I guess there are advantages and disadvantages to being hired at the height of t
ID: 427641 • Letter: I
Question
I guess there are advantages and disadvantages to being hired at the height of the busy season at a ski resort,” said Sergio as he sat in the employee lounge with Patty
during a well-deserved break. “I like my job in the maintenance department, especially
the gang I work with, and it’s great to have all of the tools and supplies needed for routine maintenance. That has not been the case in some of my previous positions, and it really caused me to stress out!”
“We’re all glad you’re here,” replied Patty, a housekeep- ing supervisor. “I didn’t know what you would say now after I heard you talk earlier about your initial experiences with our resort that were less than perfect. I remember you telling me that you didn’t know the location of the work sites for many of the maintenance tasks because the property is so large. I also remember you telling me how silly you must have looked to your peers because you didn’t know specific maintenance tasks or the required tools for servicing some of our specialized equipment. In fact, you said you had been here two weeks before you even met the department head.
“You’re right,” said Sergio. “The initial orientation process could have been much more organized and better delivered. If it was, I wouldn’t have felt so awkward, and I could have better helped the resort by doing things right the first time without the need for lots of rework. I remember thinking a couple of times that they weren’t treating me very well, and the fact that every- one appeared to be so busy, and weren’t doing it intentionally, didn’t really soften my feelings.
“Since then, I guess I’ve become more ‘neutral,’ where I could ‘take the job or leave it,’ to my present attitude that it’s getting to be a better place to work.” “I don’t think things would be very different in my house- keeping department if you started in the middle of the season,” commented Patty. “I’ve always thought, incorrectly, that the excuse of ‘being busy’ was accepted by new staff members. But now I see that managers owe their staff members more than promises that ‘things will get better.’
“I’m going to make some changes and suggest to other department supervisors that they consider the need for changes in their departments as well. Thanks for the education, Sergio.”
Dimension: Employer-of-Choice Concerns
1. How do you think most potential job applicants would react to the resort’s reputation of “rough starts, but it gets better after you’ve been working there for a while”?
2. Many restaurant guests say almost nothing to friends if they have a good dining experience, but they say many things to contacts when they have a poor dining experience. Do you think the tendency to say a few nice things and many bad things is also true about one’s experience with an employer? Why or why not?
Explanation / Answer
Job applicants would be hesitant to apply for a job at the resort because of the remark ““rough starts, but it gets better after you’ve been working there for a while”. This is because the statement gives a negative portrayal about the resort that the employment journey would be a tough task initially. Since job applicants always try to search and learn more about a company before applying for a job, this would create a negative preconceived notion about the job though in reality it would be a good career option. Job applicants would not apply for the jobs at the resort nor would they recommend them to their friends. The tendency to say a few nice things and many bad things is also true about one’s experience with an employer. This is the general tendency of human beings. Usually, when a person undergoes a bad experience, the bad experience wears off more slowly when compared to the good ones. Though individuals have a positive outlook in difficult times, they remember the negative experiences more strongly than the positive ones. There are both physiological and psychological reasons for this tendency. The negative emotions requires more processing of the information. Thus, human tendency is to remember the negative ones more than the positive ones.
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