[hoarfrost]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Not entirely, it isn't.

It's foolish for a typically low-active Inn to take on max reservations for a long period of time before first determining if they really have the capacity (re: staff) to handle that. Sui instinctively knew that they didn't. Enishi didn't even bother to consider the question.

Also, Enishi has lived in this town for a long time now. He should know what a big deal the Bonbori Festival is, and how each Inn/Hotel is expected to help with its preparations.

I mean, this is basic stuff.

Yes, Enishi has some decent ideas for tweaking the Inn a bit, and making it the most that it can be, but he really is a poor mid-to-long term planner.

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

It's nice that he started growing a spine, but Takako had a point. They really weren't in position to refuse help.


Partly his fault they were so stretched.

I group these together because these are the only true faults of Enishi in this situation. He wasn't in a position to refuse help, but that could have happened differently than than it did. But that's more of a problem with Okada and her view of the opposite gender. He overbooked, but the other workers share responsibility for reasons I will elucidate on below.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

How was she inarticulate or guilty of claptrap?

It's inarticulate in the sense that people seem to be patting Ohana on the back for answering concrete problems with more or less formless solutions and concerns. Hell, Tohru points out time and time again that Ohana's strength is in her mindless energy, yet people really expect her to be able to run an inn to a higher calibre than her uncle? I can accept that Sui or even Satsuki are more gifted at this (and we haven't seen evidence that Satsuki has good managerial skills, just that she can spot a rather big rat coming) but that can't be serious.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Worker morale is important, you know. And Enishi's approach was absolutely destroying worker morale. How long do you expect workers to make due on 3 to 4 hours of sleep per night?

It's actually a minor miracle that things didn't go worse than they did. The staff of the Kissuiso are one very hard-working and generally competent bunch (at their own specific positions).

It seems to me that the employees at the inn, in their vigor to prove that they can make due without the manager, expressed a level of morale that didn't match up with their true work ethic. So that misjudgment isn't square on Enishi's shoulders. Everybody bit off a lot more than they could chew. You might say that a good leader would not have gotten caught up in the flow, sure.

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Uh... It'd have been great if he'd put Ren and Tomoe back to work, with clear instructions on what to do next. Crying at them? Not so much.

That's pretty much how I interpret "stop fighting and get back to work".

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

It's true the series hasn't been kind to change. The bottom line, though, is that it's down to customer satisfaction. The buffet thing isn't too bad, but it detracts a bit from the usual atmosphere the regular customers enjoyed.

Everyone being strained and the service slowing down, though? That's completely bad.

Customer satisfaction seemed pretty fine from where I was watching. We don't see anyone get particularly upset at a buffet breakfast and it solves a one time problem so the idea that it would leave regulars with a lingering negative opinion of the inn is unfounded. The relationship of a service provider to a customer is not one way and that is another one of my problems with Sui's dogmatic idea that it is. For all her pontificating about how you must address every flight and fancy of the regulars regardless of cost, it certainly doesn't seem to be helping the inn maintain itself financially. To that end it is an ideal that is not sustainable. If you look at it from that direction, Sui is as also not suited to running the inn, just that she'd last quite a bit longer than Enishi.

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Not so brilliant this time. It's Nako's sentimental claptrap which saved the day. Not that the girls don't have a point: it's not about rebelling against the manager. It's about saving the inn. Which they can't do without satisfied customers. And as I said in the previous episode thread, they also need the Union, so it's retarded to sulk at Ohana for paying their due there. (Sure, they can't help during the festival, but they came through when the girls went on their school trip, didn't they?)

Right, spite is a poor motivation. However I take issue with the implication that one cannot be competent for less than ideal reasons, and ideal reasons will strengthen ones competance. It isn't necessarily true and I suspect that it is only employed to make Sui/Ohana/Nako look good at Enishi's expense.

We've got to be cognizant of the subliminal (and not so subliminal) messages that a piece of media is feeding us and I frankly find this one to be overly romantic and idealized.

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

No, Enishi is also incompetent all on his own. It's not about ideas. It's about planning and leadership. And self-respect: he should have quit years ago, instead of letting his mom slap him around in public.

I agree and I too would leave a workplace where vague sentimentality gets you smashing success and concrete strategies get you bitch smacked and disregarded.