The Clueless Restaurant Owner, Part V – Adventures of the NGM
Troubling times are ahead for a certain pizza buffet restaurant franchise in the metro Atlanta area.
Today’s posting deals mostly with the new general manager (NGM) that the clueless restaurant owner hired just over a week ago. The NGM supposedly has industry experience and he’s certainly capable of talking a big game. But as far as actually working and running a restaurant of this caliber, the NGM is clearly inexperienced.
The NGM still has quite a ways to go with his training in running this restaurant. Instead of actually observing and learning the various crew positions and all the paperwork associated with being a manager, the NGM instead walks around and acts like he already knows everything. This guy’s EGO has already been causing tensions between himself and every single worker in the restaurant.
This past Sunday the NGM was scheduled to work in the restaurant. However, as he was driving there that morning he came down with some sort of stomach illness. Whether it’s related to his excessive amount of flatulence is unknown, but he was sick enough to turn around and go back home. This was one of the assistant store manager’s (ASM) shifts, so naturally she was down a person since he didn’t show up to work. This actually wasn’t much of an inconvenience as she didn’t have to babysit and put up with the NGM’s bullshit, and she and her fellow co-workers could actually work as a team.
The next day the ASM received an early session of text messages from the restaurant’s owner. The ASM wasn’t scheduled to be there until 3 pm that afternoon, yet the jackass was harassing her starting at 7 am. Despite being knocked down TWICE from being salaried to an hourly worker, the restaurant’s owner still expects her to be on call at ALL hours of the day. The restaurant’s previous general manager was nearly impossible to get in touch with on his days off or whenever he was outside of the restaurant. We’re clearly dealing with the restaurant owner’s DOUBLE STANDARDS here. More of this will be discussed later.
Anyway, on Monday morning the shift manager was having car problems and might not make it into work before her shift started at 10 am. The restaurant’s owner wanted the ASM to drive all the way to the restaurant (about a 30 minute drive, longer in rush hour such as that time) and be the manager on duty until the shift manager arrived. The ASM was to then drive all the way back home only to turn around and drive all the way back there for her evening shift. The ASM basically told the restaurant’s owner to shove it and she’ll just stay and work a double shift. It’s not worth doing the excessive driving for basically nothing. She’ll adjust the schedule and fix it so that she won’t be working extra and receive any overtime (a major No-No! with this restaurant owner despite her being well worth it).
While driving to the restaurant on Monday morning she learned that the NGM was also on his way there. She called him and told him not to be there today. He’s not on the schedule for today. He’s an hourly employee and already scheduled for almost 40 hours that week. If he shows up then she’ll have the headache of further juggling the schedule to cover the shifts. The NGM ignores her and shows up at the restaurant anyway.
So the NGM arrives and he’s assigned to work as a cook that day. It’s part of the training process and he needs to know all the crew positions like the back of his hand. The only problem with the NGM is that he doesn’t know how to make the pizzas. Keep in mind this is a buffet-style restaurant that keeps rolling out about a dozen different pizzas along with whatever custom pizzas that people order. Working as a cook is a busy position in the restaurant and you really have to know how to prepare the different pizzas. Being slow just creates a backlog that pisses off the customers.
THE SHOVING INCIDENT
The NGM was confused about making one of the special pizzas. He didn’t know which toppings were required and didn’t know how to communicate this clearly with the ASM. His behavior was a bit conflicting because this guy kept walking around and acting like he knew everything about the restaurant. Clearly he didn’t know everything.
All of the pizza recipes are available in the manager’s manual. This is a book that the NGM has in his possession and he claimed to have read during previous shifts. Knowing the answer, the ASM asked the NGM if he actually read the manager’s manual. He admitted that he didn’t read the manual but merely glanced through it.
Oh, okay. So the NGM admitted to doing only a half-assed job in preparing to be a manager in the restaurant. That’s leadership for you. When the ASM was hired back in the summer, she was thrown to the wolves and working crew positions her first few days. At night she read and studied the manager’s manual from cover to cover. She didn’t have the luxury of standing around and doing nothing for a few days and merely glancing at the manual. The restaurant’s owner has been giving her a hard time since day one, but she’s succeeded. So for the NGM to have a sorry attitude and not put any effort into actually learning the restaurant’s operations, that really pissed her off.
The NGM clearly was not ready to work in the cook position. She told him to stand to the side and that she would finish making the pizza. When it was finished the NGM would run it across the street to their main client.
