Hey internet, Just wondering if anybody here has experience working in fine-dining. My buddy just got hired as a server in a 5-star restaurant, and due to an unfortunate incident with a customer that was handled poorly by his manager, he is now "on notice" for a bullshit reason, and because of this incident, the manager has the attitude that my buddy needs to "know his place" and is essentially setting him up for failure. (triple-seating across the entire restaurant so he can't monitor his diners, assigning him to a horrible section with only 2 tables near the kitchen, etc.) Is there anything that my friend can do to keep his job and stop this particular manager from fucking with him? Thanks in advance. If you want/need more details, feel free to PM me.
Probably not. I mean, if I were the manager, and I wanted to get rid of him I'd do just what that one's doing. Make him quit don't fire him. That way he can't get an unemployment claim. Your friend should tough it out if he needs a job, and look for another one if he's not happy. It's not like he just made partner at a law firm or something, it's just a restaurant job, it should be considered disposable.
learn the regulars names and be charming enough that they remember him/give compliments to the manager. if the customers like him, the manager wont be able to justify firing him
That's part of the problem... aside from being an artist, the restaurant business is kind of his bread-and-butter. (no pun) This guy has been working in fine dining since high school to pay his own way.. and with the way things are today (especially in our area) it took him a good long while to find this job.. now that he has decent employment at a job he likes, cue Murphy's Law. It's pretty damn near impossible to find another job. He is toughing it out, it just sucks because what the manager's doing is well, unethical. Especially since the manager handled an incident poorly and shifted the blame on my buddy, and is now setting him up for failure.
It would probably help him to monitor the manager's mood, wait for the right moment, and explain to him that his job is important to him. Don't make out like it's someone else's fault, even if it really is, and just keep expressing interest and saying things like, "I just want to learn to be good at what we're doing here because this is a great restaurant and blah blah blah". Nothing like a little brown nosing to get that job security.