Leftovers

My First Month as The Big Boss

It’s been one month since my promotion, and I don’t really even know how to express here what that experience has been like. I’ve been working 65 - 70 hours a week, I’ve gone through 21 employees (including 2 assistant managers and a breakfast manager), I’ve had employees crying in my office or calling me at home daily, and so far there’s only been one day when I didn’t set foot in that restaurant.  I’ve lost 10 pounds. Here are a few snippets from my first month as a General Manager:

1. One of my first actions as general manager was to demote a Head Server that was clearly unfit for management. She did not take the demotion well, put in her two weeks notice. A few days later she tried to take it back and I wouldn’t let her. She then started making comments to our regular customers about how incompetent I was and how terrible our restaurant was becoming, so I fired her. She then called the health department and reported that we had a rampant roach problem (which we do not). We had a health inspection the next day, which we passed, but I was instructed by the health inspector to give the store a thorough, top-to-bottom cleaning by Monday. This was Friday. I worked 18 hour days all weekend to get the store spotless for the follow up inspection on Monday, which never came. It’s been two weeks now with no inspection.

2. On the weekends I normally work 6am to 2pm and the Assistant Manager comes in to work 12 to close. Our weekend breakfast/lunch is very busy and I need all of our strong staff there to handle the volume of business. One Saturday at about 12:30 my Assistant Manager (who had been with the company for 8 years) walked up to me, handed me his keys and said, “I’m done. I don’t want to do this anymore”. He walked out of the restaurant. I ended up working from 6am to 11pm that day.

3. The next day our most senior cook (who happened to be that Assistant Manager’s roommate) didn’t show up his shift. I had to run the entire kitchen with one brand new cook who had less than a week’s experience and a dishwasher. The entire “MIss Teeny Virginia” pageant came into our restaurant that night (it was kids eat free night). We had a line out the door and the restaurant was packed with pre-teens in tiaras for hours. We were so busy that I cut my finger and didn’t have time to put a band-aid on for four hours (I did have on a glove, I wasn’t just bleeding into the food).

4. I’ve been making some changes to the schedule and rearranging the way we assign servers to sections. One server got so angry about the changes that she stormed into the kitchen on a Sunday morning and started screaming at me. Before I could even figure out what was going on she kind of attacked me. I say “kind of” because she didn’t really hit me, she just took a couple quick steps towards me and kind of half-karate-chopped at me. It was really bizarre, but it scared the spit out of the maintenance guy who was repairing our grill at the time.

5. After my Assistant Manager walked out, the only remaining management was the breakfast manager and myself. The Area Manager, my boss, picked up some shifts so that he and I could each get a day off, but for the most part it was just me and the breakfast guy everyday. We finally got a new night manager yesterday so we were back up to three (a store our size really needs four managers to run properly, five to be comfortable). Less than 20 minutes after the new guy started, literally while I was giving him a tour and introducing him, the Vice President arrives and fires the breakfast manager. It turns out he had sexual harassment charges filed against him that morning.  So we’re back down to two managers, myself and the new night guy, who has less than one day of experience.

There have been some very positive things as well, but I’ll write about them in a few days.

Good Work

Here’s another update from Bob Lupton with FCS Urban Ministries. It made me tear up a little just reading it.

I had a major landscaping job ahead of me – major for me, that is.  A neighborhood eyesore needed some attention.  A fire had destroyed a neighbor’s home some months back.  The vacant lot was cleared of the larger rubble but tall grass and weeds had taken over, concealing shards of glass, rusted car parts, chunks of concrete, half-melted wire – the sort debris that made mowing impossible.  I decided to take on the project – a full day of work, assuming I could round up some labor.  I blocked out Monday in my schedule.

On my early morning Home Depot run as I was loading grass seed and wheat straw into my pickup, I glanced across the parking lot and saw a group of men, perhaps thirty of them, clustered near the street entrance.  Day laborers waiting for work – just what I needed.  I headed over toward their assembly area intending to do a little negotiating.  The group appeared to be somewhat orderly, snaking in an irregular line, those near the front poised for the next “boss” to arrive and signal for the number of workers he needed for the day.  I would need two.

As I drove in the direction of the group, I was immediately aware that every eye was glued on my pickup.  I had not come to a full stop when the line of men broke into a running, jostling mob that surrounded my truck.  Eager faces pressed against every window, each intent on capturing my attention.  “I’m a good worker…me?…me?…I’m a professional landscaper…I work hard…me?…me?…take me” – dozens of loud, urgent voices simultaneously over-talking each other.  I scanned the horde of pushing, elbowing humanity – black men with braids protruding beneath stocking caps, unshaven Caucasians in sweat-stained ball caps, raven-haired men speaking broken English – every one desperate for a day’s work.

