SHARK!

I hear ‘Jaws’ music every time I see that word. But for now, I’m talking about the San Jose Sharks. I’ve been to Shark Stadium a few times when I volunteered to work at the United States Figure Skating Championships. So when Damon suggested we call them for advice, Kyle and I jumped on it. Damon said the Sharks had a full-time restaurant in their stadium and it did well.

Since Kyle was an experienced bartender, we decided he should be the one to call. Whomever he spoke to at Shark Stadium was happy to help us and gave Kyle all the advice he could think of. Far more helpful than Todd, Damon, and the rest of our local hockey team landlords. You know what the Sharks didn’t say? They didn’t say we should fry our French fries to be successful. That’s right, Todd, Mr. Self-Proclaimed Food Service Expert who lets his employees contaminate our ice and steal from us, the successful Sharks did not validate your advice.

So what was the first thing the Sharks said??? You must have a ‘no outside food or drink’ policy in the arena. Of course that’s what they said. We’ve been saying that all along – it didn’t take us long to figure that out and now we had validation. But to no avail. Todd and Damon were determined to avoid helping us in any way. Everything Kyle learned from the Sharks involved help from our landlord to which Todd and Damon said ‘no’. The good news was the Sharks had no criticisms of our restaurant and bar setup and handling. The bad news was our best avenues to success were completely blocked by our landlord.

Good Advice

Writing this blog has been difficult for me. It stirs up memories best forgotten. I feel so stupid believing and trusting people. Sometimes, it makes me cry. Some nights, I have bad dreams after blogging. What was supposed to be a $12,500 investment almost took everything I owned. But if I save even 1 person from losing money in a business venture or prevent a good human being from being exploited by Pierre, Todd, or Damon, it’s worth every tear.

Pierre kept telling me I needed to be nicer to Todd and the rink employees so we wouldn’t have any issues with them. I had already smiled and joked with those guys. I had given them free food almost every night for months. I had given them a discount on their purchases. I hadn’t done anything except ask them to stop when I found they were stealing from me. I hadn’t reacted when they called me names. In fact, I literally let them treat me like dirt as I smiled and gave them freebees. How do you be nicer than that? After months of this behavior, it became clear to me it wasn’t going to stop unless I stopped it. Pierre hadn’t been any help at all. I was watching my retirement fund disintegrate before my very eyes and I’m supposed to be nicer? So yes, I finally drew the line and put up security cameras and stopped rewarding their bad behavior with free pizza and cookies. These actions in no way make me the bad guy and yet everyone was treating me like I was.

One of the owners of The Great Outdoors Sub Shops remained my mentor the entire time I owned the restaurant. For that, I am eternally grateful. When I discussed these issues with her, she told me to get out as fast as I could. I wanted to, but I was in too deep to just walk away. I truly believed we could make this cafe lucrative with Pierre’s help. And I wanted to recoup some of my money. I had lost so much since Robbie dropped out and Pierre had never put in the cash he had promised from the beginning.

Besides The Great Outdoors, I also asked some questions on one of those free lawyer advice websites. The lawyer who responded didn’t really answer my questions, he just encouraged me to get out as fast as I could. While this advice wasn’t comforting, it told me I wasn’t the crazy person Pierre, Todd, and Damon made me out to be. But what do you do when you’re caught in a riptide of people bent on sucking you dry? Sink or swim?

My Employees are Your Employees

Back in the Olden Days, when I was in high school, my Dad came home one night and was talking about some decision that was made at work and how he disagreed with the plan. I asked him why he didn’t just do what he thought was a better plan. He explained to me that the company was paying him to do a job, whatever the company decided that job should be. It was the best work advice I’ve ever gotten. I’m not saying I keep my ideas to myself, I’m saying when the decision is made I do the best job I can do to support the company’s needs. Does anybody think this way anymore? I can’t tell you how many employees I had that absolutely refused to follow our kitchen procedures because they knew a better way to do everything. Even people I thought were my friends, who came to me when they were destitute, were defiant.

We hired a lot of high schoolers, for most this was their first job. Many times, their parents would come apply for them, but I told the parents their kids would have to apply for themselves. It took a lot to train the kids, many had never cooked before, or even washed their hands. So we always hoped people would stay a while after training. Some did. Some didn’t. Some quit and went to work for the rink. So my employees became their employees.

People are free to work where ever they wish. Even if they hadn’t gone to work for the rink, they probably would have quit anyway. So I don’t have a problem with that, except for one thing. Todd knew he was interviewing my employees and he was my landlord. In the spirit of keeping a good relationship, I truly expected him to make sure the kids knew they should give 2 weeks notice and work for us those 2 weeks and then start their new job with him. Instead the kids would quit and start their new job the next day or give 2 weeks notice and call in sick for every shift. I would come in to work their hours and there they were sitting at the front desk working for Todd. They didn’t look very sick. I would have been happy to give Todd a copy of their schedule so he could work around it for 2 weeks, but he wasn’t interested in working with me on this issue at all.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I was glad to get rid of some of these employees. It saved me from having to fire them. Still, it left me in the lurch for employees to quit so abruptly. I don’t blame any of them for changing jobs, the rink job was so much easier than cooking food and cleaning up a kitchen. Like I told you before, the rink employees didn’t have to do much. They checked in a few people and then sat around the entire evening. There were no mature adults working the front desk to encourage the employees to keep the lobby clean or police the bleacher areas. Working at the rink was like getting free money for doing nothing. Changing jobs was kind of a no-brainer. I just think it could have been handled with a little more respect from Todd.