During my internship at The Ritz – Carlton Millenia Singapore, an interpersonal communication problem had appeared between my colleague and I. At The Ritz – Carlton, we were required to escort every guest to the front office to check-in and after escorting we were required to return back and continue the process. I had a colleague who was laid back even when during the hotel’s peak period. This was largely due to the difference in upbringing and culture, causing a huge misunderstanding between us.
During the hotel’s peak period, he was leisurely strolling around despite the rest of us in the team rushing and working hard with the continuous stream of guest arrivals. When I realised, he was being too carefree, I took the initiative to speak to him about his work ethics as I wanted to spare him the wrath of our manager if he caught on.
I signalled for him to come over to where I was so I could speak with him. I raised my voice a little when I spoke as the hotel lobby was very noisy due to the high number of guests. I pointed out his wrongdoings – leisurely strolling back to the main entrance to further escort our guests without any sense of urgency. After I was done, he stormed off angrily and complained to our manager, saying that my attitude to him was very rude. I was flabbergasted, as I thought that I had communicated well to him, trying to help him do the right thing. I believe what triggered him to behave that way was my choice of words. What could I have done better to prevent this incident from happening again?
After reviewing the feedback given, I believe non-verbal and verbal interaction like signalling a person and the tone that I speak to him are the cause of the problem. I should work on my communication skills on how to communicate clearly and properly to get my point across. Furthermore, I believe that I should have walk to the person and explain to him why did I sound him out.
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