Contract Food Service

It has been a year since my last post and I've decided to start posting again. Since then I've gotten out of the restaurant seen and moved on to contract food service which is a little different then working in a restaurant. The company I work for which I'm not going to mention has contracts for various establishments. Everything from government facilities to resorts and law firms. I am now a night chef/manager for the cafeteria I work in at a law firm.
In the restaurant world as a manager you are drilled about labor and food cost to no end but in the contract food service world depending on how the contract is set up things like food cost are not worried about to the extreme as they would be in a restaurant. It is still important but food cost will be generaly higher. For instance where I work we are subsidized and the client pays for all the food and we handle it for them so while we watch food cost it is not a priority unless the client wants to focus on it.
As for everything else we just have to answer to the client much the way a restaurant would answer to corporate. Labor is always a big focus exspecially in these times. As for the rest of the head aches in managing staff it is pretty much the same across the board. Other differences is that the customers are the same people everyday when accounts are not public like the law firm. Things that effect a restaurants business don't effect a private contract food service account. For instance schools being closed could mean a busy day in a restaurant where as at the law firm it could mean nothing or that we would do less business because people have to get their kids.
All in all contract food service is a different world compared to the restaurant world. A restaurant goes under when it dosn't do any business and in contract food service you go under when you lose contracts. Either way you go it is still a tough job and the stresses are about the same so you gotta love it. In my experience both sides of the coin are fun wether you work in a restaurant or in contract food service.

Restaurants Fighting to keep Managers

The restaurant business is flooded with opportunity and it is hard to keep managers as well as staff. The turn over rate is probably higher than any other type of business. I have been with my current restaurant company for almost two years and I have been transfered to five different restaurants all because of managers quiting or getting fired.
I find that most low end restaurants can not compete in terms of pay scale with the higher end restaurants. So most people like myself get hired into low end restaurants just for management experience for a year or two then move on.
I just got hired for $9,000 more on the year then what I make now at my curent position so of course I will be moving on. There are tons of restaurants all over so this increases the amount of opportunity and makes it that much harder to keep managers.
This is why most of the time when you hear someone say "when they first opened they were good now they are terrible." is true because there probably were three or four sets of different managers to come through which makes it harder to be consistent.

The slowest time of the year

Its after the holidays and everything is slowing down. The restaurant industry slows to a crawl. This dosn't mean we don't have to work as hard. In fact being in a management position we have to work harder.
Now we have to cut labor and run with a skeleton crew so if we get busy we get screwed in a sense. This means we have to run around and make the restaurant run with the least amount of staff as possible.
If tables don't get cleaned quick enough I have to clean tables. If the food isn't getting cooked fast enough I have to cook and if tables aren't getting waited on fast enough I have to assist the servers.
Everyone has to work a little bit harder when we get busy due to labor cuts but the busy periods only last a couple hours this time of year and we mostly remain slow.

Happy Holidays

Its the holiday season and the shopping rush is on. Whats this mean for the restaurant industry? It means most every restaurant is getting hit with holiday partys and loads of customers coming in from long days of shopping. A money making season.
It means employee call offs so they can attend holiday partys. It means gift card sales and pie sales. It means working on xmas eve when most people have off. So if you go out to eat this holiday season just remember were getting the rush just like the retail stores.