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Mezzanon
Sep 16, 2003

Pillbug

mediaphage posted:

ugh really sorry you guys. they just shut down all indoor dining stuff here again.

Hey they just announced that dine-in shuts down here on Friday for an indeterminate amount of time. (Probably a while because I’m assuming cases are going to spike two weeks after Easter lmao)

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Canuck-Errant
Oct 28, 2003

MOOD: BURNING - MUSIC: DISCO INFERNO BY THE TRAMMPS
Grimey Drawer
I've been trying to support my local joints with takeout but jesus, the restaurant scene is getting decimated

I just hope the Irish pub doesn't go under, that'd be a loving tragedy

Mezzanon
Sep 16, 2003

Pillbug

Canuck-Errant posted:

I've been trying to support my local joints with takeout but jesus, the restaurant scene is getting decimated

I just hope the Irish pub doesn't go under, that'd be a loving tragedy

It’s an extremely delicate balance between “supporting the local places I like” and also “I’m making significantly less money gently caress”

\/\/ I feel you on the “getting fatter by the day” comment, gyms are all closed again and I miss them.

Mezzanon fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Apr 7, 2021

Naelyan
Jul 21, 2007

Fun Shoe

Mezzanon posted:

It’s an extremely delicate balance between “supporting the local places I like” and also “I’m making significantly less money gently caress”

I feel this in my soul. I'd order takeout ever night of the week if I wasn't making zero money and also getting fatter by the day as it is.

Cant Ride A Bus
Apr 9, 2012

"Batman, Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne, Batman. Or have you met?"

Mezzanon posted:

Hey they just announced that dine-in shuts down here on Friday for an indeterminate amount of time. (Probably a while because I’m assuming cases are going to spike two weeks after Easter lmao)

That blows. My state just opened restaurants to 75% capacity and allowed bar seating again. Shame we've only got about 1/3 of the FoH staff that we should have. :v:

Salty Cat
Nov 26, 2020

Cant Ride A Bus posted:

That blows. My state just opened restaurants to 75% capacity and allowed bar seating again. Shame we've only got about 1/3 of the FoH staff that we should have. :v:

Arizona decided COVID is over, so we're back open 100%. No mandates, nothing. Our governor is dumb as gently caress.

Cant Ride A Bus
Apr 9, 2012

"Batman, Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne, Batman. Or have you met?"

Salty Cat posted:

Arizona decided COVID is over, so we're back open 100%. No mandates, nothing. Our governor is dumb as gently caress.

I’m in PA and our governor has been trying to slow roll it as much as possible but we’ve got a very republican state senate and they’ve been trying to tell him to get hosed at every turn.

Also I’m in a corporate seafood restaurant back in the front of house for the first time in years. I’ve been here since October and since we’ve been losing people left and right they’ve just offered me a key position and basically said that after the 6 months are up they want to push me to management. Does anyone have any experience doing that in a corporate setting that can give me the kind of things I can expect? This is my second job right now and that would essentially replace my daytime office job, but I’m not sure if it’s even something I would want.

FFT
Dec 28, 2005

keyboard ⌨️​ :clint: cowboy

Regardless of their intent, "after 6 months you'll get pushed to management!" is a baited hook 100% of the time.

Thumposaurus
Jul 24, 2007

Or it's an excuse to put you on salary while you work 80 hrs a week with no overtime pay.

droll
Jan 9, 2020

by Azathoth
Salaried, exploited AND the workers hate you. Its win win win.

Schneider Inside Her
Aug 6, 2009

Please bitches. If nothing else I am a gentleman
I don't work in the industry but I have worked for small businesses before. In my experience they're always lying to you

Air Skwirl
May 13, 2007

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed shitposting.

Thumposaurus posted:

Or it's an excuse to put you on salary while you work 80 hrs a week with no overtime pay.

It's very, very rare for moving from FOH to management (especially at a corporate place) to result in an increase in total take home pay, and even more rare is it to result in an increase in average hourly pay.

Having worked in corporate places where it happens I think it's a really huge mistake to promote internally like that, at least move them to a different store. It sucked watching coworkers get "promoted" and getting super bitter when they slowly realized not only were they making less, but how much more the people they were supervising were making than them. Plus you just don't get the same respect from former coworkers that a good manager gets from a crew that only knew them as management (bad managers get no respect regardless).

