Assistant Manager Review

Customer service, liquor stock, back bar displays and taking care of the cellar. Also cross trained in kitchen and regularly carry out reliefs for the GM. I spend a lot of time FOH training team members and ensuring high standards of customer service. I also take full control of liquor stock and our cask ales.

Learned many new skills - counting and looking after stock, budgeting and forecasting, employee relation and disciplinary / investigation skills and improved my timekeeping, organisational skills and customer service skills. Some of the independent study I did whilst completing this course helped me with my day to day job and deepened my thinking and understanding.

The apprenticeship started well but I struggled with balancing my full time job with my apprenticeship and I wasn’t allowed the time I was supposed to have as part of my working week by my GM as I was needed to work instead. The apprenticeship was very long winded and the online work through Fuse was poorly written and made very little sense, it was very generic and not tailored to my job role. I was never given any clear information about the course structure and struggled to find course structure on Fuse. My trainer was a nice guy but wasn’t a lot of help to me and a lot of my work was done with little to no help.He had a background in managing kitchens and had never been a GM, which is what my job role and apprenticeship related to, which seemed an inappropriate choice. He gave me irrelevant work to do. When it came to my exams and interviews, I agreed dates for my interviews and exams, but they were changed by my examiner and during my holiday dates, as it was the only time that she could do. I was sent so many emails with different dates that I was never sure when my exams were. The whole course was chaos, poorly organised and stressful.

Very poorly organised. It was a struggle to understand the course structure and I struggled to gain a clear picture of the different elements of the course and what was happening when. My exams were constantly changed and I received so many emails with different dates for my exams and interviews that it was a wonder that I had my interviews on the correct dates. The course was chaos and communication was very poor.

I received next to no support from my employer. I didn’t receive any of the time I was supposed to to work on my coursework during my working week. I received a small amount of support from my BDM, but when I spoke with her about how the course was structured and how I didn’t feel I was learning a lot from the course, I was told someone would ring me about my concerns. I received a phone call two weeks later and was basically told that I only had a short period of time left on my course and to persevere.

I received some support from my trainer, but he seemed uncertain on some aspects himself. He was always a phone call / text message away if I had any concerns and would try his best to help me. When I was confused about my exam dates, he helped clarify these for me.

There are some aspects of this apprenticeship that have improved my ability to perform my job role, particularly the modules around self awareness and giving feedback to my team members. I also feel I have a wider understanding of operational planning and finance. There were some useful elements to the course which have helped me to improve in my job role.

No social activities at all. There is a social media platform with several different groups organised according to hobbies and interests. Although these groups are part of a company run social media platform, are separate and are run by employees, not the company but any activities stemming from these groups are optional.

No

From my experience at Greene King, I have worked with some fantastic members of staff and managers and I love the pub I work in. However, other large pub companies offer more competitive salaries and benefits. I also have no work life balance and there is constant pressure from above to cut hours and save labour. The work is exhausting for a poor salary and as an assistant manager, I work with chefs who earn more money than me despite my length of service, experience and seniority. There is very little recognition and it is a thankless job.

Be firm in what you expect from your team and your manager. Know your worth and ask for a reasonable wage / salary that reflects your experience and skill set, don’t settle for what your manager offers first of all. Always thank your team and lead a positive example for your team.