By Dimithri Wijesinghe
An incident took place recently at a well-known establishment where an openly identifying member of the LGBTQ community was denied entrance to the establishment based on her “appearance”.
While the discriminatory act seemed to be a result of one employee’s personal bias, the establishment was quick to take responsibility and the necessary action by issuing an apology.
They released a statement subsequent to the incident and an initial statement made earlier. Among other things, they said: “After extensive discussions with the guests concerned, we have decided to withdraw the employee’s termination and instead include him in our sensitisation programme which will be conducted next week…we will do everything in our power to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
With reference to the incident, we took a look at the importance of adopting sensitisation programmes, particularly for businesses where staff interact with customers on a one-on-one basis.
We reached out to a number of business owners who conduct businesses where their staff interact with customers, and spoke to them about how they approach such issues if it were to arise, whether they employ such sensitisation programmes, and whether Sri Lanka overall is open to a more inclusive discussion.
Speaking to MSD Capital Holdings Group Managing Director Dinesh Wijesinghe, referring to the incident itself and sharing with us his experience, he said that to be perfectly honest, they do not conduct training that is specific to certain social issues or communities, adding that what they do is create awareness where every one of their guests must be treated with respect and everyone must be treated equally, regardless of race, colour, creed, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
However, he addressed this particular incident, stating that the underlying problem here is a deep-seated cultural issue. In Sri Lanka, people have a public face and a private face that people put on, and everyone can agree, if they are honest with themselves, that people often talk behind closed doors; minorities are referred to often in dismissive and derogatory terms and no amount of training on an individual capacity is going to solve this, he opined.
He said that if we are to truly address the issue, it must be done on a national level as it is a much larger issue than that of a dress code and one single employee expressing their personal biases that the majority of Lankans actually share.
He said that in Sri Lanka, for the most part, people are not so aggressive when it comes to their likes and dislikes, and this here happens to be an unfortunate incident where it was caught on camera where things escalated. The ugly truth of the matter is it happens more often than you think, and it is done in the guise of many pretences, he said.
Even when you look at the previous attempts at trying to bring to the forefront these issues with regards to LGBTQ persons, people were not willing to have that conversation and nobody wanted to hear about it.
He said: “Broader society is still not ready to accept certain minorities and, to this day, consider these perversions and abnormalities. Our society is still very conservative in these matters and to truly find a solution, it must be taken up at a higher level.”
Speaking about the way they have gone about training their employees and the level of importance they place on training with regards to sensitivity and also corporate etiquette, many of the business owners we spoke to shared that, similar to what Wijesinghe expressed, they do not conduct training that is specific to LGBTQ issues or other minority issues, whilst they do focus on being non-discriminatory regardless, and placing customers first.
Across the board, all business owners expressed that Sri Lanka has some work to do when it comes to being inclusive and creating awareness and acceptance at a broader level.
Sushi Kai Owner Pasindu Peiris shared that while they are not a fine-dining restaurant and so do not require a dress code for their customers, meaning issues similar to the referred incident do not tend to crop up, they do carry out regular training for their staff with regards to customer care and etiquette.
He said: “We carry out annual seminars where we bring down professionals who conduct workshops for our staff on how best to carry out their duties, and for the most part, the management is hands-on that if there ever is an issue, the customer is immediately directed to the owner so it can be dealt with efficiently.”
Tayo Bear (Pvt.) Ltd. Owner/Director Shanaz Fouze shared: “Basically, the girls I have at the café are quite young, and the way we train our girls is that they are made aware of the importance of being sensitive to their customers at all times.”
She added also that the way they work is the store manager would give the management a daily progress report and after considering all the goings-on, they would gather all the employees every month and briefly remind them of how to remain calm in a difficult situation with a customer and to always be polite.
Fouze also shared that while she does educate her employees on the importance of maintaining customer relations and being courteous, at the same time, they do not tolerate any harassment or misconduct by customers towards their employees, sharing that they have CCTV coverage and have advised their staff to remain polite until the footage has been reviewed and both sides have been listened to. She shared that they had to deal with such a situation once.
Speaking further, she shared that they operate under the assumption that putting a lot of pressure on employees serves no purpose, and that gradual awareness and education is the way forward.
She also added that as the clientele they deal with are quite different, in that pet owners are quite sensitive when it comes to their pets, treating them as their children and so on, they must extend greater care towards their valued customers.
Colombo Court Hotel & Spa Operations Manager Kevin Schumacher shared his perspective as someone from the hospitality industry, stating: “In the case of hospitality, form the front desk onwards, it is all about how you treat your guests,” he said, sharing that there is no room for error in his line of business.
“In the 21st Century, it is so very easy to get a black mark on your reputation for the slightest thing and therefore, there is no such thing as small mistakes.”
He also shared that at Colombo Court Hotel, they employ a system where employees undergo training on how to deal with customers and especially how to greet them, which is absolutely important.
He also shared that they give a lot of importance to sensitivity and being non-discriminatory as all are equal; considering that their establishment was often patronised by foreign guests and now due to the pandemic it is mostly locals who patronise it, they have not been any different when it comes to their guests.
He said that they remind their staff and train them to be sensitive and to always behave in a polite manner with guests, regardless of what spa treatment they have come for, and that the management will take over in any difficult situations.