How to choose two workers from this mob?  I randomly pointed to two young Hispanic men who had worked their way to my driver’s side window.  “You two, jump in the back” I yelled loud enough to be heard over the clamor.  “Me?…me?…me?…” a dozen voices responded.  “You two,” I called out again and pointed directly at the two I locked eye contact with.  I stepped out of the truck to negotiate a wage with the two who had leapt into the truck and were now sitting on my hay bales.  “How much?” I asked.  “Ten dollars,” they responded.  Agreed.  Other men still pressed around me as I jumped back into the driver’s seat.  “Me too?…one more worker?…me too?…”  A disgruntled African-American, seeing that he had been passed over in favor of Mexicans, indicted me: “You ain’t no American.”   As I pulled away I could see in my rear-view mirror the dejected expressions on the faces of two men who followed my truck, clinging to the fading hope that I might change my mind and decide I needed one more worker for the day.

It broke my heart.  Strong, able-bodied men, up early in the morning, eager to work, willing to do most any kind of menial labor for minimal pay – I wish I could have hired them all.  What inner drive compelled them to endure such a prideless contest?  Overdue rent?  Child support?  Families back in Mexico?  Alcohol?  The responses would have varied greatly.  But none would have revealed the deeper underlying motivation.  Meaning.  Work is the Creator’s design.  Life has no fulfillment without it.  That voice I heard in the jostling crowd “I am a professional landscaper” was crying out “I have experience, I have skills, I have worth!”

Work is no human invention.  Our earliest glimpse of the cosmos is a creative God at work.  The original design of paradise pictures humanity at work.  Work is fundamentally a cosmic activity.  As Matthew Fox claims (The Reinvention of Work), it is “the” cosmic activity.  “There is only one work in the cosmos…that one work is God’s work.  Humans are invited to participate…”  Rafael and Juan, riding on hay bales in the back of my pickup, wind blowing through their hair, chosen today to participate in God’s good work.  No matter the task.  Clearing debris from a lot or running a corporation, mopping the kitchen floor or selling a piece of real estate.  Work, all work, is an invitation of God to take an active role as co-participants in an ever-unfolding creation.  Little wonder that restless men rise early and wait impatiently for their opportunity to respond – even if few are consciously aware that this is their divine calling.

On to Phase Three

Well, today I became the General Manager of a restaurant. I got a call from my boss about an hour before I went in for my shift. He told me that he and the Vice President of the company had noticed the work I had been doing to make changes since I’d been moved a few weeks ago, and they wanted that kind of initiative to be coming from the General Manager. So, the current GM was removed and I was offered the job.

It was almost exactly a year ago that Gretchen and I decided to take a shot at opening our own restaurant. Our long term plan was to spend a year working up to General Manager and another year in that position before taking a shot at our own place. September 1st will mark the one year anniversary of my first day in the restaurant business, so, by God’s grace, we’re even a few months ahead of schedule.

A (perceived) Setback

The next step in reaching our ultimate goal of opening a restaurant is for me to become a General Manager. I’ve been working hard and waiting patiently for that opportunity for seven months now, and two days ago it arrived and subsequently passed me by. The GM at one of our stores was suddenly fired and the “word on the street” was that I was the clear choice to fill that position. Our area manager even stopped by our store that morning to speak with me about the opening and even mentioned some details about making the transition to that store. Four hours later he came back and told me that I was not being offered the job, but instead a new hire was being promoted to that position. Coincidentally, that new hire is his cousin. 

So, I’ve been transferred to the store where his cousin was working to replace him. This store happens to be a royal mess and I’ll be spending most of my waking hours for the foreseeable future cleaning it up. The kitchen is dirty and unorganized, the front of the house is lazy and unreliable and sales are steadily dropping. All the work I’d been doing and the momentum we’d been building at my old store is suddenly in the past and I’m starting all over again at square one. 

But I don’t believe that this is a setback. My goal here is not to ascend through the ranks of our restaurant management structure as quickly as possible, but to learn how to manage a restaurant well. I’m not here for titles to put on my resume, I want to wrestle with every headache related to running an eating establishment that I possibly can, and practice overcoming them. This is a chance to start all over at square one again. To observe the way the business runs, identify problems, and solve them. Again. 

