Transcript

Chapter 10: On The Job Video: Metropolitan Bakery-Performance Review

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>> I'm was a pastry chef at a local Philadelphia restaurant for about eight years where I met my now business partner, Wendy Born. I was a pastry chef and she was the managing partner of the restaurant. My name is James Barrett and I am co-owner of Metropolitan Bakery. I've worked and learning from European kind of shift program trained chefs. Very, very demanding, very strict and very tough. Where something that you would make would be just tossed into the trash can because it was wrong. So I learned early on to build a tough skin. That said, I worked in hotels and restaurants under young American chefs that were more coddling and nurturing.

>> I think that is the sort of stereotypical chef. You know, people throwing things and whatever in the long run I don't think that's at all the way you get people to work. I'm Wendy Smith Born, co-owner of Metropolitan Bakery in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. If you want people to be able to work autonomously and for the kitchen to operate in your absence and your values to be translated on a daily basis you can't treat people that way. Because first of all when you're screaming and yelling you're not talking from a very deep place, you're talking off the top of your head and so nobody really knows what's up and all it does is keep people off base and not particularly engaged in producing good work.

>> What kind of stuff is just not acceptable?

>> To not call or show up for your scheduled shift. That's it. Yeah. I used to tolerate it. I'm too old for it now. You don't call, you don't show, you do not care. Bye.

>> We are completely clear about our expectations on punctuality, showing up, appearance. So clear. And the biggest one is being rude to a customer. Totally, absolutely 100 percent not acceptable. So we have a, you know, typical performance appraisal form that you would see anywhere. But tailored to our business.

>> And they're done on a three month basis, six month basis and then one year. When a person is first hired they go through a two week training period and then we'll have a sit down and we'll give them feedback. Sometimes it's keeping your job. Especially for a new hire and then particularly for somebody who has been here for a while, maybe has lost interest or the passion has waned. And then so then it comes, you know, your job is on the line.

>> The dance that you dance in a small business is how to become systems oriented without killing the passion. So there are two ways I think about performance appraisals. Do I really like them? I don't really actually like them. I think that if you meet with somebody once a year or twice a year and then drop the bomb, either good or bad or drop the bomb that it's bad or give it a glowing. It doesn't always get at what you want to get at when you're in a business like this. In this business our primary commodity is relationships and engaging the customer. And to talk to somebody twice a year about that is really not going to get us very far. Both James and I are hands on, we're both involved in the business daily, him in production, me here in the retail business side. So we have lots of contact with people so we don't have to do everything with pieces of paper and formal evaluations because we can give feedback right on the spot. I'd rather reward the behavior and what I see than wait and save it up for a big evaluation that only makes people anxious and stressed out and when you have people staying for an average of six to nine month you have to wonder what the value of a six month evaluation is. You're better off giving them feedback along the way and that in turn gives them the opportunity to give you feedback if they want to stay or move to a different job, they can do it at that point.

>> Yeah, I mean it can go both ways, absolutely. Sometimes people just burn out and it is time for them to move on and sometimes somebody that has been here for a long time should be here.

>> For the actual associates I feel that performance evaluations if we're at a point where somebody would like to have a raise and maybe we're on kind of not on the same wave length about that. We can go through a more complete and thorough process and we can see why we are kind of disconnected on that.

>> You know, some people are very responsive to feedback. And so then I have had, you know, many cases of success and that's why the evaluations are important and that's why I do them. On the other hand there are people that just don't want to hear it.

>> You know, as I've been in the business longer and there are certain things that I feel like I really understand better and so if I feel that somebody is impervious to feedback than I just, I cut my losses. Because it is ultimately all those relationships I just talked about with the customer, that's what keeps us in business. And it's the customer telling another customer, prospective customer, about us that keeps us in business. You know, we're not spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising and commercials. So we need the good vibe out on the street. So I can't risk somebody ruining that.

PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS IN COMPLETE SENTENCES BASED ON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ABOVE. THANK YOU!

1. Would you say that the Metropolitan Bakery has a performance-focused culture? Why or why not?

2. Would you recommend that the Metropolitan Bakery add a team or peer ratings to their performance review system? Why or why not?

3. Are annual performance reviews at the bakery used for administrative or developmental actions?