Education & Distance Learning Enthusiasts- The search for a 'real job' in the food-service industry

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The search for a 'real job' in the food-service industry

Nation's Restaurant News - March 14, 1988

The search for a 'real job' in the food-service industry

I've worked in the service sector of our economy for my entire eareer. But don't worry. Someday I'm going to get a "real" job!

For some reason, our nation's shift from a manufacturing to a service economy has caused many Americans to experience a profound case of the jitters, the same kind of panic that probably accompanied the transition from an agrarian to an industrial base following the Industrial Revolution. What all of us in the food-service industry (a burgeoning segment of the service economy) are facing is an inherent arrogance on the part of other industries and many government agencies.

It's perhaps our high profile that sets us up as one of the clearest examples of our nation's move away from what many consider to be legitimate enterprise. And it's why I sometimes joke about my finding real employment.

One of the problems we as an industry face is the emphasis critics place on entry level jobs in restaurants. What's forgotten is the vast organizations that exist for each chain and each franchise system. Huge corporations are being created that do provide a lot of entry level positions at the bottom, but they offer significant high-paying positions at the middle and upper levels as well. Those middle and upper management positions are more than competitive with anything else that exists in the American economy.

To make a fair comparison, critics of the employment opportunities in quick-service restaurants should look back to the era when other segments of our economy were just beginning to develop. The quick-service restaurant industry is embryonic. Service industries, such as food service, medical service, and retailing, are just beginning to be of significant size. However, comparisons are usually made between companies in food service and those in the automobile or steel industry, which have been around significantly longer.

If one looked back in time and gauged the pay scales in the automobile industry when it was 25 years old, I'm certain that no one considered the jobs to be "high paying." And when the steel industry was in its infancy, it paid nowhere near the actual real dollars its employees now earn. Wages go up as industries evolve, and food-service salaries will, too, as the field matures.

Americans seem stuck on the idea that we must build even larger plants to produce more and bigger cars, computers, and other goods if we are to add fuel to our economy and support the development of the world economy. Yet manufacturing is only a small (and rapidly shrinking) fraction of our national employment and output according to a recent Hudson Institute study entitled "Workforce 2000." In fact, according to the study, increasing productivity in the service end of our economy will mean more to our country's future success than trying to create or sustain manufacturing positions.

I can't understand why it is supposed to be more satisfying or more socially acceptable to be spot-welding door frames from nine to five or assembling color-coded computer parts than to be preparing food or taking customer orders. In either case career goals and ability will dictate whether the workers progress from those starting points to more challenging responsibilities. And I firmly believe that the career paths in our industry are at least as well defined as those in manufacturing.

For example, crew members who join us can work toward becoming shift managers, assistant managers, and store managers. From there, they can progress to area supervisors, district managers, directors of operations, and regional vice presidents. More than 1,100 of our current 2,700 store managers began their careers as cooks, drivers, waiters, or hosts. That's more than 40 percent coming from our hourly ranks.

The vast majority of our management personnel (above store manager) were promoted to their current positions after serving in a store. That's a lot of levels in our employment structure that pay progressively higher wages.

The image of food service as a deadend industry is due in part to critics who look only at the entry level opportunities. However, I must say that part of the blame must rest with us! What have we as an industry done to offset that misconception? How are we reaching college students effectively with career information? We constantly talk about our quality products and service, but we rarely discuss the fact that restaurants are great places to work and build a career.

Executives in our industry can help our image by paying attention to the human resource issues associated with the problem. Pizza Hut does not believe that someone has to have food-service experience to contribute in a meaningful way to our company's success. Young, bright people can be attracted and retained provided that we get work out to them.

Unfortunately, some dinosaurs in our industry still think that experience as a cook is essential to knowing how to run a restaurant. As a result, they perpetuate the negative food-service image by discriminating against people with college degrees. They say, "You have an education; then what are you doing applying for a job here?" My answer to that attitude is simple: Send those applicants over to us!

What have we got to offer our people? Economic opportunity, career advancement, the opportunity to be part of a growing industry, the rewards inherent in service work--interaction with people. No, we don't offer training in riveting, or welding, or tire rotation. What we teach are job skills that are usable and transferrable to virtually any other area of the service economy.

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