Yesterday as I left Lowe's, I received a text from my chef asking me to call him. I was excited. Could this be the call I had been waiting for to say we were going to be ramping up to reopen? No. He told me that the corporate chef had called him that morning and fired him. Not only that, the corporate chef had also fired four more managers across the company, and Ory didn't think he was done.
It's a fucked up situation because my team has been waiting to get back and reopen. Now it feels like all of us have been fired. Not just laid off because of the pandemic, waiting to come back. If Nada reopens, it will be with a new GM and new executive chef. All of us no longer have the job security. As a key manager, I no longer have the feeling that I will be back. New chefs bring in their own people, those they trust. There is no way that a new chef is going to come in and we have the same position we had before.
I spent last night numb, but through that I began making calls and talking to different chefs. Today, I have 2 interviews ( on a Saturday before father's day, rather unheard of). I gave two more set for next week.
When things collapse, we stand up, dust the debris off, and rebuild.