Apparently this didn’t sit too well with the new general manager. Supposedly he pushed the ASM to the side so that he could make the pizza. The ASM didn’t remember this actually happening, but her female co-workers saw the guy push her to the side. They were immediately up in arms and confronting the asshole over what he did to the ASM.
In theory the restaurant’s security cameras should have caught the incident on tape. This happened behind the counter but in the front of the store.
The ASM is trapped in a position where she cannot report the NGM’s behavior to the restaurant’s owner. The restaurant’s owner frequently does not listen to the ASM’s tales of incidents with co-workers. Her legitimate “reports” are viewed as “complaints” to him in the long run. Besides, this guy was apparently hired to run the entire restaurant, so if she says anything negative about the guy, no matter how much evidence she has on her side, the restaurant’s owner will most likely see it as her saying crap to get the guy fired.
The co-workers who witnessed the incident are very upset with the NGM and his poor attitude. The ASM told them that it’s up to THEM to report it to the restaurant’s owner. I haven’t heard if they did or not, but it’s not going to accomplish anything in the long run. The restaurant’s owner is a jackass who believes only what he wants to believe, no matter how much evidence proves him wrong.
THE PIZZA OVEN INCIDENTS
Speaking of other incidents involving the new general manager, we also have the tales of him and the pizza ovens.
The NGM used to work for one of the delivery pizza companies a while back. It’s one of those small establishments where customers can pick up a pizza or have it delivered. Nothing special.
Anyway, the NGM has been frequently boasting about his knowledge about the pizza industry, including everything involving pizza ovens. The guy’s head is shoved so far up his own ass that when he talks he spews nothing but his own crap.
On one of the nights the NGM was working (a night where the ASM was NOT working), the NGM tried to turn off one of the pizza ovens without verify the correct procedure first. The NGM shut off the pizza oven all right, but he did NOT shut off the natural gas line to the oven. Natural gas continued flowing and began filling the restaurant. Luckily, one of the experienced crew members noticed the gas and was able to shut off the gas line. The place was ventilated and thankfully nobody was injured from an explosion that would have occurred.
Whoops!
The second pizza oven incident involving the new general manager occurred recently. The NGM worked with a worker and learned how to take apart the oven for the overnight cleaning process. Apparently disassembling the oven was fine. But when the NGM showed up the next morning to reassemble the pizza oven, the guy failed to assemble it correctly. The dumbass actually BROKE THE PIZZA OVEN. The restaurant’s owner is forced to pay a repair guy to come in and fix the pizza oven. Luckily, the restaurant uses TWO pizza ovens, so they could still function as a business despite the NGM f*cking up the process.
So was the restaurant’s owner furious with the new general manager A) nearly killing everybody one night, and B) breaking one of the pizza ovens another day?
Nope. It sounds like the NGM isn’t even going to get a slap on the wrist for those incidents.
If I was the owner I would have taken the repair bill out of the asshole’s paycheck and then FIRED his sorry ass for negligence. You CANNOT have a worker like that whose EGO nearly kills co-workers AND costs you money in unnecessary repair bills, especially since workers were there who actually know what they’re doing.
SEXISM AND THE RESTAURANT’S OWNER
These days I’m becoming more and more sold on my theory that the restaurant’s owner wants a MAN in overall charge of the franchise restaurant.
This guy has been giving the ASM (a woman, mind you) a hard time since the day she was hired, even going as far as claiming that he normally didn’t like people with previous experience like hers. Every single day from that point the ASM has proven the restaurant’s owner WRONG in one way or another, always using solid facts and hard evidence to prove her innocence whenever the restaurant’s owner accused her of wrongdoings.
Keep in mind that many of the accusations of wrongdoings against the ASM were originally stated by other co-workers in one way or another. Things were frequently taken out of context or misunderstood, and instead of checking facts first, the restaurant’s owner would instantly accuse the ASM of whatever claim he wanted, and then demanded her to answer. The vast majority of these “conversations” occurred through texting. The asshole never had the balls to confront the ASM in person. I guess he was afraid of her ALWAYS proving him wrong.
The restaurant’s previous manager was constantly screwing up the restaurant from blowing the weekly labor to not ordering the correct supplies to pissing off the restaurant’s biggest client because of late deliveries. Right before he was finally fired the guy was also managing to upset the restaurant’s customers. But through ALL of that, the restaurant’s owner NEVER tried to get rid of the restaurant’s general manager no matter how painfully obvious it was that he was NOT the right person for the job.
