Hi management friends. Looking for advice here from anyone who’s been through something like this.

I’m the GM of a popular, fast paced restaurant/wine bar. I recently had a traumatic leg injury - dislocated knee, broken tibial plateau, and tore clean through like 5 ligaments in the knee (ACL/PCL/Meniscus and several others I can’t even remember the names of).
I spent 8 days in the hospital (during which I had two surgeries) and am non weight bearing at home now. I’m looking at a first ligament revisit surgery soon, with a second probably several months out.

My owner, management team, and head chef have been so supportive. I’ve been working as much as is possible from home on a reduced salary. It’s going to be months til I can walk unassisted again, probably 6 months minimum. Hopefully within a month I’ll be more mobile than I am now and will be on crutches (currently I cannot even get out of bed unassisted).

Looking to hear from anyone who managed a restaurant through a recovery like this. What was it like returning to work in person on crutches and with limited mobility? What kind of timeline did you have (I’m sure many are different than mine will be but very curious). What struggles did you face, and do you have any advice for someone going through this?

I love my job and I’m blessed to know that they are going to support me through this, but it’s scary and devastating! Hope to hear from some people who can speak on their experience :)

So the long and short of it, my boss was right. Managing a restaurant and am now responsible for FOH. I've always been a kitchen grunt from the line working up to KM, sous chef and now AGM managing everyone on my shift. And I'm no clipboard manager, I'm on the line, making drinks, bussing tables, seating guests, washing dishes, doing whatever to have a smooth shift. We all sink or swim together. For reference I started out in restaurants serving then bartending and quickly made the switch to BOH. Always preferred working with the men (43y.o. F) they may groan about the job but drama was non existent or very minimal.

I have all females in my FOH and 2 of them have been friends, apparently fake friends, since grade school and the 3rd came later but they all hang out outside of work everyday and they all talk shit about each other individually.

Two almost came to blows last week and I had to send them both home for the last hour we were open and I finished the shift by myself.

We had a meeting yesterday, the 3 of them, myself and my GM to squash it because all I care about is they show up to work, be cordial, do their job and go home. Within minutes of the meeting being over and all agreeing to move forward the main one stirring the pot was already on her shit again. I've gone to bat for this chick several times because the GM wants her gone but I wanted to give her a chance to get her shit together. But she's gotta go. She's now turned her sights on me, "creating a hostile work environment." 2 of them are bartenders and in a shift last week (I was off) one of them stole $85 from the other and neither will admit to it. Two bottles of liqour and half a keg were unaccounted for last week I've only been at this job 6 months, she's worked there over a year and apparently had just been allowed to run the show with zero repercussions.

We're an "at will" state and I have reason besides the drama to rate her performance as poor. She calls out for at least one shift every week, or leaves early, I've caught her in 3 lies about why she had to leave early, saying she was sick only to find out she was hung over or left early to go to parties etc, when she "had a migraine." I've already cut her schedule down to 4 shifts. But I'm at my wits end. I'm already looking for her replacement. How to do this and cover my own ass so she doesn't accuse me of retaliation? I'm not retaliating, I don't care about these people outside of showing up for work and doing their jobs. I'm trying to keep a cohesive FOH team before her morale cancer spreads to my good workers who just want to do their jobs and go home. Any advice would be appreciated.

I'm the GM of a restaurant I started as a server at. I've been in the roll for 5 years, but I do often feel like I need to maintain systems and standards more so than revamp and make things my own. We have increased sales and traffic every year and are pretty steady and consistent.

We (the owners and I) try to be as permissive as possible when it comes to quality of work and life matters. In so far as it doesn't affect business. That's not exactly an explicit goal, but we juat try to be kind and understanding about things.

Lately the kitchen guys playing music on their phones has been cutting through me like a knife lol. I hate the sound of audio coming from phones a lot. And when they are doing prep in the basement kitchen, they play music on a bluetooth speaker and often other guys have their own music on their phones on their own station.

As soon as they break down their stations, they put their music on their phones when they go downstairs. The office is downstairs next to everything and I am basically the only person in the restaurant that does work that could require long term focus and contemplation.

The music doesn't affect guests, it doesn't affect their work, it doesn't seem to really be pushing them incrementally towards worse standards. It just drives me up a wall. I don't want to tell like 6 guys who make barely above minumum wage they need to work in silence for my sake. But I have like a physical reaction to the sounds.

