When the team aren’t ready

For the last two Sundays I have been to my local M&S simply food for opening at 10am. I have joined the queue at 9.55am and then once inside I have gone straight for the cafe.

Each week the cafe was shut. I join another queue. Then a rushed team member runs in and moves the sign out of the way. There has only been this one person working.

5 minutes later while still waiting in the queue to be served a lady and body guard have come over to the till and rushed around to get the cash and coins into the till.

Everyone is in a fluster, the customers are getting annoyed and it is a real embarrassment for M&S.

As far as I am concerned when those doors open it’s show time, so why aren’t the team ready?

I thought it might be a one off but doubt it now!

I have encountered this problem before with the team in clients businesses.

A client once had a team member decide that as she was paid from 9am that would be the time she would walk into the building, get changed etc, leaving the dentist and the patient waiting for her!

I once worked with a dentist for many years whose first patient was at 8am and he never turned up until 8.10am.

We then see team members who are expected to be 5-15 minutes before their contracted hours to set up but they are not paid for this time.

I hope that this post becomes a reference for many for years to come so here is the reality:

The time in which you expect employed staff to start working is the time that they are paid from, and the moment that you start to pay the team to start work is the time in which they should be ready for show time. Clothes changed, breakfast eaten, tea drunk, phones away, smiles on….

Laura