The Chewing Gum Menace

I have a few lower secondary students who had this habit of chewing gum in my tuition class as if it was the normal thing to do. I am aware that this is condoned in some centres so, I tried not to make a big deal out of it but my patience was tested the other day when I called up one of them to read out a passage. You guessed it - only garbled sounds came out from his mouth. This proved annoying even to his classmates.

I personally frown on such practices and deem it to be rude. Weren't we taught by our parents not to talk with our mouths full? Well, I could have ticked him off right then, but I felt that probably he wasn't aware that he had done anything wrong. I had to give him the benefit of the doubt especially when none of his tutors had reprimanded him for doing the same. So, I nonchalantly asked him what was in his mouth.

He grinned and unashamedly mumbled, "Chewing gum!"

"Could I have one too?" I asked, playing along.

"Sure!" Then, he proudly reached into his pocket.

However, before he could take it out, I interjected. "On second thought, I think I'd better not. Would you be able to understand what I say if I had gum in my mouth? Even worse, I may have to take a break while chewing it and all of you will have to wait until I finish. You wouldn't mind since your parents are paying me and I'm wasting their money, would you?"

Suddenly, it dawned upon him the socially unacceptable nature of his action!

Teenagers, I believe, will obey your rules if they are enforced fairly. If I had insisted on enforcing my 'no chewing gum' rule there and then, I might have started a rebellion. After all, "Why only here when other tutors never said a thing?" - they might argue.

This brings me back to the time when I was working at a resort. When I first took over, morale in the department was practically zero. Absenteeism was rife and without having to explain why, staff turnover was at the opposite end of the gauge. I, being fresh out of management school, had to grapple with indiscipline from the staff, half of whom were twice my age! But I stuck with it as I firmly believe that respect has to be earned and it has nothing to do with age. Therefore, I held several one-to-one meetings with the errant staff and encouraged them to voice out their dissatisfactions. I even told them if they didn't like me, they could tell it straight to my face and I'll accept their honest opinion.

Well, none of them did actually say that as they were more unhappy with other matters like the lack of job advancement and the usual bread and butter issues which were out of my hands. However, there was a young pool attendant who was gutsy enough to tell me he resented the fact that I did nothing but sat in the office while they had to slog it out under the sun especially when they had to clean the pool. I was simply stunned! Was that the impression I gave to my subordinates? Little did they know that while I sat in my so called comfy chair, I was planning the week's activities, duty roster, responding to guests' queries and keeping the personnel department off my back pertaining to their high absenteeism. Notwithstanding that, I also had to answer any complaints leveled at my department at the weekly managers' meeting with the GM and never once did I take it out on them when I had been given a bad time because I, as their superior, accept responsibility for any mistake they make. I further added that I had on many occasions been tempted to join them in the pool but I didn't because I had to justify the executive pay I was receiving by not doing so. If the resort needed another pool cleaner, they would have hired one , not a manager. To drive home my point, I threw them a challenge that I would gladly exchange place with anyone for a week but there were no takers.

Well, I must say I was glad that I had that talk with my staff because I noticed an improvement in their attitude towards their work after that. Absenteeism was down. Those who were not on talking terms started to and when a staff member could not punch in on time, he had the courtesy to call to inform me.