I missed yesterdays post due to being overwhelmed with other jobs (such as maintaining our online ordering system and working on new projects while assisting in the running of the restaurant). Unfortunately the blog posts are my last priority now as i work on doing everything else.
So, what has happened over the last two days then? A surprising amount, though that is to be expected. Our spray hose tap has broken, something that is usually an essential piece of equipment and something that I usually would fix right away, however despite the fact we have no kitchen hand and it is the chefs (and myself, though admittedly not as much as I would like) who are doing the dishes at the moment. The lack of hose makes that even harder. Relating to that was why after a good night on Friday I had called in the extra staff member, attempting to throw him a lifeline regardless of how small. Even though we did not need him the ability to support our staff who have nothing else is the reason we are staying open and attempting to drive business, and I decided the extra help for the chefs would go a long way in helping their morale. Unfortunately he did not show up, something that naturally was not received well by myself, however being the nature of the industry grudges cannot be held against staff, in particular in times like this, and today when he came in absent a reasonable excuse or reason he was still told I would do everything in my power to try and give him another chance.
In relation to the title of this post this is all I feel at the moment, after the initial nosedive we are no longer moving backwards, however we are not moving forwards either as we are in limbo with whether we will receive government assistance in a reasonable time frame, and whether the next announcement will be a closure of restaurants for the time being. The latter is something that is dreaded by me as it means my remaining staff will be left in the dark. I have offered to split my centrelink payment with them (if i ever receive it), although after spending 2 hours this morning attempting to jump through their hoops I hit a wall and did not have the time to continue processing the application. On that same note $150 a week will not go a long way in keeping them or their families afloat. The additional reason I feel we are not moving forward is that all this extra work we are doing and all the extra systems I am putting in place are designed for survival and a sustainable business plan over the next 12 months, though we will never have the chance to test these if we are shut down without assistance.
I will try to keep my posts more positive than they have been, though at the moment there are few reasons to be cheerful in the industry.
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