Restaurant Skills Often Forgotten

We are in a strange time. A constant in our busy, hustle-bustle lives has always been restaurants. It has been the one industry always hiring and often considered the backbone of the middle class. It is also one of the industries strongly impacted by COVID-19. As closures rise and life as expected comes to a standstill, many in the industry are not able to adapt or simply wait it out.

As many restaurant workers try to transition from service and kitchen jobs to “office jobs,” it can often feel like there are no transferable skills. Restaurant work is unique: good knife skills won’t get you a job at Amazon and wine knowledge won’t get you a job at an insurance company.

However, restaurant workers' soft skills are unparalleled. Formed and reinforced in high pressure, fast-paced environments, these soft skills are vital to making it through the day in a restaurant — and they can be just what an “office” team needs in these unexpected times.

Here are the top soft skills that restaurant workers excel in:

Dedication

If restaurant work seems like one of the few fields where you can’t take the job home with you, then you have never worked in a high-end restaurant. Servers spend time studying for weekly quizzes on cooking techniques, wine tasting (which often means geography), service standards, and more. Chefs are reading recipe books, testing new ingredients, and working on drink pairings.

To make a high-end restaurant experience the best it can be, these workers can’t just leave work at work. It takes unparalleled dedication to do this, all the while knowing that there may not be very many guests that fully appreciate it.

Focus

The time when a restaurant is at its busiest is also the time where employees need to focus the most. It is a difficult task when 70 people are packed in a room, music is playing, and pans are clanking.

I have often felt during peak hours in a restaurant, I achieve what I call “hyper-focus.” It is such a deep, goal-oriented focus state that I have no thoughts outside of the next steps. I am sure everybody can reach this stage; however, while working in restaurants, I felt this way almost every night. The practice of moving in and out of this high-focus state is exactly that — a practice — and restaurant workers sure have a lot of it.

Multi-tasking and prioritization

Speaking of focus — table six wants to speak with the chef, table four needs sparkling and still water, table two wants to try a ‘non-acidic, not sweet white wine’, table seven wants the check, and table five needs the first course plates cleared, and table three has questions about the menu. You have five minutes.

After going through the list above, you see it may not be possible to accomplish everything in the next five minutes; however, the key skill that restaurant workers develop is deciphering what to do first. It is a combination of reading the mood of each table, knowing which points are key to guest satisfaction, and additionally, which points are important to the general workflow.

For example, not explaining the menu as soon as possible can start a chain reaction. The food order gets taken a bit later, the kitchen is already “in the weeds” so the food takes longer, so the guests take longer to finish dinner than the budgeted 2.5 hours, so they get moved to the bar before they wanted to leave and are frustrated, and the next reservation seated on that table must wait, which impacts their satisfaction and the likelihood of them returning… which impacts revenue.

That is just the beginning of the complicated workflows and loops that a good server needs to think through, keeping both the restaurant and the guest in mind.

Training

Even the best restaurants are often understaffed. There are never enough people and so one employee often wears a number of different hats. Because of this, everyone develops training skills. Whether it is training a new hire on the service standards or the long process of teaching a fellow employee the best milk foaming style, learning and training are always ongoing.

Communication and Teamwork

One of my favorite managers would always say that “the best server is the one who asks for help before they need it.” And that means communication. In restaurants, this communication looks like knowing your colleagues' stress signs, open feedback at all times, understanding your weak points, and, as said above, asking for help.

A restaurant team is unlike any other — it is a family, a crew. It is a mentality I have not found in many other types of work. There is a true desire to help one another because the restaurant only does well when every member succeeds. Even when people are busy, they step in to help those who are at the end of their rope. It is true camaraderie and something that I think the “office world” needs much more of.

Speed-learning

Remember how I mentioned there is never enough staff? Because of this, speed-learning is a daily task. If the host calls out sick on a Friday night, someone needs to pick up that role. In many cases, other employees are familiar with the work, but not comfortable. That means one person needs to take the leap and speed-learn the must-have skills for the evening.

In conclusion

I hope after reading this if an application comes across your desk from a skilled restaurant worker, you see beyond the expected. Our soft skills are not just limited to good people skills. We exhibit a wide range of in-demand talents and are passionate to boot.

I have worked for six years in the restaurant industry, from kitchen to front of house. I know not all restaurants or workers are the same, and I can only speak for employees at mid to high-end restaurants.