I’m genuinely curious about this one, since I’ve seen a lot of discrepancies over the years between what kind of person people think they want to hire, versus the type that actually work out.
A great employee doesn’t need to be a genius or work like a slave, but they should be proud of where they work and like what they do. I think this is partly a function of the shop, no clown suit uniforms or canned phone scripts go a long way here, but is also a valuable quality in an employee. These are the types of people that are often more motivated by personal relationships and respect than by raw money, and won’t work at a bad shop even if the money is good. Sadly I’m unaware of any easy way of identifying these people other than working with them, but they should be treated like gold once identified.
In the restaurant industry, I happen to think that the #1 criteria should be affability, people can be trained to do the work, but it’s hard to train someone out of being a jerk. Too often I see someone get hired on their resume alone and then turn out to be a good worker but an impossible co-worker. As good as these people’s work may be, they are not good employees and need to go. I happen to feel that a team of mediocre workers that like each other will outperform a team of experts that are at each others throats all the time, and that the weakest link in a restaurant often isn’t the slowest worker but the one that everyone loathes. Jerks should not be tolerated, especially in management.
Intelligence is tricky, a smart employee can be far worse than a dumb one if handled incorrectly. In my experience, if you are going to hire smart employees, you’d best be prepared to listen to them, or trouble will inevitably result. Having been that smart employee for most of my career, I can say that if an employer listens to me, I’m more than happy to point out ways to save money or maintenance things that are about to become an issue, where an employer that ignores me gets to find out for himself. As far as I know, a man that I worked for in Seattle is still paying to have his cooking oil hauled away every week, when there are people right down the street who would pay him good money for it for their biodiesel refinery. His loss…
In short, my feeling is that affability is the most important thing a potential employee brings to the table, work ethic and pride are a shared issue between the shop and the worker, and that smart people are great if you are prepared to take advantage of them, but a liability if marginalized. I’m going to follow this up with what I think makes a great workplace, but first I’m curious about what other people think.
A great employee doesn’t need to be a genius or work like a slave, but they should be proud of where they work and like what they do. I think this is partly a function of the shop, no clown suit uniforms or canned phone scripts go a long way here, but is also a valuable quality in an employee. These are the types of people that are often more motivated by personal relationships and respect than by raw money, and won’t work at a bad shop even if the money is good. Sadly I’m unaware of any easy way of identifying these people other than working with them, but they should be treated like gold once identified.
In the restaurant industry, I happen to think that the #1 criteria should be affability, people can be trained to do the work, but it’s hard to train someone out of being a jerk. Too often I see someone get hired on their resume alone and then turn out to be a good worker but an impossible co-worker. As good as these people’s work may be, they are not good employees and need to go. I happen to feel that a team of mediocre workers that like each other will outperform a team of experts that are at each others throats all the time, and that the weakest link in a restaurant often isn’t the slowest worker but the one that everyone loathes. Jerks should not be tolerated, especially in management.
Intelligence is tricky, a smart employee can be far worse than a dumb one if handled incorrectly. In my experience, if you are going to hire smart employees, you’d best be prepared to listen to them, or trouble will inevitably result. Having been that smart employee for most of my career, I can say that if an employer listens to me, I’m more than happy to point out ways to save money or maintenance things that are about to become an issue, where an employer that ignores me gets to find out for himself. As far as I know, a man that I worked for in Seattle is still paying to have his cooking oil hauled away every week, when there are people right down the street who would pay him good money for it for their biodiesel refinery. His loss…
In short, my feeling is that affability is the most important thing a potential employee brings to the table, work ethic and pride are a shared issue between the shop and the worker, and that smart people are great if you are prepared to take advantage of them, but a liability if marginalized. I’m going to follow this up with what I think makes a great workplace, but first I’m curious about what other people think.
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