Like many of us, I am sure one time or another have been in Harper’s shoes. In my experience with feeling unappreciated, overworked or overwhelmed the best course of action is to communicate as soon as those feelings arise. The course of action I took to address these concerns were different at every position that I held in Starbucks. When I was a barista and felt undervalued or overworked, I would communicate it to my shift supervisor, if I felt as though my concern went unnoticed, I then voiced my concern to my manager usually that conversation led to a positive outcome. When I was an ASM in Starbucks and grasping the new role often times that meant prioritizing my work day so I can complete administrative tasks as a newly promoted ASM I had to step away from the team many times and if we had a burst of customers come in I was not on the floor to support them the team felt neglected, as soon as a barista made me aware of the concern I thanked them for the feedback and became more aware of when they needed my help. I also communicated to them that there will be times where I will need to step off the floor and I need them to be focused on their roles, whether I assigned Susan to make drinks or Brian to take orders, giving them clear cut direction and expectations and always thanking them, keeping the vibes positive and making work fun helped me build better relationships with my team. In the case of David, as an HRM I would advise him to start looking for cues, such as not smiling, withdrawn behavior, negative attitudes, or positive attitudes, and engaged behavior. As a manager I can tell you I manage personalities more than I manage the business because the business part is easy but managing people can be challenging but if you are like me and you genuinely enjoy embracing everyone with peace and positivity you will not have a problem. I would advise him to start analyzing his team as a whole and see which one of the team members can be able to help alleviate the workload Harper carries. I would suggest team building exercises to break the ice with the everyone. Once trust is built the morale would surely be better. I would also suggest David to have a one on one with Harper and express his gratitude for having an asset like Harper on his team and simply listen to what she has to say. Sometimes just venting can make you feel better because you got it off your chest if done so sincerely.
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