Coursework Assignment: The Galley Cafeteria
The Galley is a 150-seat canteen-style restaurant located on the top floor of an eight-storey office block. The building was originally constructed in the 1980s to house employees of a large international shipping company and is located two miles from a major city centre. At the time of construction this was a semi-derelict dockland area being earmarked for substantial redevelopment.
Until 2012 the Galley was a subsidised staff canteen serving meals and snacks to company employees and providing buffet lunches for meetings and functions held in the building. Since then, however, due to increased international competition, the company has declined ...view middle of the document...
Three months ago, the long-serving manageress of The Galley retired and was replaced by Jean Porter, an experienced caterer who had previously managed other Lunchbox operations.
The Galley's 20-strong staff have not, however, responded well to her appointment. This is partly because she is ten years younger than most of them and partly because of a general resistance to her determination to force the pace of change.
A number of initiatives brought forward by Jean have met with a poor response from the staff. The introduction of a wider range of dishes, the serving of hot breakfast snacks from 8.00am and the provision of themed menus (e.g. Chinese at Chinese new year) have all been met apathetically by chefs and waiting staff alike. Employees have recently become more hostile towards Jean following her decisions to abolish the half-hour morning coffee / smoking break and not to replace two members of staff who left to move to other catering operations run by Lunchbox UK.
To date, discontent has taken the form of higher rates of absence, lateness, scruffy dress and, on occasions, lack of politeness towards customers and colleagues. More overt forms of action have, however, been considered. All staff remain members of the Transport and General Workers Union and are in close touch with their regional officer.
Because of the poor financial performance of The Galley, Lunchbox UK has now instructed Jean to reduce the total wage bill by 5% over the next six months. Understandably she is very concerned about how this can be achieved given the current state of employee...
