Corporate Culture and the Restaurant Manager

The revolving door of the restaurant biz leaves many devoted and effective managers by the wayside, wondering what they could have, and should have, done differently. Looking back, there were many strategies I could have utilized to get further than I did.

#1 - Drink the corporate Kool-aid. Also known as the rah-rah manager. This manager is the high energy cheerleader we all made fun of in high school. These caffeinated leaders jump and yell during pre-shift like they are at a prep rally. They try to jump start the servers into selling that slow-selling appetizer, the entree with the lowest food cost, and the wine gathering dust in the racks. Though not always a bad thing, there's usually a good reason that app or wine doesn't sell. Corporate loves these managers and usually promotes them to new Peter Principle highs. That 25-year-old Area Director you have? This be him.

#2 - Be the yes-man (or woman). This is the manager that every Area Director covets. This "leader" is the one who tells his bosses how much he enjoys working with the other wonderful managers on staff. No problems ever happen while he's on duty, the restaurant is perfect, and his boss, the GM, is a genius. Said manager is also the one who volunteers for anything that needs doing, even if he/she never follows through with it. Also known as "The Store Brown-nose".

#3 - Try the bad-ass manager route. Be the Attila on staff. Your boss will think that you're the one his lazy staff needs to motivate them. You'll be the one to make the bussers cower under your spell of superiority. No server will ever call in sick with a 102 degree fever again, since you will force them to get a doctor's note. You will also force your best staff to work overtime or face suspension. You'll also be the manager the staff will never do favors for...ever. And your store always has a help-wanted sign out for some reason...hmmmm.

#4 - Implement the Teflon manager plan. This is where anything good happening at work is all because of you and only you. Conversely, any problem is someone else's fault and you had nothing to do with it, and/or you warned that person what would happen. This is the manager that e-mails their boss's boss every day to let them know that sales were up 5% over last year's sales...even though labor was up 10%...but that was the fault of the manager who wrote the schedule.

Needless to say, I wasn't #1, #2, #3, or #4. I was the manager who came in early to put together a working plan for the day. I'd check with the Back of the House to make sure we wouldn't be short of anything. If we had too many servers scheduled, I'd call one off (never difficult to find at least one volunteer). I was the manager who answered truthfully to the Area Director's questions (Yes, the GM works fewer hours than any other manager, and yes, he spends all night in the office chatting with friends on the phone). I was the manager on the floor pre-bussing tables, seating tables, running food, re-filling drinks, jumping on the dish tank to get it caught up, and chatting with the tables.

Unfortunately, the bosses I had who appreciated all that never lasted long. In a corporate culture that promotes managers #1-4, the good ones always move on to something else. The lesson from all of this? Hell if I know, I moved on to something else.