Corporate Commitment

Here is a quote from the O'Charleys Annual Report filed with the SEC on 3/10/06. In the section on Outlook, page 31:

"Strengthen the organization with a new core of talent and build a winning team".............

" Enhance guest satisfaction and intent to return by instilling 'A Passion to Serve' at all levels of the organization. In 2005, we adopted a vision statement: 'A Passion to Serve'. This statement describes our commitment to our guests, each other, our stakeholders and our communities. Our vision is to be the best of class in food and service in our segments of the restaurant industry. We are making operational changes to improve the guest experience from the moment they walk through the door, until the moment they leave as a satisfied guest. We are improving the screening, training, and development of team members at all levels of the organization, focusing first on those who come in contact with our guests. We are measuring guest satisfaction and rewarding our restaurant managers on the achievement of specific targets. "

Employee Review/Evaluation

Does management ever have a one-on-one with employees? No. Perhaps if you request it and Stacey happens to remember that you made an appointment with him you sit down. More often than not, he forgets. He often makes a joke of it, although it is very important to you. Even if you do get a minute, does the GM listen or does he talk the whole time? He probably "told you what you wanted to hear" and promptly forgot about the meeting or your concerns. I bet if someone looked in the employee files they would find no evals for the past two years. That is because management does not care what you think and you are not worth the time it takes to sit down with you. I am sure that somewhere, in the procedures and policies, there exists a requirement for employee reviews. Like many of the company's desires and mandates, this management team ignores and is not capable of conforming or performing. This place is run like a mom and pop diner, and you know who mom and pop are!

Ghetto Maintenance

Every guest who leaves this restaurant takes a look at the door handle when leaving. It is a disgrace to the O'Charleys concept that the door handles are in such state of disrepair. Touching them, one feels that the whole handle might fall off in your hands. This place will continue to be second or third class until somebody takes control of maintaining the equipment and building. There is no pride here or competency in caring for the physical appearance of the building, the food, or the staff. It is all run down.

Must See Movie

"Waiting" Here is a movie that everyone who has ever worked in a restaurant can relate to. Be ready to laugh and cringe. People you work beside will no doubt come to mind for many of the antics you see here. Hopefully you will not see yourself in one of the characters.

Zone Buddy

Does anybody have a nomination for an outstanding zone buddy? There are some people who go out of their way to help others, whether it be running food, greeting, helping sidework, singing, or helping on the computer. There are others, well, you know..... forget them. Who are the all stars here, it might even be a manager??

Who's Minding the Store

It seems odd that, at brunch today, the management team decides that the KM and AKM wear cook jackets and spend the entire shift cooking while the GM is the alley manager. This leaves the speedy adrm to run the front of the house. I suppose saving cook labor is more important than greeting and taking care of the guests at the tables.

Maybe if it takes these two cooking plus the $20/hr cook behind the line to get cook times right they should be there full time. Bring in two more managers please.

Quality Circle--Not!

Unless there is some kind of last minute announcement, which is familiar, there is no Quality Circle Meeting for March. This means none for 3 out of 4 months. As you will remember, Stacey did not show for December or January. I guess he forgot again. At least this time he did not inconvenience anybody by having them show up for naught. Surely the last minute menu rollout meeting does not count. Since these monthly meetings are company mandated, perhaps this blog is what he reports as feedback from employees. Maybe he just fakes it. How many things are fake at this restaurant?

TV Commercial

Have you seen the television commercial currently showing? The servers are wearing long sleeve white shirts. This may mean a new uniform standard coming down the pipe. I wonder if corporate is just waiting for all the colored shirts in inventory at the commissary to sell to stores. The stains on the red, yellow, and blue shirts are kind of hidden. I hate to think what white will look like. Should I risk buying an extra shirt just to have the requirement changed. If we are changing, it will be interesting to see how the transition is handled. Hopefully they will give us each at least two new shirts.

New Job Codes

MEMO FROM ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT TO ALL CORPORATE AND STORE EMPLOYEES
It has come to our attention recently that many of you have large amounts of "Miscellaneous Unproductive Time" (Code 5309). We need to know exactly what you are doing during your unproductive time. Below is a sheet specifying a tentative extended job code list based on our observations of employee activities. The list will allow you to specify with a fair amount of precision what you are doing during your unproductive time. Please begin using this job-code list immediately on the squirrel and let us know about any difficulties you encounter. Suggestions for other job codes are welcome.