Sandwich Anarchist
Sep 12, 2008
Have any of you considered that it might be the OP's passion to be a FOH manager at a failing Joe's Crab Shack?

Coasterphreak
May 29, 2007
I like cookies.

Sandwich Anarchist posted:

Have any of you considered that it might be the OP's passion to be a FOH manager at a failing Joe's Crab Shack?

Hey man, it could be a Red Lobster

Thumposaurus
Jul 24, 2007

Or a Bubba Gump shrimp Co.

Cant Ride A Bus
Apr 9, 2012

"Batman, Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne, Batman. Or have you met?"
Bonefish Grill lol. Thanks for the advice, I know they typically don’t make as much as the servers (especially where I work) and the only reason I’d even consider it is because I hate my Current Day Job (insurance, dogshit salary) and I don’t think I could bring myself to go back to serving/bartending full time.

Definitely wouldn’t want to stay in my store if I did though. Our most recent FOH manager did that and it was a rough couple months where he learned to manage his friends. We’ll see where everything is at in October I guess :v:

Disargeria
May 6, 2010

All Good Things are Wild and Free!
Quit your restaurant job, find a different desk job.

Be happy, work 40 hours a week, see your friends and family.

Shabadu
Jul 18, 2003

rain dance


Disargeria posted:

Quit your restaurant job, find a different desk job.

Be happy, work 40 hours a week, see your friends and family.

Alternately, get a desk job at a country club. 40 hours, pays better than the average restaurant but the clientele is orders of magnitude worse.

Sandwich Anarchist
Sep 12, 2008
Get into grocery. Work 40 hours a week, still be adjacent to food, be happy, see your family. I did it and have never been happier.

Hutla
Jun 5, 2004

It's mechanical

Cant Ride A Bus posted:

Bonefish Grill lol. Thanks for the advice, I know they typically don’t make as much as the servers (especially where I work) and the only reason I’d even consider it is because I hate my Current Day Job (insurance, dogshit salary) and I don’t think I could bring myself to go back to serving/bartending full time.

Definitely wouldn’t want to stay in my store if I did though. Our most recent FOH manager did that and it was a rough couple months where he learned to manage his friends. We’ll see where everything is at in October I guess :v:

Dude, Bonefish pays their keys like $14/hour and every single one of them is kept right on the brink of qualifying for insurance, except they never do. Almost none of them are ever moved up to management.

I watched so many of them just be taken advantage of and constantly promised things that were never to materialize. Literally the only reason to do it is if you trade a Monday/Tuesday key shift for an extra table in your section plus a steady schedule of the best shifts Thurs-Sat.

Cant Ride A Bus
Apr 9, 2012

"Batman, Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne, Batman. Or have you met?"

Hutla posted:

Dude, Bonefish pays their keys like $14/hour and every single one of them is kept right on the brink of qualifying for insurance, except they never do. Almost none of them are ever moved up to management.

I watched so many of them just be taken advantage of and constantly promised things that were never to materialize. Literally the only reason to do it is if you trade a Monday/Tuesday key shift for an extra table in your section plus a steady schedule of the best shifts Thurs-Sat.

This pretty much sums up why I'm doing it. It's my second job right now and they know my scheduling restrictions. I'm not really expecting anything to come out of it, but I said the same thing about serving again too. It's good to know what to look out for though - I never expected to be having to make this decision at all when I started there 6 months ago.

Hutla
Jun 5, 2004

It's mechanical
The only reason to work corporate is to get in, get your money, and get out. Make no friends. Keep your boundaries super super defined, never give an inch, and give it 0 thought when you're not in the building.

Also never work on Wednesdays.

Merkin Muffley
Aug 1, 2006
The Ballsiest

Cant Ride A Bus posted:

Bonefish Grill lol. Thanks for the advice, I know they typically don’t make as much as the servers (especially where I work) and the only reason I’d even consider it is because I hate my Current Day Job (insurance, dogshit salary) and I don’t think I could bring myself to go back to serving/bartending full time.

