I recently wrote about the world-class human resources practices of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. Its approach to hiring, training, and empowering its “ladies and gentlemen” is a sharp contrast to the no-class approach of three Hyatt hotels in Boston.

This summer, the housekeepers at those hotels were asked to train new workers who, they were told, would fill in during vacations. On August 31, about 100 housekeepers were informed that the trainees were actually employees of Hospitality Staffing Solutions who would be replacing them that day.

One employee had worked at the Cambridge Hyatt for 21 years and made $15.69 an hour plus benefits. The trainee replacing her will make $8 an hour with no benefits. So the Hyatt saves money, wrecks lives, and probably believes the change will have little impact on its business.

It’s wrong.

In an article about this travesty in the Boston Globe, Paul Sacco, president of the Massachusetts Lodging Association, argues that the move would save the Hyatt money without affecting hotel guests. “If you stayed at the Hyatt last night and you bumped into the housekeeper, would you notice a difference?” he asked.

That’s the difference between mediocrity and world-class: Mediocre organizations and the morons who defend them believe that employees are easily replaceable commodities. They perform tasks. How they think about and behave toward customers and coworkers is irrelevant.

By contrast, world-class organizations recognize the link between employee engagement and satisfaction and customer satisfaction and loyalty, and between customer loyalty and financial success. In The New Gold Standard by Joseph A. Michelli, Allan Federer, general manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore, said it best: “While we have always placed our culture and the needs of our Ladies and Gentlemen as top priorities, in recent years we have become increasingly effective at driving financial success as well, without compromising our culture.”

The insensitive actions of the Hyatt hotels suggest that its culture lacks basic respect for the people who provide its services. That’s a culture in need of compromising.

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