Some context: we have about 250 employees across multiple restaurants, all within driving distance of one another.
The meeting was between all salaried managers, i.e. GMs, District, office staff, etc. (Yes, I'm in that group. Supporting a family of 9, this is the only way I can feed my family rn and not lose my house, is to be this high up the food chain. I still get shit for pay, and I act as a liaison for my team and go to bat for them on a daily basis to get them raises and benefits. Fuck ALL of you who spew this random “managers can't be one of us” bullshit. We are trying to survive this hellscape just like you, and I honestly get the short end of the stick WAY more often than any other service worker I know so that my team doesn't have to deal with corporate asshats or get constantly spat on. Managers just trying to feed their family for an extra $2/hr are not a part of the problem, OWNERS and EXECS are the problem.)
Anyway, owner spent almost an HOUR giving us tips on how to avoid giving raises, cut labor costs, and make HIM more money. Some highlights:
“Think about what your team member is worth. You can replace the guy asking for a raise within a couple months, and train his replacement to do the same job for less money than he's already currently making.”
“There's gonna be a recession soon. Everyone here should consider themselves lucky to have a job with us, because we offer job security.”
“There's a reason our industry's labor rate is so low. None of these people are engineers, or skilled individuals at all. You should be paid according to your contribution, and none of our employees contribute anything to society.”
“Before demanding a raise, you need to think about how badly it will affect the company.” Proceeds to show slideshow about how “little” the profits are: in the tens of thousands