The Crime
At the beginning of the semester, during Week 1 I, as a management student, was to spend 1 day working as a Steward (aka busser), 1 day as a Server and 2 days in the kitchen as a chef.
Well I did my Stewardship and Serving…but didn’t do my kitchen work. I had a nasty cold and talked to both the nurse and the program director…and all was well. I was told I’d have to make it up (it is 10% of my Food and Beverage class grade).
On Thursday my program director came into my Marketing class and asked to speak with me. He gave me a letter which said…
“We would like to draw your attention to your repeated failure to follow the correct meal reservation policy. This policy is an important part of the Les Roches “Market Place” operation. Refusal to follow this policy cannot be tolerated as it causes the waste of valuable resources. This policy is very simple and straight forward and your failure to follow it shows a serious lack of respect.
You have no failed to follow the proper procedures 4 times. You failed to follow procedure on the following dates…”
It goes on to say that I am having 0.4 points deducted and that I am to have kitchen duty on Saturday (today) and Sunday (tomorrow) from 8:30 – 7:00. Yay.
When my director gave it to me he was very apologetic and explained that it is primarily due to my missing those first kitchen sessions.
Obviously this note made me VERY ANGRY. So I wrote a response, signed it, and turned it in the next day (Friday). I’ve yet to get a response. Here is my response…
“Dear Mr. Small,
First and foremost I accept the responsibility (or lack thereof) of missing those scheduled meal times. I had signed in for the meals and did not attend them. I understand that the school operates on a budget and that it is a waste of school resources.
I also understand that part of my Food and Beverage grade depends on my work during that first week of school, and although I was sick, making up the time in the kitchen is understandable.
In other words, I accept full responsibility for my actions and have no issue with doing extra kitchen duty on the weekend.
Having said that, I am rather upset at the tone of the letter I received. Considering the facts that I have not received all my textbooks (especially a crucial Marketing text which has forced yet another schedule change in our curriculum), as well as a lack of a teacher for my Human Resources class I feel that the wording in the letter addressed to me was uncalled for, unnecessary and, to be honest, insulting.
I believe my “serious lack of respect” is heavily outweighed by the schools lack of respect when it comes to the core of my existence here, my actual education.
As I said before, I understand that it is wrong to waste the school resources. What about the resources, time, expectations and effort I put into my education here? And yes, I was sick and am willing to make up for my time missed. How is the school going to compensate me for the lack of text books, and the lack of actual class education? Is the school going to put in extra weekend effort in order to balance out this inequality?
I expect nothing less than an apology for the tone in the letter addressed to me. I expect nothing less than the rapid delivery of my missing text books.
I feel that my education here at Les Roches, with a few minor exceptions, is going to help me tremendously in my life and profession. I came here with very high expectations of this institution. I certainly hope those expectations are fulfilled completely.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Douglas Neil Crawford”
I haven’t gone into full details about the issues I’m having with the school…but to make a long story short I’m missing 3 textbooks (which I’ve already paid for) and had my Human Relations class for the FIRST time last week. On top of that there has been massive schedule changes and a general lack of respect.
I am fed up…and I am fighting back.
(FYI, you have to sign up for meals 2 days in advance…when you go eat you get your name checked off. You can’t go eat unless you signed up. Obviously I missed 4 meals.)
PS: Last time I went to dinner my name was already checked off. The girl at the front desk tried to argue with me…telling me I can’t go in twice. I told her I hadn’t even gone in once and that she had damn well better pay good attention to who is coming in to eat. I think I scared her.
posted by Tachometer @ 4:58 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Whoa, that was a lot of mispellings! But I am an utter failure without spellcheck personally.
I haven't heard a response from school yet on my little letter. I find that odd. I suppose I should bug 'em more...but for now I'm going to let things just mellow a touch.
Yo! It seems that the Swiss value propriety, "correct" procedures, and are used to a somewhat authoritarian relationship (at school and probably in the workplace too). Kind of like the Japanese they may view this as a form of politeness. Respect that.
In the US we are used to calling a spade a spade and are prepared for the retort - either New York style or a more subtle version. You might keep that in mind without losing sight of your goals. Be the diplomat with a thick skin!
You laid it on a thick and played tit-for-tat. There may be reprisals that will anger you again & most likely diservedly so but watch out for starting a range war. You are correct, make no mistake about that. You had a right to be unhappy about the apparent double standard.
The management may not be able to deal with such a direct response however - and are more comfortable with compliant and somewhat subservient students.
We Americans have a different view of authority, we pretty much destroyed the Swiss variety in the 60's. Now respect must be earned - and they need to earn yours.
I admit I was rather aggressive with my response, Moe pointed that out to me as well. But there are...and I haven't been that terribly vocal about this...there have been some fairly serious issues here.
We have yet to get our Marketing text book...and we've been in school for 7 weeks. This had lead to delays in that class and cancelled class time simply because the teacher need us to do some reading for testing purposes.
And the worst thing is Human Resources...I've had that class twice since school started. The teacher has been unable to teach, we don't have the textbook yet, and now we've got a temporary sub (for how long the school won't say) and I have the class with 60 students. 60. I was told that class size would be 12-15 with heavy student/teacher interaction...obviously that is not the case (in any class actually...all my classes are 35 students).
On Fridays I have 50 minutes for lunch...and due to the tremendous amount of students here it takes me roughly 30-40 minutes to wait in line to get into lunch...obviously leaving me little time to actually eat.
It took the school 5 weeks to get me my name tag...meanwhile I had teachers threatening to take points off because I wasn't wearing mine. Eventually the office gave me an extra name (Derrick) so I wouldn't have to explain the problem anymore.
The list...sadly...goes on and on. And us Management students have taken steps. One of the students wrote a letter outlining all the current issues we are having and we all signed it...and the class representatives are having a meeting with the school leaders this week to discuss these issues.
I had even met with both my department head and the dean before writing my letter...telling them about my concerns. They said they would take care of all my issues as soon as possible.
That was 3 weeks ago.
I admit I was angry...and I retaliated. But this is a touch out of control.
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