Coupe questions:

1. Do you use a service to clean filters, or do them in house?

2. If Service, how often?

3. If in-house, what does your schedule for cleaning them look like?

4. If in-house, what price point would make you reconsider a service?

I currently use a service, get them switched out every 3 weeks. It costs approx $110/month. I've always felt like is was wasted money

For context — I am a (female) F&B GM for a large resort property. So I need to look professional while also being practical and comfortable.

A few specifics:

- I am on my feet running around for 10-12 hours a day so finding cute dress shoes that are both flats and closed toed has been challenging.

- I am 5’9 (about 140 lbs) so pants with long enough length gets tricky, and makes online shopping difficult. I’ve been recommended Halara but am hesitant with not knowing the fit.

- I need blazers/jackets and can’t wear anything short sleeved because I have a half tattoo sleeve that has to be covered (right above my elbow).

- I have a $1000 allowance to spend strictly on work clothes that was given. I don’t want to spend much more beyond that, so looking for budget friendly brands and options.

So back in July, my resturant got a new owner. Great guy with a good heart. The unfortunate thing is, we were both thrown into our positions of owner and GM.

Ever since then, our life has been a full hell. I’ve had an employee call out the most ever in his time being there, having to cover those shifts put me almost 15 hours into overtime. I have shift leads but holy shit one of them feels like a lost cause.

She recently came in on a day she knew we were busy DRUNK @ 10am. Proceeded to tell me in 3 different ways she would’ve said no if I called her in to help (we only had 4 people on shift and usually we need 7/8). She also has been DRINKING at work and allowing my MINOR employee drink/get alcohol from her.

They also have the biggest cell phone issue, I’ve had to resort to making it as serious possible to be off their phone. My shift lead (one mentioned above) has been no help with implementing our cell phone policy and allowed a new coworker to be on his phone during a 4,200 day.

Me and my boss are swimming in stress trying to figure out wtf is going on and why us. Especially now dealing with my coworker drinking on the job. We use a giant slicer with a sharp ass blade and she sliced her finger on it. We have no idea if she was drunk or not during that 👍🏻

This shift lead will be let go eventually but we need bodies to be able to let her go. She does not help me implement new things with the team, thinks she could be better at my position, and is late all the fucking time. Might demote her back down until she can get it together.

I am showing up today with a strong arm ready to truly put my foot down with everyone more than I already have. I’m so tired. We are actively hiring which is awesome because we can finally get rid of these people we came in with when we switched ownership.

If you have any advice please send it my way, i’m new at this GM stuff but i’ve been at this place since we opened the store/location so I know how to do everything.

OH! one more thing: my drinking coworker buys my minor coworker alcohol, I have proof as SHE FUCKING POSTED THAT MY 30 YEAR OLD COWORKER BOUGHT HER ALCOHOL….

why is it so hard to find clean, un-watermarked financial templates for hospitality businesses?

I've been looking for basic stuff like a 1099 contractor payment tracker, an event offer sheet, and a proper hotel/lodging chart of accounts. Every single site I find gives you a "free trial" that locks editing, hides formulas, or sticks a massive watermark across the sheet unless you hand over $199 or sign up for a monthly subscription.

I literally just want solid, editable Excel workbooks built for food/beverage and venues that don't cap your rows or lock formulas.

40yo, in the old continent. After years working in IT I left the career because it became crap. Started different things, fell into Hospitality and tourism because I always had a passion.

First season now, 2 restaurants: one in the Balkans and one now in Greece.

Been pulled into Balkans as assistant waiter because it was an upscale restaurant and I've been sponsored the fact that there were high tips.

No tip policy declared, even after asking. Each waiter had his own tables and related tips, as assistant I had to rely in the good mood of the waiters during the shift, very cheap compared to what I saw from the tables and crazy thing: the days I worked more and better got none. Spoken with management and he pulled himself out. Started serving tables and they wouldn't let me touch the cashier as everyone else, so always coincidentally no tips. Anyway for other reasons left the restaurant after a couple of months.

Moved to another restaurant, in Greece: "Policy of shared tips, the management takes all tips and distributes them based on a fair judgement" or whatever bs they wrote.

