I’d like to speak to the manager!!!
I’m in my 10th year of being a GM.
I have no idea how I got here. An ex-employee of mine asked me that today.
One day, I was cruising along as a server making a shit ton of money, and ten years later, I’m the BOSS, making a lot less money. The bad guy. The one everyone hates.
That being said, I love being a GM.
I love my staff. I love our guests. I love guiding the restaurant.
Last night two tables, went out of their way to tell me how much better things were since I’ve taken over. One of them chatted with me like we’d known each other for years, and I had no idea who he was.
Most of my efforts are done by doing the exact opposite of what so many managers I’ve had along the way have done.
I worked at a restaurant in Kentucky for three weeks once.
In the middle of a Saturday night shift, the GM, whose name was Karen, called us all into the walk-in. About 15 of us. She slammed the door and then began to chew us a new asshole. She went on and on about how horrible we were doing our jobs. How she was embarrassed to work with us, because we were so bad. She then told the entire team, that if we couldn’t do our jobs then we needed to find a new career.
I quit about 5 days later. Without notice.
Then there was Mike. AKA Cookie.
He was great. Until he wasn’t.
Every day when you entered the restaurant, the first question was, Is Cookie working? And that was followed by, What kind of mood is he in today?
If he was in a good mood, the shift would be awesome.
If it was a bad mood, then the whole night would suck for everyone.
Then there was Allan, who randomly picked people to shit on. He took over the server schedule about a year into my job, and decided that I was making too much money, so he cut my shifts and then stopped giving me the schedule I’d had for a year. He eventually got fired.
Then there was Beth, she’d just graduated from restaurant management school. She was just great. She had never worked in a restaurant in her life. My second week of working at this new restaurant that happened to be fashioned after a 50’s diner, we were slammed after all but me and one other server were cut.
She just kept seating the tables. And seating them and seating them.
You can ask anyone who has ever worked with me. I AM A TABLE WHORE!!! Give me more and more and more. At my last waiting tables job, I’d have a counter with 10 seats and 4 four top cocktail tables. And I drove that shit like a pro.
But I kept watching her seat the tables and seat the tables and seat the tables. I looked around and every table in the restaurant, about 20 tables were seated.
I was taking an order when she sat the table next to me. She gave them menus and said, Jeff with be right with you. I leaned over while taking the order and said, Actually I won’t. It will be a long time before I get to you.
She fired me for insubordination.
My favorite manager story is Keith.
Keith was special.
He too had just graduated from restaurant management school. He knew everything about everything.
He was also dating a server at the time, which was a big no no. I’m pretty sure they eventually got married and moved to Louisville. PS. This took place in Atlanta.
Keith didn’t like me. I have no idea why. I will never know why.
To back up before the day of the special event, we had just gotten a new tile kitchen floor. The old floor was bad and the tiles were loose and missing. The powers that be attributed this to pouring salt on the floor when there was a spill. Supposedly, it eats away at the grout and causes the floor to fail. However, every restaurant I’ve ever worked in does this…
Fast forward two or three weeks. It’s a Friday evening. We are busy. Crazy busy. I’m doing my thing. I walk into the kitchen and the floor is soaked. We get it mopped up and I pour salt on the floor so no one kills themselves.
As I’m doing this, Keith comes into the kitchen and loses his mind.
To this day, I’ve never been treated so badly by a manager.
He begins to shout at me. He tells me that I’m fucking stupid. I’m a fucking asshole. I’m a fucking this and a fucking that. I’m ignoring him as I make 4 iced teas and place them on a tray.
I start out of the kitchen and he follows me, using the word fuck every chance he gets. I enter the dining room and he’s behind me with fuck this and fuck that.
I go up three steps into my station and he’s still shouting at me.
I turn around and he continues. Finally, I’ve had enough and I say, you know what Keith. Fuck you. And I launch the tray at his head, with the four iced tea glasses still on it. It smashes into the wall above his head.
There is silence.
He looks at me and says you are fired!!!
This was before computerized POS systems. And so, I pull out the tickets for the 5 tables I have and I rip them into a million pieces and I say, you figure out what the fuck everyone is eating and I leave.
Fun fact: My family was visiting from Kentucky and witnessed the whole exchange.
Was I proud? No. But should anyone be spoken to like that. Absolutely fucking not.
I get into my car and I drive 15 miles to another restaurant with the same name. I go in and ask for Reggie. I tell him what happened and ask if I can work for him. He says be back the next day at 4:00.
Damn. I was unemployed for 30 minutes.
I get there the next day and he tells me that I can’t work for him because I’m no longer allowed to work for the company.
Hmmmm.
I arrange a meeting with the GM of the restaurant I was fired from. I tell her what happened.
24 hours later the district manager calls to apologize and tell me that I can work at any of their other stores.
2 days later a friend from the original store calls to let me know that the district manager had been in, called Keith into dry storage and chewed him a new asshole. Everyone in the back of house could hear.
The GM of that store later shared with me that at the GM’s meeting that month they were mostly upset that I missed his head when I threw the tray.
I have a million of these stories.
And the moral of these stories, is try to do the right thing. At least try. And don’t treat your staff like shit. And don’t tell them they are fucking stupid. And don’t be mad when life happens to them.
I'd Like to Speak to the Manager!!! 