Restaurant Workers Are Number One At Quitting

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Alpha8472
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Restaurant Workers Are Number One At Quitting

Post by Alpha8472 »

Which industry has the most job quitters? Restaurant workers are number one.

https://drugstorenews.com/which-industr ... b-quitters
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Re: Restaurant Workers Are Number One At Quitting

Post by storewanderer »

High turnover work environments just cause more and more high turnover. The problem feeds on itself. But they are usually high turnover for good reason.

Working conditions are generally not good. Management is usually not strong (or as if they aren't even present). The customers expect a lot. Automation is probably the best solution for these businesses but then the few employees they would need to watch the machines would have to be better quality than the employee base they currently have.

Grocery store delis have similar problems to restaurants in terms of retaining staff.

The other thing with restaurants is there are so many, it isn't hard to go find another job if the wind blows the wrong way at your current restaurant job.

Tonight I went into a McDonalds that was open inside (usually not open inside) and asked what time they are closing inside. I was told by the cashier "I don't know" and by the person who gave me my drink "it depends how many of us are here." Can't even get a straight answer on hours. Iced tea tasted great though, equipment was obviously properly cleaned and it was properly brewed. There were 8 employees working.
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Re: Restaurant Workers Are Number One At Quitting

Post by veteran+ »

You nailed it!!!

:D :idea: :D :idea:
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Re: Restaurant Workers Are Number One At Quitting

Post by pseudo3d »

A big problem with restaurants is no upwards mobility. For most restaurants, especially chain restaurants, you can upgrade to manager, which means long hours (more than 40) on a salary, and because ownership of the restaurant as well as everything else--HR, decor, menu, hours, etc. are set by whoever owns the restaurant, you aren't gaining much by becoming a manager.

You can't go off with your own restaurant because the barriers to entry for that are ridiculously high with permits and other costs.
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Re: Restaurant Workers Are Number One At Quitting

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: November 12th, 2022, 7:56 am A big problem with restaurants is no upwards mobility. For most restaurants, especially chain restaurants, you can upgrade to manager, which means long hours (more than 40) on a salary, and because ownership of the restaurant as well as everything else--HR, decor, menu, hours, etc. are set by whoever owns the restaurant, you aren't gaining much by becoming a manager.

You can't go off with your own restaurant because the barriers to entry for that are ridiculously high with permits and other costs.
That is a big problem. The restaurant servers and bartenders can make what feels like good money via tips. Good money for a student or young person working there part time vs. working in a retail store anyway. Once moving up into management, no more tips.

Could it be the entire restaurant business model is broken and destined to fail save for family run operations or super upscale operations? As more and more states no longer allow the "tipped" employees to be paid $2/hr which is going to be an ongoing trend in the future, plus minimum wage increases across the board, I don't see how a lot of the lowscale/midscale restaurants will survive their current labor intensive model.

Maybe a model with more take out will work (eliminates all the labor for servers, most of the dishwasher labor, less restroom use, etc.) out for some chains and I think some chains are in the process of very much successfully pivoting in that direction.
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Re: Restaurant Workers Are Number One At Quitting

Post by veteran+ »

Restaurants have one of the highest failure rates amongst businesses.

The reasons are many but all lead to the top (owner/manager).
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Re: Restaurant Workers Are Number One At Quitting

Post by buckguy »

Nothing new here. Restaurant work is hard, the working conditions often are not great, and most new restaurants fail in the first year---under capitalized, wrong concept for the area, lousy cooking,---just many reasons for that and many people bail before the place closes. Wage theft is common---much litigation around this with chains, where it's easier to bring cases given the stable businesses; sexual harassment---ask anyone who's been a waitress. There is a career ladder for people who want to become chefs but it doesn't pay well and ultimately even chefs often need to have ownership stakes in order to do well.
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Re: Restaurant Workers Are Number One At Quitting

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: November 12th, 2022, 4:02 pm Could it be the entire restaurant business model is broken and destined to fail save for family run operations or super upscale operations? As more and more states no longer allow the "tipped" employees to be paid $2/hr which is going to be an ongoing trend in the future, plus minimum wage increases across the board, I don't see how a lot of the lowscale/midscale restaurants will survive their current labor intensive model.