Thank you,Accounting

Attached: Extended Job-Code List Code Description

5316 Useless Meeting
5317 Obstructing Communications at Meeting
5318 Trying to Sound Knowledgeable While in Meeting
5319 Waiting for Break
5320 Waiting for Lunch
5321 Waiting for End of Day
5322 Vicious Verbal Attacks Directed at Coworker
5323 Vicious Verbal Attacks Directed at Coworker Who is Not Present
5393 Covering for Incompetence of Coworker Friend
5400 Explaining Concept to Coworker Who is Not Interested in Learning
5401 Trying to Explain Concept to Coworker Who is Stupid
5402 Trying to Explain Concept to Coworker Who Hates You
5403 Trying to figure out spec
5410 Yelling Full Hands
5411 Cursing at lack of Rolls
5412 Pre-bussing
5414 Bussing your own tables
5420 Running your own food
5421 Running someone else's food
5430 Deep cleaning
5440 Waiting for bartender to make your drinks
5441 Waiting for guest to get off their cell phone
5442 Waiting to get signed out by closer
5443 Waiting for recook
5444 Explaining to cook that something was left off of plate
5445 Explaining C-serv
5446 Arguing with cook that steak is not as ordered
5460 Doing sidework
5461 Doing someone else's sidework
5462 Greeting someone else's table
5463 Being a team player
5464 Being a zone buddy
5470 Looking for a manager
5471 Looking for another manager
5481 Buying Snack
5482 Eating Snack
5490 Trying to remember when we stopped having honey butter
5500 Filling Out Timesheet
5501 Inventing Timesheet Entries
5502 Waiting for Something to Happen
5503 Scratching Yourself
5504 Sleeping
5510 Feeling Bored
5511 Feeling Horny
5600 Complaining About Lousy Job
5601 Complaining About Low Pay
5602 Complaining About Long Hours
5603 Complaining About Coworker (See Codes #5322 & #5323)
5604 Complaining About Boss
5605 Complaining About Personal Problems
5606 Complaining about sidework
5607 Complaining about not getting cut
5608 Complaining about not getting sat
5609 Complaining about getting double sat
5620 Complaining about tipping out weed wacker
5640 Miscellaneous Unproductive Complaining
5701 Not Actually Present At Job
5702 Suffering from Eight-Hour Flu
5810 Sexually harassing a co-worker
5811 Sexually harassing a guest
5812 Getting a guest's phone number for personal use
5900 Talking about the movie "Waiting"
5901 Repeating an action from the movie "Waiting"
6102 Ordering Out
6103 Waiting for Food Delivery to Arrive
6104 Taking It Easy While Digesting Food
6200 Using Company Resources for Personal Profit
6201 Stealing Company Goods
6202 Making Excuses After Accidentally Destroying Company Goods
6203 Using Company Phone to Make Personal Calls
6204 Using Company Phone to Make Calls to Sell Stolen Company Goods
6205 Hiding from Boss
6206 Gossip
6207 Planning a Social Event (e.g. vacation, wedding, etc.)
6210 Feeling Sorry For Yourself
6211 Updating Resume
6212 Faxing Resume to Another Employer/Headhunter
6213 Out of Office on Interview
6221 Pretending to Work While Boss Is Watching
6222 Pretending to Enjoy Your Job
6223 Pretending You Like Coworker
6224 Pretending You Like Important People When in Reality They are Jerks
6238 Miscellaneous Unproductive Fantasizing
6350 Playing Pranks on the New Guy/Girl
6601 Running your own Business on Company Time (See Code #6603)
6602 Complaining
6603 Writing a Book on Company Time
6611 Staring Into Space
6612 Staring At Computer Screen
6615 Transcendental Meditation
6701 Smoke break
6711 Rolling Silverware
6712 Doing a crossword puzzle
6713 Playing the video game in the bar
6714 explaining to guest that we are 86 something
6800 Eating food from a customer's plate
6801 Making your own salads
6969 Beating off in Broom Closet
7281 Extended Visit to the Bathroom (at least 10 minutes)
7400 Talking With Divorce Lawyer on Phone
7401 Talking With Plumber on Phone
7402 Talking With Dentist on Phone
7403 Talking With Doctor on Phone
7404 Talking With Masseuse on Phone
7405 Talking With House Painter on Phone
7406 Talking With Personal Therapist on Phone
7419 Talking With Miscellaneous Paid Professional on Phone
7425 Talking With Mistress/Boy-Toy on Phone
7500 Calling Phil
7501 Calling corporate
7502 Miscellaneous cell phone use
7931 Asking Coworker to Aid You in an Illicit Activity
8000 Recreational Drug Use
8001 Non-recreational Drug Use
8002 Liquid Lunch
8100 Reading e-mail
8102 Laughing while reading e-mail
8103 Reading text mail
8104 Blogging
8210 Spending time on squirrel changing job codes
8220 Writing on the management dry-erase board

Bus Drop Table

Here's a good idea and movement in a positive direction. During the three busy weekend shifts the bussers now station someone in the dish pit behind a table so everyone can just drop their dirty dishes and get back to the dining room. Instead of getting filthy dumping and sorting waste and dishes, the servers are able to return to their stations out front. This makes for better service and quicker table turns. Kudos to whoever started this.

