Texas Moon Restaurant

CH 11 CS: Texas Moon Restaurant

The Texas Moon is considered by most of its employees to be an excellent place to work. Competition for open positions at the restaurant is fierce. The Texas Moon has extremely stringent selection criteria for all positions, but its reputation as one of the best places to work ensures that there is always a large pool of applicants for any opening. It is considered to be the finest restau- rant in the state. The Texas Moon has 65 staff members and 10 managers including the executive chef and two sous chefs. All Texas Moon employees are full-time. The Texas Moon is open 365 days per year, 7 days per week. Staff members work a 5- to 6-day week with a total of 40 hours, and managers work a 6-day week with a total of 48 hours. Employees receive health benefits after six months with the restaurant. The health benefits are subsidized by the restaurant at the rate of 50 percent for both individual and family policies. Staff members receive one week of paid vacation per year after one year of service, and two weeks of paid vacation per year after five years of service. Managers receive two weeks of paid vacation per year after one year of ser- vice, and three weeks of paid vacation per year after five years of service. Additionally, managers receive two personal holidays per year. Employees also earn sick leave at the rate of half a day per month after one year of service. The Texas Moon management believes that out- standing performance should be recognized and rewarded. Employees earn performance recognition points toward involvement in an annual cuisine and cul- ture trip as well as other performance recognition rewards such as tickets to local attractions and movie tickets that are awarded annually. In last year’s trip to Mexico, the six staff members and five managers who went became a developmental team for new menu items for the next year. Performance recognition points are awarded by managers and department heads for outstanding performance based on criteria developed by each department head. Managers are automatically included in a trip every other year. Managers do not par- ticipate in the other performance recognition awards. Managers receive a cash bonus if financial targets are achieved. The Texas Moon has an established method for the scheduling of vacation days. The minimum vacation time that can be used at one time is one week and the maxi- mum is two weeks. Vacation scheduling is managed within each department. The calendar clearly shows the number of employees who may be on vacation at the same time during each week of the year. Texas Moon treats holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Rosh Hashanah, and the Fourth of July the same as any other day in the year. The Culinary Department has always based vaca- tion scheduling on seniority. Beginning the first week in September, a vacation calendar is circulated in each department according to seniority. The Texas Moon Restaurant has 14 full-time line and prep cooks. Three of the line cooks and two of the prep cooks have been with the restaurant for more than seven years each. For the past three years, the three line cooks and two prep cooks with the greatest seniority have selected vacation dates that included the major holidays. The other line and prep cooks have no opportunity to select holiday dates as part of their vacation dates and resentment has steadily grown in the past few years over the scheduling of vacations. John, a line cook, has been with Texas Moon for 18 months. John was recognized for his outstanding per- formance and was one of the six staff members selected to travel to Costa Rica this year. John mentioned the vacation scheduling to Tracey, one of the five managers, during the trip to Costa Rica. He stated that he was considering leaving Texas Moon because he considered the scheduling of vaca- tions in the Culinary Department to be unfair and ineq- uitable. He also indicated that other team members in the Culinary Department were looking for positions with other restaurants because of the department’s vacation scheduling. Tracey asked each of the other five staff members on the trip—one from the Culinary Department, two from the Guest Service Department, and two from the Sales Department—how they felt about the scheduling of vacations in their department. All of the staff mem- bers indicated that seniority was the basis for schedul- ing and they felt it created inequities and discontent. All of the staff members stated that they felt the system was designed to reward longevity, not performance. Tracey organized an open discussion of the issue with the other four managers and all of the staff members during the trip. The five managers returned from the trip convinced that the general manager (not present on the trip) needed to address the issue of vacation scheduling to avoid the loss of valuable staff members. Based on what you have learned from previous chapters and the content of this chapter, answer the following questions:

• What is the overall reason for the challenges occur- ring in the Texas Moon Restaurant?
• What are the primary causal agents for the chal- lenges occurring in the Texas Moon Restaurant?
• What specific steps could have been taken to avoid the current situation occurring in the Texas Moon Restaurant?
• What, specifically, can be done to overcome the challenges and generate motion in a positive direc- tion for the Texas Moon Restaurant?