Kitchen Manager step down

This is the sad state affairs of restaurants today: pay as little as possible and demand as much work as possible. Result: pissed off employees. Consequence: more road rage, more holes punched in the walls, property destruction, name calling, nasty firings and just general hell. Employers really need to stop running on the cheap and hire a proper staff.
I must emphasize the fact that you do not one of these “high volume, one-person kitchen” jobs. What this means is that the owners are flying on the cheap and perhaps barely just making it financially; they cannot afford a proper staff. You do not want to work totally alone; this includes cooking, prepping, do the dishes and janitorial tasks like wiping down the stainless, taking out the garbage and cleaning the bathrooms. Cooking is one job; prepping is one job; dishwashing and janitorial is one job. Therefore, if you are going to be doing the work of three people, then you should be getting paid three persons’ wages. What some owners are trying to do is squeeze every ounce of labor for the lowest wage possible, and this is something undesirable. At first, you may be excited with just having a job, perhaps just having been laid off and not wanting to be out of work very long. But after a few days or weeks, doing the work of three people for say, $11.00 an hour will start to get to you, and it should. It is time for employers to start paying wages commensurate with both experience and the level of work involved.
So, once again, cooking is one job, prepping is another job, and dishwashing in itself is yet another job. We’ll say it again just so any employers reading this know for sure the insult and deep anger that hard workers feel against cheap employers who try to get three jobs for the price of one. Cooking is one job. Prepping is one job. Dishwashing is one job. There are some prep duties associated with cooking, and there may be some prep duties associated with dishwashing–but this does NOT mean cooking, prepping, and dishwashing for one cheap wage. Depending on the number of orders (or covers) in one shift or one day, cooking and some light prepping can be done, provided that you are not trying to prep and cook at the same time, which can be maddening to say the least. When you overwhelm your mind with too many tasks, well–ever wonder why some cooks lose their temper so easily? It’s because they’re trying to do too many things at the same time and anxiety sets in. Anxiety turns into panic, and realizing there is no escape from the current situation (e.g., there are a lot of customers waiting to order), some cooks will just flip out and leave (not a good idea, since this burns off a reference), or they will get so pissed off that utensils will fly and profanity (and insanity) will ensue. For example, imagine that you are a cook, a prep cook, a dishwasher, a janitor and an order taker–that’s five separate major tasks. Are you getting say, $10.00 an hour for each job? Are you getting the $50.00 and hour that would normally require five people to do? At the very least, you should be making $30.00 an hour–that’s five major tasks for the labor price of three people. The owner should consider that a bargain. Instead, he or she will probably laugh at your proposal, because they always want to take things on the cheap. It’s time for employers to stop being cheap and pay people what they are worth! Of course, if an employee is not worth much, then the burden for an inefficient worker remaining on the staff falls on the manager.
What you really want to look for, then, is not a small operation that has barely enough money to keep the doors open. What you do not want is the owner pitching in to save on labor costs. If he or she is having a hand in the day to day operations, such as bussing tables, serving, prepping and maybe even helping out on the line. What this also means is that the owner(s) will also scrutinize every dollar and try to justify every penny that is spent. This may also mean that you will hear comments like, “You should feel lucky to have your paycheck. I wish I could take home as much as you!” If you should hear this from the owner, this is a sure sign the doors are about to close for good, and you should immediately begin a job search and resign at the earliest convenience. Running a cafe or restaurant takes gobs of money, not just a few thousand dollars, so any time your boss or the owner makes you feel “lucky” for getting your check, it’s time to quit–and soon. “Lucky” applies to winning the lottery, or perhaps finding a fifty dollar bill on the ground with no one else in sight. At your job, there is no luck involved; you are a hard-working employee who earns a paycheck; luck has absolutely nothing to do with it. You are trading your services rendered for a wage, and that’s all. If the employer has barely enough money to make ends meet, when a $10 expense takes two hours to justify, it’s time to quit and seek employment at a place that has a significant cash reserve to carry it through slow periods without making their employees feel “lucky.” Naturally, some employers, upon reading this information, would be outraged, because it is often the truth which causes the greatest outrage. If your employer has say, a $2 or $3 million cash reserve, which is what it often takes to keep the cafe or restaurant open for the seven-year stretch of writing off losses, then for that period you could work there and not feel lucky for having a job.
Ideally, you would want to work in a cafe or restaurant that is subsidized by some other operation of the owner, so that the cafe or restaurant, which often loses money, can be carried through difficult financial times. Ideally, retirement homes and assisted living facilities are some of the best places to work for, since the money to pay for the residents is already there and meals are included in the rent, in addition to the fact that some of the costs are paid for by government assistance and the other costs are paid by affluent or wealth families. Labor is a cost of doing business, just like the cost of goods: food, paper and janitorial supplies, dishes, silverware, or any other consumable to run the operation properly. You don’t want to be a part of a company on thin ice, a company that is about to go under, because then that puts you in a jam, and you may not be able to make next month’s rent. Don’t let yourself remain in such a situation. Ask your boss from time to time how things are going, but don’t tell him or her why you are asking. Although you have a right to a secure job, owners, when things are either really good or really bad, will usually want to share that information as a type of mental relief. When things are going just okay, the owner or your boss may not say much, which is understandable up to a point. They don’t have to tell you anything they don’t want to. But you do have a right to know if the business plans to stay open for at least the next year so that your own financial status is not put in danger. After all, you need to eat and live indoors, too. You don’t want your paycheck from a shaky company feeling like luck, or anything to do with luck. So, this means that if your cafe or restaurant is looks good on the books and there are a steady flow of regular customers from day to day, then you are set. Talk to your boss, human resources, do a search on the Internet. Ask questions. Find out what’s going on so that you can continue to prosper in the future, just like the owner also wants to prosper.
Neither the workers nor the owner, however, enjoy a shortage of money. But in the restaurant and food service industries, the cost of food, supplies, services, permits, licenses and utilities can swallow huge sums of cash, more than almost any type of operation. Perhaps it is the romance of “opening up a nice cafe” that has drawn away office workers from the hum drum of sitting at a desk, when, in fact, some kitchen workers would kill for a desk job. Some actually do like their jobs, however, they want and expect to be well paid for it–not on the cheap. Likewise, as a skilled tradesman in culinary arts, you do not want to be lazy and take advantage of the owner by taking too many breaks when you could be prepping or at least cleaning your station. Cooking and prepping is skilled and semi-skilled labor, respectively. It should not be classified as unskilled labor just so the employer can get away with paying minimum wage or just above. Cooking, prepping and dishwashing are hard jobs, so they should be paid well. If not, well that explains why a certain establishment has a high turnover of kitchen staff. Higher pay, lower turnover. Low pay, high turnover. It’s just basic economics. The owners want to pay as little as possible, the workers want to earn as much as possible. Finding an agreeable center between these two is ideal, and all it takes is a little communication between the worker and manager (or owner).