(New manager at current job, not new to management overall).
Hi all,
I’m looking for some advice on my current situation. I took a job as a restaurant manager (middle manager who reports to the general manager), and I had my second 1 on 1 with my GM today. She said I’m doing great with my area of responsibility, but there were some comments from the team that were a little upsetting to me.
I was told that the team said they thought I spent more time in the office than helping them on the line making food, and that I reference the store I trained at too much. My GM was given this feedback about me by the team, and passed it along to me. She made it clear that she holds nothing against me and that she can’t make judgement as she hasn’t personally seen anything, but I felt compelled to explain myself regardless.
I’m the food production manager, so my job involves quite a bit of office work crunching the inventory numbers, doing product pars for the week, and labeling and organizing the restaurant. As such, I’m not available to help the associates as much as the other manager on my level does.
Here’s my issue: this manager (I’ll call her Jessie) helps out too much, to the point that they expect it from all of us. I have been told numerous times by my GM and by my regional manager that the MIC should be mobile, moving around the restaurant handling pop up issues, making sure associates are keeping up with their tasks, talking to guests, etc etc. We’re expected to expo for the associates during peak business times, which is essentially overseeing the line, validating orders, and conversing with guests.
I am always on expo during peak, and will oftentimes jump onto the line if we’re busy. I also will work the line all night if we have a callout, as I’m essentially an associate on those days filling the hole. I tell them to come get me if they need me, even if I’m doing critical tasks like inventory (which I’m supposed to be completely unavailable for, according to my GM).
With all this being said, the team’s comments have me a little annoyed honestly. I bust my ass to keep the restaurant running, but it seems like the team only cares about whether I’m on the line helping them make orders. I’ve explained this to my GM, and she agrees that we are too willing to jump in and help when we should be letting the do it themselves and be self sufficient. So while I’m not in trouble by any means, their comments kind of pissed me off.
How do I address this? It feels like less of a me problem and more of problem created by the current managers. We’re being pushed by corporate more and more to be on expo during peak, and my regional manager will sometimes check the cameras and ask why we’re working on the line, so I have the support of the higher ups. I care about my team, but I also need to them to understand that these seemingly invisible tasks that I do everyday are a big part of what keeps them employed.