Who is more important?

In the food industry, some debate on who to take care of and who is the most important: the owner, the employees, or the guests. They are all very important, in my opinion, when it comes to the establishment. Most of the class on Thursday said the employees should be taken care of first so they can make the guests happy and that will make the owner happy. This is definitely the perfect scenario for our industry, but this doesn’t always work out. The Greenbrier, the place where I completed my externship was more than willing to make the staff happy so we could please the guests. I was lucky enough to experience this while it lasted. The Greenbrier was going through many changes while I was there. They opened up a brand new casino, along with the re-opening of one restaurant, and two brand new restaurants. During this time this establishment was extremely short staffed, and the employees were the ones that suffered. Everyone was on mandatory overtime with no guaranteed days off. Many employees went a month with no days off as well as working twelve-hour shifts. The employees weren’t happy, but we still had to give the guests five-star service. We were expected to keep our standards at all times. This was very difficult at times due to exhaustion and frustration, but we still did our best.