One thing I learned from working for restaurants - NONE OF THEM except the one independent operator I worked for told their employees like its... "You're here to help make money for the business pri #1, you'll earn some money while you learn how businesses operate, and make friends along the way. WE DON'T EXPECT YOU TO BE HERE LONGER THAN A YEAR! but if you are, you'll get opportunities as long as you work consistently and continue to simply treat customers and colleagues with respect" I only lasted 6 months (my drive was way too long, and I found something closer) - but I did learn a lot and made some extra money. No hard feelings - I still came to the restaurant as a customer for years before they closed down and the owner retired.
Overworked for pay, disrespectful supervisors, stink at the end, annoying customers, unpredictable schedules, getting graveyard shifts due to seniority and not working ability, etc. Baffles me how old people consider these jobs low skill and easy when they’re the most exploited worker in America. People will not work in these conditions anymore for low pay lol, eventually owners will have to conform.
Restaurants are in grave danger right now. Dining out is a luxury, and as prices keep rising, less money will be pouring into the economy as more and more people will spend less, and that will cause more job loss, and people are struggling just to buy basic groceries, I doubt they'll be dining out in record numbers anytime soon ! But you nailed it when you said cheap labor in restaurants is history, again only because everything costs too much, and employees need a lot of money just for the basics, or else they are just wasting their time, and then your prices will have to go up again soon, and that will attract less customers as inflation keeps rising mercilessly !
Exactly. The Restaurant Association has lobbied hard for years against benefit mandates. Now they’re reaping the results of their greed and short-sightedness.
As someone who had been working in fast food since about 2015 until October of last year in 2021, I can confirm the bit about not being paid enough. The last restaurant I was in was a McDonald's, and I was there for 2 years. Long story short, I loved the people I work with, most of them anyways. The few I didn't, they usually were the type to quit within a week of joining anyways. But by the time I quit, I'd been an EOT , or Elite Order Taker. I was always stuck in the back cash window of my location. I loved doing the work. But it was stressful enough, and the pay even as EOT was still too little. Around 10.50$ I think. I couldn't do it anymore for that kind of pay, as stressed as I'd often get. Our computers constantly failed, ice machine broke all the time, and though not all, enough of the customers we served were bothersome enough to make me want to physically hurt myself for an excuse to go home. Only during the last couple months did I do that, but still. Overall, glad to see someone like you mentioning that bit about poor payment of employees to management. Thanks for looking out for us.
Chick-fil-A GM for long time here. It is painful to pay a high school student $12/hr here in TX, but that’s where we’re at. It was $8/hr just a couple years ago.
"would you work for you?" ... also applicable to the construction industry. Young people have become more sophisticated in how they treat others. They don't want to go work at a place or a site where someone is constantly (unsolicited) insulting their beliefs, or their friends. I have good memories of working at restaurants in the 80s (but I also have some bad ones). I especially remember how toxic (and dangerous) the work environments were in my construction jobs. Getting sprayed with a hose in the kitchen, or digging conduit ditches with a pick and shovel in the middle of winter for $5.70/hr and seeing no end in site, with little prospects for a future completely turned me off to both industries and I just went back to school (fortunate enough to have parents who helped), and never looked back. I always thought opening a restaurant and sharing my mothers recipes with other good people would be amazing - but when I look at the labor market and cost of food - I've completely lost interest. It's a tough life - and these days it's hard to find restaurants with good consistency at a fair price (outside of fast food) ... too many disappointments, so I mostly just cook for the family.
I worked at a restaurant when the pandemic started. It was a year old at the time. The owner was a scatterbrained screwball who hired a bunch of boneheads that were full of s*** to open and run the business. The owner was an enabler and tolerated too much. Poor attendance, people coming to work high and/or intoxicated, etc. Four of them though got themselves fired in the 6 months I worked there including the manager. They wanted me to be the manager but didn’t offer to pay me what the old one was making, and he was 20 years younger than me. So I quit. I was totally insulted after the effort I had been giving them to turn their operations and staff around. I cared about the place like it was my own. I’ve learned since the owners are getting a divorce and they can’t find good help. Take care of good people that bring their best to work or you’re probably going out of business.
