That sucks man. I've had a couple guys bail on me during some of the busiest days of the year. Most times it's like, "well he was a ***** and couldn't handle the pressure on the line anyway, go back to making sandwiches all day." But sometimes I can't help but feel responsible partly for putting them in over their head. You know a guy isn't fully ready but you wanna give him a shot to step up and advance himself. I know how I react under pressure. I thrive on that ****. I rise above it and better myself because of it. That's how I got where I am today. My problem is however, and I do this all the time, I expect everyone to feel like me or think like me. Not everyone cares that much, and I have a hard time accepting that.
I've started learning over the last few years there's a reason I have a 53 year old hot lunch cook and a 46 year old lunch salad cook. They're perfectly fine just dialing in the bare minimum or even less. Not everyone wants to learn more, do more, be more. Not everyone has the passion, desire and drive like my Exec Chef, myself and my Jr. Sous Chef. A big part of being a good boss is just learning people. How to approach people, learning their personality and skill set and then determining who you can trust with what. Not only for the sake of productivity in the kitchen but also so you don't beat yourself up for setting people up to fail. In which case it's always you who has to step in, take over and fix things. You don't wanna be running around constantly fixing things. That doesn't work, and it makes you look unprepared unorganized and unprofessional. When the Chef takes a vacation for a week at my club, it's my responsibility to make sure the members and staff don't even know he's gone. It's a lot of pressure and I take it upon myself to make sure everything goes perfect. For some reason, some people just aren't built that way and I have to accept that.
Everyone has personal problem or issues outside of work as well. There's a lot of stress in life but you have to learn to check that **** at the door. It sucks when guys start drinking, doing drugs and start calling out for whatever reason. I can see the end of the road coming from a mile away at this point. All you can do is give him a chance to turn it around but that's it. Burn me again and you gotta go. I hope you get some help and if you ever need somebody to help you get it, just ask. But we are running a business and there's a really tight knit group of guys here. When you start falling off it's all us that have to pull together and make it through the fire. Even if I let you back in the guys ain't having it. You gotta hear it from them and then I look like I didn't have their back. No win for anyone, creates a negative atmosphere.
I'm not saying anything here you don't already know Scott. I'm just saying I understand how you feel. I hope your guy gets some help, it sounds like he really needs it. It sucks to be on the bottom but if you can get out of it, it only makes you a stronger better person.