Managers that haven’t got souls
bitchery, gratuity, great people, manager, money money money Add commentsWe all have them, we all hate working with them and most of us just plain hate them. They are the managers that have the beady little eyes and the hateful “numbers only” attitudes. They are the managers that will force you to serve alcohol without seeing an ID from the guest, they are the managers who don’t back you up when you have a problem with a guest, and they are the managers who make you come to work with a 102 degree fever because you couldn’t find anyone to cover your shift when you tried to call out 6 hours beforehand per the corporate procedure.
As any of you who have read my recent posts know, I had an issue with my GM on the expo line a couple of weeks ago. Now, I’m not only having a problem with him on expo, I’m having a problem with him in the FOH (Front of House for the non-indusriers). This manager is not well liked by the staff, not so much because he’s making changes in our store but because he’s making the wrong changes.
My issue with him last night stemmed from one of those changes. Formerly, servers where I work were allowed to take parties of up to 25 guests by themselves. Now, we have to have a partner if there are more than 15 guests. I have no problem with that rule if the servers are newly validated, or cannot handle that quantity of guests, however for those of us who are experienced and have been with the company for a while and can handle that volume, I hate the rule.
Last night, there was a call-ahead party of 18 that was going to be coming into the bowling alley. It was decided that I would be partnering with Mr. N for this party, because of this new “company” policy put into place by my GM. I wasn’t happy about having to split the party, but I didn’t bitch. We had their three lanes put on hold and I stood around to wait until they showed up.
An hour later, they start arriving, and I find out it’s going to be 5 adults and 13 kids. The adults are drinking top shelf drinks and liquor from the bar, including : Glenlivet on the rocks, Johnnie Walker Black, Gran Marnier, Patron, Belvedere, and Chivas Regal. The kids were all drinking bottles of root beer, making for plenty of extra charges because refills aren’t free. Both Mr. N and I still had our sections to take care of along with the party. Mr. N’s section got filled up, and I was taking care of the 18 by myself. Not a problem, I was enjoying it and the kids were having fun. I introduced one of them to a kid that plays on Hannah Montana and she was thrilled. Mr. N decided to let me keep the party alone because he was so busy.
They bowled for almost 2 hours, ran up a tab of 380 bucks without their gratuity. They had a total of 32 appetizers. When they were done bowling, I still had some stuff left on their lane to clean up, napkins, glasses and a few plates. I’d been prebussing the whole time. They left me a hundred dollars over the gratuity, knowing the gratuity was there. It wasn’t like they didn’t think I was getting tipped, they knew what they were doing. I made a killing off that party. Total, including what goes on my check, 160 bucks. I was thrilled, and they wouldn’t shut up about how awesome I was (making my head bigger), and how accommodating we were, and how awesome our restaurant was. I don’t get such great tips all the time, much less get awesome comments like theirs were, so when I got them I made sure to let my manager, Manager S the Feminine, know what they thought so she could catch them before they left and do a “table visit”.
About that time, Soulless GM walks up to Manager S. He looks at the lanes where the party was playing and sees what I’ve got left to clean up. I let him know what all happened, and how happy I was to have gotten such a great tip and compliment. He asks who all worked the party, and Manager S explains that it was just me because of Mr. N getting slammed.
Manager S received “chastisement” for allowing me to take a party of such size alone going against our policy and giving the guest such bad service. I walk up about that time, and he turns to me and says “That’s why we put more dan one server on a party of that size, so you don’t give such sloppy service.” Had he been joking, it wouldn’t have bothered me so much.
He wasn’t joking. He doesn’t really know how to joke around. This fucker actually thought that I was a bad server, despite the extra Benjamin Franklin I got on the party, and the compliments I received. I asked him what he meant with his comment and he replied, “Look at that lane, you didn’t prebus or clean up anything while they were here!”
I always prebus. I scream at others to prebus. I didn’t get the last bit because they were finishing up and cashing out. I let him know how many plates they had and why there were still some on the lane. “You call that prebussing?” he asks. “Yes, sir, I do. I can’t take plates they’re still eating from or glasses they’re still drinking from. You try serving 13 kids and see how well you do!”
The guest was standing behind him as he talked shit about me to my face, and the guest was not happy with his comments.
My manager wonders why the morale of our store is so fucking low right now, it’s because of comments like the ones he made last night. What he said in front of other servers, another manager, my guests, and to me in the middle of our bowling area was rude, it was unprofessional, and it was hurtful. I work my ass off for him, and this is how I’m treated. I’m basically told that I’m a bad server because I didn’t prebus every single plate they had when they were eating right up until the time they paid and left!
This is why I’m out looking for another place to serve and/or bartend. I would have tried bartending here except they won’t be flexible with my hours and training hours and I can’t afford to give up job #2 for a position I might not make cash in. I’d love to be a bartender but I can’t afford it.
