Some Days I Just Want to Shoot Myself

But I’m not depressed, dammit!

I have been told there is a thin line between sadness and depression. And what makes me sad in the business of managing labor expense is the needless waste of time and talent required to constantly “fix” the labor expenses and the staff allocations in the same department over and over again.

Here is one way to avoid labor management sadness – check to see if there are problems with how a department is scheduling their leadership staff. Start with the Department Manager’s schedule, are his or her scheduled days off the same as the Department Director’s? If so, an Assistant Manager or a Supervisor is probably in charge on those days. If there are Assistant Managers or Supervisors, check their schedules to see if the days off and start times correspond to times when demand for department services is at its highest levels. If so, this is a pretty good indicator of other issues exist with line staff deployment, guest service delivery, and labor expense.

I once was asked to review the labor effectiveness of a busy Players Club at a large local’s casino in the South and guess what - not one of the schedules for department leadership corresponded to the peak demand patterns of guests visiting the Club for services! Players Club Manager, scheduled off on Saturday and Sunday day shifts. Day Shift Supervisor, scheduled to be off Fridays and Saturdays. Swing Shift Supervisor, scheduled to be off on Fridays and Saturdays. Late Shift Supervisor, scheduled to be off Saturdays and Sundays. On every shift when guest demand for services was high the line staff was being managed by an Assistant Shift Supervisor. Top Department Management was nowhere in sight when business levels peaked!

As I said, schedules like this one can make you sad but should not make you depressed. In this case, all was fixed after a short visit with a General Manager (who probably wanted to shoot himself after our review)!