How Restaurants Punish the People They Depend On Most
Every restaurant eventually finds one of those employees. They are the person management calls when the schedule falls apart, somebody calls off fifteen minutes before the shift, the dining room fills faster than expected, or the night simply begins going to hell. They are dependable, capable, and usually much easier to manage than the people creating the problems in the first place.
I had Suzie.
Suzie was in college and working toward a PhD in literature. She had a full scholarship, so the restaurant was not paying her tuition or keeping a roof over her head. When I hired her, she told me with complete seriousness that she basically needed drinking money.
I appreciated the honesty.
There are plenty of people who will sit through an interview and tell you they are looking for an opportunity to grow with the organization when what they really mean is that they need enough money to make it through Friday night. Suzie skipped the speech and went straight to the truth. The scholarship was taking care of the important things. The restaurant was financing the fun.
What I did not know when I hired her was how good she was going to be.
Suzie learned quickly, worked hard, and seemed almost embarrassed by the amount of supervision some of her coworkers required. She did not need to be reminded repeatedly about the same task, and when business picked up she did not suddenly disappear in search of something easier to do. She took care of the customers, made very good tips, and generally made management’s life easier.
Most importantly, she never complained.
At the time, I thought that was wonderful.
Restaurants are certainly not short of complaints. Manage long enough and you will hear about the schedule, the section, the customers, the cooks, the manager, the side work, and the person who somehow managed to get Saturday night off. Somebody will think the restaurant is too busy while somebody else complains it is too slow.
Suzie did none of that. She came in, worked hard, made her money, and went home. From my side of the desk, she looked like exactly the kind of employee every manager hopes to find.
We put her on a normal schedule because that was what we did with employees. People worked shifts. They came in at a certain time, stayed for the scheduled hours, and went home when the work was finished.
Suzie performed well, made good money, and never gave me any indication that something was wrong.
Then, after a few months, she came to me and told me she was leaving.
I was genuinely surprised.
This was not the employee I expected to lose. Usually when someone is halfway out the door, the restaurant starts receiving advance notice whether the employee realizes it or not. Their attendance changes, their attitude changes, or their performance starts to slip.
Suzie had given me none of those signals.
She was still one of the strongest employees in the building.
Yet there she was, calmly telling me she wanted out.
I was not prepared to let one of my best employees disappear without at least understanding why, so I brought her into the office, closed the door, and asked the simplest question I could think of.
“Tell me everything.”
What Suzie told me next was not what I expected at all.