Monday: PM Supervisor Shift
Monday I worked at Mrs. E's alongside Sam Norman, the service supervisor. Having worked at each serving station during the beginning of my internship it was interesting to see how the management side of service works and contributes to the execution and success of fluid service. Sam and I had plenty to do in the front of house, but she also went over some of the behind the scenes operations and jobs of the service supervisor. In addition to monitoring the service operations and staff Sam is also responsible for checking and submitting the employee work hours for the week. The KU dining service staff consists of both state employees and memorial union employees, both requiring a different type of record keeping when it comes to tracking work hours. Sam explained and demonstrated the process of checking and submitting the hours for the state employees. We also spent time during our shift monitoring lunch and dinner service.
Tuesday: Culinary Management
Tuesday I spent the day working alongside Travis Fell, the production manager at Mrs. E's. Mrs. E's is currently in the process of hiring staff in preparation for the beginning of the fall semester. One of the first tasks that day on Travis's schedule was conducting an interview, I felt very lucky to be included in this process. The interview was conducted by Travis and the Sous Chef, and each had a specific set of questions prepared to ask the interviewee. The answers recorded during the interview are later input into cornerstone, a computer system used for hiring that keeps files on each of the interviewees. After the interview was complete Travis and I went back to work and he took me through some of his responsibilities as the Production Manager. Travis was also a great help in allowing me some time to work on my menu signage for our special event.
Wednesday: Project Planning & Event Presentation
Oh how I've grow to love project planning days during my time here. With plenty of work to be completed before our upcoming event and the end of our internship nearing quickly we spent almost the entire day organizing and preparing the details of our event and special projects. Wednesday also marked the day for our presentation to the upper level staff of Mrs. E's. During this meeting we discussed the menu, decorations, staff assignments, and service diagrams Talia and I had prepared for our event. It went rather well and there were only a few small changes made per suggestions of the management team.
Thursday: Service Management
On Thursday I was back to the front of the house working alongside Kory Norman, the Service Manager at Mrs. E's. We spent some time in his office at the beginning of the shift discussing the duties of the Service Manager, later in the day Talia and I were invited to sit in on the quarterly Sysco meeting. We left Mrs. E's and headed over to the student union where we sat down with a VP and Account Executive from Sysco and many of the KU dining services department managers. Each quarter these members sit down to discuss concerns with procurement, delivery, and any other issues related to Sysco as a vendor. The main topic at this meeting was eggs, recently widely effected by the avian flu many products are being impacted; cost is going up, availability down. It's not only the eggs that are being effected but also many of the products containing eggs, such as baked goods. When we returned to Mrs. E's Talia and I sat down for lunch and we were given sometime to complete some of the lingering tasks for our event. Slowly but surely we were compiling all the details, paperwork, and designs for our event. We also got our posters in from the marketing department and Kory helped me hang them around Mrs. E's.
Friday: General Management
On Friday we sat down with Mark Maranell, the General Manager of Mrs. E's. Talia and I sat down together with Mark in his office, and discussed a great deal about his role and duties as the General Manager. We discussed budgeting, staffing, and some of the challenges and successes he has faced during his time as General Manager at Mrs. E's. It was interesting to hear about the changes in the facility since the facility was remodeled 3 years ago. Mark also clued us in on some of the strategies he has implemented in order to save costs and stay within budget. In preparation for our event Talia and I created a slideshow to be displayed at the entryway, Mark helped with formatting the presentation and test it on the big screens. Its very exciting to see some of our hard work come to fruition.
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