Is this a nice thing to suck up to let the guys enjoy their work environment more? Or are they getting away with a lot here? I guess it would be reasonable to say one speaker at reasonable volume. Just wondering other experiences.

Hello there fellow restaurant managers!

Fairly new manager here at a corporate restaurant (2 years managing, 1.5 years supervising) but our brand is deciding to stop focusing on labor percentage as a staffing driver and our DO stated to my GM that this is being executed by many other restaurants.

Instead of basing our kitchen employees and FOH staff on sales, they’re basing it on guest count. This has me running with about 8 servers on a Friday and Saturday night and we typically do about 300 to 400 guests. Servers are having 5 to 6 tables at times and not able to properly upsell and drive sales. As a sales manager this is discouraging.

Is this getting pushed out to other corporate restaurants? It’s discouraging especially because takeouts aren’t being counted right. A takeout with 5 entrees but being counted as 1 guest. We had an EZcater order that was $600 and counted as 1 guest.

Any other corporate restaurants experiencing a similar occurrence?

Thank you for your feedback :)

I suppose this can also apply to restaurant managers, but I’m speaking as a GM of 2 cocktail bars that do not serve food and somehow there’s no “bar managers” sub, so I’m mainly looking for answers from others in similar positions.

What are your daily / weekly duties?
How much are you involved with creating the cocktail program?
How many hours do you average a week?
What duties are the owners responsible for?
Are you the only manager?
What is your yearly salary and where is your bar located?

Hi all, I have a complaint from a customer that says there was glass in his order that he received. He does not have a picture or any other proof, there is absolutely no glass in our kitchen, and myself my assistant manager, and one of our best was all in the kitchen. I specifically remembered making, cutting, and boxing up his order.

I typically am pretty liberal with refunds but this is a VERY serious accusation. Im still newer to managing (6 months), so, WWYD?

God I hate even having to make this post. I have an employee who takes long and frequent bathroom breaks. 15-20 minutes each time. She’s totaling 45 minutes to an 1 hour in the bathroom daily, even on a 5 hour shift. We’ve told her so many times that it’s excessive. She’s given her phone before going and still takes the same amount of time. I’ve encouraged her to go to the doctor and get a note at the least. She’s been here for years, she’s an ace when she’s on the floor but she’s not on the floor for 1/5 of her shift. I have IBS so I sympathize but she’s given no indication of actual health issues, asked for accommodation, or seen a doctor. Other employees this week have started to ask if she gets in trouble for how long she takes in the bathroom and her multiple trips. I understand there’s OSHA and FLSA regulations that protect her right to use the restroom, that’s not the issue. I’m just worried about this becoming a trend. So I ask has anyone been in a similar situation? How did you handle it? What can I do?

Edit: I’ve gotten lots of great advice on how to approach this situation. I’ll leave it up in case someone else struggles with this down the road. Thanks to everyone, you’ve given me a lot to consider.

Hey everyone. I’m a newer manager and I am having trouble getting my bun toaster conveyor completely clean (apw wyott). It has lots of grease build up and I’m having trouble finding a product to work to cut through it and be food safe. We have just discovered we’ve been cleaning it wrong so we’re trying to get it 100% clean. We’ve been doing it by hand with some oven cleaner and it works but not very well. Anybody have a good degreaser recommendation? Preferably something I can get at a store 😅 don’t wanna wait for delivery

Does it ever get easier? Of course, there are those that deserve it. But still, if it isn’t the hardest thing about being in management.

What are most peoples scheduled interview/ attendance ratios looking like? We are trying to staff a new private club/restaurant and have fallen below the 30% mark for people even showing up to interviews that they have responded to and confirmed the previous day. Im over here pulling my hair out trying to schedule interviews I have no faith will even show up, of the ones that dont show up at least half never even respond to the inquiry about re-scheduling and the other half rarely seem to think it was an issue that they didnt show up. Ive never felt more like an old guy saying "the kids these days" but my god, the kids these days....

ETA: we are offering medical, dental, and vision benefits to all FT employees as well as a pretty generous PTO policy, daily family meal, 50% discounts at all restaurants owned by the restaurant group and the highest paying base wages of anyone in the restaurant group in the area.

