Down the Corporate Ladder

By Patricia Dailey, Editor-in-Chief -- Restaurants & Institutions, 4/1/2004

To the millions of workers who have one, the word "boss" is anything but neutral or benign. In one short syllable, it connotes power, prestige, authority and accomplishment, all emanating from behind a big, well-polished desk in a corner office.

In the best possible world, those who wear the mantle are revered, respected and admired. They are viewed as leaders, a role that can't be taken or assumed but instead must be earned—honestly and through a lifetime of on-the-job learning, experience and, hopefully, a large degree of success as well.

Riding that career trajectory from entry level to office suite—a path that is highly esteemed in the foodservice industry and not all that uncommon—is part of the American dream, the near-mythic notion that the diligence of hard work pays off handsomely. But does the boss then become so far removed from the everyday realm that the most rudimentary and basic routines upon which the business is based are beyond their reach?

That premise is put to the test on the "Now Who's Boss?" reality show that airs on The Learning Channel. The boardroom boys come down from lofty perches to work in the trenches, toiling away at the tasks usually assigned to entry-level and minimum-wage workers, doing jobs that are hard to think of as lifetime career choices.

Viewers got to witness Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfield, co-founders of the California Pizza Kitchen chain, stumble badly but good-naturedly through stints at serving guests, making pizzas and washing dishes. In another episode, Jonathan Tisch, chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels, cooked, cleaned rooms, checked in guests and carted luggage.

(See Interface, p. 23, for an interview with Tisch.) Touches of the comic play out in watching the bosses fail in these jobs and so, too, do suggestions of irony.

Assessing his and Rosenfield's performances, Flax says they would have been fired from each of the jobs they were assigned. "We were completely incompetent." Tisch, who built a career beginning at the ground level of the hotel industry, noted, in a company memo written after his experiences, that the air at the top certainly can get a little thin.

Reality is more firmly based on restaurant floors and behind the bar, in the kitchens, storerooms and dishrooms than in upper echelons, the corridors of power where bosses so comfortably reside. Certainly the multimillion-dollar deals and complicated strategic decisions that presidents and CEOs execute on a routine basis are essential to the company's vibrancy, well-being and profitability. But so, too, are positions assumed every day by staff members who have less power and prestige yet far more direct contact with guests.

It is easy to undervalue their prominence and forget the value brought to companies by entry-level workers. But they and the jobs that they perform are absolutely and indisputably essential. Bosses would do well to remind themselves of that on a daily basis. And so as not to forget what those jobs entail and what they mean, it also might help to occasionally join them in the ranks for a refresher course.