“You’re not in the bar or restaurant business; you’re in the people business.” -Jon Taffer
You’ll rarely be treated better by an employer than during the hiring process. Like a first date, initial impressions matter and restaurants should want you to like them. If you aren’t given respect and they’re cold and disorganized, you won’t be treated better after you’re hired. The first rule for any successful bar is taking care of its staff. If the place is toxic nothing can save it… nothing!
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A few years ago I had a very unpleasant interview at a newly established chain restaurant. They texted me for an interview instead of phoning. The text was from an obvious template where they merely added my name. The manager said we’d meet at the restaurant but when I arrived he wasn’t there. Very professional (sarcasm)!
Instead, a moody bartender handed me a form to complete and pointed to the bartop. My friendly attempt at small talk was brushed aside. I was offered no drink and the bartender never smiled or acknowledged me again. Maybe she had a bad day or had been hit on all day, or maybe the work culture there SUCKED.
For a chain restaurant much of this surprised me. Not only should you offer a drink out of basic courtesy, but it’s also a way to weed out unfit candidates. Those who ask for an alcoholic drink aren’t experienced or professional, and this was a sign management didn’t care.
In fact, they were interviewing many people and we all went through the same meat-grinding process. We were handed a form, sat at the bar, offered no drink, and ignored until it was time to talk to the hiring manager. I’d be embarrassed if I owned that place. Then again, by that time I’d be ashamed to own most bars in my city.
Most of the supervisors and staff weren’t friendly or approachable… at all! The atmosphere was cold, quiet, and stifling, I felt depressed the entire time. “Who would want to work for such people, at such a miserable place,” I wondered to myself. If employers aren’t friendly and don’t treat you with the same respect they do with customers, why would they value you as an employee?
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All of this occurred BEFORE I even talked to the hiring manager, but by then I had decided I wouldn’t work there. But out of politeness and curiosity I wanted to finish the gauntlet like process.
To be fair he was friendly (at least someone was) but he was disorganized and struggled to find my resume in the tiny pile in front of him. He said the right things and knew a lot about the industry, but if you’ve bartended long enough you recognize bullshit and the signs of a poorly ran establishment. I was grateful when he lied about putting my resume in the most likely to hire pile.
You could argue maybe they just had a bad day, but my instincts screamed otherwise. How could the bartender, servers, supervisors, and hiring manager all have a bad day? They could’ve been professional enough to at least PRETEND to be welcoming on a day they were interviewing for their entire FOH and BOH staff! I’ve drowned in the mud and blood of the industry, lost friends, and done all their jobs in my long, checkered career so I get it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. But at crucial moments like these you put on your game face, suppress all bitterness, and play the part. It’s like I’ve always said, “bartending is all acting, and it’s all bullshit.”
We all know people are complicated, go through tragedies and shit, have off days, but it’s still necessary to maintain a measure of professionalism and kindness at work. It was a decently profitable chain restaurant that supposedly understood business, marketing, and basic human emotions. This showed a toxic working culture at worst, or apathetic one at best.
I was glad they never called me back, even though I needed a job badly. There’s a study that suggests having a toxic job is surprisingly even worse for your mental health than having no job at all. It’s not good for rent and financial obligations, but it’s true.
Richard Branson once said “clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” I never understood how important that was until that day. I’d be surprised if the place is still open when I’ve finished my memoirs.