From the airline and hotel experiences, I have encountered many employees,
associates or even my colleagues having symptoms, to which I refer as the
“I-ME-MY-MINE”.
Let me explain:
“Before you come and take anything from MY galley, you need
to let ME know first”, one senior purser told me when I was a junior
flight attendant. Since then, this kind of symptom never stops; I am
still hearing the similar thing all the times.
For example: “You know Miss Nate-tra, I really dislike the chief
accountant. She wants to terminate MY staff, this staff is MINE,
I will fight for this employee” one very committed HR manager told me while
doing training at a property of one good hotel chain here in Thailand
I remembered that when I was very junior, an economy-class flight
attendant, I was taught to be most humble. That time, I was so scared to
go to the business class to even borrow anything or any equipment from
there. One flight, I was asked by my flight purser to borrow a box of
orange juice from the business class. The rush hour on the airplane
really means to walking and serving against time. I walked towards the
business class and I saw one box of orange juice in the galley. During
the rush hour, I quickly reached the box of orange juice but there was loud
voice behind me that ‘before you come and take anything from MY galley,
you need to ask ME first”, the senior purser said. I had truly
a one second thought that the galley did belong to her, but how she can own the
galley on the plane!!!
No matter what, I was scared; I then kept saying “sorry, sorry and
sorry”. But later on, with time and experience, I started to
understand what people mean when they say “I-ME-MY-MINE”, however, to be
very honest; I just don’t like it! I could never adopt that
above-mentioned “speaking culture”. It is like playing cards and smoking,
no matter how much I practice and how many times I am in such an environment, I
just have no gift on those.
I do understand the “I-ME-MY-MINE” words are needed to
identify certain things in life. But I think many people are overusing
and abusing those words in business. Why? I don’t know. I
only know that it does create territory and it is the most obvious thing that would
destroy and prevent teamwork. How can we be a team if we have
territory?
Likewise, in the hotel industry, all the departments’ names from front office, housekeeping, kitchen, food and beverage, human resources, accounting and so on and so forth. With different names, different uniforms, different department heads, those are already enough reasons to separate hotel team apart. That is why, human resource people are paid to also provide a “team work” training sessions. Isn’t it funny? We create those problems and at the same time we try to create solutions.
As mentioned earlier, the committed HR person shared her work disappointment with me that someone wanted to fire HER staff. I found out she was the one who hired this particular staff and he worked for accounting department. Thinking deeply, if it was her HR staff, and the chief accountant wanted to fire her HR staff - what a story!!! – chief accountant will kick out HR staff, confusing isn’t it? I realize that this HR manager is having the “I-ME-MY-MINE” symptoms!
The person who can change the “I-ME-MY-MINE” symptom to the “WE-US-OUR-OURS” could be anyone who has enough leadership skills.
The best of the best is when the General Manager starts and enforces it, everyone will tend to follow.
Next write-up, I will tell you more about the 2nd version
of the “I-ME-MY-MINE” symptom that resulted in loss of business to one
hotel owner I met. I already have a name of my next article “Hello! ..My PP Island.
© Tevabanchachai N.
(2009), Honorary Advisor / Director, Mai-BS (THAILAND) http://mai-bs.com
© Tevabanchachai N. (2009), Program Director at Travel Industry Management Division and Acting General Manager at Salaya Pavilion Hotel and Training Center at Mahidol University International College
