I got promoted to manager after working in a catering business. The girl who trained me was barely around for my training because she was also the chef and had to run back and forth. She gave me a three page guide for daily operations that her former manager made, and then she quit. To be fair, before they promoted me she was doing both executive chef and catering manager work so I understand why she ran away.I wasn't prepared for what this would be like. We work alongside a museum and the higher ups are so meticulous, they bring in donors for lunch and want everything to be plated with good china that we only use during special events, and will sit there during opening hours eating beside the museum customers who eat out of disposables. They don't make eye contact with use or get to know us, they just send the order and want everything done perfectly. I'll set a table for them and my supervisor will take a photo of it to send to them to make sure they're happy with it. This has always struck me as really snobby, but I've chalked it up to them all just being rich art world people, but this is where the kicker came in.
When I started I was given payroll privileges we noticed two employees that started at the same time I did were making a dollar less than me. I called up my supervisor. She got in touch with her supervisor and they corrected it and gave them a little back pay, but after that happened I no longer can see my employees pay rate, or when their last raise was within payroll. The only thing I can see is when they were hired and how long they've been working with us. I make $18 regular cafeteria hours, $20 when we cater, and my staff makes $14 and then $18 when we cater. Annually, we should get a review to mark our 50 cent raise, and one of my employees approached me about hers. I was never taught how to do it, so I just winged it, going off of what they did for me in the past. She was 6 months over when her review was due, and HR never told me. I also noticed my other employees have been due a couple years in a row now, and I'm doubtful they've ever had a yearly review. I guess HR expects them to just come to us about it whenever we remember? Also, I worked for about a year making $18 alongside my staff during events even though I was the one overseeing everything. I had to write a wage negotiation to HR to get up to $20.
Then the bartender situation. We only have one girl in our staff who is available to bartend for weddings, corporate events, etc. They'll give us an event for like 200 people, and encourage us to hire from a temp agency or bring in random people my supervisor has worked with before, and it always goes south because every time they come in they don't split tips, they don't use the liquor usage sheet correctly, and my own staff feels slighted because they're not doing their job correctly or pocketing tips. So I feel I have to babysit these bartenders while also running around managing everyone else. The event coordinator I work beside who runs these events has anger outbursts where she'll say things like “Every event is like the first we've ever done!” or will passive aggressively push chairs or clean tables if we're not getting to it fast enough.
I'm expected to be on call, if there's a corporate dinner event from a higher up sent through for two weeks in advance, I need to be there that night. I have to find staff, order liquor, and figure out the bartender situation. We only have two chefs, six servers, and one bartender, and they'll book us for events with up to 300 people sometimes. It's so much. I don't know why I wrote all this out, I just have to vent. I've signed up for classes so I have a good excuse to get out of working events, and I'm going to go back to school because I dropped out for this position. I'm gonna talk to my supervisor next week about going back in the fall and then slowly inch my way out of here.