Untitled - Hospitality Maldives

Hear No Evil
Speak No Evil
49 ways to CYA
(Cover Your Backside)
Albert Einstein once said: “The world is a
dangerous place to live, not because of the
people who are evil, but because of the people
who don’t do anything about it“
And that is why Evil Erik is still in the job,
since all that is necessary for the triumph of
evil is for good men to do nothing.
And the good men ( and women ) keep leaving
their jobs, increasing the turnover figures
of “his” hotel by 100 % and costing the owners
a ton of money in finding and training
new staff that then leaves again, costing the
owners a ton of money, etc, etc .......
And this inhuman cycle continues while, in
the meantime, the guests wonder why they
don’t get any recognition and/or guest satisfaction
!
But Evil Erik has now developed his CYA system
to perfection and worked out a check-list
of explanations of why he can’t achieve the
goals he keeps promising the owners.
So for all the Evil Erik’s and for all the readers
of these columns that write me about his
replicas from around the world, here is the
perfect list to blame others for his failures
while making sure he gets the credits for
their success !
49 reasons why Evil Erik can’t perform ........
1. Normally I do it my way..........
2. I’ve never done it that way
3. It’s not part of my job.
4. I don’t have the time
5. I don’t have the manpower.
6. It’s not in the budget.
7. It’s too expensive.
8. I have tried it before.
9. The staff is not ready for it yet.
10. Good idea, but our hotel is different.
11. All right in theory but can you put it into
practice ?
12. Too academic.
13. Too hard to administer.
14. Too much paperwork.
15. Too early.
16. Too late.
17. Too much work.
18. It’s not good enough.
19. There are better ways than that.
20. What will the customer think ?
21. What will the management think ?
22. What will the staff think ?
23. You haven’t considered....
24. It’s against company policy.
25. It would have been suggested before if
it were any good
26. Let’s not step on their toes.
27. Too modern.
28. Too old-fashioned.
29. Let’s discuss it at some other time.
30. You don’t understand our problem.
31. Why start change now ?
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
We’re too small for that.
We’re too big for that.
We have too many projects now.
Has anyone else ever tried it ?
What you are really saying is .......
It has been the same for 6 years, so it
must be good.
Let me add to that.
I just know it won’t work.
Let’s form a committee.
Let’s be practical.
It needs more study.
Let’s think it over for a while and watch
developments.
That’s not our problem.
Let’s shelve it for the time being.
We can’t do everything at once.
The computer doesn’t work.
No ink in the printer.
We can’t get on-line.
Erik understands very well that it is not
whether you win or lose, it is how you place
the blame and by doing that he becomes the
man that can smile when things go wrong
because he has 49 reasons ( and is adding
more ... ) to blame it on someone or something
else !
May revealing Evil Erik’s CYA secrets to the
internet help you to discover other “bad apples”
before they spoil your human resources
and, last but not least, your profitability too!
Bert “Bow-Thai” van Walbeek has been an Hotelier for 45 years and Marketer of Tourism for 35 years, a Motivator for 20 years, a Master of Disaster for 15 and a
Lecturer for 15 years. He can be reached at bert@twe-winningedge.com