How long do you plan on working here? (Promotion question) UPDATE #24

[Curious Cat]

Thanks for your responses so far. Please keep them coming.

I think she was a bit cheeky to ask for training in a job she knows she won't be committed to for much more than six months, including the training period.

Really? (serious, not snarky) a bit cheeky to look for advancement with a company (granted, different venue) that she's been with for 5+ years? Especially now that the opportunity exists.

I would think that a commitment of at least six months would be enough to train a long time company employee for promotion.

nope.  from the restaurants point of view all they would be training her to do is work for the competition.  In the grand scheme of things 6 months is an insanely short period of time. 

[PastryGoddess]

Thanks for your responses so far. Please keep them coming.

I think she was a bit cheeky to ask for training in a job she knows she won't be committed to for much more than six months, including the training period.

Really? (serious, not snarky) a bit cheeky to look for advancement with a company (granted, different venue) that she's been with for 5+ years? Especially now that the opportunity exists.

I would think that a commitment of at least six months would be enough to train a long time company employee for promotion.

nope.  from the restaurants point of view all they would be training her to do is work for the competition.  In the grand scheme of things 6 months is an insanely short period of time. 

Not in the food and beverage industry.

[Kiwichick]

Thanks for your responses so far. Please keep them coming.

I think she was a bit cheeky to ask for training in a job she knows she won't be committed to for much more than six months, including the training period.

Really? (serious, not snarky) a bit cheeky to look for advancement with a company (granted, different venue) that she's been with for 5+ years? Especially now that the opportunity exists.

I would think that a commitment of at least six months would be enough to train a long time company employee for promotion.

nope.  from the restaurants point of view all they would be training her to do is work for the competition.  In the grand scheme of things 6 months is an insanely short period of time.

Yes really.  Not only would they be training her knowing she intended to leave as soon as her preferred job came along, but they would also have to train the person that would replace her in her current role.

Note I said 'a bit cheeky', not that she was totally out of line for asking.

[shhh its me]

Thanks for your responses so far. Please keep them coming.

I think she was a bit cheeky to ask for training in a job she knows she won't be committed to for much more than six months, including the training period.

Really? (serious, not snarky) a bit cheeky to look for advancement with a company (granted, different venue) that she's been with for 5+ years? Especially now that the opportunity exists.

I would think that a commitment of at least six months would be enough to train a long time company employee for promotion.

nope.  from the restaurants point of view all they would be training her to do is work for the competition.  In the grand scheme of things 6 months is an insanely short period of time.

Yes really.  Not only would they be training her knowing she intended to leave as soon as her preferred job came along, but they would also have to train the person that would replace her in her current role.

Note I said 'a bit cheeky', not that she was totally out of line for asking.

I don't even think its cheeky , she wont be looking for other work as a waitress and has a lot of the training already; She knows the menu , where things are kept , the people , presumably the register, she already takes carry out orders (so how to deal with customers) If they need a waitress I assume they would rather hire one with 2-3 years left but they may still have her cover a few shifts or not be able to find someone with more then 6-10 months left.

[TootsNYC]

I'd ask the waitstaff manager if her manager had spoken to them yet.  It may be that her manager doesn't want to let a good worker go and is hoping that she'll get tired of waiting and drop it.

Another option is to see if any local catering companies are hiring.  They are always looking for waitstaff and if she's good, she can work her way up to captain.

I'd also suggest she stress, "While of course I'll be looking for work in my field after I finally graduate, but it's not a guarantee that I'll find something very soon, and I'm definitely looking for a longer-term relationship with the restaurant, especially since I plan to settle in the area. And even if I did get some other sort of work, I would not expect it to pay that much, so I was looking forward to keeping a connection here. Either for a second job, or as a useful fill-in during busy times or vacations."

Because training her could be really useful for her. And she doesn't know what will happen in terms of her job search.

How long have the other waitstaff folks been at their jobs? Is this the sort of chain at which people work for 5, 10 years?

[Curious Cat]

Thanks for your responses so far. Please keep them coming.