Definitely wouldn’t want to stay in my store if I did though. Our most recent FOH manager did that and it was a rough couple months where he learned to manage his friends. We’ll see where everything is at in October I guess :v:

I can't speak for Bonefish specifically but I worked for Bloomin' Brands (Carrabba's) for about 8 years and I would assume they've been on a similar trajectory. You will absolutely take home less money going from FOH to key, and you will make vastly less money per hour going into management. I was offered a managing partner position around 3 years ago and I quit instead of accepting it. Ever since the company went public it's been a downward trend of profits/revenue over people/food at all costs. Everyone I know that still works (management) for the company is overworked and miserable. I'm not making near what I would have if I had accepted (still decent, just not the 6 figgies of MP) but the work I've been doing since than is infinitely more fulfilling, and I've actually had a sane schedule. Currently working for a small restaurant group that has me splitting my time between my favorite restaurant in the city (a very established, super creative, heavily local focused highish-end dining) and helping open a cafe/food market concept with the same local focus. I'm salaried but have a strict 4 day work week, I never work more than 45hrs, and usually just 40. It's heavenly.

Quitting a BBI concept was the best decision I ever made. I -will- say that everything I learned about running a profitable restaurant while working for them has proved to be invaluable, but you can learn that anywhere if you pay attention.

Oh and their insurance plan is dogshit too.

Cant Ride A Bus
Apr 9, 2012

"Batman, Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne, Batman. Or have you met?"

Merkin Muffley posted:

I can't speak for Bonefish specifically but I worked for Bloomin' Brands (Carrabba's) for about 8 years and I would assume they've been on a similar trajectory. You will absolutely take home less money going from FOH to key, and you will make vastly less money per hour going into management. I was offered a managing partner position around 3 years ago and I quit instead of accepting it. Ever since the company went public it's been a downward trend of profits/revenue over people/food at all costs. Everyone I know that still works (management) for the company is overworked and miserable. I'm not making near what I would have if I had accepted (still decent, just not the 6 figgies of MP) but the work I've been doing since than is infinitely more fulfilling, and I've actually had a sane schedule. Currently working for a small restaurant group that has me splitting my time between my favorite restaurant in the city (a very established, super creative, heavily local focused highish-end dining) and helping open a cafe/food market concept with the same local focus. I'm salaried but have a strict 4 day work week, I never work more than 45hrs, and usually just 40. It's heavenly.

Quitting a BBI concept was the best decision I ever made. I -will- say that everything I learned about running a profitable restaurant while working for them has proved to be invaluable, but you can learn that anywhere if you pay attention.

Oh and their insurance plan is dogshit too.

Thanks for this. I figure I can, at the very least, use the experience here to go manage somewhere better with a better work/life balance. I know the sentiment is find a better desk job but my brain is broken and I love this godforsaken industry for all its faults. Also I’ve learned that I don’t do super great sitting at a desk for 8 hours. We’ve got 4 managers including our MP and only one of them seems jaded and overworked, but I’ve known him for years before I started working with him and that’s nothing new lol.

Air Skwirl
May 13, 2007

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed shitposting.

Cant Ride A Bus posted:

Bonefish Grill lol. Thanks for the advice, I know they typically don’t make as much as the servers (especially where I work) and the only reason I’d even consider it is because I hate my Current Day Job (insurance, dogshit salary) and I don’t think I could bring myself to go back to serving/bartending full time.

Definitely wouldn’t want to stay in my store if I did though. Our most recent FOH manager did that and it was a rough couple months where he learned to manage his friends. We’ll see where everything is at in October I guess :v:

Get a job at a better insurance company.

Guildenstern Mother
Mar 31, 2010

Why walk when you can ride?
It sounds like you're gonna talk yourself into taking the horrible management job which is a terrible idea and I look forward to the future content

tinytort
Jun 10, 2013

Super healthy, super cheap

Naelyan posted:

I feel this in my soul. I'd order takeout ever night of the week if I wasn't making zero money and also getting fatter by the day as it is.

I'd be buying more takeout, but basically nowhere delivers where I live. I'm crossing my fingers that the Doordash expansion will bring some stuff that I'm interested in ordering.

Right now, my options are McDonald's or 7-11, and I think both of those will do just fine without my money.

