Working From Within: Whose Job is It.

A line in the sand, how many times have we heard this, “We drew the line in the Sand”. We played that as a kid, “I dare you to cross that line?”…We have all seen or played this. There are two ways to see this and they are both correct.


· An employee is hired under a more prosperous time, and job description does not include a menial task such as cleaning a restroom. At the time there was a cleaning company that came in and handled all the janitorial duties of the store. In a lean economy as the storm hit, the company released the cleaning company and hired a crew of their own and went down this road for a while, the second wave of the storm hit and they disbanded the in-house cleaning crew and hired new crew with the stipulation that they clean the restrooms. Move to present day, and the restrooms need attendance, and they ask an original employee and they state that that’s not what they were hired for, and refused. The ironic part is that the employee hired was still there.

Back in the day when I came up in the hospitality business I learned to do everything I could to advance without a degree. I worked public area, laundry, windows, rooms, carpets, floors, offices, I learned to work Front Desk as well, and it set a pattern, I worked Stewarding, Room Service, Banquets, Kitchen, Restaurant, Bar, and learned all I could. When I played sports, I swam on the swim team, and swam all 4 strokes, in football I learned to play all offensive positions I felt that in life I was worth more if I could do more.

As a Manager I never felt I could ask an employee to do a job that which I have not done myself. I cleaned restrooms as a Manager many a time. I did it by leading by example. Hence I learned to clean rooms, and kitchens I figured how as a Hotel Manager could I tell it was done correctly or at all if I hadn’t done the job myself.

Is it a game changer…if you don’t do as instructed, and not in your job path?

I think that at the least the Manager needs to evaluate and know what staff they have on hand. It goes back to being versatile and able to adapt out of your comfort zone.

I look back and think how fun it was being able to play several positions in football, and in swimming doing the 200 yard Individual Medley, I set the stage for doing and understanding how it all came together. I had a Manager who had a saying on his desk about 4 people, Anybody, Somebody, Everybody, and Nobody…This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about this, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.