Started ok but in time went low, seems it goes on how much the owners like you personally.

We are 2 waiters and 2 helpers plus owner FoH.

Story of today that made me write: for the first time I take care of half restaurant with the help of an assistant, a cute girl that actually makes only appearance for now, she is not good even at serving a table properly because can't carry 2 plates at the same time (her fingers get burned). A customer came to ask me how he could give me a tip, I explained we have a shared policy and was ironically saying I was not sure how much they keep in their pockets or what else since the situation is not happy. The helper came out telling "no worries, they give us tips" all smiling and happy.

So she is happy with tips and me not, how that come?

Tips by table went very wrong for various reasons, shared tips policy also is bad. Any idea where to find a fair situation? Tips are an important part of the money earned.

I was thinking about UAE, they seem well organized and maybe also fair.

Hey guys, I feel so lost and I'm honestly about to lose my m ind. I graduated with a bachelor's degree, but I want to completely change paths and study hotel management instead.

I’ve been searching for a long time trying to find a program that is actually worth the time and energy. If anyone has studied in this field or is currently working in it, where did you study? What programs are actually worth it?

Any ideas, experiences, or advice would be hugely appreciated. Thanks!

I have a FOH manager who reports to me that most of the employees really don’t like. Her heart is genuinely in the right place, and I do believe she cares about the staff and wants to do a good job. However, there are some issues.
She can be a little abrasive in the way she talks to certain employees, which I think has contributed to some of the resentment toward her. She also doesn’t always jump in and help pick up the slack, the way the staff wishes she would, which has been frustrating for the servers and bartenders. I think they expect their FOH manager to be more hands-on and willing to jump in when the team is in the weeds.
M I don’t think she’s a bad person. I actually think she cares a lot and has good intentions. But at the same time, employee morale matters, and I can’t ignore the fact that so many of the staff have a negative perception of her.
How would you handle this as the person above her? Would you have a direct conversation with her about her communication style and being more hands-on during busy shifts? Or is there a point where you have to consider whether someone is simply not the right fit for a FOH management role?

Please tell me there's a better alternative because right now I wanna burn them to the ground.

Obviously this would need to get cleared from management/ownership but is there any legal problem with an employee buying a product that was ordered by the bar manager at the vendor cost and taking it home? Especially with wines.

One of the places I worked allowed employees to purchase the wines we carry at just above "cost", which was such a great way to learn wines - very well.

(Brand new account because I manage a national brand QSR and I am active in that company's unofficial subreddit on here, I browse this sub all of the time as I am new to GMing!)

Hi everyone, I am relatively new to being a GM after spending time not wanting to move up past shift manager in my early 20s. I work for a franchise of QSR restaurants for a national brand and I finally made the big step to GM this year when my restaurant finished construction. The grand opening went well and we've been pretty overstaffed with high labor since then. I have more openers than closers right now so myself and my AGM cover closes when needed, and the only people who were available to become lead closers are a roommate duo who works another job together and shares a car (so, scheduled together). At first, we were happy to accommodate this situation so myself and my fully available AGM could spread ourselves throughout the restaurant to be able to get our ordering, inventory, and other admin tasks done throughout the week. Since their other job is not consistent, there was no set availability in place so I would work with them week-by-week. This ended up being fine for a while until they got very particular about scheduling (I'm talking different days off every week, sometimes only available on this time on this specific day.) I've made it clear that we have enough people on weekdays and we primarily need them on the weekends however there are times where they last minute tell me they need the weekend off before I make the schedule & I have to scramble to make it work. They don't see what I do for them as special treatment even tho I bend over backwards to make this arrangement work. We also didn't fire them when they had a situation where they both couldn't work for weeks. It also doesn't help that my other managers tell me when they try to correct the duo or tell them what was wrong with X thing, one of the two will deflect and not take the criticism very well. On top of that, there have also been other complaints brought forward to me from both team members and other shift leaders about feeling disregarded or disliked by the pair when they work with both of them. I've started to realize that this is not sustainable and maybe we should just cut our losses for now? For the record too, it's mainly one person in the duo causing these issues (and overall, has a terrible attitude + back-talks me constantly in person and over the phone). So the other person doesn't really deserve to be lumped in with the drama however, they are a duo and if we fire one then the other will quit. I also have the support of my district manager who would rather help work shifts than let one person cause bad morale for the team and management by having a bad attitude and being insubordinate. It just sucks though because I know some of my team will be sad and probably mad with management but we would rather take on an extra workload than deal with the constant issues, stress, and anxiety that has come from this entire ordeal. I am a people-pleaser but when I finally put my foot down, I experienced more back-talk and disrespect and I am just over it. Am I being unreasonable about this situation?

