[youtalkfunny]

Hey, Joe, come on in. Close the door. Have a seat.

What? No, you're not in any trouble. Not at all. In fact, I was just going over your latest evaluation, and it's fantastic. You show up every day, on time, neatly dressed and shaved...the players like you, you get along well with everybody...you do a great job at the table running the game...BUT...the one problem you seem to be having is with all the Burn and Turns.

It happens, I know. Believe me, I know, I've done it myself. It happens to all of us. But it happens to you a LOT. A little too much.

Again, you're not in trouble. I was just hoping that we could address this, and see what we can do to prevent it from becoming a problem.

So let me start by asking you: Why do YOU think you have so many Burn and Turns?

***

At this point, Joe is likely to blame the players. Don't let him get by with that. Point out to him that he's dealing to the same players that all the other dealers are, and they're not ringing up B&T's left and right.

Before you ask Joe why he's B&T-ing so much, you should already know the answer. It's probably one of the following common reasons:

--He's trying to talk and deal at the same time;
--He's rushing, trying to get out more hands (to make more $$);
--He's one of those brain-dead people that make you wonder how they find their way home from work every night.

If it's Reason #3, you're screwed. There's no fixing stupid.

#1 and #2 are easily fixable, if the dealer WANTS to fix the problem. Some dealers just like talking more than they like taking pride in a job well done. As the manager, it's on you to motivate your dealer to WANT to do a good job.

The obvious motivational tool is M-O-N-E-Y. Tell Joe that time is money, and stopping the game to get the floorman costs Joe money. Re-shuffling in the middle of a hand costs Joe money. Pissing off the players costs Joe A LOT of money.

Once properly motivated, figure out what Joe is doing wrong; bring it to his attention; urge him to work on it; and this is very important, FOLLOW UP. Call him back into the office in couple of months, and discuss his progress.

One last thing: when offering criticism to a subordinate, I've found that it's best to serve criticism as a sandwich: start by giving him a compliment; get to the criticism; and finish with more compliments.

The sandwich looks like this:

Compliment
Criticism
Compliment

Example:

"Hey, Joe, let's talk. First, you're doing A, B, C, and D right! Great Job! But E and F are a problem, you need to work on E and F. But overall, I'm very pleased, you're a great guy, we're lucky to have you!"

Hope this helps.