I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

I was never a good restaurant employee in my 20’s and 30’s.

When it came to theater, I had a different view of things.  

I’ve said, many, many, many times over that karma is the reason, I end up with some of the people I end up with and the situations that occur.  

I would change jobs like changing my underwear.

I’d walk out.  

I’d quit and not work out my notice.

I threw things.

I may have had frozen drinks during service in the afternoons in Atlanta.   

I many have gotten drunk on New Year’s Eve.  

I may have called out to go to Florida.  With three other employees.

I may have gotten fired for calling out sick to visit with friends from NYC.  

My grandmother died multiple times.  

I once called out to go to Texas to see a boy in the Army Reserves.  

I am not proud of these things. 

But as with anything, from your past, it’s so much healthier to own the mistakes, then lie about them and pretend they didn’t happen.

In 10 years of being a GM, there has never been a single time that someone has gotten fired for something that my friends and I have not done.  

I had a new manager at one restaurant, and we caught a bartender stealing.  She was shocked I tell you.  Shocked.

I spent the next two weeks, detailing all the ways that bartenders steal.

For example, new POS systems won’t allow you to transfer sodas to another check more than once.  To separate it on to a third check, your manager has to approve the transaction.

Why you ask?  Because back in the day of cash sales, you could transfer 2 sodas for a 2 top, 12 times.  It’s an easy 30 or so bucks added to your pocket at the end of the night.  

I once fired a server for having a lobster roll voided because she said the guests never got it.

However, as chance would have it, I bumped into her while I was walking into the kitchen.  I turned, and saw her deliver the two rolls, then bent over and picked up the potato chips she had dropped on the ground.  Otherwise, I’d never have known.  

Bartenders are famous for theft.  Not ringing in drinks.  Over pouring.  Using a 2-drink, beer, etc check over and over when it’s paid with cash. 

I had a friend explain to me that her bartender was always playing with pens at the bar.  Turns out he was tracking the extra money in the till, by putting a pen in a glass every time it reached 10 dollars extra.   

I fired a bartender on Xmas eve once, when I discovered that he hadn’t charged for an 8 tops booze, who happened to be an employee.  I discovered this when I went to put the discount on the check, before he asked for it.  Usually, I’d just give my card to the staff member.  I watched the rest of the visit and the drinks, including 2 bottles of wine were never accounted for. 

What’s funny, is that everyone I’ve ever fired for stealing has played it off, as if it was no big deal. 

This is not the post I started to write.  I was going to write about being employee of the month…but that post will wait.

The point of all of this, is that as a manager, I’m completely different.  

I’m calm.  I rarely, lose my temper and exhibit anger.  

In 10 years, I’ve only called out about 7 times.  Three times with my gall bladder.  Three times, when my mom was diagnosed with cancer and passed away.  Once with Covid.  Once when my gall bladder was removed, and that was planned.  

I never, ever, ever miss work.  In fact, the first time I missed with a gallstone attack, my staff freaked out, because it was several years into work at my GM job and I’d never missed.  

I would chop off my arm before I’d steal, or allow any of my staff to steal.  We all make great money.  Do the right thing.  

The closest I’d come to drinking on the job would be a drink at the end of my shift and that happens very rarely these days.  

I feel guilty these days even eating at work.  Our product is expensive and even though it is a perk and offered to me, I rarely eat a full meal more than once a week.  

Full disclosure.  There are things I don’t excel at.  

I am 10 minutes late to work every day.  I’m supposed to be there at 1:00 p.m.  I get there at 1:10. I’m the first person in the building, so it’s not like anyone is waiting for me.  

I also park in the guest parking lot.  At my current job, I parked in the far back corner on my first day.  My boss told me that one of the perks was to park next to the kitchen door.  Then he saw the car I was driving and told me to go back to the back corner again.  

At my first GM job, there were only 25 spots, for a 150-seat restaurant, and a 10-room hotel.  Spots were valuable.  I never, ever, ever parked anywhere but the guest lot.  The valets took great care of me.  I still miss them.  

I will sometimes pull out my phone in the middle of service.  HOWEVER.  I do get messages and calls from guests, looking for a table later that night. AND, I can see the reservation software so I can see how long a table has been seated, when they get water, order, or leave.  I can also see how long the table has been dirty, when staff members are standing around. 

I may eat candy, in the middle of the shift, from the candy drawer.  

I also, tend to have a drink with me, in my red Coke plastic Pizza Hut tumbler.  

And I talk to our guests longer than I should, when I tell my staff to keep the evening moving.  

Long story short.  I was an immature 20/30 year old.

I am a very mature, responsible, old man.  

I like who I’ve become.  And I sometimes I remember that I am who I am, because of the experiences of my youth.