What a restaurant manager really does
You keep a busy restaurant stocked, staffed and on budget, and you are the person everyone turns to when a night goes sideways.
FieldTransportation and hospitality
Preparation (O*NET Job Zone)Some preparation needed
What the work involves
What fills a typical week for restaurant managers, built from O*NET occupation data.
- Build the weekly staff schedule and assign stations and side work so every shift is covered without blowing the labor budget.
- Count inventory, estimate how much food and liquor the week will need, and place orders with vendors.
- Check in deliveries at the back door and send back anything short, damaged or out of spec.
- Walk the floor during service, watch portions and plate presentation, and jump in to run food or bus tables when it gets slammed.
- Handle guest complaints about food or service at the table, often several times a week.
- Count the cash drawers, make the bank deposit and review payroll and invoices against the budget.
- Keep the sanitation logs, temperature records and liquor rules in order for the health inspector and the state.
What the days are like
What people in the job know
- You are almost never alone and almost never sitting. The job happens on the floor, in constant contact with staff and guests. Contact With Others: 94% constant contact; Spend Time Standing: 65% continually or almost continually; Spend Time Walking or Running: 44% continually or almost continually (O*NET Work Context)
- Angry guests and staff conflicts are a weekly event, not a rare one. Handling them calmly is a core skill. Dealing With Unpleasant, Angry, or Discourteous People: 56% once a week or more but not every day; Conflict Situations: 45% once a week or more (O*NET Work Context)
- You are judged on what your team does, not on what you do yourself. A bad shift from your cooks or servers is your bad shift. Work Outcomes and Results of Other Workers: 65% very high responsibility, 33% high responsibility (O*NET Work Context)
- Long weeks are common. Many managers work past 40 hours. Duration of Typical Work Week: 41% more than 40 hours (O*NET Work Context)
- A surprising share of the job is money and paperwork: counting cash, deposits, payroll and government records. Task 3, Count money and make bank deposits: importance 89, Core; Task 5, Keep records required by government agencies regarding sanitation: importance 86, Core (O*NET Tasks)
How people get into it
O*NET places this job in Job Zone 1 to 2: usually a high school diploma, with a few days to a year of on the job training. Most managers work their way up from server, cook or shift lead. Among new hires, 30% have a high school diploma, 21% a post secondary certificate and 19% an associate's degree; hospitality degrees help but are not the main route. Most health departments require a certified food protection manager on site, so managers usually earn that certificate early.
The Firstday trial, easy to hard
Three simulated tasks with AI coworkers who message you, react to your work and coach with questions. Nobody scores you.
What the trial can't show: This trial does not cover the physical side of the job: standing and walking for a full shift, carrying trays, working the line or the dish pit when someone calls out, the heat and noise of a kitchen during a rush, tasting food for quality, or physically checking a delivery. It also cannot fully reproduce the feeling of handling a complaint face to face while the dining room is full and three other people need you at the same moment.
Reading about it is one thing.
Find out how the work feels to you before you spend on a degree, course or job change. Your first trial is free.
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Job details on this page are built from O*NET OnLine, 11-9051.00. This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.