Canuck-Errant
Oct 28, 2003

MOOD: BURNING - MUSIC: DISCO INFERNO BY THE TRAMMPS
Grimey Drawer

Mezzanon posted:

It’s an extremely delicate balance between “supporting the local places I like” and also “I’m making significantly less money gently caress”

I'm lucky in that I got into an essentially bulletproof government IT job before the pandemic

I'm unlucky in that my girlfriend insists I support all the places she can get GF food

Sandwich Anarchist
Sep 12, 2008

Guildenstern Mother posted:

It sounds like you're gonna talk yourself into taking the horrible management job which is a terrible idea and I look forward to the future content

Hey guys should I take this job?

*entire thread says NO emphatically*

Haha yeah ok, ill probably take the job though.

Cant Ride A Bus
Apr 9, 2012

"Batman, Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne, Batman. Or have you met?"

Sandwich Anarchist posted:

Hey guys should I take this job?

*entire thread says NO emphatically*

Haha yeah ok, ill probably take the job though.

I'm not taking a management job. Just a lovely key position because I'm firm with my boundaries and won't let them abuse it. I just wanted to know what to expect if I ended up considering management 6 or so months down the line since the people I work with are an echo chamber of "It's great! Ambition! Upward Movement!". You goons keep me grounded in reality.

Disargeria
May 6, 2010

All Good Things are Wild and Free!
Take like a few minutes each day to learn some excel formula and earn stupid amounts of money because you're the only one in the office who can use a pivot table and your biggest stresses are what you're going to do with all of your weekends and free time and money

OR

Lifetime of crippling depression, probably drugs, definitely alcoholism. Sometimes some snackies from the line.

:thunk:

Disargeria
May 6, 2010

All Good Things are Wild and Free!
Thread title: Get Out

This industry is built on squeezing as much as possible from humans at every level. Blood, sweat, tears, physical wellbeing, and emotional sacrifices are the building blocks of restaurants. It's not about how much you can give to bring success, because there's always more success to find and humans to squeeze more out of. Corporate restaurants are in a race to the bottom, and standalones face intense competition.

Success and happiness are the exception.

I don't say this because I'm mad about restaurants, I say this because I've seen what my fellow cooks and chefs went through. The drugs, the alcohol, the STDs, and the suicide... I almost became a statistic. The grass seems greener on the other side because it really is. There's health insurance and vacation days over here, and I can still feed my family and friends with all the knowledge and skills I picked up. And the money.

Or maybe do supply/vendor stuff or hospitals because those posters seem happier too.

Canuck-Errant
Oct 28, 2003

MOOD: BURNING - MUSIC: DISCO INFERNO BY THE TRAMMPS
Grimey Drawer
*sloooooowly slides IWW forms across stainless steel prep table*

Sandwich Anarchist
Sep 12, 2008
I'm still fighting taking a lunch break because I think I'm going to get in trouble. I think I'm behind and slow when everyone is blown away by my performance. The industry causes severe mental damage to anyone in it for long enough.

Wastid
Oct 21, 2008

Disargeria posted:

Take like a few minutes each day to learn some excel formula and earn stupid amounts of money because you're the only one in the office who can use a pivot table and your biggest stresses are what you're going to do with all of your weekends and free time and money

OR

Lifetime of crippling depression, probably drugs, definitely alcoholism. Sometimes some snackies from the line.

:thunk:

This is a super popular sentiment here and I totally agree with getting out of the industry but gently caress this glib tone. Drug use, depression and perpetual precarity make it a hard fuckin lift.

What are some practical paths towards that though? Like there are a lot of 'computer touchers' on these forums but that is intentionally vague. What jobs or fields am I supposed to be looking for? Where do I learn this stuff? I'd love to teach myself then smash through some community college classes for a degree or certification, is that doable? If its not what's the path? I'm in my mid 30s and this poo poo is all I've done, no college degree and no experience outside the industry. I'm pissed enough right now to break through the layers of poo poo heaped on my life to look for a brighter horizon, but man some resources that offer some guidance would be nice because I know the clocks ticking and I can't stay this mad for long.

Breaks over, back to it.

Mezzanon
Sep 16, 2003

Pillbug
The restaurant I work at let me pivot from serving into full time delivery driving which is almost comparable money (if I don't think about the wear and tear on my car), but with significantly more podcast listening.


