First time posting something like this….
I’ve been in food service for basically my entire career and have worked practically every position in a restaurant other than a GM.
I quit managing after a mentally exhausting and demanding 2020 year at a terrible company and left that to go to bartend/serve for a brand new restaurant (call them company A) that opened 4 months prior to me coming on board.
Less than a month at company A, they had to furlough me “due to covid spikes” and “slowing business for the holiday months” but I could pick up shifts if I’d like and also told me I’d be able to file for unemployment. NBD. Gave me time to relax and hang with family I hadn’t seen most of the year. Was denied the UE due to “not making enough at new job and not enough time in between jobs. Also not that big of a deal as I had worked and saved that entire year.
Fast forward about 6 weeks and I’m now going to start a new job search as I haven’t heard when I would be coming back yet. And still being declined UE. (Which I heard the owner at the time wasn’t filing the UE paperwork or doing anything for that matter)
I get an interview to bartend at different place in town (Call them company B). A couple hours before I am supposed to interview at new place, company A asks if I’d like to come back. I decide to take both jobs to see which I like better and which is more lucrative. Fast forward a few months of working both, I run into my GM from company A and he tells me “there’s a lot of potential growth etc with the company A as they were planning to expand (very rapidly mind you, they wanted to have like 11 locations over the next 3 years after only having 1 location running for less than a year). And boss tells me if I quit company B I can have whatever schedule I’d like and be full time bartend/serve at company A. I end up quitting B.
Fast forward to end of 2021, I get approached by our director of operations and GM at company A as they want to discuss my future with them. They tell me I would eventually be in charge of a new location opening up come end of spring etc. that they would start some of the training. Couple weeks later they had decided to nix the new location I was going to be at. But would start having me “hybrid”.
Which meant manager train at a flat rate while also bartending/serve at $10/hr plus tips. After about 1.5 months, they were not training me on anything management related and I was essentially babysitting the shifts for the other managers to have days off. Within that time of my “babysitting shifts” I was missing out on some serious tips. I approached them and told them I couldn’t afford to keep for the “babysitting” shifts anymore unless they are actively going to train me. Which they needed up not doing. And brought in someone else Also NBD as they kept me at $10/hr plus tips.
Skip to May of this year, company A had opened a total of 9 locations across two states. And my location had gotten a new GM. In that same time had closed 5 of those locations because those were barely breaking even or whatever. After only 4 months of being hired, our new GM quit. So now our once director is now in the GM at the location I’ve been at.
About 1.5 weeks ago the now GM/former D.O.O asks to talk to me at the end of my shift before I leave. Then proceeds to say “they had been doing some payroll and labor audits” and asked why I had been receiving the $10/hr and who set that up. And that he’s gonna need me to start doing more things that they can justify the $10. Or that I would be showing up and clocking in at $10 while doing some tasks. Then clock out and back in at serving minimum wage which is $4.5/hr. I asked him to give me an outline of what those tasks would entail and how this clock in under one job code to do these tasks then clock in as another will work. He has still yet to do so.
TL:DR
Feel I Been dry yanked for too long and had a figurative carrot dangled in front of me of promotion. (which honestly isn’t really a promotion unless you like to work more hours for less pay, their offer was laughable compared to what I can make tending/serve, and less flexibility of schedule). Been getting paid higher hourly for almost 2 years that was set up by my current, assuming demoted director, GM. But now they want to cut my base pay in half.
And after typing all this out I think I kinda got my answer but I just wanted some other input/feedback/advice.
TIA!!