06.02.07

The End of the Month Meeting…with Special Guest Speaker Benjamin Ross!

Posted in Barbershop at 11:30 am by Benjamin Ross

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After another eleven hour workday last night, it was finally time for my big debut as a Chinese motivational speaker. At around 10:30 all of the employees who had worked the early shift and had already gone home returned to the shop. When the final customer left, we set up chairs in the middle of the room, closed the doors, and cranked the AC. It was time for our month-end wrap up meeting. Being that this was my first month in the shop, it was the first of these meetings I had attended, but the third meeting in total so far this month.

Shhh…the meeting is about to begin. Johnny (right) is already asleep.

The masters, managers, and all of us little brothers and sisters sat facing the front of the shop, with Mr. Zheng across from us. For the first order of business, Mr. Zheng went through the financial information of the shop, how many hair cuts given, how many heads washed, how many products sold, etc.

“This month has been bad, very bad, worse than average. We need to improve, or else…you know.” he said. I’m not sure if it really was that bad, or if this is Mr. Zheng’s motivational technique…I’m leaning towards the latter.

After detailing the store’s performance, he went on to discuss the track records of the little brothers and sisters. “Each of you has performance goals. Some of you have reached them, while others have not…Xiao Long, Xiao Lei, Xiao Xia, Xiao Fang, and Carrottop, come up front. You all owe me 30 push ups. Xiao Fang, you owe me 50. I don’t need to go into detail why you owe more, everybody already knows.” The three little brothers and one little sister got down on the ground, and to the amusement of the rest of the staff, finished their push ups. As Xiao Fang struggled to reach 50, Mr. Zheng got down on the ground as well, to give him a few motivational push ups of his own.

Mr. Zheng looks on as the little brothers complete their obligatory month end push-ups.

The next order of business was to address what we call 坐班 (zuo4 ban1). Because little brothers and sisters are paid on a per-job basis, a queue is set up by which they attend to incoming customers. Whoever is next in line has to sit in a chair next to the door, or 坐班, and wait for the next customer arrive.

“When you 坐班, you need to stand up straight, not like this, this, or this.” Mr. Zheng said demonstrating exaggerated versions of various slouching positions. “And starting tomorrow, there will be a new rule. If I catch anybody playing with their cell phone while doing 坐班 they will be fined…5 RMB for the first infraction, 10 RMB for the second infraction. You have all this time to play games and send messages, but I do ask that while you 坐班 the cell phone stays in your pocket

Next on the agenda was the issue of sleeping. “I notice many of you come into work tired. You need to make sure you get enough sleep every night,” Mr. Zheng proclaimed with authority. “I do not want to see any more of you sleeping in the barber chairs. If you want to take a nap, go behind the washing beds. That is ok, but the barber chairs are public space, all the customers can see you. What kind of impression does this give? One more thing, if you want to sleep, you need to limit your nap to 30 minutes, and from tomorrow on, you need to let one of the managers know first…and only one nap per day.” It is interesting to note that this is the first job I have ever worked where sleeping, albeit with some restrictions, is sanctioned on the job.

“Next we would like to invite a special guest to speak with us. Our American friend has been working with us for almost a month now. He sees with his own eyes what happens every day in this shop. I want him to talk to you about his own opinions on our service.”

The day before, Mr. Zheng had asked me to prepare a twenty minute speech about service in American barber shops, and how our service can be improved in our shop. I had been nervously preparing my speech all day. I wasn’t sure exactly what Mr. Zheng wanted me to talk about, and when I had asked him for more details his response was 我说越多你越糊涂, in other words, “The more I tell you, the more you will get confused.”

The speech was bad. I’m not a terrible public speaker, but anybody who’s seen me speak in public probably knows why I like writing so much. Add to this that the speech was in Chinese, hastily prepared, and on a topic which I am less familiar than the people to whom I am speaking, and, well you get the idea.

I focused my speech around the neighborhood atmosphere in American barbershops, using my barber Marlon as an example. Here are some excerpts.

“Every time I see Marlon, he asks about me, my job, and my brothers. He makes me feel like he really cares. Maybe he really likes me. Maybe he hates me. But I would never know because he always makes me feel like his friend.” I figured that would be analytical enough.

I continued on, “When you talk to customers, you need to be natural. In a perfect situation you will be happy everyday and will like every customer, but we know this is impossible. Even if you are not feeling well, or you do not like the customer, you need to make the customer feel like you are happy to see them. After all you should be happy to see them. If they were not there you would not be making any money.”

My diatribe went on, “Finally, you need to really know your customer, and remember details. The past three years I have been in China. Every summer I go back home and get a haircut from Marlon. He always remembers me, and recalls what I was doing last time I came for a cut. ‘How is China?’ ‘Are you still teaching at the university?’ ‘Do you still like the food?’ This makes me feel like I am seeing an old friend, rather than just the guy who is cutting my hair.”

My speech continued for several more awkward minutes, much to the amusement of my colleagues, who had been unaware I was going to be the guest lecturer. I didn’t time it, but I would imagine my 20 minute speech clocked in at just under 7 minutes. I don’t think it made any lasting impressions on anyone, but at least now I can add “Chinese motivational barbershop speaker” to my ever growing resume.

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