Working in a hotel restaurant, they mentioned offhandedly that the restaurant lost $10K every month, but that didn’t matter because we were there not to make money, but as an amenity for the hotel guests.
Probably meant to make us feel secure on our jobs as business slowed; actually made us feel like we didn’t matter and the hotel didn’t care about how busy we were. Like, we got paid by the hotel but the majority of our income was still tips, and tips are based on sales, so the hotel not caring about our sales meant they didn’t care about our income, either.
I’ve worked in loss leader departments before and have always liked it, but my salary wasn’t dependent on tips so… But getting a job in a part of a business where your department itself doesn’t bring in money, but it’s existence brings in more money for the company just by existing can be great short term. You don’t have to worry about KPIs or much more than just doing a good job. Then, inevitably, the company gets bought, or someone new comes in high up who only wants to see numbers go higher and can’t see the forest for the trees. They see an department losing money and they don’t believe the statistics around loss leaders, so they scrap it or make efficiency more important, which means the department can’t focus on doing a good job anymore and it becomes just like every other job, except it’s functionally impossible for that department to make money.
Back when I cooked I worked in a string of grocery stores who would have fresh prepared food available. They’re meant to run at a loss. Hot fresh meals in a grocery store just isn’t going to break even. People aren’t going to wait like at a restaurant so food always has be be prepared and ready to go pretty quickly. It’s a pretty good gig. You get to cook a variety of things as the menu changes all the time, and customers tend to be pretty appreciative there. It felt a lot like catering, but with less stress and more appreciation. But an exec always ruined it at every place I worked. I’d hop around a lot since, for some reason, there were multiple grocery brands in the area that did it. Eventually I just left the whole industry.
Working in a hotel restaurant, they mentioned offhandedly that the restaurant lost $10K every month, but that didn’t matter because we were there not to make money, but as an amenity for the hotel guests.
Probably meant to make us feel secure on our jobs as business slowed; actually made us feel like we didn’t matter and the hotel didn’t care about how busy we were. Like, we got paid by the hotel but the majority of our income was still tips, and tips are based on sales, so the hotel not caring about our sales meant they didn’t care about our income, either.
I wasn’t there much longer.
I’ve worked in loss leader departments before and have always liked it, but my salary wasn’t dependent on tips so… But getting a job in a part of a business where your department itself doesn’t bring in money, but it’s existence brings in more money for the company just by existing can be great short term. You don’t have to worry about KPIs or much more than just doing a good job. Then, inevitably, the company gets bought, or someone new comes in high up who only wants to see numbers go higher and can’t see the forest for the trees. They see an department losing money and they don’t believe the statistics around loss leaders, so they scrap it or make efficiency more important, which means the department can’t focus on doing a good job anymore and it becomes just like every other job, except it’s functionally impossible for that department to make money.
Back when I cooked I worked in a string of grocery stores who would have fresh prepared food available. They’re meant to run at a loss. Hot fresh meals in a grocery store just isn’t going to break even. People aren’t going to wait like at a restaurant so food always has be be prepared and ready to go pretty quickly. It’s a pretty good gig. You get to cook a variety of things as the menu changes all the time, and customers tend to be pretty appreciative there. It felt a lot like catering, but with less stress and more appreciation. But an exec always ruined it at every place I worked. I’d hop around a lot since, for some reason, there were multiple grocery brands in the area that did it. Eventually I just left the whole industry.