Is jest is an integral part of the way in which we engage, as a sector? Hotel and Restaurant Times looks at the ever-changing perspective of Work Relations
When I was a youth, I spent some of my summers working at the local petrol pumps in the village where I grew up. It brought me some spare money, and I got a start in the workplace.
I remember that my boss at the time was inclined to make the odd disparaging remark. Part of my duties were to sweep the forecourt as a well-kept appearance was important for customers. “Do you call that swept?” he’d ask rhetorically, observing the result of my efforts after I’d been ordered to sweep the area. If a customer happened to arrive during my dressing down, they might be drawn into the process as well. My boss might have said something about my inadequacies that he was tasking himself to correct; in front of a customer for added humiliation effect and to drive the message home.
I didn’t like that kind of treatment, but I was a young man and learning on the job. In order to avoid that kind of humiliation, I redoubled my efforts to ensure that when I was asked to do something, that the job got done well.
At what point does it become too much?
I suspect that we’ve all had jobs where the person in charge was a bit too disparaging towards us and made comments that we found humiliating. But at what point does it become too much? At what point should the control of the situation be wrested from the boss and he or she given a punishment, with all the more considerable humiliation that goes with that?
This is the question a lot of employers must be asking themselves in the light of a recent case, where the Labour Court’s Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) awarded €10,000 to an employee – a part-time barman – who was publicly admonished in front of a customer.
It happened in February 2025 in the busy environment of a bar in the high-end Castlemartyr Resort, when the manager allegedly said to a customer not to “mind him (referring to the barman at the centre of the case), that “he doesn’t be with it half the time.”
On the one hand, there’s no doubt that it’s humiliating to be subjected to such a comment being made about you – and addressed to a customer. On the other hand, this is in the context of a busy bar in a place where expectations of an efficient and smart service are very high.
The barman in question was older and slower than most of the other staff members but then, is it wrong to expect all employees to be up to speed? To be up to the job?
Much like my job in the local filling station, that forecourt had to be swept and if I wasn’t capable of sweeping the forecourt correctly, then someone who was up to it would have to replace me.
The complainant (Sean Murphy) was the one who quoted the words used. The defendant (Barry Hennessy) said that he couldn’t recall the exact words he used at the time. What he was trying to do, he argued, was to ensure that the customer who was waiting for his drink was aware that this was not the normal level of service to be expected at the Castlemartyr Resort and he put the blame on one particular employee rather than have that employee’s shortcomings (as he saw it) be reflected on the service as a whole.
In any case, the WRC found in favour of Mr Murphy and also ordered his employers to pay him that considerable fine. They found that the comment made by Mr Hennessy was discriminatory harassment on age (the defendant was 55) and disability (he has diabetes) grounds; in breach of the Employment Equality Act of 1998.
In short, the expectations placed on Mr Murphy seem to have been too much and seem to have been the same placed on the other younger members of staff. Should a 5-star property not have the right to expect a certain level of their staff regardless of their age?
“I think that it’s a matter of (managers) using their common sense in how they speak to staff,” sats Adrian Cummins, CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland.
“It’s important to have a common-sense approach to it, in terms of speaking clearly, firmly and distinctly and making sure that it’s not done in a condescending tone, or that there’s nothing untoward in the way they communicate.”
For Michael Magner, GM of The Montenotte Hotel in Cork, many pitfalls involved in hotel management often go back to the hiring process.
“At the end of the day, it goes back to selecting the correct candidate for the job. Notwithstanding that, age should never be a factor when hiring anybody.”
The other issue with the above case is that the manager in question seemed to be engaging in corrective coaching of sorts; claiming in his defence that he was seeking to ensure that the correct standards of service were adhered to by letting his barman know without any shadow of a doubt that the customer must be looked after above everything else.
The only trouble is that this corrective coaching was carried out in the full glare of the public.
“It’s part and parcel of employment,” says Michael. “But to be correctively coached in front of other colleagues is probably not appropriate and it should be kept to the confines of the structured training programmes and appraisal programmes that the employment would have.
“Jest is an integral part of the way in which we engage, as a sector, not just with our colleagues but also with our customers. Sometimes jest can be taken out of context (and I’m not for a second suggesting that it was in this case) … sometimes, there can be cultural differences as well, in terms of how jest can be interpreted.”
With decisions such as in this case, perhaps the most immediate consequence might be a lot less jest at places of work. Back in my petrol-pump-forecourt sweeping days, I didn’t find any of my boss’ jesting too funny. The fact is, though, it’s been making me giggle ever since. All it took was a change of perspective.