Code Blue

Get the crash cart and the paddles. Something has flatlined here.

Apparently Sunday night was Sunday nightmare. Only a handful of servers on, kitchen hitting 35 minutes again, guests upset, general panic. How can all this happen in a corporate restaurant? Where is quality control? Some of us could not work because we would hit overtime. Let's see, OT for a $2.13 employee or $12 cook versus crash and burn and run off more guests. Where will these dissatisfied people choose to spend their money on food next Sunday night and the next and the next. You can bet it will not be at O'Charleys! This Mall of Georgia location should be a gold mine for the company. They must not realize it. Too Bad.

What this store needs is a major transplant after quick surgical removal of management. The negativity is from employees who care. It is the symptom and result of the cancer that exists here. Excise it and the symptoms go away. Time to scrub, corporate. Emergency surgery required. Prep an operating room.

What ADRM?

What happened to the adrm's this weekend?
Sat lunch--sent home
Sat dinner--sent home
Sun brunch--none
Business finally picks up this weekend and now we are short-staffed with managers. It was hard to find a manager when two were on the cook line(one was Richard) with 35 minute cook times, and another is in the alley on a Saturday night. What about taking care of the front of the house? Brunch had only one manager on duty. Richard is back to cooking eggs. Cook times went over 25 minutes. Russ had his hands full out front. What is this going to do to our surveys now? Most of the few manager visits are when a manager is notified that a survey exists.

St. Paddy's Hangover Levels

Understanding Your Employees' Hangover Level It's the day after St. Patrick's Day morning, almost everybody's late for their shift, again. Knowing what level hangover your staff is suffering can help you determine whether or not they, or you, (like you have a choice) should be serving your "church crowd". Let's take a look inside the heads of your hungover staff:
*One Star Hangover No pain. No real feeling of illness. Your sleep last night was a mere disco nap, which has given you a whole lot of misplaced energy. Be glad that you're able to function relatively well. However, you're still parched. You can drink 10 sodas and still feel this way. You're craving a chili-cheese coney and a side of gravy fries. You might as well work. There'll probably be some dead food to graze on.
**Two Star Hangover No pain, but something is definitely amiss. You may look okay, but you have the mental capacity of a 2 ounce ladle. The coffee you are chugging is only exacerbating your rumbling gut, which is craving a rootie tootie fresh and fruity pancake breakfast from IHOP. There is some definite havoc being wreaked upon your bowels. You can work but you should beg your manager to let you make a breakfast run before the store opens.
***Three Star Hangover Slight headache. Stomach feels crappy. You are definitely not productive and praying to be cut early. Everytime you walk by a female guest you gag because her perfume reminds you of the random Jaeger shots you did with your alcoholic buddies after the bouncer 86'd you at 1:45 a.m. Life would be better right now if you were in your bed with a dozen jelly donuts and a meatball hero watching Spongebob. You've had 4 cups of Catch a Buzz coffee, a gallon of water, 3 Red Bulls and a 2-liter of Mountain Dew Code Red, yet amazingly you haven't peed once. If your manager's smart, you'll work in a non-guest-contact capacity.
****Four Star Hangover Life sucks. Your head is throbbing (Wow, the Muzak is cranked today!). You can't speak too quickly or else you might puke. Your boss has already lambasted you for being late and has given you a lecture for reeking of booze. You wore yesterday's uniform, which you pulled out of the backseat of your car. And you can't hide the fact that you missed an oh-so crucial spot shaving, (girls, it looks like you put your make-up on while riding horseback.) Your eyes look like one big vein and your hair looks like you fell into the bar blender. If you are able to work, DON'T taste-test the seafood gumbo!
*****Five Star Hangover AKA "Dante's 4th Circle of Hell." You have a second heartbeat in your head, which is actually annoying the guests still waiting in the lobby to be seated. Vodka vapor is seeping out of every pore and making you dizzy. You still have toothpaste crust in the corners of your mouth from brushing your teeth in a futile attempt to get the remnants of the dog crap fairy's visit out. Your body seems to have lost the ability to generate saliva, so your tongue is suffocating you as it sticks to the roof of your mouth. Death seems pretty good right now. You definitely don't remember who you were with, where you were, or what you drank. The only reason you're at work is to avoid the not-so-cute stranger still sleeping in your bed at your otherwise empty house.
******Six Star Hangover Otherwise known as "Damn, I'm unemployed!" You wake up on your bathroom floor...never a good sign. For about 2 seconds you look at the ceiling, wondering if the cool refreshing feeling on your cheek is the bathroom tile or your vomit from 5 hours ago. You try to lift your head. Not an option. Then you inadvertently turn your head too quickly and smell the funk of 13 packs of cigarettes in your hair. Suddenly you realize you were smoking last night, but not ultra lights... some jackass handed you what seemed like a month's worth of Cuban cigars, and you smoked them like a side of babyback ribs. Eventually you manage to look in the mirror only to see remnants of the stamp "Ready to Rock!" faintly atop your forehead... the stamp on the back of your hand that has magically appeared on your forehead by alcoholic osmosis. You have to be to work in t-minus 14 minutes and 32 seconds and the only thing you can think of wearing is your "Scooby Doo" pajamas and slippers. You need to end your love affair with the toilet and start calling around to see if you can pay someone (Anyone!) to cover your shift so you don't have to start filling out applications...tomorrow.

