There isn’t one person who is reading this blog right now who hasn’t dreamed of quitting their job in some kind of epic fashion. Last year, a Walmart employee quit via the storewide intercom system while recording himself. The video went viral because he did what we all want to do, but so seldom have the courage to follow through on.
In the restaurant industry, we are bombarded with reasons to want to quit, leaving a trail of destruction behind us. How fulfilling it would be to climb atop Table 9 in the middle of a busy Saturday night shift and say at the top of your lungs, “This place is a shit show and you can all go eat my farts.” The only problem with leaving in such a fashion is that you definitely cannot use that job as a reference and you should probably have another job lined up before you do it.
This brings me to what happened last week at Movie Tavern in Syracuse, New York. An employee who shall not be named, had already put in her notice and her last day was still a few days away. However, it seems that she could not take even another minute working for a particular general manager and decided to do something big. At the end of the shift, she sent a message via Hot Schedules to the GM and the entire FOH staff saying exactly how she felt.
I and many employees bite our tongue because we are scared to seek up for ourselves with the fear of being fired out of spite, but I’m done holding back. The way you treat your employees is horrible. You constantly belittle us speak to us in a rude manner and treat us like we don’t matter. Respect is earned not given just because you hold the title of General Manager. You should re-evaluate the way you treat your employees because the majority of us can’t stand working with you.
Sincerely,
Name Withheld
P.S. Oh and by the way, I quit! I’ll miss you all! (Except you, Name Withheld.)
I can only imagine how this message filled this server’s soul with joy. Just knowing that she got to say exactly what she wanted to say to her boss, but also that the entire team saw it as well, has to be so satisfying. The best part is that now the General Manger knows exactly how her team feels about working for her and she has to accept it. She can tip toe around asking, “Well, is that how you feel?” and “Does everyone here hate me?” And no matter what anyone says to her face, she’ll know what they are probably thinking.
Vengeance can be a wonderful thing.
I wish all good things to this employee who gave her co-workers a wonderful gift this holiday season. Hopefully, this GM will see the error in her ways and change her behavior. Or perhaps Movie Tavern will investigate and see what they can do to make the working conditions more tolerable for Syracuse employees.
Restaurant managers need to understand this: the majority of those of us who work in the service industry want to do a good job. If management treats us with respect, we will have even more incentive to work harder. Too many managers think it’s alright to treat us poorly but then turn around and expect us to treat our customers and co-workers with respect. That’s not how it works. We are a team and when we all respect each other, morale goes up and service gets better. If you’re a manager who doesn’t respect your employees, then you 100% deserve to be roasted on Hot Schedules and this blog. Get your shit together, Movie Tavern Syracuse.
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Dana Timmons
People quit managers and toxic environments not jobs we’ve all had at least one toxic manager in our lives at some point . I really enjoy your blog , youtube and Instagram so funny and talented keep up the amazing work!
TheLonerBoxOfficeGuy
I work here. She was mediocre at best. The reason of this is because apparently she forgot to request off for her graduation and sent a message out saying she’s not coming in for her shift. The GM responded back by saying, “ Did you request this off? The schedule has been out for 8 days. What have you done about getting your shift covered? I know you are not here much longer but this is disrespectful to everyone that is working here today”.
Not really professional. But I guess she wanted to get recognition for being anonymous. Her name is Ryleigh Frey.
Ryleigh Frey
I did not write this blog post nor did I ask for it to be written. I fo not know how my hot schedules made it to him but clearly someone who received it decided to send it in to the blog author. I signed my name when I sent the email so I don’t know where you get off thinking I did it to get recognition for being anonymous. Also this did not stem from the email I received about not calling off for my graduation. 1. I was not able to request off because the dates were blocked off when I found out I needed off. 2. I released my shift and sent out 2 hot schedules messages asking for someone to pick it up. 3. Ask anyone who worked the Tuesday before that particular shift and I begged nearly everyone to pick it up. But that’s irrelevant anyways. The message stemmed from the GM being an rude to me as well as many other employees for little things. I know everyone there was on edge during the holidays but there is a way to communicate issues and yelling at your employees in that manor is not how to do it. Also I find it funny how you want to post my first and last name call me “mediocre at best” yet remain anonymous. Not to mention the only people who work there with access to the email you just quoted word for word are the mangers. I never claimed to be the best server I just think that employees deserve to be treated with respect from management and at Movie Tavern that was not the case with certain mangers.
notme
Haha…….I work at that MT and the GM is NOT a girl…………I don’t know where that came from
Dan
Worked here. Are they saying the gm is a girl? I worked there recently and it was a guy. Pointy beard mustache goatee combo. The MT is his kingdom.
Ariel Riley
Reaming out a boss on your way is in no stretch of the imagination something to be proud of. It’s not brave and in fact, it’s quite being a chicken shit. If you’re BRAVE, you do this while employed and risk being fired over it.
She didn’t tell her boss how she feels, she told her ex-boss how she feels. Whooptyfuckingdo.
Philip Jackson
“Risk being fired over it.” Did you hear the words you wrote? Didn’t think so.
Ashley
I sent an e-mail to my ex-employer’s owners a few years ago regarding his poor choice in managers. I worked for The Ordinary, in Charleston, SC. The owners, chefs, food, and my coworkers were mostly amazing. The managers were TERRIBLE. They made everyone fear coming into work and had no idea how to manage people or the restaurant. I quit, on my birthday, after over 2 years of service, due to the male manager’s behavior. It was a total “boy’s club” where the male staff was not only favored over the female staff (by both the male and female manager) but “rules” didn’t apply to the men. My favorite example: none of us were allowed to have our cell phones on us. We could leave them in the manager’s office for our shift (so we didn’t have to walk to our cars later at night without them), or leave them in our cars/at home. A female was SUSPECTED to have her cell phone on her and the manager stood outside of the bathroom door for a few minutes until she came out and thoroughly searched her for it! She didn’t have it on her. An unknown cell phone was left in a bathroom before opening hours. The male manager accused 3 female employees before a male employee stepped up and said, oh that’s mine. The phone was given back to him in front of all of us with nothing said. I was yelled at for leaving a cork on a table – the guests requested it to be left, which didn’t matter to the manager. I was berated for over 30 minutes in the office for making too much noise while putting coffee/tea plates into a drawer. This place is an AWESOME restaurant and great place to learn about fine food and wine, but they did a terrible job of hiring managers. Sure, they knew about food and wine, but not about the most important part of the job…how to manage people.