So I figured that I should at least put down what has happened in the last decade of being a manager and than I can start with the new day to day stuff soon. I don't even know where to begin. So let's start at the beginning.
I started my management career under a general manager that had no business being a general manager. He never even finished high school. He was taught how to run a restaurant through his parents restaurant that they ran. Unfortunately, a corporate restaurant is ran differently than a privately owned restaurant. The man couldn't even make complete thoughts or sentences. One thing i did learn from him though, restaurants come second to family. It took me a decade and 5 restaurant companies to see what he meant, but now i do.
Under this manger though, I began to learn the power that we have over crew and the general public. The things that I could get new employees to do for amusement for others was great. We once told a server that their end of the night work was to empty out all the hot water out of the tea machine before they left. For those who have never witnessed a restaurant tea maker, the water line is run directly into the machine so that it always has water to brew. After the server filled up around 30 pitchers of water and kept asking how much it holds we finally broke down and told him the truth. Greatly, he was a good sport about it and laughed it off with us. Another time we grabbed a server and told them to go to the restaurant next to us to get some "cooking water" since we ran out and to hurry up. What's the difference you might ask? Nothing. Cooking water is water, that's the funny part. Ten minutes later he comes around the corner carrying a baby pool filled with water on a hand truck to the back door, where it wouldn't fit through the door. So he began to empty the pool out pitcher by pitcher. Really?!! I never knew that people were so gullible until I started to work here. I saw people blow in a plastic bag, tie it off and give it to someone to run next door telling them that they needed to borrow some fajita steam, and the employee runs out the door to bring it to them and then comes back asking for more. I've seen people go outside to change the flag for the day and came back in wondering where it was. We just kept telling them that it is in front of the restaurant and if we need to keep telling them where it is we will find someone else to do it who is capable. They would then go out there for 30 minutes trying to find it and never wanting to come in without the flag. Ive seen people go and buy a flag just so they didn't look stupid.
Some people might think this is mean, but it is just a little hazing of new employees. Consider a restaurant like a fraternity. Once you are a part of it, you are apart of something great. You will make friends that you will carry with you for life. I have also seen servers get job offers for fortune 500 companies due to the great job they did serving the boss or human resources manager.
For those who want to know more about pranks you can pull in a restaurant, you can ask the server if they have left handed crab crackers instead of right handed.
Hope you enjoyed it...part 2 is tomorrow
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