Diary Entry 9: Meeting

After the owner of the company returned from his holiday, he called a meeting to be attended by senior employees. I was very pleased to be asked to attend I was asked to put together any qustions or queries I may have.

I decided to speak to the employees who I work with to gather any thoughts that they may have, which I could address with the owners and other managers at the pending meeting. I took notes and made a list of the most frequent questions or queries the employees had.

The main issue that arose were that employees were worried they be let go due to the current economic climate. This was discussed during the meeting along with other question and the owner has said he will return at the end of the month with his decisions. Although the company is still operating successfully, the credit crunch has hurt the business and its clear that costs need to be cut.

Diary Entry 8: All By Myself

The last couple of weeks have been very interesting within the company especially for me as I have ben left in complete charge of the running of the company. The owner has gone on holiday for almost 4 weeks and decided to leave me in charge. Although this isn't the first time I have run the company, is it easily the longest period of time I have ever been left in charge,

Its suprising how much there is to do in order for the company to run productively and have found my self working harder and longer than ever before. My jobs have included organising staff rotas, ordering and monitoring stock, taking bookings, handling all the companies takings and much more. I am also responsible for setting and de-activating the companies alarm systems at the beginning and end of every shift.

Although I have found the long hours difficult, I have honestly so far really enjoyed this experience. I have found the responsibility of running the company a great motivater and I have been really pleased with the positive feedback I have recieved off both our employees and our current customers. The faith my boss has shown in me, by allowing me to run the company while he is away has made me feel as though I am a very important part of the team. Also I hope he will be pleased with the job I am doing and will continue to reward me with more important duties and responsibilities with organisation.

Diary Entry 7: New Risks

After Christmas and New years passed successfuly, there was not much work to be done in January as it was rather quiet as expected.

I decided it would be a good idea to review our current health and safety policies, as well as our current risk assessments.I decided a new and updated policy was required. Thefore new a clear health and safety regime for the kitchen included the follwing:
- the correct method of cleaning up and wiping down (what cleaning products were to be used when and where)
- what each coloured chopping board was used for (e.g red=raw meat, blue= fish)
-how often and especially after what process employees should be washing their hands ( e.g after handling raw meat, after going outside)
- what temperatures the fridges and freezers should be
- what the required protective clothing should be used for
- info on the first-aid kit.

After finishing the new health and safety policy I decided to create risk assessments for all the equipment within the company to insure it was all safe and being used correctly. This allowed all employees to see the dangers that could occur if the equipment was not used safely and properly.