Maybe a model with more take out will work (eliminates all the labor for servers, most of the dishwasher labor, less restroom use, etc.) out for some chains and I think some chains are in the process of very much successfully pivoting in that direction.
It doesn't have to make any difference. If they are being paid a more normal wage, the prices for items would rise accordingly to cover those higher wages. Once people know that they are now paid the same as the rest of those working there (kitchen staff and such), they can lower or eliminate tipping, which offsets the increased prices on the menu.

Customer is still paying a similar price in total, employees are still making reasonable money and no longer an issue between one group of workers and another.
pseudo3d wrote: November 12th, 2022, 7:56 am A big problem with restaurants is no upwards mobility. For most restaurants, especially chain restaurants, you can upgrade to manager, which means long hours (more than 40) on a salary, and because ownership of the restaurant as well as everything else--HR, decor, menu, hours, etc. are set by whoever owns the restaurant, you aren't gaining much by becoming a manager.

You can't go off with your own restaurant because the barriers to entry for that are ridiculously high with permits and other costs.
That only depends on where you are and what you want to do. Small locations can be reasonable, and permits can be less or more depending on what ones someone wants (for instance, places that don't do alcohol are far cheaper, since they don't need that separate application, and they can still do just fine without it).
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Re: Restaurant Workers Are Number One At Quitting

Post by storewanderer »

BillyGr wrote: November 13th, 2022, 10:48 am
storewanderer wrote: November 12th, 2022, 4:02 pm Could it be the entire restaurant business model is broken and destined to fail save for family run operations or super upscale operations? As more and more states no longer allow the "tipped" employees to be paid $2/hr which is going to be an ongoing trend in the future, plus minimum wage increases across the board, I don't see how a lot of the lowscale/midscale restaurants will survive their current labor intensive model.

Maybe a model with more take out will work (eliminates all the labor for servers, most of the dishwasher labor, less restroom use, etc.) out for some chains and I think some chains are in the process of very much successfully pivoting in that direction.
It doesn't have to make any difference. If they are being paid a more normal wage, the prices for items would rise accordingly to cover those higher wages. Once people know that they are now paid the same as the rest of those working there (kitchen staff and such), they can lower or eliminate tipping, which offsets the increased prices on the menu.

Customer is still paying a similar price in total, employees are still making reasonable money and no longer an issue between one group of workers and another.

There is a lot of confusion about tips. Tipping expectation in the US used to be 15% generally speaking. In the past 10 years tipping attitude has changed and it is not unusual to see 25-30% tips being given.

As I travel I am not familiar with the different laws and pay rates. But one I do know, Idaho still lets the servers only get paid as a wage $3/hr or basically nothing+tips and Nevada/California has the servers being paid at minimum wage $10 or $15 or something +tips.

https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/ ... -by-state/

I am also not sure with tips depending what restaurant I go to if the full tip goes to the server or the tip goes into a tip pool and is split among all staff. This factor may well impact how much I want to tip as well.

But when I go to Texas Roadhouse in Idaho and the same entree is $2 cheaper in Idaho than it is in Nevada, I don't modify the tip proportionately based on that $2 cheaper. The tip is that 15% or 20% or something in that range of the total, so the tip in Idaho is lower and wage is lower. Based on current ways of computing tips (%), the server is the loser as they get paid less then get less tips to boot.
Nevada- entree $18.99
Tax 8.265% 1.57
Tip $3.08

Idaho - entree $16.99
Tax 6% 1.01
Tip $2.70


Now looking at this perhaps tip should be figured "per item" rather than as a % of total. When even the credit card machine at Five Guys now gives you a tip prompt when paying with options like 15% 25% and 35%, though, it seems % based tips are the expected norm.

Going back to the topic of this thread, I would go to the next question: looking at those states: CA, MN, OR, WA, NV - where the servers are paid at minimum wage plus tips, does that help reduce turnover of restaurant workers or make it easier for restaurants to attract employees? I don't know the answer to that question, but it does seem like full service restaurants tend to be staffed better than fast food at the present time.
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