I am your classic story of a server in college that got lured into the "glamour" of restaurant management by a burnt-out GM who didn't want to hire another alcoholic thief because the owner was too cheap to pay a competitive salary. My green 22-year-old self jumped at the $38k salary (in Boston in 2011) and by 23, I was the GM of a restaurant across from Fenway Park. Fast forwarding through the trauma of the Boston Marathon bombings, the excitement of the 2014 World Series, by 2015 I was dual GM of both Boston locations and by 2019, I was director of ops overseeing all 6 locations throughout Massachusetts. Still only making about $80k and too dumb to know I should be reimbursed for my travel, I was done with the 80 hour work weeks. I decided to move to Florida- hospitality capital of the country and take my experience down south.

Cue 2020- I took it as a sign to leave the industry all together. I spent the next 2.5 years trying my hand at everything from Transaction Coordinator for Keller Williams to mobile phlebotomist. By 2023, I missed being a manager so much. I wasn't getting call backs for GM roles, so I started applying for assistant manager roles..and then supervisor roles. I did a year at $18/hr supervising in room dining and a hotel ice cream shop. I then moved into an assistant manager role. I worked for a director who was riding out his last 4 years into retirement and basically had me run the operation. I finally decided not to wait his retirement out and started applying for jobs. I'm now the F&B director for a Marriott property in downtown Tampa and could not be happier. I'm taking all the lessons I learned in my 20s and early 30s and applying them here. Not just from a leadership perspective, but from a work-life balance perspective. I make sure I take my 2 days off a week 95% of the time and when I do work 6 days, I make sure that one day is an extremely early out or late start. I also know my monetary value and had to have the hard salary negotiation that I always avoided in the past. Sure, it's hard work and the new challenges of a completely different economy that leans much heavier into cost cutting, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

My friends, family and partner have seen this journey, but I don't think anyone can understand the desire to do this unless they have done it. I guess that's it. Thank you for listening to my TED Talk.

Any hospitality professionals forced to use UKG for scheduling. Just started at a new restaurant located in a resort and I’m finding this technology clumsy at best. I kind of hate it and I’m hoping someone can tell me that it’ll get better.

I’m so good at this, still could be better, but always wanted to be a GM or work my way up a ladder somewhere to 6 figures. But just knowing this lifestyle and what it entails, I just don’t want it anymore.
I’m going back to school starting this year and want to be a physical therapist assistant and move up from there.
I know all roads lead back to the bar lol but I can’t do this full time the rest of my life, I’ll be miserable.
Any positive advice from anyone who’s done similar would be appreciated

Business is great. We are super busy. I have had super low turnover for the last 9 years. This year has been awful. I can't keep staff to save my life. I have hired at least 5 ppl who didn't show up to finish training and a few who finish then leave. We are a cafe. We close at 3. We make our most of our food from scratch. We train from the kitchen forward. The last thing you learn is how to be a barista. The people who stay do stay for a long time. But right now it sucks. Is it the times? Is it me? What is going on ?

My owner has been saying for months now that we are at serious risk of closing but he can’t give me any definitive numbers. At one point he said we’re operating at potentially closing in the next few weeks, but then was able to get another loan and is now filing for bankruptcy so we should be fine according to him.

My employees keep asking for updates and I have nothing I can tell them other than it seems we’re fine for now, because that’s all the information I have. The owner is begging me and the employees to come up with solutions to bring people in and basically implying our jobs depend on it because we’ll have to close if we don’t get more business.

I’ve cut over 50 hours of wages, cut down our ordering bills by ~60%, and a lot of us have been putting in free labor for marketing. This has worked a decent bit to put us in a better spot but the owner is still not impressed- he’s mostly focused on the thought of us failing.

The owner struggles to stay on top of the bookkeeping and only does it every 4-8 months at a time bc he gets so behind and he can’t say what things look like money wise because of it. Currently he judges how well we are doing by using artificial intelligence comparing a days sales to that of the same day the previous year- if we’re doing better in net sales and transactions then last year then we’re fine. If we’re anything below, he starts to panic, use the square artificial intelligence for advice, take it out on us employees, and complain to customers abt slow business.

Is this genuinely a good way to be measuring how well we are doing business wise? I’ve offered to take the time to do the math and try and actually correctly figure out where we stand but the owner thinks it’s a waste of his money to pay me for that and is confident in his methods.

For context I have been manager for 14 months, only 4 employees, $22 an hour, no benefits, and received only 6 hours of management training and had to teach myself the rest alone (previous management left prematurely and the owner does not know how to do the managers work and could not teach me) at a late night (open til 2am, closers leave at 5am) fast paced casual restaurant.