Turnnover

Not an apple turnover- Employee turnover. The one thing that Stacey is good at is employee turnover. How many new employees are here this week? It is hard to keep up with the names and faces whirling thru the revolving door. Shouldn't this tell corporate something is amiss at the Mall of Georgia O'Charleys? Perhaps Phil or his boss should conduct some exit interviews to get a feel for what is going on and what is not going on. The lack of consistency in management policies and in who is on staff takes its toll on customers. For many guests, they never get the same server. It is always a new one, provided we don't run the guests off in the first place. The servers who are longtime employees are getting run off. Why are they still here in the first place? Either they have very thick skins, or they just can't get a job elsewhere and are stuck here. They somehow ignore or tolerate what is going on around them and accept their meager pay and go home and have a low-income life.

Little Richard

The genocide begun by Laura continues with Richard's help. His poor performance has proven that he is an inadequate assistant manager. He fears anyone on staff with more ability or knowledge than his own small capabilities. For a long time Richard has wanted to eliminate Jon from the kitchen for some personal reason. The only ETE cook in the building for years, Jon's hours were abruptly cut to two shifts per week last winter in an attempt to run him off. Such impersonal treatment of employees runs rampant here. Realizing Jon's value to this kitchen, Phil thwarted this spineless act by Richard. He interceded and returned Jon's hours. Richard's personal crusade against an experienced, versatile cook was temporarily foiled.

Jon rose above this brutal treatment by Richard. He continued to focus on O'Charley's goals in attempts to lower food costs that had run out of line during Richard's supervision. It appeared that Jon was respected by Russ, the new KM, who got the job that Richard was not offered. On Wednesday Jon was fired by Richard and Laura (the management C-team) for something to do with a smoke break. This management pair has few people skills and continues to show indifference toward almost everyone in the building. It is no wonder they earn or deserve any respect and are both despised by a number of their staffs.

This kitchen will miss Jon and his sense of humor. Now the only joke in the kitchen is the AssKM.

Cowboy

What is all this talk about "Cowboy" in the kitchen. Here is what is known. A manager opened what he thought was a restaurant magazine sent to O'Charleys. Upon ripping off the brown wrapper, he was startled to see two cowboys making out on the front cover. Thinking it was misdelivered, he looked at the mailing label to see that it was addressed to Richard.........thus, a new term was coined.

Can't give it away

It's Tuesday again. The past couple of weeks O'Charleys couldn't give away free food on this day. What gives? "Kids Eat Free" used to be a big draw and a lot of extra work for little financial reward. Now it seems that there is hardly any kids and hardly any work and hardly any reward. It's time to make Kids eat free go away.

Energizer Rabbit

Whew! Did anyone notice the energizer bunny ADRM alley manager Saturday night? Never has such intense effort been there before. Such speed as a weed wacker on steriods. How many Red Bulls did she have to almost be in a panic state.

