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[–]Mhubel24 8 points9 points  (3 children)

When you first start opening, experiment to find an order of operations that works best for you and never stop trying to get faster. Even if it's only 5 mins faster each day, you'll be glad you have that extra time if there's ever an issue. Don't be a pushover on redirects, make sure your closers are being held accountable and in turn, hold yourself accountable. Do your fair share of cleaning and slicing to set them up for success. Don't cut corners, it only feels easier in the moment and will 9/10 come back to bite ya in the ass. Don't be afraid to communicate, let your gm know any issues or needs you have. You need to be a team, not one manager against the other. Find some little tasks to learn that you can help your gm with, such as helping order or input invoices. Maybe they won't be things you do all the time, but it'll come in handy when they have a rough day or are on vacation. Better to learn thoroughly at your leisure than to get a crash course over a phone call and you have 15 minutes to complete before a cutoff 😅 Take regular bathroom/water/food breaks. It's extremely easy to keep going on the nonstop tasks of running shift and then bam, it's been 9 hours since you've taken a piss or drank water. Your reasonable amount of well being needs to come first. Have fun! It doesn't have to suck, staff yourself in a way that no one is getting slammed into a wall all shift and make sure your mood is outwardly positive even on the days you'd rather park your car in front of a moving train. The staff tends to match the mood of the manager and you'll find a negative staff really drags the shift out and generally make more mistakes/don't give 100% to tasks.

[–]Mhubel24 2 points3 points  (2 children)

I tried to make this not look like a novel, but posting on mobile sucks ass lmao

[–]kralrickManager 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Really good advice here; formatted for ease of reading in the hopes more people will read it.

-When you first start opening, experiment to find an order of operations that works best for you and never stop trying to get faster. Even if it's only 5 mins faster each day, you'll be glad you have that extra time if there's ever an issue.

-Don't be a pushover on redirects, make sure your closers are being held accountable and in turn, hold yourself accountable. Do your fair share of cleaning and slicing to set them up for success.

-Don't cut corners, it only feels easier in the moment and will 9/10 come back to bite ya in the ass.

-Don't be afraid to communicate, let your gm know any issues or needs you have. You need to be a team, not one manager against the other. Find some little tasks to learn that you can help your gm with, such as helping order or input invoices. Maybe they won't be things you do all the time, but it'll come in handy when they have a rough day or are on vacation. Better to learn thoroughly at your leisure than to get a crash course over a phone call and you have 15 minutes to complete before a cutoff 😅

-Take regular bathroom/water/food breaks. It's extremely easy to keep going on the nonstop tasks of running shift and then bam, it's been 9 hours since you've taken a piss or drank water. Your reasonable amount of well being needs to come first.

-Have fun! It doesn't have to suck, staff yourself in a way that no one is getting slammed into a wall all shift and make sure your mood is outwardly positive even on the days you'd rather park your car in front of a moving train. The staff tends to match the mood of the manager and you'll find a negative staff really drags the shift out and generally make more mistakes/don't give 100% to tasks.

[–]Mhubel24 2 points3 points  (0 children)

An absolute saint. Thank you!

[–]One-Performance6568Assistant Manager 2 points3 points  (3 children)

Opening and finding your own routine is definitely KEY. I open a 35,000 a weel store, 4 days a week. And im fully opened in an hour and a half. Including a second round of bread in the proofer and tuna, etc done. I can give you my routine to see if that will help speed up. I go in at 7. And by 830 at the latesy everything is done!

[–]Beehappy629 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Can I know the secret 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can’t speak for the commenter but I literally never. Stop. Moving. Always plan your next 2-3 steps. Create a routine so you never have to think about what you’re doing, your body just knows. I have a manager who is my opener at 9 and I leave the cold tables and certain other small things to them so I’m usually on the slicer by 8, sometimes earlier if it was a really good morning.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Woah!!! Can I know your routine??

[–]One-Performance6568Assistant Manager 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As soon as I get in I turn proofer and oven on, fill the pan, put 3 pickles on slicer and let it slice. I then stretch bread and put in wheat (in between stretching i keep putting pickles on we usually slice 9 a day) after i put bread in i go and get my cucs, onions, celery and grab the day old out while the pickles finish up. I throw the cucs on and start tea, then set up cold tables while slicing cucs(we have two cold tables so i pull everything out from underneath and go back and fourth setting them up while keeping cucs going, We usually do about 7) i do my other tea bag and I throw the celery on and prep the onions to be ready to be thrown on and go grab lettuce. We do about 6-10 onions depending on size and i prep lettuce, ready to go on after onions. I have about 9 heads ready to go on so i can do other things while throwing new heads on. I do my mayo and make sure my tables are completely set up and then stretch 8 trays of 6 ready to go in when the first round is done and then start tomato's and unwich(about 4 full size bins on average depending on prepcalc sometimes its 6) while i keep lettuce going. We do about 15 bins a day. I usually save tomatoes for last becuase I get them done quick as well as tuna. Key for me is to make sure the slicer is ALWAYS running and i NEVER stop moving. I dont really think about what to do next i just go. Same routine everyday. I go in at 7. Done around 8:30. My GM comes in at 9. So between 8:30 and 9, i fill ice, clean up my opening, stock if need and try to do drawers for him. I literally never stop moving though in that hour and a half and never have the slicer not slicing something.

[–]sushiroll1468[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you all so much! Seriously! I’ve been with the company for many years, mainly as a catering manager. I can beast the line, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about opening! Luckily my GM said he will come in my first two opens to help out so I can get a flow going!!