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.

Our First Fight

I started out working 6am – 10pm everyday, midnight on the weekends. However, as soon as it became apparent the figure skaters weren’t going to support us, I started coming in around 9am or so. I got to go home at 4-5pm some nights when I had someone to work the evening shift. I did all the day-to-day activities including food prep and sales, ordering, stocking, cleaning, hiring, accounting, and working on getting a liquor license. Robbie worked when he felt like it. He still had his full-time job, so he didn’t come in very often. Pierre only worked in the cafe in an emergency. He went to the bank and the store for us when we needed help. Granted, I was the only one pulling a paycheck, but I couldn’t do it all by myself. And my paycheck wasn’t much. It didn’t pay all my bills, just helped me survive until we started making money.

So it’s no surprise we had a big fight after a couple months. I told Pierre and Robbie I didn’t feel they were pulling their weight. Pierre responded by verbally attacking me – saying I was too old and he wasn’t sure I could even do the job, etc. I was shocked considering I had been doing almost everything so far. Pierre did say he expected Robbie to put in at least 20 hours per week to help us get the restaurant going. And once again, Pierre reminded us that his job was marketing.

You’d think between the money (or lack there of) and Pierre’s attack, I would have walked out that day, but I didn’t. I still believed our restaurant had big potential. I drank Pierre’s kool-aid and continued to pursue the dream. Big Mistake!

Some Employees Need to Go

Even though I’ve been fat most of my life, I’ve always been very active. I used to work full-time, and then go home and participate in all sorts of activities – tennis, softball, bowling, camping, horseback riding, etc. I was only home long enough to eat and sleep. It was great!

So, it’s no surprise I thought I could open a restaurant. I’m no stranger to hard work and was ready to give it my all. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize my all was somewhat less than it used to be. Getting old is hell. Your brain feels the same as when you were younger, but your body takes hard work a little more personally and punishes you if you do too much. I worked all day, 7 days a week. Some nights, I could hardly walk when I got home and still hurt when I got up in the morning.

We hired people of all ages and in the beginning we paid them way too much. The pay rates were set by Pierre and Robbie and I trusted them to know. With more experience, I learned our pay was way out of line. And the people we overpaid didn’t even appreciate it. Some that we overpaid even stole from us. I could tell you a million stories about employees. Once I figured it out, the starting pay was a lot lower. It was still good money compared to other restaurants because we paid regular minimum wage. Customers don’t tend to tip in a snack bar type environment and we compensated for that.

I lost 35 pounds while eating pizza everyday. So you know I was literally working my a** off. I needed employees I could trust to give me time off, as a snack bar can often be run easily by 1 person. It was very hard to find people like that and sadly I trusted the wrong person more than once. And I kept employees longer than I should have just so I could go home. My recommendation is to let people go as soon as you see they are not going to respond to your personal improvement talks. Keep everything in writing and count the money and inventory often.