Control Tempers in your Restaurant

Working in a restaurant can be stressful and anyone that thinks it's easy to own or operate a restaurant has obviously never done it. You've no doubt watched the television shows such as 'Bar Rescue', 'Hell's Kitchen', 'Kitchen Nightmares' and so on. What they have in common is
usually a lack of communication by staff, messy and dirty kitchens and bars, lack of professionalism in the workplace, poor quality control and disregard of customer service. The result is often fighting and arguing among the staff and can go so far as even fighting with the customers.

   If you want a smooth running restaurant that is also profitable, you're going to have to control tempers in your restaurant starting at the top and working with everyone in the business. Dealing with employees has it's ups and downs.  It's not as hard as you might think if you take our tips to heart and utilize all of them every day. Keeping your cool has benefits and you can start implementing them right away.

   Here are our best tips to control tempers in your restaurant:

   * Start with Learning how to Control your own temper
with a great read - Anger Management and how to live a happier life. You'd be surprised at how you set the tone of your business every day. Things aren't going to go your way, your staff isn't going to be happy every day, vendors aren't always going to do what you want or need and customers aren't always happy either.

   * Have a daily meeting (short and to the point) with your entire staff before your business opens for the day. Keeping everyone informed of specials of the day, menu changes, new drink options, items you want to move out, banquet information and any particular tasks of the day will be much appreciated by the staff when they know what you expect and demand. End the daily meeting with a moral booster and tell them what they do great and what they can do better. Staff that knows your expectations and feel appreciated will work harder and smarter for themselves and for your bottom line too.

   * Hire smart! Make sure you're interviewing potential employees by asking specific questions on how they would handle x customer complaint, or y not getting along with a co-worker, or z feeling overwhelmed. You'll learn a lot from asking simple basic questions during the interview and you can weed out those potential employees that you don't think would be a good fit in your company. Make them give you examples of how these things have happened in the past and how they reacted. Ask them how they communicate, how they deal with stress and anger and what changes they could have made in the past. Interviews are very telling if you do them right. Hire slow and Fire fast is a good motto to learn and keep!

   * Deal with Anger issues immediately when you see it happening. Pull an employee aside into a private area (with a manager witness) and describe what you saw, get their point of view and explain your policy and procedure. Verbal warnings are the first part of termination and should be done before written warnings to be fair to employees. People that make the same mistakes over and over probably aren't going to change and will hurt your business in the long run. Pay attention to your staff and act swiftly to curb further problems no matter if they're small or big. Small ones eventually turn into bigger problems anyway.

   * Avoid allowing cell phones at work. Period. Any emergency calls to a staff member should be called to the manager and then the employee can call home for more details. When you allow cell phones at work, the focus is lost, employees can have arguments via text or emailing or calling and then before you know it, the attitude changes and they're mad, sad or crying - any of these are awful for your restaurant when you want happy and satisfied customers.

   * Be approachable. Make sure your staff knows that you are there, can be reached and they can talk to you about any issues at work. Be a guidance for them to help sort out work issues. You'll be surprised at how much you'll learn from your staff when they can approach and trust you. Oftentimes, you can nip problems in the bud before they escalate.

   * Watch your staff. Don't just hire and throw them to the wolves. Make sure they've read your policy and procedure manual, are paired with your best trainer in each department and then observe them in action with customers. Go with them if need be to make sure they're doing everything you want and expect for your customers before you allow them to work alone.

   * Hold your staff accountable for all the daily tasks that need done in your restaurant. There's always prep that needs done daily, during the shift work and end of day cleaning. Everyone should be doing all their tasks to keep their work area clean and organized which reduces tempers rising and arguments ensuing. We've always said 'if you have time to lean, you have time to clean' and made sure to keep our staff busy from arriving to leaving. They make better money when your place is neat, clean, organized and the staff is knowledgeable so show them how to do it and them keep them accountable.

   The only time anger at work is tolerable is when you're trying to get a spot on Hell's Kitchen, Bar Rescue or any of the other high tempered restaurant shows!

How are you dealing with tempers in your restaurant? Share below.
Stay cool (talk a break in the coolers or freezer if need be) Cheers!