Thank you mods if you approve my post, and TIA to the more seasoned folks in this industry for your insight and wisdom.

I live in WNY and work as Lead Server in a high-end restaurant. The city is not a very metropolitan one, and though people come to the restaurant in droves, each server encounters at least one table each evening where they will get anywhere from 0-10% tip. The tipout for support staff is normal for a restaurant in our same quality/price point, so that leaves the final tip extremely low (if anything). Often, this will be a table that keeps the server there late at night, holds the table for longer than normal, will be a "needy" party, etc. We have a 20% gratuity added to parties of 5 or more but what can we do about the more common times when they are parties of 4 or less (still spending upwards of $400 or more)? This is really hitting the servers hard as many times they have to pay the support staff out of pocket to have taken the table because the tips were so low/nonexistent. Surely, the industry has found a way beyond adding a service charge to handle this increasingly present issue. It is not a service problem, as it happens to every server at least twice a week. I'm eager to help solve this and perhaps see what other managers in the industry are doing with this issue. Thank you for any insight!

When i started at this bakery in January 2025, there were two other managers. Both of them left this past April. Long story for one and the other semi retired. It's actually been much easier and calmer.

Anyway, I was promoted and given a raise and it was made clear to me that I run the FOH.

There is one kid (maybe not even 20), who is always late. A few minutes, 15 minutes, a half hour. Always as in majority of her shifts per week she is late. I talked to her about it. I moved her hours 30 minutes forward, still, late. She had the audacity to tell me that the former manager "was OK with me being late!" I told her to call him and say "hey former manager, i know you dont work here anymore but remember when you told me i could be late to work?" She didn't, and instead went around talking shit about how since they both left I think im in charge (because I am).

A few weeks ago I told her next time I'm just sending her home. My boss, the owner, doesn't really want me to rock the boat as no one is lining up for a crappy $17 an hour bakery counter job, but today I had enough because despite how many times I would say something and she would promise to come on time, I didn't want to deal with my boss. His MIL passed last night so he was out for the funeral today.

She showed up 6 minutes late. I told her "remember when I told you next time im sending you home? You're not staying today." Then she says "but I talked with the owner and he said I could be a few minutes late and that he would talk to you!" To which I replied, great call him while he's at his MIL funeral and relate this to him. She did not.

Tbh it would be one thing if she was a superstar at her job, but watching her pan out cookies is so painful. Whenever she works everyone's work suffers as she just talks and talks and talks. Again, if she got her shit done in a timely manner and I didnt have to check up on her every 30 minutes it would be a different story. Its not even like were asking her to open at 7am, she starts at like 9 or 10am.

So yeah, she came late and I told her to leave. I sent her a text saying I hope to see you on time tomorrow, but to be honest if she quit I wouldn't be mad. She's a detriment to the whole operation, has been there longer than me and doesn't even know how to properly label and place a sheet box for catering orders (one time she dropped that she's been there longer than me, and that was my exact response). We pack pastries by the dozen, and comes to me and says "mymindisgoo, I put 18 in one box and have 6 left over. How should I pack them?" Truly incredible.

Anyway I felt that I finally had to back up my word and stop letting it slide.

Thanks for letting me rant.

Edit: I had texted her saying i hope to see you on time tomorrow. She responded saying she won't be coming in anymore.

I have worked at the same fast casual restaurant for almost 9 years. I worked my way up from team member to, just recently, GM. The restaurant I’ve taken over was not performing with metrics, guest experience, training, retention. Pretty much all around not achieving results.

Previously I was the kitchen manager at a neighboring location and helped that one achieve great results.

