How do you describe employees when there are too many similarities?

Just curious...I wish I could report on employees with a realistic description and not always a "professional" description.

I recently had a restaurant experience. Both the hostess and the server had the same name. They were both relatively the same height and hair color. One was much "thicker" than the other one. Most MSC do not want shoppers to comment about weight. I am not asking/advocating to be able to call someone fat or anorexic. But I think I should be able to say the "build" if I have 2 employees with the same basic description other than their weight. There are ways to explain someone's size in a not so negative manner.

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What if you stated that the person had a petite, small, medium, large or extra large frame or build?

I sometimes comment on slight differences in hair styles or color, " had highlights on ends" "wore a ring on right hand" when they are similar with identical uniforms. But in your case saying hostess or server should suffice.

I never describe a body type. Name, hair color, hair length, glasses, approx age, approx. height and let them finger out the rest.

Yes, if there were key identifying things like one wore glasses and one did not or if one had visible tatts and the other did not. Neither was the case here. Both same ethnicity and very similar. It was just that one was twice as large as the other one. I don't need to say that in the report, but I could say one was more slender.

Yes, the fact that they had different roles (server vs hostess) certainly helps management know for this particular case.

I was thinking back to the Blaze Pizza days or the chipotle days where some locations had a whole line of employees that looked very similar (hair/height/race).

I agree you can't go with the size thing. I remember that being a descriptor choice for a few shops ages ago, but no more, best I can tell.

I'm surprised that one of the credit unions I do regularly still has an ethnicity pulldown in the employee description section.

I'd probably try to differentiate hair length, texture and color. Would require a few more keystrokes, but would help clarify.

Have synthesizers, will travel...

Go with what you know. Should be easy to describe versus checking boxes. "My greeter and server were both named X. Both were x tall, with x length and x color hair." Add any distinguishing characteristics you noticed, such as jewelry, hair clips, tattoos, piercings.

I completed an ice cream shop a few weeks ago. There were 5 employees and the shop requires you to write down the name of every employee. Low and behold, they all had on nametags that said, "Chase." It had to be a joke! I documented. Even funnier, the cashier's nametag was "Chase," and the name on the receipt was "Jake." The shop was approved.

Here's a barn burner. I've had some shops recently where the staff member did not have a discernible gender. They always ask gender. I had to guess.

Server 1: description
Server 2: description

I have been on grocery shops where several of the 5'7" males had short straight black hair with no facial hair, all wore hats, no jewelry, eyeglasses and no tatts. At least two different races but that could not be put into the report. So far none of the names were the same.

When I referenced "frame" that has nothing to do with weight or body shape or the other taboo references. Mentioning someone's frame is along the same lines as mentioning someone's height.

I’ve gone so far to say something they mentioned like The first bartender, named Mary who was in their 40s, 5’6” with long black hair in a ponytail mentioned having attended school locally in Fontana. The second bartender Mary who was also in their 40s 5’6” with long black hair in a ponytail mentioned being a huge Giants fan.

Where name are not known and unique descriptions of the employees not possible, I simply identify them in chronological order (Clerk-1, Clerk-2, Manager-1, Server-1, Server-2 & etc.). In the first instance of any such identifier, I had descriptions such as "Clerk-1, (Early 20s, straight collar length brown hair tied in a pony tail and falling to just below the shoulders, tattoo of spider on left hand, eyeglasses with oval shaped red plastic frames, ring on side of right nostril, ~5,6".)"

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/2025 01:28AM by Rousseau.

I know this is a bit of an obvious suggestion, but make sure to double check the guidelines. Often they'll tell you how they want you to describe someone, and sometimes they tell you what they *don't* want in the description.

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How do you describe employees when there are too many similarities?

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