The Oregon Biz Report - Business News from Oregon

May 12, 2008

by Tom Maginnis

Portland restaurant owner,

Gone are the days when we could learn the ways of work picking beans and berries in summer and delivering papers in the winter.  Those jobs have largely gone to the illegals as a result of laws and economics.  Hiring of illegal immigrants for the restaurant industry is, in my opinion, a lazy way out which is damaging our economy and the work ethic of our youth.

I own a restaurant.  American adults, as a rule, are not interested in the kind of jobs we offer, so my choices are to hire young people and train them or to hire illegal aliens, who already know how to work.  Illegal immigrants are easier to manage.  They understand work and are more tractable because, I suspect, of their status. 

While I have two legal immigrants on my team in higher-paying jobs, I have chosen the first course for the bulk of my employees.  Americans do the job every day in my restaurant.  I have no problem with having enough applicants.

Many of our new employees have never worked before.  .We start our young people at age 16, and keep them in the family as long as they show promise and try.  All our managers have been promoted from within, with two of them now having been with us for 15 years.  That means that training is important.

Part of training our new young employees is just helping them to understand what makes a good employee.  Up to 45% of Americans get their employment start in the hospitality industry, so I take this responsibility seriously.

Because of the short attention spans of youth, we had to distill the personal qualities related to work.  They had to be universal and easily understood.  We came up with five qualities to success in work. Each of these qualities is equally important in the functioning of any successful commercial enterprise, whether it is a store, a corporation or an organization.  They are appearance, attitude, attendance, effort and initiative.  Below is what we tell our employees about each.

Appearance:  The first cue a person gets from you is your appearance.  As a long history of prejudice will tell you, people who don’t know you judge you by how you look, which is why lawyers wear suits.  Many adults ignore this fact.  Except in Hollywood, they are generally either in jobs where they have little contact with the public or are poorly paid or both.  By dressing in a standard and non-threatening manner, successful people remove one major obstacle to their relationship with the customer or client.

Renegade looks like two-day-old beards, tongue rings, goatees, soul patches, multiple earrings, visible tattoos; or sloppy looks make a statement that you don’t want to make.  You can wear them, but if you want to be successful.  If you want to be successful in life (read, ‘wealthy’), you should take a hard look at your appearance.

Attendance:  An unreliable person is a drag on everyone around him/her.  You never know where you stand with an unreliable person.  You are always apologizing for that person and trying to fill the gap on short notice with minimal preparation.  This is as true in life as it is in business. 

There are 300,000,000 million people in the United States.  Every one of them is an alternative to the unreliable employee.  With that many choices, there’s no reason for you to give or accept less than the best.  If you have an unreliable person in your life or business, tell them to shape up or ship out.  We do, and so does every other successful business.

Attitude:  Almost every CEO of a successful publicly-held corporation is a nice person and a team player.  Donald Trump fires the individualists first.  Unless you intend to found your own privately-held and fabulously successful business you must learn how to accept direction from supervisors, and give good service.  While the movies tell you that the rugged individual is the winner, real life does not support that conclusion.  Even top corporate executives serve their stockholders, or they get fired.

Attitude must extend to customers, supervisors, owners, vendors, yourself and your loved ones.  You must be honest, hard working, cooperative, helpful and self assured.  Don’t park where you shouldn’t, don’t tell your supervisor to stuff it, don’t let your subordinates cheat and don’t confront your customers.  Above all, don’t lie.  Respect everyone, regardless of their status.  Unless you are content with failure, stand up for values.

Effort:  Most people, including both employees and employers, understand effort.  Since you’ve been little, you’ve been told, “Work hard and you’ll get ahead.”  The truth is that if you work hard, you’ll be the first person hired and the last person fired.  If there’s any justice, you’ll probably emerge as the best paid person at whatever level you are, and that’s worth plenty, but there’s more.

Initiative:  But to get ahead, you will need to work smart!  That means turning out high quality work with the least effort, taking responsibility, figuring out what your stakeholders (the customer, the boss, the bank, the eco lobby, etc.) want and providing it before they ask.  The first thing every boss wants is excellent appearance, attitude, attendance and effort.  Then he or she starts looking for the extras like loyalty, commitment, perceptiveness, intuition and talent; in other words, initiative.

These qualities pave the road to success.  A few people ignore one of these qualities and still succeed.  With 300,000,000 people trying, a few are bound to make it.  But you probably won’t.  Almost no one does.  Is it selling out?  Is it unfair?  Maybe, (though it’s doubtful), but those questions are irrelevant.  It is human nature.  Life, like your employer, rewards the qualities mentioned above.