It'll do for a little bit, trying to manifest some positive energy to get a callback for the fulltime on-air position that just opened up at a local radio station.

Guildenstern Mother
Mar 31, 2010

Why walk when you can ride?

Wastid posted:

This is a super popular sentiment here and I totally agree with getting out of the industry but gently caress this glib tone. Drug use, depression and perpetual precarity make it a hard fuckin lift.

What are some practical paths towards that though? Like there are a lot of 'computer touchers' on these forums but that is intentionally vague. What jobs or fields am I supposed to be looking for? Where do I learn this stuff? I'd love to teach myself then smash through some community college classes for a degree or certification, is that doable? If its not what's the path? I'm in my mid 30s and this poo poo is all I've done, no college degree and no experience outside the industry. I'm pissed enough right now to break through the layers of poo poo heaped on my life to look for a brighter horizon, but man some resources that offer some guidance would be nice because I know the clocks ticking and I can't stay this mad for long.

Breaks over, back to it.

I went to a coding bootcamp when everything was shut down. Turns out entry level computer toucher hiring also poo poo the bed during the pandemic, fortunately my husband is really supportive of me not going back into the industry or I'd have crawled back to my old job by now even though thinking about it makes me either want to stress puke or cry depending on the day.

bloody ghost titty
Oct 23, 2008

tHROW SOME D"s ON THAT BIZNATCH

Canuck-Errant posted:

*sloooooowly slides IWW forms across stainless steel prep table*

:frogon:

Shooting Blanks
Jun 6, 2007

Real bullets mess up how cool this thing looks.

-Blade



Wastid posted:

This is a super popular sentiment here and I totally agree with getting out of the industry but gently caress this glib tone. Drug use, depression and perpetual precarity make it a hard fuckin lift.

What are some practical paths towards that though? Like there are a lot of 'computer touchers' on these forums but that is intentionally vague. What jobs or fields am I supposed to be looking for? Where do I learn this stuff? I'd love to teach myself then smash through some community college classes for a degree or certification, is that doable? If its not what's the path? I'm in my mid 30s and this poo poo is all I've done, no college degree and no experience outside the industry. I'm pissed enough right now to break through the layers of poo poo heaped on my life to look for a brighter horizon, but man some resources that offer some guidance would be nice because I know the clocks ticking and I can't stay this mad for long.

Breaks over, back to it.

The short answer is any entry level job that will take you. Help desk is a popular route, But there are a few different options. From there you specialize over time into whatever your employer needs that you have a knack for/are interested in. Security, analytics, cloud, development/coding are all options but it takes time to get there, just like anything else.

Certifications are a funny beast. HR cares about those a lot, technical hiring managers are far less likely to. It certainly wouldn't hurt to grab a couple, but the most experienced people I worked with were the least likely to have current certs. Good for fundamentals, but the value goes down once you start to pick your specialization.

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BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.
I haven't worked in food service for a long LONG time but I have fond memories of it even when it was hard. And it was always hard.

I started out as a dish dog and busboy at Denny's making min wage, tried the cook's line and then saw all the money the waitresses were making and asked to be a server. There were NO male servers back then and I suffered a lot of gay jokes but didn't care since I was making more money for less hassle and making it in cash. Working graveyard shift was fun a lot of times. I'd be as stoned as my customers at the 2:15 am bar rush and usually around 4am, the place would be dead and I'd make milkshakes and fry up some shrimp.

Did some catering work on weekends and for some reason never really minded it.

Made my way into light fine dining in college and made a poo poo ton of money for the most part. Slower turn arounds but bigger tabs so really all I had to do was cut my hair, know the rules and act semi sophisticated. I LOVED working brunch. The hotel I worked in would give away free brunch passes and customers would just leave them on the table. Almost every time there were more passes than people so I'd take the extra coupons and use them to pay the checks of people who paid cash and then pocket the extra $30 a head or whatever it was. More than made up for the large segment of folks who didn't tip for brunch service (which was a lot).

I kind of liked it. Lots of drugs, sex, weird hours, friendships and pretty good money for a college kid.

Not sure what it's like now but it doesn't sound too great from reading the thread. I guess it depends on the place. The fine dining place had a lot of older servers and cooks working there along with the college kids.

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