I think she was a bit cheeky to ask for training in a job she knows she won't be committed to for much more than six months, including the training period.

Really? (serious, not snarky) a bit cheeky to look for advancement with a company (granted, different venue) that she's been with for 5+ years? Especially now that the opportunity exists.

I would think that a commitment of at least six months would be enough to train a long time company employee for promotion.

nope.  from the restaurants point of view all they would be training her to do is work for the competition.  In the grand scheme of things 6 months is an insanely short period of time. 

Not in the food and beverage industry.

Thank you for your perspective.  I've worked in a number of restaurants and 6 months would have been considered  a waste of their time. 

[Deetee]

I think it is absolutely appropriate to request a job that works better for her and pays better and has transferable skills. Asking for what you want in a professional environment is a useful skill as well. She should definitely follow up.

[*inviteseller]

Your DD did the right thing by being honest.  The manager was right in asking that question so he can assess how he wants to proceed.  Yes, she has been with the company for 5 years, but she sees the end date of that employment.  Companies do not want to expend the time to train someone when they know they are going to leave.  They already gave her a raise and are keeping her in the position she knows and does well.  If they move her for her remaining few months, they have to not only train her, but find and train her replacement, then when she leaves, find and train another replacement.  It makes better business sense to keep her in the position she already knows and only replacing her at the end of her schooling than to replace her now and then again in 6 months.  Yes, there is turnover in the food industry, but good restaurants with a loyal clientele tend to keep waitstaff longer.

[MurPl1]

Someone else mentioned training as back up waitstaff.  I think she should pursue that avenue.  It's always good to have trained subs available, and it might be the foot in the door to prove herself as a server, but still give the restaurant the stability of having her in the position she knows and is apparently good at.

In my business, I have my regular delivery drivers and also my in-shop employees.  Several of my in-shoppers over the years have provided the materials they needed to become substitute drivers.  Not all of them want to pick up regular driver shifts, or put the wear on their cars.  But it expands the number of shifts that they can sign up for as subs.  And we've actually been able to move a few into driver positions when those positions came available.

[jpcher]

UPDATE:

Thanks to your suggestions (I passed on the info) DD#1 found a chance to talk to waitstaff manager (WSM) about the possibility of setting up an interview. WSM said "Let me think about it. But in the mean time you need to work on your appearance."

  I asked her if her uniform was clean and unwrinkled? How do you wear your hair? Do you look like you just crawled out of bed?

DD#1 said "No, it's nothing like that. WSM said that I need to smile more. She said that I always look a bit sad." They chatted for a few minutes so DD#1 was able to get some clarification from WSM.

So DD#1 and talked about that for a while. She said that she always puts a happy face on whenever she greets customers at the take-out window and especially when she takes phone orders. "You know, mom, when you're on the phone and put on a happy face the smile shows through your voice even when you're working with fussy customers. OldMgr taught me this. It works!"

It seems like the problem is when DD#1 is doing the by-rote tasks like filling the condiment containers or folding the pizza boxes WSM said "it sometimes looks like you're just not happy to be here."

DD#1 told me that when she's doing these tasks she's usually thinking about school stuff.



So, in the end, I think that DD#1 has a few positives on her side:

1. WSM said that she would think about it and didn't give DD#1 a definite no.

2. DD#1 learned about something that she needs improvement on and will work on this problem area.

3. WSM didn't ask her how long she planned on staying.



I appreciate everybody's input on this. I forgot to ask about personnel turnaround but this is a busy-trendy place so I do understand that only 6 months might not be in the best interest of the company to train a waitress.

We'll see what happens next.

[ladyknight1]

I hope your DD is given the opportunity. But I totally agree with other posters that the time left may not be worth the effort put forth by the business for training.

My field is different, but it takes me 6 weeks at minimum to train someone to do our lowest level job. That is the bare basic training, then extended supervision of the work done and additional training as necessary. We don't consider that person fully trained until the 6 month mark.

When I used to wait tables, new wait staff were trained for a month before being completely on their own.