So sorry that you went through that Ben. =( You're absolutely right. If you're not treating your team right, nothing else really matters. Dawn - Team TRB
Honestly, after working in a few restaurants the last few years, I've come to the conclusion that MOST restaurants probably have toxic environments. That's the most likely reason a lot of workers who could bail did bail during the pandemic. I hope they continue fleeing, even as restaurants have to pay them more because what really needs to change are the cultures of the restaurants. No one wants to be talked down to and treated like an idiot by a manager and yet I get the strong impression that every restaurant has at least one manager who does just that and pisses off workers. In most restaurants where I've worked, if the head manager does it, all the managers do it and then they have that shocked pikachu face later on when workers start to disappear, or if they ignore that, they act shocked and agrieved when they are forced to fill in more for the missing workers. It's really a shame because some of us really do care about the resaurants we work in and want to make them a good environment for everyone--guests, workers, managers, etc, but management is where toxicity usually starts and what keeps driving it.
100%. If I had to guess, those restaurants don't have the kinds of systems in place that allow team members to do their job. Plus, management needs training too! It's hard to break out of what we think we know. -Dawn, Team TRB
I would recommend this industry to NO ONE. Only had two good establishments in my ten years. The rest was nothing but a toxic ball of chaos, overwork and manipulation.
If you're limited on what you can offer with pay, then offer more benefits like health insurance. You may be able to get some sort of a tax write off to cover it. Also, gig work is a huge competitor for labor. Uber drivers can set their own hours. Don't have to wear uniforms. Don't have a boss yelling at them. They can take time off whenever they want to. Those are big advantages to working in a more structured environment.
Constantly changing schedules, irregular hours, lack of benefits, poor management at most places, low pay, etc. Why put up with all that when even Walmart is paying cashiers the same as a line cook and offers a comprehensive benefits package?
We must be crazy! Just signed the lease on a second location at the beginning of this economic downturn. Thank you for all the tips and encouragement we find in your videos.
So true man. In this day and age it’s better to invest in some form of automation than to depend on low skill workers who will only work for you for like 3 month tops. Used to work in a Japanese restaurant and I always felt like as a BOH worker it would be more efficient if we had more sushi rice machines, and in the long run it would make the owners more money as well. But they were too cheap and they’d much rather depend on volatile low skill workers who would only work for 3 months top than to invest in automation.
There's definitely a time and place for automation! One of our clients is heavily investing in automation for an expansion on their pizza biz! -Dawn, Team TRB
JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A TEENEAGER DOESNT MEAN YOU DESERVE POVERTY WAGES!!!!! PAY PEOPLE A LIVING WAGE! IF YOU CANT AFFORD TO PAY PEOPLE A LIVING WAGE THEN YOU DONT DESERVE TO HAVE A BUSINESS.
Do you have any advice to buying a restaurant? We are looking into purchasing a Mexican restaurant that has been around 20 some years, but this is the first rodeo. I've worked and managed restaurant, but never owned soooo a bit nervous lol
YES a lot, but I would want to learn more about your potential buy. I would suggest we hop on a call, a few bucks for strategy session can save your THOUSANDS in the long run (or make your hundreds of thousands). therestaurantboss.com/hire-me. I would also suggest you grab a copy of my free book, I talk a lot about what and how to Make it Happen properly in the restaurant business. therestaurantboss.com
Ooh, that might need something a little more than a quick YT video. Shoot us an email at support@therestaurantboss.com and we'll see how we might be able to help you to ensure you make the right decisions! -Dawn, Team TRB
A few salty people saying it’s nah there fault or job unemployment isn’t that low, just go outside to any downtown and see all the job wanted for line cooks/ fast food it’s always begging for late shift
The problem with automation is, when every sector does this less and less people have the money to buy your product as less and less human labour is needed. It’s a paradox of capitalism.