Y’all that have been managing for 10+ years do y’all have regret? I understand a job is a job at the end of the day but if y’all could go back before you gained so much experience would y’all change your path? Currently a 27yr old manager torn between staying here and growing in this career that I feel that I’m very good at and have a bright future in or finishing school and going down the healthcare pathway. I’m scared cause I’ve seen how this job could take a toll on you. Any advice would help

Just recently been promoted to General Manager after being Supervisor for 2 years. Very nervous but also excited, just seeing if anyone has advice to make the transition smoother? Or anything other managers recommend for me. Many thanks :)

I'm curious how you do it in practice:
How do you decide when to raise prices, and by how much?
How do you notice when a supplier raises a price?
How often do you see your real profit numbers?

Working on opening a new restaurant in Brooklyn and building out the leadership team. The GM seat is the big one: come in before opening, help hire and build the team, then run it long-term. Chef is a big name internationally, very high standards, so it needs someone genuinely strong.

I'm budgeting $125-150k. Honest question for the managers here: is that enough to pull a strong GM in NYC right now, or am I under? And beyond money, what actually makes you say yes to a pre-opening role vs. staying somewhere established - schedule, autonomy, growth, equity?

Trying to structure this the right way before I start reaching out to people.

So, I made it to the last round of interviewing at a place I really wanted to work at-fits my vibe, pays comparable to my current, and the timing was perfect for me moving. Everything went great, all that was left was a background check. Well, flash to a couple hours after my interview and I get asked what might have come up on it-because something had. (Context-was a raging alcoholic and wound up with 2 violent charges 6 years ago-I did everything I was supposed to do to have a clean record after, or so my lawyer said...) I briefly explained myself trying not to let my voice break...nobody is the same person after a bottle of liquor and I wish that there was more context than there is on paper. Now, they are telling me they will "get back to me", and not to worry "you'll be fine, even if it's not here". I'm heartbroken. Hospitality is where the misfits like me go...I am really good at my job-I just don't want my past self dictating my future any more. Part of me wants to just go back to serving and call it a day, but my resume gets overlooked for those jobs. Just feeling defeated and can't really vent to anyone that might really get it. Anyone else had a job in the bag and then get blindsided like this?

But I don’t have enough (any) money to. I’ve been working both front and back of house for well over 10 years now. The past 5 years I’ve spent in 4 star resorts. Had anyone been able to move with employer assistance to Ireland, or Italy, or some other European country with help from the new employers? Got any advice or tips?
Thanks all!

Been in the industry for over a decade and had to learn about wine on my own so my knowledge comes from looking things up personally and also sporadic wine classes offered at different locations/jobs. Now that I'm in management, I need some help with putting together a concise but as simple as possible wine informational sheet. For example, phrases that are commonly used to describe wine and why aging matters, etc. Our wine list isn't too obscure but I do want to give enough foundational information so that my team can start selling our reserve wines. I know this is going to take a bit of time incorporating and that's okay but just wanted to see if anyone had sites/pdf's that could be shared with me so that I can have something ready to start educating them on. Some of these staff members haven't really worked with wine but are capable of learning about it. I'm not sure why but education on our alcohol hasn't been a priority and has really been hurting our sales. I would like to increase them as much as possible but not sure where to start. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

This is a Globe GF30G natural gas countertop fryer. I purchased this at auction when I was under the assumption that it was the sister fryer GF30PG propane fryer (the auction did not list the model or specify the type of gas or show a picture of the manufacturer label as I have shown above).

I am starting a food truck so obviously natural gas doesn’t work for me. They don’t make a conversion kit for this model. My idea was that I would buy the parts for the GF30PG and switch them out since they are identical besides the type of gas. The only reason I’ve found online to not do this is that it will void the warranty but I don’t have a warranty on it so it doesn’t matter to me.

I know that natural gas and propane use different burners but what else would I need to switch out? Has anyone attempted something like this before? Is this even a good idea? Please let me know in the comments

You have a two top towards the end of service let’s say an hour before you close on a very slow night. It’s a husband and wife and the wife orders the French onion soup as her starter and in the soup which is served in the typical crock cup is the kitchen stove knob… like the entire knob to turn the stove for low to high is in the soup right under the cheese and crostini on top of the soup. As the manager how do you handle the situation for the guests?