A letter from your manager…
Restaurant managers, this one is for you. Everything you’ve ever wanted to say to your employees but can’t/don’t have the balls/are too mentally challenged to do so.
Dear Employees,
When you were hired, you were done so because we liked your demeanor as you presented yourself as a level-headed, hard-working individual that we could train and let you loose in the restaurant like a wind-up toy, trusting that you wouldn’t fuck anything up. It has come to our attention that there are certain things that need to be addressed, so I will do so in this letter.
Item #1. Professional Responsibility
We realize that in a restaurant industry, we provide a place of employment that is more relaxed in its hiring practices. We understand that drug users, alcoholics, felons, drug dealers, college students, beatniks, college drop-outs, high school seniors, and your occasional octogenarian can somewhat-easily find themselves employed by a restaurant such as ours. The important thing is to know that when you walk through those front double doors, you are an employee of the restaurant, are here to do a job and you must carry at least a smidgen of professional responsibility, even if you carry it in your man-purse (excuse me… canvas shoulder bag).
It is unacceptable to come into work being hungover – or still drunk – and expect special treatment. You better suck it up, do your job, and I dare you to let my customers smell the alcohol on your breath that’s only three hours old. I will not accept your excuses when you call-in claiming you are sick on Saturday or Sunday morning. It just isn’t happening. You decided that you’d continue to drink well into the night knowing full-well that you’d need to go to work in the morning. I have no sympathy for anyone who has a blatant disregard for responsibility.
Item #2. My word is final
You may have been working at the restaurant longer than I have, but there is a reason they hired me to fill a manager position and not promote you. Figure it out (if you need to, refer to Item #1). When I tell you to do something, you say “yes, sir” and go do it like the trained monkey you are. I’m not going to worry about your complaining about having to do it, but I’ll put you in the shitty section for a month if I hear it. If you have gripes about how things are run, mention it at the shift meeting or write an email. We’ll be sure to write it down and eventually forget about it or throw it away. Ownership/Corporate wants things done a certain way and if they see you doing things different, it’s my head that’s on the platter. I am not willing to risk my steady paycheck and benefits on an argument of how the salt and pepper shakers should be placed on the table.
Item #3. You are replaceable
If Item #1 and 2 are too difficult for you to grasp, I will find a way to terminate you (that is, if you aren’t unionized), or make your life so much of a living hell at this restaurant, you will want to quit on your own. You will make no money and I will keep you here until close, sitting on your ass (or helping the bussers), making your $2.13/hr because I am “afraid we might get a late pop”. You will grow to hate me and I have already set up a camera watching my car so I’ll know it was you if I get keyed.
I get hundreds of applications every month from your clone, begging for a job to pay their way through college/support their kids/because they need a work-release. I can train anyone to do your job. Sure, you might be better at it because you’ve been doing it so long, but a new hire is eager to please me and will mop the entire restaurant floor until 2 a.m. if I asked him to (at least for a few weeks). With the right training, he might even be a better employee than you, because he doesn’t have your seniority-complex.
We’re running a business here. So, if I find you are losing my employers money, I’ll just throw a dart at my corkboard filled with applications and replace you.
Remember when I called you a trained monkey? Well, it seems that they can train a monkey to do your job.
Sincerely,
Your manager
lol, this is too funny!!!
BRAVO SIR.
Elegantly put together and a beautiful yet cynical view of the restaurant world.
I loved it.
Everything you’ve come to expect from Server Not Slave, I’m sure….
Thank you manager for that most enlightening post.
You are right that being drunk at work is not acceptable. I work with a manager who drinks while working, sometimes starting as early as 1:00 pm and finishing around 7:00 pm or whenever he’s too drunk to work and can’t walk a straight line. He’ll pass out in the office and maybe come back to conclude his duties. Talk about your blatant disregard for taking responsibility.
As far as promoting me, in my 12 years with the company, I’ve been offered a managerial position many times. I actually earn much more than my managers, so they can stuff their promotion proposals.
When we are asked at a shift meeting to express our complaints, either verbally or written, and then to have them discarded as you suggest you do, well that’s not very smart in my book. Do not ask for our input if you truly don’t want to hear it. Waste of everyone’s time.
Lastly, can a new hire with no training suggest an appropriate wine (from our 270 bottle wine list) to accompany our Rare Seared Ahi Tuna entree? Or know the difference between a French Burgundy and a French Rhone wine? Or be able to name a white varietal from Greece?
Jus’ sayin’…
Oh, wait wait, is this Springs ( aka manager)?!! And I fell for it? Please tell me NO. rr
We managers usually phrase it nicer (no sense having the moron you just fired slap you with a hostile-work-environment suit), but that is the jist of it…. Item #1, if you don’t have standards, you don’t belong. Item #2, if you want to have it your way, open your own restaurant, or for the really mentally challenged, just go to Burger King. And #3, you really are replaceable; we will find someone. Hell, even us managers are replaceable!