The first night I worked at the new store I had a lot of people approach me and make some comment to effect of “Gee, you got screwed.” Managers from other stores called and stopped by to commiserate and get my reaction to the situation. I told them that I did my job to the best of my ability at my other store, and now I was going to do the same here. 

Honestly, I’m proud of where I am and what I’m doing. I don’t make much money and I don’t have a title that commands much respect, but I’m learning. I’m becoming a better manager and better cook all the time. With every little problem that has to be overcome I can see the big picture more clearly and I can prepare myself more for the future when we can finally open our own restaurant. And when that day comes, I imagine the harder we worked and the longer we waited, the more confident and satisfied, and grateful, we’ll be.

The High Cost of Poverty

I still exist, and updates about life and work are forthcoming. In the mean time, read this.

Ups and Downs

It was a tough day today. I had to fire three people, one of whom was Robert, the dishwasher I wrote about in my last post. He called in right before his shift yesterday and he didn’t show up or even call today. Our company policy for no-call no-show is automatic termination. When I called the shelter to see if he was ok and find out why he didn’t show up, he was there and completely unapologetic. He just told me that he got another job and decided to work there instead today. I told him that he really hung me out to dry with no dishwasher in the middle of our busiest day of the week, and he didn’t seem to care. When I told him I had to fire him he just said, “OK”.

The worst part was when all of our other employees started hearing the news. Some of them seemed genuinely surprised, but most just shook their heads and said something to the effect of  “that figures.” One cook even said, “that’s what you get for hiring a crackhead”. All the positive influence that he was having was undone immediately, and now he’s just another confirmation of all the negative stereotypes these folks have about poor and homeless people. Plus, it will be much more difficult for me to get another person in his situation hired in the future.

But, I’m not discouraged. When that cook made his comment about hiring a crackhead I told him that I didn’t regret hiring him, and that I’d hire someone with the same background tomorrow if I could. People are just people. We’re all stupid and impulsive and hopelessly selfish. We’re all dysfunctional and corrupted. I don’t think that giving a man with a 20 year history of homelessness and drug addiction a part time dishwashing job is going to be a miracle cure for his broken life. But I do think that taking a risk and giving him a job despite his background is sending a message. It’s saying that someone isn’t holding his background against him. Someone believes that he can change, that he can contribute and be a valued member of our team. Someone thinks he’s worth something. I’ll watch people walk out on me a hundred times if it means that someone might hear that message. 

After we were closed tonight it was just me and a young guy named Ethan cleaning up and shutting down the restaurant. He’s a senior in high school and he works the dinner shift three or four nights a week. We were talking about music and comic books and I was telling him about how much my kids are into Batman. Our conversation moved into family and marriage and just adulthood in general. He’s at  that awkward place in life where he’s outgrowing adolescence and being thrown into manhood. He was asking me about what it was like to be a husband and a father. I told him about some of the some of the good stuff and some of the scary stuff, and then I told him that I would sum up manhood, as I understand it, like this: A man puts other people before himself. His family, his friends, his co-workers, his enemies. Being a man is putting other people’s needs before your own. The more you do so, the greater a man you are. That’s why I worship Jesus Christ. He’s the greatest man who ever lived. 

Staying the Course

It’s been almost two months since I’ve posted here, and I can now say with some confidence that I have done just about all that there is to possibly do when it comes to restaurant work. I’ve ordered food, prepped it, cooked it, served it and then washed the dishes and plunged the toilets afterwards. I’ve taken complaints from angry customers, apologized for things that weren’t my fault, been verbally assaulted over salad dressing, chased walk-outs down in the parking lot and told customers that they needed to leave.

I’ve interviewed and hired and fired and reprimanded and praised our employees. I’ve put people on probation and given people second chances and had heart-to-hearts about everything from sub-par performance to childcare to suicidal thoughts to estranged husbands. I’ve stuck my neck out to give people a chance to prove themselves and I’ve been both disappointed and very proud. I’ve fired people and told them that if I ever saw them in our restaurant again I’d call the police, and I’ve also had to let people go when I knew this was the only job they could find and I’ve cried about it afterwards. 

I’ve worked 60 hour weeks and 14 hour days and picked up shifts for almost every other employee in our kitchen. I’ve been at the restaurant more hours each week than any other human being and when our General Manager was in the hospital for a week I had the opportunity to run the whole store myself. I’ve closed the building up at midnight and then come back at 5am to get ready for breakfast. I’ve gotten to know our regulars very well, and in a few cases I’ve cooked their breakfast, lunch and dinner all in the same day. 

