os with entry level food service staff

Mary E. Ford drmef at juno.com
Tue Jun 13 15:22:52 PDT 2000


Hello All,

  I'm new to OS, got trained last fall and have used it a few times with
good results with a religious community I'm connected with and will
facilitate a national meeting this summer of Maryknoll (a foreign mission
community) Affiliates.
  But I have a request re a different target group. My sister and
brother-in-law own a franchise in a fast-food chain and manage three
small stores in Maine. I am offering to do a 3-hr. session with them and
their 15-20 or so employees to help build a sense of community that
might, among other surprise benefits, reduce the extent of employees not
working their scheduled shifts because they quit, with or without notice,
don't show up, or call off because they have something better to do that
day. (My brother-in-law has been working 6-7 days a week lately just to
cover and is exhausted. Both he and my sister are really conscientious
and more than fair with their employees.)
  Most of the employees are earning not too much above minimum wage,
since profit margin is so low. Because of that and unemployment in Maine
being 2.3%, it's a workers' market, so the oft-cited os motivation of
people caring about the operation or future of their organization is
minimal here.

  Three questions--do you think os is feasible with this goal in mind?
  Second, because of the small numbers, it would have to be a regular
(required) staff meeting. This is against os basic principles, no?
  Third, what sort of question would arouse the passionate interests of
people who must have some needs that work could meet well enough that
they would be really interested in being there but who, at the moment,
don't seem to care whether they have one job or the next?

Thanks for any help you can offer,
Mary Elizabeth Ford, Psy.D.
Bronx, NY



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