The Case of the Shattered Coffee Pot in the Ice Machine

It was a hot summer Saturday back in 1987. I had recently been transferred to the North Rangeline (North) McDonald's Store. I was moved there because I had earned a reputation as a powerful motivator and great teacher. And, to put it simply, North needed that -- desperately. On my third Saturday there (a scorcher), we were just finishing the breakfast rush and getting ready to transition to lunch (always a chaotic time). One of the employees came running over to me with a cup full of ice (she was about to fill a drink order for the drive thru). She frantically pointed out the quarter-sized piece of glass in the ice. I quickly checked our ice machine and saw the remnants of a shattered glass coffee pot. One of the crew had done it. (Luckily, this was our first soda of the day so no customers were affected.)

The first thing we had to do was shut down the machine and pull all of the ice out of the ice bin stations in both the drive thru and the front line. Those had to be thoroughly and carefully cleaned. I pulled out petty cash and sent an employee to the grocery store to buy up bags of ice. I called other McDonald's nearby and arranged to have an employee come by with plastic bins to collect some ice. Once the immediate situation was taken care of, I knew that I had to handle the more difficult part of it: taking care of the employees who did it.

Although there were no witnesses, I had a strong suspicion of who had done it, as did all the other employees. There were three employees who were extremely disgruntled and unhappy. They were also the three most knowledgeable and potentially best employees that I had ever worked with. I sent them on break together to give myself time to collect my thoughts. I grabbed a cup of coffee and headed back to the break room. As I entered the break room, they all looked up at me, expectantly and not without some hostility. I asked them if they would mind if I sat down with them for a minute. I could tell that was not what they were expecting! Then, I asked them if they'd be willing to talk for a few minutes and I assured them that I would add that time onto their break time. Then I said, "I wonder if you guys could help me out. About what just happened with the ice -- to me, that is a clear symptom of what's going on in this store. You guys have been here a long time, you know the store and you know your jobs. What do you think the real problems are?"

About 15 minutes later, they stopped talking. I had taken notes. I summarized the points they had made (for the most part, they were all valid) and then I said "Thank you for taking the time to be so upfront with me. I am going to work my hardest to bring about changes. I am going to work my tail off to make things better. I won't be able to do that overnight, but I will work to bring about changes as quickly as possible. I hope that you will be with me in making these changes." Then I stood up and said "So, I'll see you up front in about 20 minutes or so?" All three stood up and said "No, we will go back with you now."

In all the hard work that was before me, these three employees worked as hard and as loyally as anyone else. The fact that I listened to them spread throughout the store, among all the different shifts, and I became the manager that people trusted enough to talk to. That was essential. I needed to hear what was really going on. Of course, I also had to do something as well, otherwise I would have lost that trust. Together we turned that store into a place where employees worked with pride. Within three months, we turned the reputation of the store around. As a direct result of my hard work at North, I was awarded the opportunity to become a Store Manager at another nearby McDonalds. I gladly welcomed that challenge. When I announced that I would be leaving and going to the other store, about half of the employees at North put in their request to be transferred to the store I was going to (and, the same thing happened at the Main Street Store (the store I had been at before North)!). Sadly, the regional supervisor limited the amount of transfers I could accept. One of those that wanted to transfer -- and one I accepted -- was one of the women who, I believe, broke the coffee pot in the ice machine. From that day on, she was one of the best and most loyal employees that I ever worked with.