My stress level can’t afford this GM much longer either, I’ll end up snapping on him and getting myself fired, thereby ruining a great job reference for nearly 2 years of hard work in one spot.
I guess we’ll see how things go.
Ribeye
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June 14th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
if that manager sticks around after you leave, you still wont get a good reference even if you give notice. soulless dicks like that will look for any opportunity to fuck you over, especially after you leave them hanging. i’d slash the fucker’s tires on my last night. but that’s just me… good luck finding a better job. i really hope you find something better. why not go for fine dining? the place you work sounds like a corporate shithole.
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June 14th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Hey Ribeye???
You’re not alone. And this kind of idiocy unfortunately extends itself quite nicely into other industries. EMS being one of them.
I hope you find your Nirvana. Where ever that may be. I hope I find it as well.
Best of luck hon,
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June 15th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Run away, Ribeye! Run away!
Nothing ruins one’s enjoyment of work like a horrible manager. Yours sounds superlatively clueless.
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June 15th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Managers, bosses, anyone with the slighest bit of authority needs to realize that they will have nothing but grief with their own people unless they are liked and fair. Notice I said liked and fair. It does no good to be liked and a pushover…may as well have an asshole…
While we’re on the subject of food, why doncha give my blog a read and lemme know what you think?
Thanx
gfp
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June 16th, 2008 at 4:11 am
Your GM sounds like he has some self esteem issues. Obviously he didn’t like the fact that you dared to disobey his new rule and was looking for reasons to bitch you out. Of course you can’t take their drinks - in fact pre-bussing does not include glasses unless there are more than one per customer on the table. To berate you in front of others regardless of what happened is highly unprofessional. I wish that the customer who overheard his rant would have stepped up and told him what a great job you did. I would have. I say this because had a similar situation. The table requested that their food be served as it came out of the kitchen rather than have everyone wait until all 23 dinners were ready. When I was picking up the food that way, my GM confronted me and then accused me of lying to cover up my “screw up”. He went to the table to apologize for my “incompetance” and the table let him have it. They informed him that not only did they want the food served that way but that I was doing a fantastic job so maybe he had better go back inside and leave me alone. Later the GM said, “I think I owe you an apology.” and I said, “I don’t think you do, I know you do.”. He was fired for stealing and drug use on the job 10 days later. I hope that you have the same luck with your weasel of a GM.
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June 16th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Ribeye….I’ve been a server for over 30 yrs. I work for a major hotel restaurant in upstate ny. I have about half a dozen of your pricks breathing down my throat constantly. I’m going through a depession phase right now about why I stuck in out in this thankless profession for so long. My customer’s are fine. I can handle anything they throw my way…because I work for tips. The managers only care about they’re jobs and what will advance them. I feel your pain. Hang in there it’s just a f…n server job.
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June 16th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Ribeye, if you work for a corporate restaurant or chain, I think you are worrying too much about a reference. I don’t know the restaurant biz, but I do know that most large corporations, anyone big enough to get sued, won’t actually provide a reference because anything remotely negative is just fuel for a lawsuit. Generally, all they will do is confirm dates of employment and maybe your pay.
Here’s one way to find out that just occurred to me. Set up a fake email account and send an email to your corporate HR department. Explain that you work for XYZ chain, not your own, and you are wondering if the corporation has a policy about providing references for departing employees. You can dress this up a bit and say that you work for XYZ and your manager is evil and you are wondering what standard practice is in the corporate restaurant industry.
It’s very serious business for an employer with enough money to be an attractive target (generally, any corporation bigger than a Mom & Pop) to interfere with someone’s ability to get or keep a job. If you don’t like my idea, start with your public library and ask the librarians to help you research how corporate restaurants handle such issues. It’s exactly the sort of obscure knowledge a librarian would probably enjoy ferreting out. You might be able to get that started with just one phone call.
Or write the Evil HR Lady who blogs under that title and ask her how to find out what your corporate policy is.
You need to set your mind at ease over this so you don’t spend any more time with hosers like your manager than you absolutely have to.
One last thought: are there any customers you know well enough to ask for a reference? That would probably carry way more weight than anything said by an ineffectual middle-management suck-up.
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June 18th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Yeah many places when they ask for a reference do not even make the call, especially if it’s an independently owned place. They’re not going to call for previous salary if you make the standard $3.xx/hr + tips. And if they ask for your supervisor’s name, just give them the name of a good manager that you get along with.
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June 19th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Carol has given you some terrific advice, and anyway, the two years’ service in one restaurant alone is a reference in itself.
Managers can be in the wrong jobs too, sounds like yours is! xx
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June 19th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Take comfort in the knowledge that nobody is going to slip the manager an extra $100.
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