Why Employees Are Quiet Quitting

Why employees are quietly quitting and how it's killing your restaurant. Note this is not an episode of Dateline. In this episode of the Restaurant Coach podcast, I'm going to share with you the ugly truth about why your employees are quiet quitting and what you can do to stop it immediately. Have you ever wondered why all of a sudden your best employees are quitting? It's not because they don't like their job or the restaurant. It's because it's something else entirely. In this video, I'm going to share with you why this happens and three steps that you can take today to stop it from happening in the future. So grab a cup of coffee and sit down, because this is going to be really good. Oh, and make sure to hit that like and subscribe button so you don't miss out on tools and tips to help you make more and work less in your restaurant. There is a silent epidemic that is plaguing the restaurant industry. Staff is quitting without warning, and it's costing restaurants big time. Maybe it's costing you as well. It's no secret that restaurants are struggling right now. We had Covid and now we have a recession. Staff retention is low, and it seems like no matter what you do, you cannot keep employees happy for more than a few months at a time. It's like they seem to act out just like that Katy Perry song Hot and Cold. Well, I did some digging and I found out there are three main reasons why your staff is quitting. First off, let me share with you a story of one of my coaching clients, Olivia. Now, Olivia lives in a small, charming town outside of Portland and runs a very, very, very quaint family owned restaurant called Delights. Olivia had poured her heart and soul into her business for the past 15 years. She made it through Covid. And then in 2022, she noticed a strange new prom that was sweeping across the nation and eventually into her restaurant called Quiet Quitting. The quiet quitting epidemic, as it's been known to be called, is a kind of a phenomenon where employees, they just simply stop showing up to work without notice. Hey, I don't get it either. I mean, they leave with no trace, no resignation letter, not even a courtesy call or nothing. So very rude, don't you think? Now, this leaves many restaurant owners like Olivia, scrambling to find replacements, often with little or no success. Now, at first, Delights was totally unaffected by this quiet quitting epidemic. But then suddenly, the first signs of trouble started to appear. One Monday morning, Livia finds out that two line cooks failed to show for their shift. So she panics like everybody else, and she calls them repeatedly, only to find out that either their phone was disconnected or they blocked her number. The quiet quitting epidemic finally struck with a vengeance. Determined not to let her restaurant struggle with the lack of staff, Olivia does what any restaurant owner would do. She rolled up her sleeves and did what she's always done. She just took on the extra work by herself. She spent long hours in the kitchen prepping ingredients, cooking dishes, and she even found herself staying late into the night to wash dishes. But as the weeks wore on, that fatigue sets in and it started to affect her sleep and, unfortunately, her health. Then soon, a waitress named Sarah was the next to leave. Then another dishwasher, followed by another cook, and more and more employees just seemed to disappear. Olivia's spirits were just crushed. Her dream of keeping delights alive seemed to be slipping through her fingers at the very moment. And she was so close to making it all happen. So one evening, after another grueling day of putting in 16, 17 hours, Olivia slumped down at her office at the desk, just feeling totally defeated. Can you relate? She was on the verge of tears. And then she googled the words how to reduce restaurant turnover. Luckily, my name and the link to this podcast appeared. She listened to a few episodes and then she reached out to speak to me. She told me her tale about her staff quietly quitting and wasn't really sure what happened. Things were really running really smooth up until then, and. And she was working less and less hours in a restaurant from when it first started. Now she was dragged back into seven days a week, working 14 to 16 hour days. We talked and I had a really good sense of what was going wrong. Together, we brainstormed out ideas to help her overcome the quiet quitting kind of epidemic. Now I teach a framework all my clients. It's called the 3P framework, and it is the same framework that was taught to me when I struggled when I opened my first restaurant. Now, if you want some free training on my foundational frameworks, just head over to threeframestothrive.com to get immediate access to over four hours of this kind of training. So what's the real problem here? And what leads to quiet quitting? Let's have it. Talk about culture. Culture is everything. And sadly, there's the culture that you think you have, and then there is the culture that you really have. Now, this could be a major blind spot for most restaurants who think that their restaurant is really doing a great job creating an accountability culture. And they end up with instead a toxic culture and every person's out for themselves. It's kind of like thinking that your food's really, really great, but it really sucks. So if you're experiencing quiet quitting in your restaurant, here's a simple three step plan. Step number one, you have to get crystal clear, I mean crystal clear on your mission, core values and vision, which we also call as your why. Your core values are your ethical compass for your team and for yourself to follow when you get lost. And whenever I have a tough decision to make, I just pull out my core value and mission card to remind myself of what's important to me. Step number two, you must change your mindset as an owner. If you think these kids today are lazy and entitled, you tend to find lazy and entitled kids. Seek and you will find. This was the major hurdle I had to overcome with Olivia. And then step three, you got to have a culture of gratitude. We think that people leave because of money and honestly, some dogs. But most people leave because they do not feel appreciated and they don't see there's a path for growth and development. When I have my own restaurants, I made a commitment to myself not to ever leave the restaurant without walking up to everyone on the team, looking at them in the eye, shaking their hand and saying thank you. It's a standard that I call the 100% thank yous. And I have all my coaching clients follow it. And I'll tell you, if you implement this thing, the simple 100% thank yous, it will change your culture if you apply it on a daily basis. So then Olivia and I, we also brainstorm some other ideas to kind of reinvigorate her culture. I had Olivia create a series of videos to post on social media to show off her new and improved kind of culture as new and improved positive attitude. You see, restaurants have a horrible, horrible reputation for treating people like, like dirt. And if you don't go out of your way to show people why your restaurant's different, everyone just assumes you're like every other restaurant in the market. You're going to treat me bad, you're going to pay me poorly, and I'm never going to see my goldfish. Next, we had to get some really good, solid community support. So we'd offered some free cooking classes, invited some local residents and business people down to to learn about the restaurant's history and values, which got her some referrals for staff. Third, she also started a mentorship program pairing new staff with seasoned staff to kind of create this sense of belonging, almost like a kind of a Big Brother, Big Sister program, only just for her team and her restaurant. The efforts soon began to really, really pay off. Words of their resilience, word of their positive culture spread through the town. And soon, Delights was not only fully staffed, but she also had a waiting list of eager, eager job applicants. The restaurant atmosphere did a 180, and the culture once again was filled with warmth, laughter, and gratitude. Culture is the cure for many issues that surround restaurant performance. In my next video, I'm going to take you through the recipe to create a culture, and that will allow you to make more and work less and get your life back.