I completely agree on the professionalism. I can’t stand seeing someone get cut before me because they’re “sick” when really I’ve listened to their drinking tales from the night before all shift long. I even got called in once on my day off because our only other daytime bartender called in claiming to be sick, and then after work I went to the bar where she was happily playing darts and told me she didn’t feel like working that day. Without so much as an apology. And this girl is favored by our management.
That brings me to another point- servers run the store. Yes the manager is in charge, but they usually don’t know what the hell is going on. I know who comes to work on time, who does their sidework, who helps other servers, and who sneaks out for a smoke every chance they get. Our input should be valued, but only input from the good employees.
I agree with you! I do not understand why some servers don’t seem to realize when they call off/come in late/come in too hungover to function they are screwing everyone else who works that day too? In the era of text messaging, it shouldn’t be that hard to get someone to cover your shift so the rest of us aren’t stuck picking up the slack.
Wow you sure have it all figured out don’t you
Maybe this is off subject, but what about the managers who favor some employees. My problem was asking WAY in advance to not be scheduled for certain days when I had school stuff going on, only to be scheduled for those days so I’m the one who has to find someone to work my shift. I work hard, I’m not one of those call in sick people. I always work my shift and cover others’ shifts if they ask me to, but I swear she scheduled me on days I need off on purpose and it’s unprofessional not to mention mean.
I don’t know if this is the case with you, but when I managed I always needed my best servers to work when I needed them, and sometimes had to schedule them when it was not convenient for them. But, all servers were expected to cover their own shifts, not the management, and the ones that asked for the most time off and were the most needy didn’t get the best shifts or were let go. But that was the policy at my place.
At the place I currently work, ALL the management staff was hired from within, which is great in my book. When I’m told to do something I know it’s coming from someone who spent years in my shoes, so they know this particular place backwards and forwards. I’ve been in management as well (also hired from within), and serving is a piece of cake compared to managing a restaurant. The hours suck and the pay nominal. Some managers can be slackers, but just like servers, I haven’t seen them last very long. Every employee has his or her flaws, including management, but as a server for what is bordering on EONS, If a manager asks me to do something I deem unnecessary, I just suck it up and do it. I have my job, they have theirs. Managers who drink at work or spend all night on the phone or watching the game, are to be tolerated, because, like I said, they won’t last. The owners usually know who is pulling weight and who isn’t. Managers in corporate places are up against a never ending barrage of their own evaluations, and I feel sorry for them. I refuse to work in corporate places for a variety of reasons, but that’s another story.
I’m not sure if the point about coming in hungover is supposed to be serious or not, but servers who drink all night (I’ve been there, many times) and don’t come to work or complain all day about a headache, well, tough noogies. Grow up. You play, you pay. I save my heavy drinking for the nights before my day off, and that’s fine with me.
I find that if I put in my own best efforts consistently, I’m well treated my my managers. That way, when I have a bad day, and I do sometimes, I’m given slack.
Thanks again for the opportunity to vent!
First off I wanna say I love this site.. I’ve worked in a restaurant for almost 6 years now and I laugh so hard at the stuff you put on here. I do want to disagree about managers being more qualified than associates just because they got to be manager. I’ve been offered promortions within my company but it is a company whose policies and treatment of employees are so obscure I couldn’t feel good about myself pushing those values I disagree with on other people. I’m biding my time till the next better thing comes. I have one manager that was hired with no experience in the restaurant industry. She went thru her MIT class for 8 weeks at a training store where the staff refused to let her in the ktichen. Needless to say, when class was over and they threw her in our store it was NOT pretty. She didn’t know how to dress anything or how to operate any of the equipment. She can’t even count the drawers down right at the end of her shift still. She accused me of being $75 short one night but she just counted wrong. That’s a fairly common occurence, too. Our drawers are regularly short (which a whole shift gets written up for) and most of the time the money is in the safe, or a drop box, or she just “wasn’t paying attention” and pulled too much money from the drawer. After working with her for over 3 years, she still asks me if I can help her find things that as an employee I shouldn’t know anyway (such as where important documents are on the computer.) That doesn’t mean she is more qualified for the job than I am, though. I’ve never seen the woman wait on a table as long as she’s been there (which would probably be disastrous as she can barely take phone-in/carryout orders.) I know I’d work circles around her. I do the deposits for them, I run shifts occasionally, and 99% of the time I’m the first person employees come to when there’s a problem. If it needs brought up with management I’m the one to do that, but most of the time, I’m told the problem and I’m the one to resolve it without management’s involvement. I’m damn qualified to be a manager, I just choose not to be. That doesn’t make them better than me.
right on, Brandi. you know the same goes for Administrative Assistants, too. I guess I just changed titles…