GM had back surgery

Sooo. My GM had laparoscopic surgery on her back 5 weeks ago, I have been working open/close since, Dr. stated she will end up having to have a fusion some time in the future, she has degenerative disc disorder…She thinks she will be able to come back to work full time BUT my thoughts is, if she is going to have to have a fusion in the near future there is NO way she will be able to perform her full duties as my GM, so Im looking to hire another GM to possibly replace her.

My question & thoughts are if I allow her to return to work BUT only part time should I or do I have the right to cut her pay, she make $10/hr currently. I know I will have to have a release from her Dr before allowing her to return to work.

Any thoughts or advice ??

Two big questions about your post: 1) Is her injury work related? 2) does future fusion mean it is inevitably happening soon?

My guess is that if her injury is work related, you will find yourself in hot water to cut her hours and wages. I had a fusion done in 2000 and was told that I have degenerative disc disease. My doc said I would certainly need another surgery as the fusion would put more pressure on the neighboring levels. 14 years later I don’t hesitate to throw the 60 bags of flour or the 35 cases of cheese on the rack. Your manager will not be at full strength on day one but give her a chance to show you that she can recover.

A $10 an hour GM, sign me up for one of those.

Sorry I guess I should have said NO, her surgery is not work related THANK GOODNESS for that.

Not sure how things will play out, she is coming in today for a couple hrs & I plan on talking with her, she made a statement to one of my employees that she doesnt plan on returning, then I hear from others that she is out running the roads and doing all kinds of stuff, then she told me awhile back that she was going to sign up for disability, and she gets that from her dad, because he is on it and Im hearing she just doesnt want to work anymore. SO Im just not sure, Im guessing I will just have to wait & play it out to see how she plays the game

She has been with me for 7 yrs now & I have been very good to her, so I would hate to think what is going thru her mind.

This is what I was thinking too, but didn’t want to derail the thread - but since pizzanow already did…

How the heck do you have a GM willing to work for $10.00/hour, and been with you for 7 years on top of it!? Is this really just a shift lead, or is this a “GM”? When I think of a GM I think of a role that does everything - I could leave for a month and this person would take care of everything. Is that what you have?

Half of my cooks are making over $10.00 per hour. A good GM here would cost me at least $40,000/year, plus full benefits.

Hey now… I held myself back until there was one legitimate response before derailing anything. :mrgreen:

10 is almost min wage where I am. Your idea of being good to her and her idea might not match up.

I held back responding too…

It sounds like you’re re-evaluating her value to you, and that’s fine. As a few others have echoed, you probably have a ‘cook’ who’s been with you for seven years, but a GM? A GM runs the store with little assistance. A GM hires & fires, keeps payroll inline, keeps food costs inline, keeps all costs in line with your expectations. I’m still the GM of my first store, however I’ve had a few ‘key’ assistant managers, and they had salaries ranging from 30 - 38K/yr. The GM at my second store is at 42K with a raise coming this year. Our cooks start at $10/hr and go up from there.

I’ve learned from others here, that you get what you pay for. Perhaps you could use this situation to re-evaluate payroll policies, from my perspective, business is better with better staff, and better staff are paid better.

Good Luck.

It is unbelievable at the response I got for what I pay me GM, no she is not a shift leader or assistant manager. Not sure what part of the country you guys live in BUT where I am based at this is the going rate, I am in a very small town out in the country, the closest major city to me is at least 25+ miles away.

I had left the state for 3 weeks last yr because of the death of my father and she is in charge of all aspects of running my shop with the exception of paying the bills

This was NOT even the basis for my posting, Gzzzz Im soooory I even ever mentioned $$$.

I was only asking an opinion on
“If I allow her to return to work BUT only part time should I or do I have the right to cut her pay & hrs”

I am going to give her a chance to prove that she is healthy enough to return to do her duties

UNBELIEVABLE Gzzzz…Thats the end of this conversation

Sounds like someone is feeling guilty for paying a GM 10 bucks an hour

I agree 35-40k. Is going rate

Im not at all feeling guilty about anything LOL…I just dont like getting slammed for something that possibly some of these people on here dont know everyones situation and where the economy is there in there own town, possibly most of these people on here are located in places that do $300k+ a yr in business or do $1K a nite LOL.

When its broke down my GM does make well over $30K a yr, just because I dont have them on a salary & I pay them by the hr has nothing to do with my post…

like I said earlier thats the end of this conversation :roll: Gzzz

It sounds like she is looking for a way out. I have noticed in my store when things start going this direction it is not long until they leave. I would start looking to replace her.

That was my thoughts as well Daddio ??. She came in the other day and worked a few hrs, I had a talk with her, she said she seems to be getting better, & I asked her so what are the plans, do you intend on filing for disability? she said she was going to talk with her surgeon & I told her good luck with that, because you are young (31) and still able bodied & that you most likely will not get disability, she seems to me that she wants to get back to work full time, so I will play the game & wait to see what happens, in the mean time I will look around for a replacement & have them on stand by just in case.