I am a restuarant manager with a hard to work with executive chef. How do I deal with him mouthing off?
Asked by K
He gives my servers a hard time and will not help with closing the restaurant.

Best Answer:
A large part of managing employees effectively comes down to setting clear expectations and then enforcing them. You need to sit down with this guy and talk through what is expected of him in his position, put it in writing, and get him to sign off on it. After that if the behavior continues, you can remind him of his agreement and tell him his behavior is unacceptable. If the behavior continues even after a warning or two, you're going to have to fire him. Before sitting down, spend some time really thinking about what you need from him for him to be effective in his position. You can take this angle when discussing the expectations also because really you're telling him what he needs to do to be successful.

I would pull him aside privately and tell him, "Certainly you are a wonderful chef, but no one is irreplaceable. I'm not going to say who it is but a few of the servers have complained that you are giving them a hard time. I don't want to hear that kind of complaint again." Also, I would tell him that he is free to leave when his area is cleaned after closing. Otherwise, you expect him to stay.
Answered by Zelda Hunter

VERY common with chefs; they have so much stress and they are creative, artistic poeple and have a temperament to match. He really should not be expected to help close, (not the job for a chef; he has enough to do as it is) but he does need to be at least civil to the servers. Then you need to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of having him at all; can you get another chef to replace him? If not (I think chefs are difficult to find at all) then just take it easy on him, do not make him help close but do tell him to be aware of the feelings of the servers and not to be so harsh with them.
Answered by thisisme

How valuable is the guy? Is the hard times that he gives everyone worth it? If he's not worth it then find someone that is. I've worked in many restaurants and people that are like this are not going to change. Talk to this person, if they don't change find someone else. It's not worth making one person happy to the detriment of the rest of the restaurant.
Answered by Steve is cool