I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

As I’ve mentioned here before, I am a one-man band at my restaurant.

Always, in the past, I’ve had people.  

Someone to take care of events.

Someone to write the schedule.

Someone to manage the bar.

Someone to help with inventory.  

Someone to track tips.

Someone to help with emails.

Someone to help open.

Someone to help close.

Someone to help with the deposits.  

Someone to check side work.

Someone to help return phone calls.

Someone to help manager the floors.

Someone to help with management of the staff.

Somene to help remember to order napkins so we don’t run out on a Sunday night.  

Someone to help…

I am a one-man band.  

And for the most part I do okay.  

But I have lists and lists and sometimes I misplace my lists.  Or something slips through the cracks.  Or the schedule is posted late.  Or like tonight, we ran out of napkins and had about 20 spare rollups left when the shift was over.  

Needless to say, It’s a struggle making sure all the t’s and i’s are taken care of.  

The story I am about to tell has played out about 100 times this summer.  

Today I notice a server is being a little quiet with me…somewhat distant.  

I corner them after pre-shift and ask if they are okay.  In fact, I asked if they needed a hug and then gave them one.

At this point, they say they were going to wait till the end of the shift but might as well go ahead and ask.

They say, is there some reason I have less shifts than normal?

I assure them no, and then go on to explain why they have the schedule they have.

They go on to say, are you sure.  I’m pretty sure you are just mad at me and want me to quit.

UGH!!!

I have this conversation every two weeks.  

First, I don’t have the energy to plot out revenge on a server by scheduling them less.  

Second, most of the time it’s a fucking mistake.  

We use a scheduling tool called Schedule Fly and it’s the worst.  The fucking worst.  I have yet to find a way to look at the schedule in a traditional schedule format, with a name and all of the shifts listed.  It separates everything out by position and then name.  

Most of the time this mistake is from copying and pasting the week before, and you asked off that week. 

The situation this week is that we have a special event on Thursday and this server specifically asked not to work the event, and since they work on Thursday, I didn’t schedule them.

Nothing evil on my part. 

Actually, I just trying to give said server what they wanted.  

I explain this to them and they react like everyone does.  

I seriously don’t have the energy to manage this way.

They say, they are happy to know I’m not firing them…

And true confession:  There is only one person I’ve ever tried to get rid of this way, and they being the ballsy person they are, walked in and said, you are not getting rid of me by not scheduling me, so if you don’t want me to work here you are going to have to fire me.  

To my knowledge they are still picking up shifts.  And she went on to become a favorite of mine.  

To all of my staff reading this, it’s just a mistake.  Trust me, just a mistake.

I’ll let you know if I’m going to fire you.

I’ll ask you to meet me at G-4.