Honest to God question.
I've spend a good 10 years in operational and general management in catering and decided to give up due to stress, burnout and being sick to my teeth of making an owner/CEO money for no comparable returns.. The pay was decent'ish, sometimes there were bonuses, but these were a joke in comparison to the money I made for the company. Seeing an owner line their pockets while the team literally made the company what it was, was becoming unbearable.
I worked on a fixed wage, and often ending up having to work 90-100 hours per week, always trying to be available for staff and their personal/work related issues, make sure there is replacement when someone is sick or if one of the location managers fucked up, implement new systems of work for better conditions and more efficiency, outsource repairs, write reports, do events and open new locations and (the worst)… deal with any random outbursts and (often dumb and delusional) ideas owners will have while taking a shit, only to challenge me when I wanted to budget for simple things that were clearly needed.
I have always been complimented for having high staff retention, I was clear and strict about what I expected from staff, but never ignored their problems and concerns and fought for them where I could.
I strongly believe and always argued with owners about the fact that a team with 5 well paid, rested, looked after and skilled workers, does a whole lot better at any given point, than a team of 7 underpaid, uninterested kids. Luckily I was able to allocate these budgets how I wanted and proof this after a while.
All in all, these type of jobs are incredibly stressful, I got to the point that the sound of any message would sent shivers down my spine as it represented a problem to deal with most of the time…. My jaws were clenched non stop and I started being sick often and realized my body was telling me it's enough of this shit, and then I lost my passion….
After the last CEO showed me his new stupidly unnecessary car right after I got refused a raise for 3 staff members, I wanted to resign and started cutting corners, I resigned 2 months later after the CEO noticed my changed behavior and wanted to demote me.
I'm currently working on an app as a delivery driver, which interestingly enough makes me a very decent income, albeit as self employed and I'm still orienting about what I'm going to do next…
On this sub I often read things like “there are managers to deal with that” when it's about things like wanting to cancel your shift last minute etc. I'm a bit confused by this because that sounds as if these managers are not people or workers themselves. It's not OK to cancel a shift last minute just because you f'd up with your availabilities. It's not OK because this puts strain on the team (including management). Sickness is something completely different simply because people get sick due to no fault of their own.
I'm wondering if some of you might have issues with the fact that a manager is in a position of power. But maybe it's important to realize that the system is corrupted top to bottom. A manager usually has no or very little incentive or interest in the performance of the company, and they're human beings that often get shat on from up top and from underneath, and juggling this is no joke. I often found myself wishing I was a cleaner that could just close the door and go home after a shift.
Hope I was able to bring my point across and some people will understand and appreciate the fact that a manager is in no way representative of some sort of evil corporatism or the greed we see nowadays, they simply don't benefit…. Maybe some are power tripping and have a petty and shitty execution. Maybe some feel that they're above you, but let's face it, those are kids with psychological issues, not professionals and they don't represent the job…
In the end managers are just people doing their shitty jobs like everyone else.