Dear friends and family,
In case you missed it, here is a summary of our last days in Oregon. Since this 'situation', we have relocated back to Austin for the forseeable future. Hopefully more frequent updates will come due to the abundance of free time on my hands.
As of Friday July 29th, 2010 both my fiancée Ron Richison and myself were asked to resign from the Allison Inn & Spa. I find this to be confusing, unfortunate and unfair for a number of reasons. I would like to address those reasons, as well as several other concerns which have previously gone ignored. I feel that the integrity of this property and its future are in the hands of a few ill-equipped and negligent operators who ignore their team members and have consistently lost some amazing talent because of their attitudes alone.
Firstly, a brief overview of the events from Friday afternoon. To be clear, I have never attended the F&B meetings, nor have I been invited. This day I was required to attend, which in itself made me wary. The preceding of the meeting seemed to follow a usual pace of updates and complaints from around the table, followed by silence or rebukes from Pierre. As multiple issues were brought up, the tension in the room grew exponentially. I sat quietly while Ron smirked. When Pierre brought in a crate of broken china and asked the room how we thought they came to be, I attempted to give the same solution I would’ve presented the week before at a scheduled meeting with Pierre, Ercolino and Mark Waeghe, to which Pierre never showed up. My pitch was, and still is, to create a ‘lead steward’ position in the dish pit. I still feel that the leadership, organization and pride of ownership such a position would bring could only compound a feeling of responsibility, and therefore end in less breakage.
As I was in mid sentence describing what I had witnessed in the electrical room, dish pit, kitchen and trash area, Pierre repeatedly cut me off. While I am not a terribly brave public speaker, I found it necessary to chug through this sentence before stopping to breathe and/or cry from humiliation. Since Pierre saw no purpose in my idea, he scoffed and suggested I “learn from his years of experience.” I said nothing else. He then commented on Ron’s smirk, which prompted him to hand out a letter of resignation, effective September 1, 2010. Pierre threw it back at him, claiming to have already known. As Ron rose to leave, Pierre turned to me and demanded my resignation. I had no intention of leaving but felt so embarrassed and upset that I simply got up and walked out of the room.
To be clear; Ron put in his notice and was told not to return to finish out his last month. I never put in my resignation and was asked to give up my key card and informed that my position had been filled 27 minutes after leaving work. I have yet to be given just cause for my apparent firing, except for perhaps sharing a differing opinion with our GM.
As I mentioned, I’d still like to outline some other concerns about the property itself, to include:
-the highest turnover rate within F&B I have ever witnessed in my short time here in the hospitality industry (see 4 executive chefs within 10 months)
-an astounding lack of communication and willingness to work together between and within departments
-inability to keep normal pantry items in stock (see coffee filters, coffee, soda)
-lack of responsibility on the behalf of the Director of Food and Wine, unless accepting awards for other team members
-mismanaged funding and cuts (see safety issues-missing lightbulbs in employee hallway to save money)
-lack of tools to accurately, sanitarily and safely complete tasks (See kitchen lacking functioning ovens, robocoups, dull slicers, hand soap pumps, china etc)
-lack of growth opportunities within the company
-no training, management or leadership protocol or programs in place
-severely lacking in policies, procedures, training, job duties, clear expectations etc
In short, the management doesn’t seem to be concerned with the happiness of its staff or their ability to correctly and safely complete tasks. In my humble opinion, the service an employee gives is directly reflective of the way they are treated by managers. If the goal of the property is to be five star, then the treatment of their staff should reflect that. To be sure, the near zero percent turnover in banquets is directly reflected in the fact that Mark Waeghe is an excellent manager who constantly puts his team and their families in the foreground. Unfortunately his small successes are constantly overshadowed by staff’s inability to complete tasks due to lacking supplies or tools. This, compounded by an absolute desert of support, communication or acknowledgment by Ercolino or Pierre.
This is by far the most frustrating property I have ever been a part of. The most unfortunate part, is that I for-see a continuing loss of talent and spirit with the labor pool constantly being diminished through quits, fires and a bad reputation. For such a beautiful property, the overwhelming feeling from many staff members is one of discontent. Unless some dramatic changes occur, I feel that F&B in particular will feel the continuing slide downwards, loosing staff and quality of service. For the Austin’s part, I hope I am wrong.