The ASM was making the GM look bad through her superior management and customer service skills, but that was never enough for the restaurant’s owner. It was practically an act of God for the GM to be accused of stealing and finally fired from the restaurant.
Once he was fired did the restaurant’s owner simply had over the business to the ASM, boosting her pay along with responsibilities?
Hell, no!
The cheap bastard boosted her responsibilities and working hours all right, but the son of a bitch kept her pay to an absolute minimum. No bonuses, no nothing. The previous GM was making a fortune while working there, but the ASM, the person who still to this day keeps saving the restaurant owner’s sorry ass, still gets shit when it comes to pay and overall control of the business.
The co-workers respect the ASM. The customers love it when she’s working there that day. The main client across the road also loves the ASM. Pretty much everybody knows that the ASM has great knowledge of the restaurant’s operations and she’s a great person to be in charge. Well, everybody except for the restaurant’s owner. The bastard went out to hire another person to act as an “assistant” manager, but everybody knows that he’s being trained to be the new general manager.
I have a feeling that the restaurant’s owner knows about the new general manager’s inabilities, but like with the previous GM, the guy simply looks the other way. He’s going to give this guy a thousand chances in the next six months for the guy to learn the job.
After the NGM’s shift today, he sent a lengthy text message to both the restaurant’s owner and the ASM. He gave this rousing “pep talk” about how he wants to work with the ASM and have her train him on everything from the crew positions to all the paperwork. He wants to work hard with the ASM and show the workers what motivated managers can really do there, boosting the sales numbers and blowing away all the previous records.
His talk was all bullshit. For a guy who is still greatly inexperienced and without any knowledge about how the place really works, he sure talks a lot of game. Unfortunately, the restaurant’s owner believes the NGM’s heaping pile of bullshit. When the ASM didn’t respond to the NGM’s text within half an hour (Hey, she does have a social life on her days off and can’t respond to everything the moment it arrives), the dipshit store owner sent the ASM a text expressing “great disapproval” that she wasn’t accepting the NGM’s “olive branch.”
It’s clear that the restaurant’s owner is siding and wants the NGM to be in overall control of the restaurant. It doesn’t matter that the ASM has literally worked her ass off in that restaurant, sacrificing greatly to keep the workers happy, the customers even happier, and the place functioning as a solid establishment in the restaurant industry. Along comes this new jackass and he expects to magically turn the place around by giving a “pep talk” and supposedly showing the workers how to work even harder.
Well, I’ve got some news for you, pal. You’re full of shit. There’s almost nothing you can do that will improve on what the ASM has already accomplished over the past couple of weeks. It’s her leadership, her knowledge, and HER ideas that have the place rocking right now. The PROBLEM (well, one of them at least) is from the restaurant owner’s LACK OF PROPER MARKETING!
You can only do so much to ensure that the customers have a great experience when they walk in through the doors. It’s ultimately up to the MARKETING to get them to the doors, something that the store owner and his wife are doing a HORRIBLE job.
The NGM can make all the pep talks that he wants to, but until the place sees MORE CUSTOMERS, none of his big talk is going to do squat in the long run.
It’s okay though because the NGM is a man. The restaurant’s owner wants a man in charge of the place. The fact that he talks big is even better. It doesn’t matter that the NGM isn’t trained or really qualified to run such an establishment, the ASM is responsible for training the jackass. Remember, the ASM never had this luxury when she began working there seven months ago. SHE had to train HERSELF as quickly as possible to survive as a manager. The NGM gets the “hand holding” treatment and as much slack from the restaurant’s owner as possible.
If the ASM was a man, then I’d bet everything that things would be a lot different there. She would have assumed the position of general manager months ago, and the restaurant’s owner would have treated her with more respect. But she’s not.
This is sexism, plain and simple. It’s just nearly impossible to mention to future employers. Future employers don’t want to hear about stuff like that, and the former employer will never agree to it. You’ll only hurt yourself unless you have a LOT of solid evidence proving your case, and even then it could be hard to prove to future employers.
The trick here is for the ASM to escape from this establishment as quickly as possible while she’s still on good terms with the restaurant’s owner. It’s clear that she’ll never advance any higher than her current position. My gut feeling is that once the NGM is finally trained and competent enough to actually run the business (that’s still a stretch right there), he’ll find a way for the ASM to be fired. She’ll always be viewed as a threat to the NGM.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Why?