But by far, the most exciting thing that has happened in the last 8 weeks was when I hired Robert. 

Robert came in one day and filled out an application to be a dishwasher. We get applications in everyday (there are about 150 sitting on my desk right now waiting to be read) and there was nothing particularly eye-catching about Robert’s. He made an impression on me when he started calling twice a day though, and I finally brought him in for an interview just to get him to stop. He showed up two hours early for the interview and asked if he could bring his bike into the restaurant (I said no). I was very skeptical at first, but as his story unfolded I started to see Robert in a new light. He was from Washington DC and had spent the last 20 years of his life addicted to crack cocaine and living in varying degrees of homelessness. He had come to Roanoke four years earlier to start fresh after having a religious experience and had been clean ever since. He was currently homeless, as was his wife. He was staying at a shelter near my house and she was in a women’s shelter a mile or so across town. Their children were staying with family until he could secure some steady work and get a stable place to live. He told me that he couldn’t read or write but he could wash dishes and he was never late. 

I hired him. There was a little snag when he showed up at orientation at our corporate office (two hours early again) and they discovered that he wasn’t able to read the paperwork he had to fill out. One of our administrators called me to let me know and I told her that we weren’t hiring him to read, we wanted him to wash dishes. She agreed and helped him with the forms. 

Since he started working he has been by far the best dishwasher we have ever had. He’s always on time (or early) and he never cuts corners. He’s fast and motivated and always in a positive mood. He is so good at bussing tables that our waitresses went in together and got him a Valentine’s Day present (which is very, very out of character for them). Some of the other cooks have even expressed an interest in moving him up to a grill cook position. That’s a little bit of a problem since he can’t read the tickets, but we’re working on a way around that. 

One by one people are finding out about Robert’s background and living arrangements and one by on they’re having their paradigms shifted. Instead of seeing a bum or a crackhead or an idiot they’re seeing Robert, a hardworking likable guy who bends over backwards to make their jobs easier. We have a lot of high school age kids from affluent backgrounds working for us while they’re in school, and for them this is a big deal. Robert is the first homeless person they’ve ever really known personally, and he’s breaking all of their stereotypes. And I’m more confident than ever that we can do what we’ve set out to do. 

Moving Up & Moving In

After a little less than two months as a shift manager I’ve been promoted to assistant manager. The promotion comes with a small pay increase, but what I’m excited about is that I get to take on responsibility for the human resources side of our store. I get to review applications and interview folks and deal with all the staff issues that come up. That may not sound like something to be excited about (it’s a lot more work and a lot more drama) but that side of the business is ultimately a major part of why I’m here. Plus I really like people and I don’t mind confrontation.

I’ve only had the new position for a few days and already it’s been interesting. We’ve had an issue involving sexual harassment between two employees come up and I’ve had the privilege of figuring out what happened and what should be done about it. Obviously I can’t go into any detail here, but this situation is going to provide the opportunity for me to address the issue of sexual harassment with our entire staff and communicate to everyone just how serious we will be taking it from here on.

Another situation that I wanted to share about actually happened a few weeks ago, but I was really moved and I wanted to share about it here. We have one employee who spent quite a bit of time in prison before coming to work for us. I’m not sure about the details, but I know that he killed someone. He has become one of our strongest cooks and most reliable employees however and I’m proud to have him on our team. 

He did a little work for another store in our chain recently but failed to receive any compensation for those hours on his paycheck. He spoke with the manager of that store and thought it was resolved, but another pay period ended and he was still left unpaid for his work. He brought this to my attention of Christmas eve and asked for my help. I called our payroll department and was told that the manager he worked for didn’t record his hours so he probably wasn’t going to receive anything. Plus it was Christmas eve and nothing was going to happen until next week regardless. 

I told him what I had been told and he was visibly upset. We were in the middle of the breakfast rush so we were both very busy, but I could tell that he was shaken. He told me that he knew that this was happening because of his background and that people can just walk all over him because they know he has a hard time finding work. He started to talk about how frustrating it is to try and work your way back after making a big mistake like that, but he got a little choked up and I could tell that there were tears in his eyes. Frankly, I was floored by this. He’s a big african american guy that served time in prison for murder and here he was moved to tears by the frustration of trying to get treated fairly at work. 