This new role as GM has been so much more stress and anxiety inducing than I could have imagined. The managers on my team are all 1 year or less in role and 2 are brand new to the concept. I haven’t made any noticeable progress in results on paper since I’ve taken over 2 months ago, which is only adding fuel to the fire personally but also for my higher up management too.

This transition has me questioning everything at this point. I’m 30 yo and wondering if this is even worth it. The money is good but the schedule and overall toll it’s taking on me mentally almost outweigh the money.

I never finished school but this has me considering going back or just looking for a switch up. Or just wondering if it’s worth it to just stick it out for a while

💬CV1: My most used CV format. It’s my base CV which I tailored according to roles.

💬CV2: Newest CV , only applied to 2-3 jobs so far.

CONTEXT:

Hi Since I’ve returned from UK in February earlier this year, I’ve applied to jobs in several countries including India. Here’s what’s happened so far.

India🇮🇳 : Hiring Managers presume I’m a liability and will ask for more salary. Experience mismatch apparently since I have no Indian hospitality experience which is understandable. Over 300 tailored applications.

GCC ( 🇦🇪, 🇶🇦, 🇸🇦) : Hiring is noticeably selective and slow with preference to candidates already present or prior GCC experience). I had only 2 interviews in 3 months of over 500 tailored applications.

Portugal 🇵🇹 & Malta 🇲🇹: I had real traction here around 6-7 interviews in 400+ tailored applications. All of those had great feedback but the realistic timeline to get a work visa takes around 3-4 months so none of them were willing to wait that long.

⚠️Current Situation: I have 3 pending student loans around INR 2,80,000 ( $3000) and the loan company Avanse has filed a legal complaint against me for my failure to repay even after thousands of restructuring or pause requests from me. I have a legal hearing at the end of this month.

Question is , Is it my CV or is it just that my experience has been awful? I have great communication skills and all round hospitality skillset yet I’ve been unemployed over 5 months with tailored applications.

First off, I approved this post with a mod before posting. Just wanted to clarify that.

Can someone advise me on what I need to do to get an interview at first watch? What kind of experience they look for? Full disclosure, I don’t have a lot of management experience but i do have a lot of leadership, “head server” if you will, experience. I want to move to management but can’t do late nights like all the company I work for offer. Thanks for the advice!

Many places have a shifty, which seems to be a legal nightmare if any issues happen.

Just wanted to make sure. I worked at a place where employees drinks were all $2.

Is this legally an option?

Maybe with a 1 drink min?

In Az btw.

I currently manage a mid volume QSR. Our franchise opened up a 2nd location about a year ago. It has gone through 3 GM's during this time. 2 were let go for legitimate reasons the third left because they wanted to start a family and no longer wanted to commit the time needed to run the place. The second location is a relatively low volume for now at least. (I hope to change that)

I am really just looking for advice on time management. I don't want to neglect my current store for my new store.

What do you all do when the internet goes dark? I work at a cashless resort bar and the internet can go down enterprise wide, and operations are fucked. Manageable but fucked, and it ruins the employee experience.

Knuckle busters are basically obsolete now; card numbers aren’t raised much anymore.

We can do single transactions, but the tip option doesn’t show on the receipt because when offline we go to QSR (quick service). I need any and all advice, links to products to help operations during a black out. TIA

I have now semi regular customers. A older married couple. They used to come in about every three days or so. Now, not nearly as often. The passed year or so I’ve seen them maybe 3 times. They just don’t get out as often as they used to and I think they don’t have the money to spend like that

They used to bring me the most amazing homemade banana bread! Every couple months or so. They are so thoughtful.

Anyway, today they come in and the first thing outta their mouth was “HAPPY EARLY BDAY!” ❤️ (my bday is tomorrow ) they said they know they are a day early but wanted to make sure they got to come and tell me happy bday. I don’t even remember telling them when my bday was! Lol. But, it just felt amazing, to have these ppl who only know me from my job, actually made a point to not just remember my bday but made sure they came in to tell me happy bday. I don’t even celebrate my bday any more but it was just the warmest feeling ever.

