This station is cursed!

I don’t know what it is about my savory station. I think it’s cursed… must be. It’s not a hard station by any means, demanding for sure, but I’m a demanding boss and expect my staff to join our vision of creating an exceptional dining experience for each and every guest. If you show up late, if you don’t care, if you don’t mesh with the team, then I’m on you. Most of my people get it, and get it quickly… if they don’t, then they don’t stay. I’ve had people working here for years; Brittany for five this year, Ariana for four, kindra for three. I understand that turnover is high in this business, but three DAYS?

Employee X started last week, a personal suggestion from a chef friend of mine (who is now 0 for 2 on her suggestions, btw). He did a ‘stage’ the week before, seemed to work out well. Good attitude, certainly green and in need of guidance, but…

Saturday he showed up late for brunch service… to the tune of almost an hour and a half. I sent him home, I didn’t need him. Today he comes in and says he can’t work, he’s sleep deprived working these hours. After three days. Sleep deprived. Please don’t have any kids dude, we can talk about sleep deprived. Brittany comes in at 5:30am, Kindra at 3am. David’s working the front today, came in at 6am and said he was up till 2pm working on homework. Don’t talk to us about sleep deprived.

So we’re back to having no cook on this station… again. Honestly, I think in the two years since we expanded, we’ve gone through a dozen cooks. Crazy. Ok, I gotta go start making some prep, Kindra and I are tag teaming again like usual.

Read Full Post »

I used to love payday…

I used to love payday when I was an employee. Now that I’m the boss, the small business owner, the one who cuts the checks and sees the bank account drop 5 grand in one day… it really stresses me out. It stresses me out because that’s a lot of money and it stresses me out because I want to make sure all my kids get their allowance. I’ve never bounced a paycheck and I hope to keep it that way.

Sometimes the money is there, sometimes it’s not… I never really understood cash flow before I owned a business, now I’m keenly aware of it. It’s like the tides… it always comes in and it always recedes. When payday coincides with a high tide, wonderful. But sometimes payday aligns itself with a low tide… maybe the rent check just cleared, maybe the workers comp decided to go through on the same day and then I’m looking at a frighteningly low number in the account.

Ok, so time to do a little shell game… how much cash was in the register last night that I can deposit when the bank opens? How much to I have in the savings account that I can move over (damn, that takes two days though…)? How much money do I have in my checking account that I can lend the bakery until next week with the tide comes back in?

Ugh, I used to love payday…

Read Full Post »