Pros
At the time, the final development of the island into a hospitality driven port-of-call was a huge challenge, we overcame many built-in faults that were left during the uncompleted construction phase, developed our human resources into a fluid cross-trained and friendly team, and achieved the President's recognition. The best facet of this assignment was the then elasticity of the objectives and our combined ability to overcome resulting in the realization of apparent and remarked upon success for issues related to: environmental, staff training & service level achievements, safety, security & adherence to U.S. Coast Guard and company regulations & audits, and the all important containment of costs for an improved P & L. My personal vision of the potential for the expansion of services at this location was for added attractions and a further opening-up of the island. The possibilities seemed to be without end!
Cons
Communication was deplorable when being disseminated to my station. My immediate superior was in my opinion, inept, vulgar, and as I learned had a pre-disposed condescending attitude to his subordinates. Again, IMO he was a very vain and inwardly focused person and was (is) an over-all detriment to the well being of the company. His demeanor, as stated, was foul-mouthed and demeaning in the presence of others, inimical, and at times inebriated while in discussion of company matters. At the onset of my accepting the senior middle-management job I was not afforded any orientation by the company, its procedures & internal regulations-no education whatsoever! Furthermore, upon under-going an initial experience of my superior's uncontrolled temper tantrums at the airline ticket counter in MIA, I began to comprehend and did later learn of his track-record once I was located at the site of operations in the Bahamas. According to others he was reputed to be offensive and ruled by threat and innuendo. Furthermore he seemed not to display respect for anyone, and was reported to harbor some degree of racism n his view - we were a racially mixed management and employee group. For all of the personal sacrifice and risk undertaken by myself for the achievement of the objectives as stated I did receive praise and thanks from our Bahamian management executives, but never any respect nor recognition from my HAL superior. Communication with HAL Corporate was deplorable to the point that upon one occasion during a local labor crisis, I could not locate and inform my superior (he had not up-dated me of his travel schedule nor his telephone link-up). My instructions were, in such a case, to then call HAL Corp and leave a message with the Admin Assist to the President. That link failed as the recording stated that she was “no longer available”, the directive was to then inform the President’s office directly, his phone line recording declared that "he was no longer with HAL”! Eventually a phone call was made to the CEO to inform him of the potentially negative situation should the press seize upon and publish the event then happening on the island. The week following, after undergoing numerous intentionally demeaning remarks and treatment by my superior, I was terminated with four hours notice to clear away myself and family (wife, child and infant) and our entire household from the island. We hurriedly packed, but had to abandon most of our personal and household goods to the "care" of my employee team for the forwarding by ship to the Florida mainland. In the end the entire adventure went to court wherein my superior perjured himself when addressing the Bahamian Adjudicator and was admonished for his address to the Court. The court action was to simply recover the unpaid direct expenses that had not been paid prior to my termination and other expenses arising out of my forced displacement. Upon researching my superior's past performance with administrations prior to my own, I discovered that his behavior and methodology with others had been not unlike that which he administrated to me. So by the fact that Holland America Line allowed this person to represent the HAL Executive body and regulations in such a rough-shod and condescending manner, and to then openly defy the truth relative to expenses owed while giving testimony in court under oath, I do not recommend any undertaking of a middle management position if it pertains to becoming a subordinate of HAL's V.P for Caribbean Relations UNLESS a frank and open discussion of protocols, regulations, policy and communication is established and accepted in advance of accepting the position. Importantly, and before signing on, a thorough orientation with the company must be undertaken at the Seattle office. Be warned!
