Maria works in the maintenance department at CDN Malls. Her department is responsible for general facility maintenance, but also oversees safety and security issues on the mall premises, including working with customers, tenants (retail stores) and their staff, as well as employees of the CDN Malls management team.

Maria normally takes her break from 10:00-10:15am. She usually steps away from the department to grab a coffee in the food court. Yesterday, on her way back from her break, a frantic customer approached Maria. The woman was certain she had put her purse down for a few minutes while eating lunch. When the customer got up to leave, she noticed that her purse was missing. Upon noticing Maria in uniform, she promptly flagged Maria down to report the theft. Before beginning an official incident report, Maria suggested that the customer retrace her steps and offered to provide assistance. After a bit of investigation, Maria and the customer discovered the 'missing' purse tucked inside one of the woman's shopping bags; it had simply been misplaced. This story reminded Maria of a funny anecdote, which she then shared with the customer. About once a year, a mall customer contacts security to report their car stolen, only to discover they have simply parked in a different spot and forgotten. Maria shared this story with the customer, and they have a good laugh. Maria stayed for a few minutes more making friendly small talk about other funny mall stories. Realizing she had been chatting for some time, Maria looked at her watch and realized that she was late for her shift. Maria hurried back to the maintenance department, delayed, but confident she had provided excellent customer service.

Unfortunately, Maria's delay resulted in a chain of events that caused a workplace injury to a CDN Malls employee.

• Read "What do Employers Want" on pages 4-7 in Job Smart: Tips for Staying Employed.
• Then, read through the scenario below.
• Next, listen to the audio clip on page 61 of In The Workplace: An Integrated Intermediate Skills Textbook.
• Ensure that you keep detailed notes on the main concepts and personalities involved in the scenario.
• After listening to the audio clip, draft a reflective analysis in the form of a journal entry. You do not need to provide a solution to the conflict in the scenario. You do need to address the below questions on employer expectations and add your personal observations.
• Be sure to include:
  1. a brief summary of at least 4 employer expectations (and/or values) evidenced in the recording;
  2. for each of these expectations, provide a short description, summarize the employer's perspective. Why are these values and behaviours important? Explain whether Maria's expectations met or did not meet the employer's expectations and why;
  3. your personal observations and lessons learned on how to apply them to your own future workplace experiences (e.g., what would you do differently if you find yourself in a similar situation at work?); and
  4. any assumptions required to support your points, along with supporting evidence from the audio clip.
• Note that it's reasonable to make certain assumptions about CDN Malls and the characters in the audio clip (e.g., Susan is Maria's boss, breaks do not overlap so that someone must always be present in the maintenance department, etc.). If you make assumptions when writing your reflection, you must detail them in your paper along with rationale on how you arrived at your conclusion
• References