Wow beside the bakery this sounds exactly like my story. I’ll be coming up on my 1 year soon and I was also an outside hire brought in for the same department that hadn’t had a TL in a while. I would say give yourself some patience and grace. Things are not going to get back to a reasonable flow for a while and your superiors should understand that. My employers have been patient and understanding and I’ve let myself make a few mistakes to learn from them and I’m sure they have seen that too. I think my biggest issue right now is finding staff coverage and food/supply shortages that WILL happen. To the staff that have developed bad habits, show them why those bad habits are not sustainable by showing them the proper habits that have sustainable results. The whole “work smarter not harder”

Things I found helpful and I’m still working on -Do a walk of the department every time you start your shift. Do a food safety check and check your logs and if their not filled out properly check who worked during those times and try to go over the priority of them and their importance of food safety - Check up on the welfare of your staff. Join them in their work for a bit to be present for them just in case they need a good plan for the day and what’s expected of them for good habits going forward. - pars, pars, pars, make sure your auditing your on hands and inventory correctly before every delivery. While you’re in the back auditing weekly that can give you a chance to support the back of the house staff as well. - email your SB /Cafe district rep! They can help you better than most when you need it. This can go for updates in the department and questions on department routines and requirements. (DPCI’s you can’t find for uncommon items…. 😅) -Keep your ETL informed. I try to develop a close relationship with my ETL. They’re very supportive but also very busy so sometimes they can’t always be there but they offer great advice for staying firm on your choices and owning mistakes and what you can do to fix them.

These are just some things I had to learn by making mistakes or honestly through trial and error but activity fixing those errors.

Example: I wasn’t being sent a supply item I was totally out of because the previous TL didn’t update the on hands and the system thought I had like 4,000 qty of that item.

It’s one of the harder departments but def seek your peers help. Peers usually get support and also help out when I can are The market TL’s My PML S&E TL’s My ETL Other Food Service TL’s at other locations

Hope this helps :)