I no longer feel I am waging a one man batttle against inertia. everyone in the department (management wise) is getting on the boat and all hands are on deck. It isn't easy selling some of the long time staff on some of the new ideas. They have spent so many years mismanaging themselves they don't want to hear they aren't allowed to do the things they have spent so much time doing. It is a lot of little things which add up to a lot of wasted time on the clock.

"We are trying to turn the Titanic." one gentleman somewhat jokingly stated.

My wife and I just got to spend a few days with my extended family. It was really nice. Both my grandmothers are turning 85 this year and we wanted the chance to see them.

This means taking the time to break down ovens, stoves, fryers and coolers and deep clean them. Stoves and ovens which are well cleaned have more effective heat transferrence. This means more effective use of energy and less long term expenditure on energy.

Yesterday was the busiest I have seen our little hotel. We had 3 weddings and 3 private parties. They all started within an hour of one another. This was the 7/7/7 lucky weekend to get married or something like that. I guess if you are a gambler or spend time watching the poker tours or are easily sold on some silly idea that if you get married on this particular weekend it means a long loving relationship is your "jackpot" for life then this would have been the day to get married.

Inching up on the 4th. Going to be a long week and a half. I will only be off one day out of ten. The Sous is on vacation so the Chef and I will be doing extra coverage. Sort of takes away from being able to take vacation time doesn't it? That is just the way it goes working in this business. Very much like Vegas the house always comes out on top. Everyone on salary knows the more hours you work the less you make per hour. This is also how the house gets you. Well, it is your department and you are to make sure all the shifts are covered. It looks like it is going to be a slow week. Sales aren't going to be that high, so you need to trim your staff hours in order for your productivity not to drop. That is because in the end the only thing which really counts for corporate is the bottom line.
Here is the realy crux of the matter and what the pencil pushers and controllers do not seem to understand. They want the staff to give their all, all of the time. They want high customer satisfaction, low overturn and low food/beverage cost. You cannot maintain a happy work environment by overloading existing staff because you have unrealistic productivity ideals. You also will not be able to keep a good staff by giving full time employees 5 days off just because you are predicting having a slow week. Understaffing in this manner is bad for at least 3 reasons I can think of offhand. #1. If you do more business than is expected, customer service and thereby guest experience is going to suffer. In the long run, this will cost you more in profits than by paying a line cook for a few extra hours. #2. These are full time employees who are loyal to the company because it is how they pay their bills. By not enabling them to pay their bills, good staff(which are very difficult to find)will find someone else to work for. This means spending money advertising open position(s), interviews, and training. More money being spent which could have been kept for profits. #3. This last point is especially true for the Back of the House. Down times are the best time to take care of routine maintenance issues and deep cleaning. Maintenance and upkeep prolongs the life of our equipment. This means taking the time to break down ovens, stoves, fryers and coolers and deep clean them.

Lunch at Grandma Luke's over in little 5 points. Great meal. My wife and I both had breakfast though it was almost 1 in the afternoon. I had a sample platter since I had never eaten there before and wanted to get an overall impression of the food. I was very impressed. The service was excellent and everything is made from scratch. I can tell the difference between from-the-bag pancakes and homemade pancakes. Cheese grits, eggs over medium, home fried potatoes and a Luke's au lait to top it all off. It was a wonderful experience. I highly recommend stopping by.

It feels like I have been gone for a long time. Things have been so busy I just haven't been able to sit down to the typewriter