Class Acts. Rachel Sherman

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СКАЧАТЬ the supervision of the controller's office (mostly because their offices were adjoining). Security, laundry, the gift shop, and valet parking were subcontracted to outside companies.

      The division of labor was also codified in a strict delineation of job tasks. Concierge workers and front desk agents did none of the same work; concierges focused on entertainment and guests’ needs outside the hotel, while front desk agents checked guests in and out and executed other administrative tasks. Front desk workers were not trained at the telephone operator station. Business center workers, organizationally separate from the front office, sent out faxes and packages for guests, logged their incoming faxes, and did their Xeroxing. Workers were only minimally cross-trained. High specialization also characterized the back of the house for both semivisible and invisible workers.¹⁶ As we will see, this separation of tasks contrasts with the organization of the Royal Court.

      The spatial organization and aesthetics of work matched this division of labor at the Luxury Garden. Concierges worked next to the front desk agents, but telephone operators were located in the basement, and reservationists were upstairs in the executive offices. Room service had its own office on a floor above the restaurant kitchen. The laundry center and uniforms were in the basement, near workers’ locker rooms, and the housekeeping office was upstairs. Workers wore different uniforms depending on their position: the doormen's gold coat differed from the bellmen's outfit, and the concierges’ sober uniform contrasted with the gold and black apparel of the front desk agents. Reservationists wore suits, and telephone operators wore their own special uniform as well.

      The front office managerial hierarchy was highly differentiated. François, the rooms division manager, supervised Patricia, a front office manager, who in turn oversaw several assistant managers and one supervisor. François never worked at the desk, and Patricia rarely did. Managers’ responsibilities were clearly distinguished from those of line employees, although assistant managers spent some time relieving workers for breaks and shared some of their work, especially on the evening shift. The exception to this rule was at the concierge desk, where the two assistant managers sometimes took on regular concierge tasks, though they spent most of their time in manager meetings or working on special projects.

       “Who We Are”: Building Identity and Accountability

      The second element of hierarchical professionalism at the Luxury Garden was a sophisticated program of standards and training, including the cultivation of a common identity and “culture.” In this effort, management used many common techniques, including encouragement of deep acting and self-transformation, explicit standards and training, and practices of reward. More than transform workers’ selves, however, these techniques served to clarify what workers were expected to do and to let them know that they would be held accountable.

      CORPORATE CULTURE Probably emulating the Ritz-Carlton, Luxury Garden management at the corporate level had developed an elaborate “culture,” including a corporate philosophy, service and operational standards, and a training program. The most salient facet of this culture was a continued effort to establish a communal identity. When I interviewed Sebastian, the general manager, he frequently brought up culture as a feature of identity, calling himself “the carrier of our culture.” He referred to a new standards program as “one of the tools that make us who we are.” Managers referred to employees (and employees were supposed to refer to one another) as colleagues. Postings throughout the hotel about other properties in the chain, company news, and budget numbers attempted to create a feeling of belonging and participation in a common enterprise.

      The company had a “mission statement” and “guiding principles,” which Alice told us in the orientation had been “hammered out” by the general managers of all the properties. In addition to the corporate mission statement, the hotel's local management had come up with its own credo: “Above All Else: Dignity, Excellence, Enchantment.” On several occasions I heard Alice tell the story of how managers at this property had spent months designing and implementing a new program for the hotel; this historical narrative seemed to be an integral part of the culture itself, as it often is in training sessions.¹⁷ As at the Ritz-Carlton, workers were given a card to carry with them that included the credo, the four practices for each term, and the hotel's motto, “Enchanted moments come from living our credo.”

      The initial employee orientation reflected this concern with establishing a common identity and a sense of belonging in a luxury environment.¹⁸ Alice handed out special pins to be worn on each employee's uniform when she talked about “who we are” as a way to introduce the mission statement and guiding principles. Company-made videos emphasized the mission statement, workers’ commitment to service, and the luxurious elements of the Luxury Garden experience. She also emphasized the high status of guests, frequently describing the hotel's clientele as “the top 1 percent.”

      Procedures for recognizing workers and creating community in the hotel were well-developed at the Luxury Garden and linked to these elements of “culture.” The primary recognition program rewarded workers for “enchanted moments” they provided to guests (nominally it also applied to workers enchanting one another, but I never saw an instance of this). When a worker went out of his way to assist a guest, he received twenty-five dollars; his photograph and a description of what he had done were posted in the workers’ area in the basement. Seven or eight of these appeared during my four months at the hotel.¹⁹ Managers posted guest letters of praise in their departments. François, the resident manager, told me in an interview that he tried to recognize workers by name “just like we do to guests” and to compliment them verbally or in writing (using special “five star cards”) for good work. The human resources department conducted an employee satisfaction survey each year and publicized the results around the hotel.

      Managers created community in other ways as well. The human resources department organized community events such as a pumpkin carving at Halloween, a children's party, and a fancy holiday party in the ballroom of another local hotel. The Luxury Garden also produced a (more or less) quarterly newsletter, which announced the employees of the quarter and the year (who received cash awards) and mentioned employee and company news. Workers were encouraged to participate in committees, whose tasks included coming up with new ideas for bettering service (“to improve the ‘wow’ situation,” as Alice said in the orientation), addressing environmental issues within the hotel, and improving the food in the employee cafeteria.

      However, the sense of community also carried a dimension of accountability or coercion.²⁰ The language of many of the communications from upper management to workers often manifested two facets: one of community building and free choice, and the other of surveillance and compulsion. Typical of this attitude were the flyers posted around the back hallways of the hotel advertising a general assembly meeting; their tone promoted a fun, voluntary social activity (“Come enjoy refreshments!”), but at the bottom they stated baldly, “Attendance is mandatory.”

      Alice told me in an interview that the corporate culture, which she characterized as “pretty darn strong,” served to clarify expectations and weed out those who did not “fit in.” If employees did not observe these norms, she said, they would “stick out” and “feel out of place.” This meant that workers knew they could not shirk work and that if they brought friends in as employees, they knew the friends had to be good. Thus, Luxury Garden corporate culture was in part a culture of accountability; this culture also included elaborate standards and company surveillance.

      CORPORATE STANDARDS AND TRAINING The credo “Dignity, Excellence, Enchantment” codified broad standards of behavior; written in the first person, these standards also implied a certain kind of selfhood, telling the worker what kind of person to be. They included, for example: “I respect my guests’ and colleagues’ individuality.” “I show empathy.” “I listen actively.” “I keep my promises.” These are norms of personhood as well as behavior, conscripting the self in the service of the hotel's product and the guest's experience.

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