This is not a book about firing people.

It is not about cutting every schedule to the bone.

It is not about running short-staffed restaurants.

It is not about making employees miserable in order to hit some arbitrary labor percentage.

And it is not about sacrificing service, food quality, sanitation, or your best people to save a few dollars.

That is not labor control.

That is bad management.

Good labor control means understanding the work your restaurant actually has to perform and matching the right amount of labor to that work.

Sometimes that means fewer hours.

Sometimes it means different hours.

Sometimes it means moving a shift.

Sometimes it means improving prep.

Sometimes it means repairing equipment.

Sometimes it means cross-training employees.

Sometimes it means simplifying a process.

Sometimes it means adding labor because your operation is so badly understaffed that it is costing you sales, quality, and employees.

The goal is not simply to reduce payroll.

The goal is to make payroll productive.

That distinction matters.

Over the years, I have seen managers make terrible labor decisions in the name of saving money.

I have seen a dishwasher cut from the schedule only to have higher-paid cooks washing dishes.

I have seen prep hours removed and then watched line cooks arrive early on overtime to complete the work.

I have seen good employees sent home too early, followed by a rush that destroyed service.

And I have seen the opposite: employees standing around doing very little because management never adjusted staffing after business slowed.

Those are not employee problems.

They are management problems.

And most of them can be fixed.

The first question should never be:

Who can I cut?

The first question should be:

Why are we spending this much labor?

That is the question we are going to answer.