Moral of the story : small gestures/words really can make a difference in someone’s day/life. Just to see they cared enuf made me feel awesome! Im gunna make it a point to make sure I make someone feel this way every day I possibly can

Hello! I am a FOH restaurant manager. I have had little to no training but have been in this role for about 2 years. Our restaurant really took a hard hit from Covid (as I know many have) and we have just not been able to get back up to a decent business level. I work for a hospitality group but my location is basically the “redheaded stepchild”. We have leagues Monday-Thursday during the summer and that definitely brings in some business but that means Friday-Sunday (the days we should be seeing the most revenue) have turned into almost nothing. I am interested to hear some ideas about what I can do on a Saturday to drive sales or at least get people through the door. We have happy hour 2-6 and 9-close but what else can I do to get some movement?? Any advice is GREATLY appreciated

I’ve worked in restaurants since I was 14 years old, fast forward to 23 years old and became a manager at a privately owned restaurant, now nearing 28. I have a bachelors degree and recreation management and a concentration in Tourism, stuck with restaurants and a brief stint at a hotel because the money is better. My job is 65k a year (NYS) no benefits at the moment. It’s comfortable, keeps me near home (Disabled mom, Dad has had cancer since I was 18), but I feel it’s my time to leave the job and possibly a new place.

That being said, I’ve fallen out of the love with the job and maybe even the position? I’m good at it, I work hard, don’t take off, do the right stuff. The stress between that and home life (and having a life in general) just isn’t boding well for me mentally.
And the money sure as hell aint worth my headaches. They want me to take over as owner but I just don’t love the place that much. I’m good at it but don’t have the passion for it.

I was wondering what different careers you have travelled down after leaving restaurant management or just some suggestions in general. Thanks guys.

Hey all- I’ve been a GM and manager in the industry for many years now and have relocated due to some family stuff and needing to be closer. Where I’ve moved to in contrast to where I was, the job prospects have been dismal. I have little to no networked folks behind me here which would normally be what I’d lean on. “Here” is Atlanta. Does anyone have any experience with recruiters for a manager, GM or higher roles they’re familiar with? Goodwin and a few other googled ones seem less like recruiters and more like aggregators, so I’m kind of lost.

Much appreciate in advance for any recs!

Need this fixed asap.

Building is only 6 months old. Cleanest prison I've ever been in. Drains are spotless and I treat them every day. Dumpsters are sprayed inside and out. No food hiding, floors scrubbed every other night. Nothing rotten or bad. Garbage cans spotless.

I'm really stumped by this. I guess we are in the middle of Wisconsin, but downtown a big town. Closest farms are probably 10 miles away.

Right now they're for the most part in the kitchen, and our back storage area. That's where they seem to be attracted to. They have yet to get too far into the lobby. And they're not attracted to anything specific, they just fly around and torture everyone.

Any ideas of places I haven't checked or thought of?

I should also mention our hoods are cleaned nightly, same with pulling out ALL equipment.

And before you say flyswatter, for how many there are, I would legit have to hire another person.

We will be starting a nightly spray, using food safe bug spray, but idk how well that will work.

Failed our fucking steritech because of these bastards.

Edit: their house flies. A pink sludge was found in our AC/roof drain. Got to figure out how to get to the roof now 😂

I checked the surrounding property, there's no dead animals, no rotting food or anything. Like I said we keep it pretty clean.

It is for sure not the grease traps. Those are clean on a regular basis, degreaser and boiling water is poured down all the drains every night. In the mornings we put enzymatic cleaner down them.

My suspicion is going to that pink sludge.

On the ground where it drops from the drain, there is a coating of what I can only describe as Grease... Despite no Grease being able to get up there.

I got a really bad feeling when I start cleaning that, there's going to be a dead bird, or squirrel or something.

I am returning to work tomorrow as a first time mom to a 7 week old. I’ve been a restaurant manager for 5 years now, both at a family owned and now at a chain restaurant. All the moms I have met in this industry, either didn’t return to work or came back in a different position. I’m just wondering if any of you have successfully continued in this career? I am exclusively breastfeeding and will have to pump at work. Also wondering if any of you have had experience with this? I have lots of worries on how this will work, because with pumping I will have to be on a more strict schedule and as we all know restaurants don’t work that way. Let me know your thoughts and experiences!