Let me be the first to let you all know that the Dumbass is spreading, and if you’re not careful, you’ll catch it just like everyone else. It’s even spread to a member of my management staff. Not just a member, he’s also the leader.
We have a new general manager at my job. You’ve heard me talk about him here before, a few times. We all thought that he was going to do a great job, but so far, he’s just a dumbass. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a very nice person, but this is his first time being a general manager, and as such, knows absolutely nothing about running the business.
Some of the things he’s doing wrong:
1. You don’t schedule 14 servers on a Wednesday night. This is not the busy season, yet for some reason, this new manager is making sure that we have a total of 14 servers and three or more bartenders on the shift at any given time….during the week. This would be alright if we had any sort of business. We have NO business right now, and the servers are about an inch away from open rebellion from not making any money. Anyone want to unionize??
Over Nazi-fying the uniform standards. Anyone who has ever worked with or for me knows that I’m a big uniform nazi. I always have been. I expect people to have on the correct uniform. If that means wearing pastels with buttons on the collars, tucked in, then I expect you to be wearing a pastel with a button down collar, tucked into your pretty little pants! I expect uniforms to have a standard of cleanliness, and to not be overly wrinkled. I can understand the wrinkles that come from bending over or driving to work, I get those all the time. I don’t think that sending servers home because there is a little spot on their shirt – a spot that came from work onto a shirt that costs 25 bucks or more — is a good business deal. This manager thinks that we make our tips from our uniforms, not our service skills. Therefore, if we have any kind of spot on our shirt, we are sent home. What if all of our shirts are stained? That means we have to go out and buy new shirts, and let me tell ya, these aren’t the easiest to find like most uniforms. You try finding a pastel, oxford, long sleeve, button down collared shirt for less than 25 or 30 bucks. Sure, you might find some that don’t have buttons on the collars, but you’re not gonna find many.
Worrying more about people having breaks than letting them leave when sick. A couple of days ago, Mizz Loh-retta was sick. She talked to the manager about her illness. He didn’t acknowledge her illness, instead he asked if she’d had a break the day before and if she was going to be able to take one that day. Didn’t ask if she would like to go home and rest so she could get better, only worried about breaks so that he doesn’t get a bitching from his boss.
Not knowing how to talk to people. I don’t know if this is just because of where he’s from, or just who he is, but this man doesn’t know how to talk to a person. Whether it’s making small talk or asking an employee to do something, it always comes out of his mouth hatefully. He doesn’t laugh, he rarely smiles, and he’s just not a nice person to be around. Nobody wants to be around a dictator, even if it’s the manager. A good general manager should at least be able to talk to his employees, and occasionally have a hint of a giggle with them!
Like I said before, he’s a really nice guy, but he doesn’t know what he’s doing! There are all kinds of changes we need to make where I work, and he’s focusing on things that matter very little. There’s supplies that we need to get fixed, employees who need their hours cut, training that needs an overhaul, and positions that need to be refilled. He’s focusing on uniforms, breaks, and how to be a prick.
I’m curious to know if your managers are like this one? Have they caught the dumbass too? Has it spread to other restaurants across the country?
My last GM was awesome. He worked, he laughed, he smiled, he talked, and when he bitched you out, he had a smile on his face and he wasn’t doing it because of missing a break. He knew how to talk to people. Mr. S, we want you back!!!
Ribeye
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February 21st, 2008 at 8:12 am
Oh man, I understand the break-when-sick thing.
I’m anemic (and therefore have NO immune system), and while my iron was particularly low one day I tried to explain to my manager that I needed to go home early. He said that I was his “best waitress” and that he really *needed* me… on a slow Tuesday night.
So, I continued to push myself. He let me have a 10 minute break (the dear…/sarcasm), and eventually I passed out on the floor about 20 minutes later with a party of six’s food.
Not only did I have to pay for the food, I still couldn’t go home.
Silly me and my anemia. Tsk tsk to think that I needed to leave and inconvenience my manager.
Needless to say… I quit soon after.
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February 21st, 2008 at 8:30 am
Hi Ribeye,
I enjoy your blog. Actually, you can get pastel, oxford, long sleeve, button down collared shirts for less than 25 or 30 bucks. My favorite retailer of shirts is Lands’ End (www.landsend.com). They have great products, a lifetime guaranty, very good prices, and a wide range of sizes (I wear an unusual shirt size).