I called my wife and asked her if she could go to an ATM machine and bring me $120 in cash (the amount he was owed for the work he performed).  She did, no questions asked (a sign of real trust in a marriage by the way). I showed him the money and told him that it was his if we didn’t get the situation resolved by the end of the day. He resisted, but I told him that I trusted him and that he could pay me back when and if he got that extra money in his next paycheck. 

In the end he didn’t need my money. After a series of phone calls our payroll folks were able to get things resolved and they sent someone out with a check that day. I don’t know exactly how he was effected by my actions, but I know that our relationship has grown significantly closer in the weeks since. I hope that he saw my willingness to take a risk on his behalf as a gesture of good faith despite his past. And I’m praying that one day soon I’ll be able to explain to him that it would be my pleasure to bear his burdens with him, because Jesus Christ bears my burdens with me.  

I also see, more than ever, the need to open a restaurant like the one we’re planning. Not just for the homeless and chronically unemployed, but for folks getting out of prison as well. We have several employees with criminal records, and new applications from individuals who have committed serious crimes come in all the time. It’s easy just to weed them out right away, but I think someone needs to be willing to give them a chance. I think that if we believe in the forgiveness of our own sins we’re obligated to forgive others. 

Flexing My Managerial Muscles

It’s been three weeks since I moved into management at my store and so far it’s been quite an experience.

The cooking element is pretty much the same. It’s very fast paced, but as I get more experience it’s getting easier and easier. There have been a few nights recently when we had a huge rush of customers after local Christmas parades, tree lightings, etc., and things haven’t gone as terribly as I feared. 

The management side of things is more challenging but I’m really enjoying it a lot. There are times when I feel like I’m trying to manage the cast of an episode of “Jerry Springer”, but even then I still enjoy it. Some part of me feels very pastoral and maybe even a little parental towards our staff. For the most part they’re folks with a lot of obstacles who have plenty of reasons to be frustrated and angry about life. I have single moms, high school drop outs, ex-cons, college students and chronic alcoholics all working for me, and they are all used to being neglected and/or abused by their managers. It’s a joy for me to listen to their concerns and try my best to treat them fairly. They really notice too. One waitress actually teared up a little the other day when I told her that she could come to me when she had conflicts with other servers and I would help work things out. Another girl was speechless when I came down hard on one of our cooks for making an inappropriate comment to her. She told me that none of her managers in the past had ever taken sexual harassment seriously, and in fact some of them had been the source of a lot of harassment. Just standing up for what I know to be right in some very basic circumstances is making a real impact. 

I’m also starting to form some strong relationships with some other employees. One young guy in particular, our shift manager, is particularly exciting to me. He’s an 18 year old kid who didn’t complete high school after being transfered to one of the city’s alternative schools for disciplinary problems. I can tell from the notes he leaves that his literacy is iffy, and he definitely dressed/talks/acts the part of an “inner city youth”. That being said, he has an absolutely unswerving work ethic and he can knock out a whole rack of tickets by himself in half the time it would take me. His biggest downfall as a manager is that he’s as brutal with everyone else as he is with himself and he only knows how to give negative feedback. 

But I like him, and he likes me. We actually have a lot in common. He has two kids that roughly the same age as mine, and he really loves them a lot. His girlfriend/children’s mother also stays home to take care of the kids while he works full time. I’m finding single income families very rare right now, so when I asked him why they chose to make that decision he told me that the extra money she would make working wasn’t worth having someone else raise their kids all day. Which is pretty much exactly why we decided that Gretchen would stay home. He’s a good guy who has had to grow up very, very fast and I can tell that he respects the way that I’m managing our employees. He wants to be a good manager and a good leader, I just don’t think he knows how to go about it. I’m hoping that my example will have an impact on him, and when the time comes I’ll explain to him where the concept of servant leadership really comes from. 

So as always, thank you for your prayers and your encouragement. The goal seems even closer than it did three weeks ago, and I’m finding that the flowers along the path are even sweeter smelling than I thought they would be.

Phase One Complete

Well, I got the word yesterday that my training is officially over. On Monday I’ll be moving to a new location and starting work as a manager full time.

It’s hard to imagine that it was just four months ago that Gretchen and I decided that I needed to quit my job and try to become a manager at a local restaurant. The process has been much more difficult and required more sacrifice than we expected, but it’s also been rewarding in ways we didn’t expect either.

Now for phase two: become a General Manager and make my restaurant the best in the chain.