Workplace Tales

[rich]

I was thinking (dangerous) there is another way to handle this and that's with humor.

You could have yelled "food fight," and began throwing the other bagels around the room.

[SobaAddict70]

A couple of years ago when I was a legal assistant at a well-known, high-powered Wall Street law firm, I had to come in at 7:30 am for a client meeting.

We had breakfast ordered up from our corporate cafeteria.

Well, the clients came in and breakfast was nowhere to be found.  15 minutes later, in a panic, I called down to the cafeteria and managed to have someone bring up the trolley cart into the conference room.

Turned out that "breakfast" consisted of a platter of bagels, cream cheese and fruit.  A particularly odious investment banker who I will never, ever forget, scooped up one of the bagels, exclaimed "This bagel is stale", and threw it across the room.  

What would you have done?

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The behavior of throwing food is inexcusable in any situation.

Having said that, and as your meeting was a t 07:30. it is obvious that you failed to prepare for the meeting not only in being present well before the client but making sure that all elements related to the meeting are covered from booking the meeting room to the breakfast menu in detail.

You have been wrong footed by the client.

Your reaction should not have been to panic but to rectify and put the meeting on the correct track.

1- Take the blame and apologize

2- Take positive action and ask your "corporate cafeteria" to supply immediately what they can and make sure that what they will supply is up to standard.

3- Failure of the "corporate cafeteria" being able to supply, you should arrange your assistant or your assistant boss to immediately contact the nearest open hotel or restaurant and provide an acceptable breakfast.

4- Failing point 2 and 3, proceed with the meeting and extend an open invitation to the client to the top restaurant or hotel for a lavish breakfast at a later date.

It is not your position or responsibility to educate your client with his hideous behavior.

Whatever the case maybe, it is your personal mistake.

I cannot believe that this can happen in a high-powered Wall Street law firm as heads will roll at the cafeteria, after your head of course.

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As it happens, the situation was rectified satisfactorily to all concerned parties. I had another breakfast platter ordered up, the meeting proceeded as normal...and two months later, I left that firm for another, more rewarding and less stressful job.

You're correct, it's not my "position or responsibility" to educate clients as to appropriate behavior. Thankfully I don't have to...that's why I'm a paralegal and not a lawyer.

[fifi]

One time while I was in an official position with a professional organization, we hosted an annual meeting at a big hotel. There was a dinner for about 250. We had invited some visitors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE. You can imagine my horror when the entre was served . . . pork tenderloin! Luckily, the visitors were seated at our table and the other good luck was, that as the only lady at the table, I was served first and the banquet manager was along side seeing how things were going. I got up immediately and quietly said to him, "You do have chicken entrees for these gentlemen . . . Don't you?" With the large number in the dining room, the slight delay for the "special" entrees was awkward but excusable. The hotel kitchen did a fine job of coming through. (They are probably used to that sort of thing.) The staff for the organization that was so clueless had to buy me a steak dinner the next night for saving their butts.

[Carrot Top]

After reviewing more than a decade's worth of stories set entirely in the Wall Street investment bank (top five category) partner's dining rooms, first as Executive Chef, then Director, finally ending up as VP in charge of all foodservices including several cafeterias - I have to say that in all that time, I can remember only one Partner of the firm exhibiting behavior of this sort, at a breakfast.

It was much more common to see this thing happen with younger men (never saw a tantrum from a female but of course the numbers there were nowhere near equal at the upper echelons so the study must be considered skewed along with other things one might consider skewed ). . .men with fairly newly-minted MBA's who were out to make their name.

They always looked foolish to whomever was there, and I can not remember a single one of them rising much higher on the corporate ladder.

And I have to say that it was even more common to see this sort of behavior in the cafeterias, with the more average level person "taking it out" on the cafeteria worker - in ways larger like loud ugly comments on the (subsidized) food that did not float their boats for some reason or ways smaller like being carelessly and unneccesarily dirty and unkempt with the food that they ate.

On the other hand, I can count on more than the fingers of one hand some other "newly-minted MBA" types who did know some things about food, about manners, and about how to organize and prepare for a meeting that included food as part of it. Some are now Partners in the firm, some have their own highly succesful firms, some are in high-level politics, and some actually are now at the helms of the public/governmental organizations that run things to do with America's money and power.

The bad-mannered ones, the uncouth, the ones that disrespected the food - well. God knows where they went. Probably they were thrown onto the trading floor with the other hyenas. Heh. Fine place to be, money to be made, bagels to be thrown.

As for the Partner that mis-behaved that one time? Wily fellow. Didn't hurt him a bit. Moved on to politics at the highest levels. Brains can sometimes overcome naughtiness.

Que sera.