Pink Uniform

You have got to be kidding! Several witnesses confirm that Stacey and Laura approved a new look for servers. For months now, colored undershirts, carpenter jeans, and your choice of shoes, have been the norm, but Friday night a completely new look appeared. It was a black t-shirt, under a pink polo with upturned collar, under a light blue shortsheeved shirt with a coordinated pink wristband. Also approved for wear was fashion faded jeans with fashion athletic shoes with red soles. (Yes, it was a former Cumming employee). Seems that management is saying "in your face" to corporate regulations in their effort to make this O'Charleys independent from the success of the concept. Servers now have the green light to wear just about anything they want to work. Does anybody have polka-dots?

Promo Drink Chart

There was a large 2'x3' laminated poster above the alley entrance until sometime this week. It was a spreadsheet with all the servers and squares for number of drinks sold per shift. It seems to me that it was not maintained after a week or so of being posted. Was there a winner to this contest? This may be another in a long list of lack-of-follow-thru inaction for management. Aren't the contests wonderful.

Coconut Shrimp

A new promotion started Monday-Coconut Shrimp. A delivery truck came Monday. Tuesday coconut shrimp is 86. I hear that it took Phil caring enough that we fulfilled our needs by finding shrimp and getting Russ to deliver it to the restaurant on his day off. This should have been taken care of by store management. At least Phil appears to care that O'Charleys "does what it says" in taking care of the guests and employees and advertising. Too bad nobody at the store level does.

Toilet Restaurant

Here is a restaurant with a real crappy outlook. Click on these links for a few pictures. O'Charleys seems a lot nicer looking after seeing this place.

http://www.extremefunnypictures.com/funnypic1182.htm

http://www.dailymedication.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=805

Any Money Here?

I wonder if anybody is making money at this O'Charleys. There are a lot of complaints that personal survival is at risk. There already exists a great deal of turnover. Comments by servers confirm that a number of them are close to resigning as soon as they find suitable employment elsewhere. Some of these are the seasoned servers who get the best sections almost every shift. This will provide the opportunity for others to move into the better sections until they too, give up on this restaurant. There is no quick fix. It is discouraging to see the constant flux and uncertainty here. Morale is lower than low.

Display Food

I wonder what O'Charleys is thinking with the food up front. After a few minutes it gets cold, gets dull, and begins deteriorating. If the management wouldn't eat it after thirty minutes or so, why do they think it entices guests to order it. If anything, it turns them off to that particular dish. Look at the yummy cold FF with hardened grease on them. Hey, that smelling fish looks good. Um, that stinking broccoli with the hard butter looks good. Now that looks like a good piece of leather, uh steak. By the end of a shift the display food is consumed by bacteria. How does management not see this?

?Mandatory Meeting

Another die-namic company meeting. It was mandatory(whatever this means to Stacey). Hardly anyone was there. What did they expect when they only gave 3 or 4 days notice? Isn't anyone supposed to have a life outside of work? The joke continues. Some of management wasn't there either. They are getting the respect that they give.

Sort of like the Focus Meeting in January when Stacey either forgot to come or just said the heck with it and didn't cancel it. I think the same thing happened for the previous one too. I suppose his short term memory loss, or lets pretend we didn't talk and forget it attitude prevailed.

Host Stand

Now that the hostesses work for tipout, the servers pay a percentage of their salary. This helps O'Charleys save payroll and also gives us more hostess hours up front. It sure is good to know that there is always at least one person watching the front door. This is better for our servers and for our guests. Thank you to whoever changed their method of pay. It is good to know that guests don't have to stand at the door wondering if we are open or if we care that they eat or leave.

The quality of the host's knowledge in coordinating the flow from the door is improving too. I hope this upward trend continues.

Party Pooper

Most restaurants charge for a private room or at least get a deposit and a guarantee. Not here. O'Charleys is hurting for business so anyone who calls gets the back room. This puts party servers at risk. Sometimes nobody shows. Other times a 45 top becomes a 20 top. Does management feel any obligation to the servers who just lost their money for that shift. You know the answer. Nobody upstairs cares.

Slow or No Business

Managements "reasons" (read that "excuses") that business is extremely slow:
Too hot outside
Too cold outside
Gets dark too early
Gets dark too late
It is raining
The sun is shining
Mad cow disease scare
Live sports event in Atlanta or Athens
School is out today
School is back in session
TV show-sports or other popular show
People on vacation
Gas is too expensive
Mall is not busy
Mall is too busy
Wreck on I-85
People are cooking out
It's a holiday
Bird Flu
Hurricane Katrina
Church services
.......
......
Lame excuse #168
Lame excuse #169

Geez, this is depressing!
Why don't these things affect the other restaurants? There must be a dark cloud hovering over O'Charleys.