is one very big reason I am not an employer and that is simply that my nerves would not cope with employing people!

With regard to the email, I can see why you are offended, as you are innocent, but I don't see the email as disciplinary, just a warning and maybe they can't single people out. (Maybe they don't know exactly who the guilty are.)

I think you should completely ignore it as it doesn't apply to you:hug:

And yes I am your friend:lol:
 
Since I'm the "old lady" of the salon & spa, I've been slammed with text messages from my fellow staff members who are offended by the email. I told them I was reserving my opinion until I had time to drink it all in.

I see your points. We are and have always been treated as a team and our owner is keeping with that philosophy. I've always had a problem with being taken to task for issues unrelated to me. I am professional and expect others to behave the same. I am also direct and appreciate a direct approach. This approach doesn't seem direct to me. Direct would have been going to the people guilty of the offense. But I am seeing now why our owner felt the need to take this approach.

I would like to put this on the table for your consideration: By taking this approach, did our owner not open the door for conflict among employees since I can now invision members of staff verbally attacking the persons guilty of this offense.
 
I see where you're coming from gr8nails.

When I worked in retail, because every company will have theft from employees (sad and shocking but apparantly true), we had to do random security checks on each other. it was demoralising in the sense that the proceedure exists because a few bad apples spoil it for people who mean well.

I guess it's something that a lot of people get used to after a while but I think you're right in the sense that it can seem really harsh to turn up to work where you know you behave completely as instructed and then end up recieving a telling off that isn't relevant to your own actions but to other people who choose to offend in this way.

Hmmm, tis a tricky one...maybe the message was sent out widely to embarass those who are using their phones at the wrong time so that theyy think twice about it
 
Maybe your owner/head of team doesn't actually know "who" has been using their phones and therefore it's easy to inform everyone then trying to figure out who has or who hasn't?

What if someone that had used their phone but the owner didn't know didn't get the treatment the other girls would get and that too would cause conflict as the ones who got in trouble could be green towards the one who used but didn't get told off or warmed!?

I guess she said it to everyone so she didn't miss anyone and everyone got the same treatment and if you didn't use your phone then you know it's not aimed at you.

Hope that made sense gr8nailz xx
 
I tell you what... that's a prime example of why I'm really glad that I don't work for a big company :green:
 
In my day job we were recently all called into a meeting to 'discuss' the completion of our flexi-time sheets. We all knew full well that this was because a certain member of my team had 'forgotten' to put two three hour long lunches down on his sheet that week! After the meeting a number of my staff approached me feeling, quite rightly, exactly as you do about this email. I went to my manager to voice their concerns and he said it had been handled this way so it would be on record that it had been clearly explained to everyone the correct way to complete our sheets, so that if the staff member in question caused this issue again he could be formally disciplined without a doubt that he knew the rules. Perhaps your manager has the same intentions x
 
They have made one of the biggest mistakes in managing people! Taking the easy option and emailing the whole team instead of doing the right thing and speaking with the perpetrators directly is the wrong thing to do. The message has been diluted and they may even take no notice of it (because they now think that 'everybody' does it).

I understand your frustration totally.

Michelle
 
All these points are well taken. I've responded to those who texted me with the following:

"Ask yourself this question? Are you following procedure? If you are, then this email doesn't apply. If you aren't, guess you better check yourself."
 
All these points are well taken. I've responded to those who texted me with the following:

"Ask yourself this question? Are you following procedure? If you are, then this email doesn't apply. If you aren't, guess you better check yourself."

Good reply! Check yourself haha! I tell you, I do love your comments on here. I agree with the rest of the gals that your employer is probably just reminding everyone of the rules incase people think she has became a bit slack with them. And also maybe she doesn't know which employee it is, maybe a clients mentioned it to your employer. :)
 
I say beat them all with sausages ;)

Only kidding - I agree that it is highly likely that your manager has chosen to do it this way so that she knows everyone has received the same message. It is shame that it includes yourself and other innocent staff who abide by the terms in theri contract but it also covers them if they know say 1 person for sure has breached the terms and know of possibly a number of others. Rather than speak individually and risk missing someone out who needs to be re-warned, they have done it in blanket form :D xxx
 
I guess I'm used to it because where I work, if one person makes a mistake or somethings done wrong, we all get the lecture....oh, I mean reminder....:twisted:

It's usually done by a boss who doesn't like confrontation so instead of pulling aside the guilty parties, they lump it on everyone as a 'friendly reminder'..
 
I think a blanket email like this is a sign of a weak and lazy mangement system in your spa!

As a result it will cause ill feeling and resentment amongst the hardworking team members.

A much better way to have resolved this issue with the mobile phones, would have been for the manager to take aside the persons breaking the rule and have a 1-2-1 talk with them about it.
Then either have a full meeting with all the staff members or if not possible then send a blanket email to all saying that the issue of using mobiles whilst working has come up, and been dealt with, but they would like to remind all members of staff of the rules regarding them and future penalties.

This way the hardworking and law abiding staff members know it is not aimed at them, the persons responsible have been dealt with, but everyone now knows the consequences should the situation occur again.

I am not surprised at how your Spa dealt with this though, as from some of your threads & blogs, they know diddly squat about man management !!
 

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