Looking at their website right now, they have some shirts which fit your criteria for $19.50. They also have an overstock section which sometimes has really nice stuff on sale cheap.
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February 21st, 2008 at 6:37 pm
He’ll learn the hard way eh……
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February 21st, 2008 at 11:06 pm
I adore my boss, but there is a supervisor in our office who has no people skills at all. One group she supervises was telling me that she has more than once told them that they can all be replaced by people off the street. She also says she won’t do any additional training until they stop taking sick days and vacation days. There’s a woman in my group who this supervisor has pegged as a complainer so any complaint or suggestion this woman makes is automatically dismissed an in a horribly condescending way when in point of fact, this woman is making a valid and useful point.
She needs to take all of her highly technical knowledge and use it in a position where she isn’t supervising anyone because she is just about the worst I have ever seen.
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February 23rd, 2008 at 4:15 am
Hi Ribs…don’t get me started, useless GMs are my pet subject!!
There is a very fine line between being a friendly boss and a friend. Once that line is crossed it’s almost impossible to get back.
As much as I hate all the hierachy crap that goes with Management, you have to set yourself apart from the other staff, because it’s your job on the line if they don’t do theirs. That doesn’t mean that you can’t have a laugh and joke with them, I would sieze up and die if I didn’t spend time with my team cracking jokes, (usually at the guests expense, well, that’s what they’re for).
We all have our own Management style, and to be able to relax, lead and still be a human being is something that only comes with experience, and confidence.
No college can teach you how to interact with other people, how to motivate and pull a team together, only doing the job can do that, and if he’s never been a GM before then he has a long way to go.
I’ll probably get into trouble for saying this, but if you can see what he’s doing wrong, and it’s obviously causing huge problems in your workplace, then why don’t you try a bit of psychology and suggest subtle changes, things that would make your life easier, and make him look good.
The uniform is an easy area to pick on because it’s so obvious, if you look good then so does he.
Good luck, and remember, if he’s giving you a hard time, just imagine him sitting on the toilet with awful constipation…works for me.
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February 25th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
What is it with over-scheduling. Jesus. I had a place I worked with about 120 seats. On busy nights we’d get three full turns, and on those nights we staffed 9 servers, 2 bartenders, 4 bussers. 360 covers for 15 people. Those nights ruled. Then, it would be a snowy Monday night in January. Slow season, terrible weather, 30 mph wind. And how many do we have on the floor? 15. We had 25 reservations but 15 people staffed to serve them. This happened CONSTANTLY.
My favorite moment, ever, was this: I am scheduled on a weekday in late July, and my station is the patio, a small (35-seat) area only open 3 months per year. There were always 2 servers assigned to it. The bitch about the patio is that you have to set it up entirely before the shift, at least an hour of dragging, unlocking, arranging, then setting/prepping tables, chairs, setups, glasses, etc. Basically we take 10% of the restaurant and put it outside, then take it all back in at the end of the night.
Now…late July. The weather is TERRIBLE. It’s at least 95 degrees with 100% humidity. If any human enjoys eating outside in those conditions, just move to the 4th circle of hell and have a nice life. I call in 2 hours before my shift to find that we have 20 reservations, still 9 servers scheduled. So I ask: any way you guys could cut the patio tonight since the weather is so awful? Our RIDICLOUSLY DUMB GM says “I’ll call you later, think we need you to come in though and at least set it up.” For whatever reason, even if she agrees with me that nobody will eat outside, we still have to do the hard work associated with the patio. She never calls, I go in, set up the patio dripping in sweat, put my uniform on, get ready for the shift, etc…been at work about 90 minutes. We have our pre-shift meeting at 5:00 where she announces that……….the patio is going to be closed tonight. I just stared at her like she was an alien. So, I went to work, got there and set up the patio for 90 minutes, went to a 15 minute meeting then broke down the patio for another 90. If that’s not trying to get rid of someone I don’t know what is.
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September 3rd, 2009 at 7:09 am
Well hun it seems like you just don’t like the guy. Anyway you condradicted yourself. First you said he was a very nice person then you said later that he just wasn’t a nice person at all. Maybe you just have to get use to a new person being the boos of you. It seems like you just wanna complain about something, but of course a new person is gonna have different rule and if you don’t like it leave or become the boss yourself.
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