Shift who is training to be an assistant manager here, I agree that your manager should factor in more on floor time for themselves but there’s a lot of invisible work they do that you don’t know about. From making the schedule, to constant conference calls with other managers and the district, reporting numbers, setting pars for shifts to place orders and putting in certain orders. By no means am I saying they are a good manager but there’s a lot to the job and I’m just now seeing this becoming an assistant. When I was a barista, I used to view shifts the same way until I became one and now I understand.
Also the incentive for drive through times is not only your managers deal but everyone’s. The drive thru times determine how many hours the manager is allowed to schedule and it’s based on last years drive thru times. If you’ve ever felt understaffed it’s because drive thru times were crap last year at that time.
I feel like the lack of transparency really messes people up, keep the drive thru times down but why? Where’s the shift? They are placing the order, doing the pull, doing tips or even putting an order away.
I know environments can get toxic and I’ve had managers who did no floor time and when they did all they did was ovens. It’s frustrating. I worked at three stores before I found one that was not toxic and the manager made sure to have on the floor time.