Restaurant Manager
Establishment: The London Grill
Location: Benson Hotel
This place goes through managers like most people change hair styles. Nine in the last 4 or 5 years. The problem is the GM of the hotel tries to manage the place from his office and is afraid of the union and the union employees. The waitstaff in this place makes in excess of 50k per year with some making over 70k, which is more than they pay the managers and the staff calls all the shots. The staff actually runs a pool on how long the new manager will last. Totally disfunctional in every way. If you take the job plan on being there for 6 months or so. Anything more than that and you will be begging to leave.
Comments
I did work as a manager for them a few years ago. I started out at $35k plus benefits. I paid nothing out of pocket for excellent medical and dental, was given 2 weeks paid vacation (after one year), 401k options, and plenty of other benefits. I actually liked the majority of the staff and enjoyed my time there.
It’s even worse than that. I never worked in the position, but I did interview—really, really low pay (less than $30K) in exchange for 12+ hour shifts (always), in which you manage the restaurant, the lobby lounge AND roomservice.
Coast Hotels is notoriously cheap to work for and tend to value their line level, operational managers the least. While they’ll pay their sales staff on the low end, it’s generally competitive, for ops it’s pathetic. And if they don’t offer you a salary, you get to be a “working” manager, meaning you work your shifts AND have managerial responsibilities.
And from what I’ve heard, don’t think you’ll be the ONE who manages to get rid of the most entrenched union staff. Many have tried, all have failed.