Appraisers' Free Forum

Annemieke Roell wrote:We don't ever cancel a class. We remember how annoying it was to re-arrange your week and then get a call the day before that the class was canceled, especially if we needed the hours for license renewal.

We vowed to NEVER ever do that and we don't. It has provided us with quite a loyal following already .... people think it is awesome we do that and have become our students exclusively.

I refuse to do business with McKissock for exactly that reason. They canceled after I had already made reservations in Las Vegas. Went anyway, just couldn't write it off. Once you lose my business, most generally, you lose it forever.

(Other people I won't do business with: Sony, Sears, and Butterball.)

(Other people I won't do business with: Sony, Sears, and Butterball.)

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Steve, what did that turkey ever do to you.



Hey, I got that part time job. That will eliminate some of my thumb twiddling time. Maybe reduce my current level of boredum.

tel wrote:

(Other people I won't do business with: Sony, Sears, and Butterball.)

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Steve, what did that turkey ever do to you.



Hey, I got that part time job. That will eliminate some of my thumb twiddling time. Maybe reduce my current level of boredum.

Way to go Tel!!! Now we can hear all your stories about the behind the scene stuff at a hotel! Should be interesting.

Rhonda, here's the first one for you.

The guy I will be working for told my I will also be doing some security work. For example they have a wedding party in and the people have been drinking tooooo much, you ask them to keep it quiet and go to their rooms. About 3 months ago he found a girl laying in the hallway totally drunk. Just in bra and panties. She was so wiped out she did not know her room # and could not even say her name. He got her covered up and eventually got her to her room.

Now if it had been me, it would have been a fat old guy laying in the hallway in just his underwear, in stead of an attractive young woman.

This is a major chain that has a good reputation & the place is in a nice area and is only about 6 months old. Should be fun...I hope. The guy I will be working for has a great sense of humor and seems to enjoy life, so I think it is gonna be okay.

I would have been a fat old woman laying in the hall. They probably would not have given me a blanket.

I'm sure you're going to see and hear some pretty weird stuff! Can't wait to hear about it! Just be careful and don't ask any BIG, mean drunks to keep it down.

tel wrote:Steve, what did that turkey ever do to you.

It has to do with their management style. Of all former employers (my wife worked for them), several of whom I had disagreements with, they are the only ones that I refuse to do business with. I will still do business with Con Agra, their owner.

I don't want to go into too much detail (I don't want to get sued). However, suffice it to say that I believe they practice sea gull management. Also, my wife's former boss got sick of them, quit, became the CEO of another big company, and beat the pants off of them in the market. roflmao. (Hey, Greg... there's an acronym for you!)

When I was an Air Force Junior ROTC teacher in high school, I taught all of the leadership, management, and personal living skills portions of the course. You would not believe all of the job & boss related horror stories the students would bring to class. McDonalds was one of the biggest offenders. Basically you have low or mid level supervisors that have no training or skills in leadership &/or management....other than being a jerk and yelling, which they just know will solve the problem.

When my brother was a fairly high level attorney for Westinghouse they sent him to a leadership & management school in CA for about 10 days. He was going to be supervising lots and lots of people. He was in his mid to late 40s. He told me about some of the great stuff he learned in this expensive big bucks school. Of course he wanted to know if I knew of any of these very latest and greatest techniques & philosophies. I burst his bubble when I told him those were the introductory aspects of leadership and management that I taught to the 9th and 10th grade JROTC students. The more advanced concepts we reserved for the 11th and 12th grade students. I made him a believer when I showed him the text books I used for the classes.

Most companies allow their supervisors to succeed or fail on their own without any training in leaership and management. Oh they teach them how to do reports and paperwork...but no one really teaches them how to deal with and motivate subordinates.

tel wrote:McDonalds was one of the biggest offenders. Basically you have low or mid level supervisors that have no training or skills in leadership &/or management....other than being a jerk and yelling, which they just know will solve the problem.

McDonalds depends a lot on the specific franchisee. Ours is excellent. It was started by a good ol' boy whose friends all told him that you can't make money selling hamburgers for 15 cents. He died a multi-millionaire and passed several food businesses to relatives... and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree... their operations are somewhere between very good and excellent. On the other hand, one of the worst fast food experiences I ever had was in a McDonalds in the Flint Hills... poor management and disorganized, among other things.

What I was talking about goes far beyond poor management.

Most companies allow their supervisors to succeed or fail on their own without any training in leaership and management. Oh they teach them how to do reports and paperwork...but no one really teaches them how to deal with and motivate subordinates.

Not only that, but there is precious little of it taught in business school.

I once read an article in Harvard Business Review entitled "Managers and Leaders: Are They Different?"

It was written by the holder of an endowed chair at Harvard Business School, and its main premise was that "natural" leaders were a real pain in the ass to those trying to manage stuff. That was back in the late '80's, early 90's. Recently, I saw another Harvard Business Review article that was cast approximately along the same lines. Sheesh! It's no damn wonder that unions are making a comeback. None of these dweebs seems to realize that "manager" and "leader" are synonymous. Definition of management: Getting work done with the labor of others. How you do that: Leadership. Without being a leader, you cannot successfully manage.

And here I thought the only real importance in being a CEO was negotiating the benefits package........

Goodpasture wrote:And here I thought the only real importance in being a CEO was negotiating the benefits package........

Only if you work for a bank that is too big to fail.