Breaking The Hierarchy - Serving Water To Guests

This is a scenario that will be relevent in India/Asia. It has no bearing in Europe /USA where we serve ourselves and do not expect 'subordinates' to bring water, tea etc.

partho,,,,

:)this is indeed a right approach what ever fight we have should not be shown to the guest/visitor (whether he is a highly denoted or gust a mail boy) the first thing is that he need water.

The best thing can be, the eldest/senior member in the team sitting outside bring water and ask for any thing else simultaneously introduce himself to the visitor.

Whether the Boss is educated or not is not a question, the basic thing is the guest is in need water and don’t know how to get it.

Rupendra

Hi,
The HR head has to be rational and the executive has to think the way the boss is ordering. In my opinion, giving a glass of water to the guest is not an issue but most important the way he orders.
It is just matter of delegating the duties to the peons and it must be kept in mind that at least one peon has to be available at all the time.
KMP Singh

Hello Everybody,

One apologies for the delayed response, as I got stuck behind some technical issues.

Two, am very grateful for the kind of response this thread has generated, plus the varied rationale behind each response.

I agree fully with what "nashbramhall" and "Ash Mathews" had to say about the boss being an example for others, and "parthasarthi's" vending machine option, "preeti3's" water bottles in each cabin suggestion,"consolemanu's" humanitarian touch to the issue and "PVQ" i guess its pretty prevalent here in India [but depends on organization's culture], highlighting the crux of the thread.

Indeed many of us would agree that it has nothing to do with making the organization flat, but more with how we decide to breed culture within the organization and setting an example by being one. Yes the HR Manager could have himself gone and fetched water, infact he did have an extra glass in his cabin. But on benefit of doubt even if he forgets the same, and some third person brings it who's not the peon shouldn't really kick up much dust from other onlooking executives.

The best reason of looking at it is the employees/executives to a certain level do not feel the essence of ownership of the organization. For them it means the orgn belongs to somebody else but themselves. Maybe if we could develop on this idea along with structuring a healthy culture; a flat orgn wont really be much of a dream.

Thank you everybody for your comments/suggestions. Cheers to all :)