Restaurant Safety Killer™ #4: TMT™

There is something almost fitting about finding Restaurant Safety Killer™ #4—TMT™

(Too Much Managers' Time™)—hanging around a robbery.

After all, TMT™ is a thief too.

He doesn't want the money in your register.

He wants something restaurant managers may have even less of:

Time.

A manager starts the day with a list of things that need to get done, and before long, TMT™ goes to work. Somebody calls out. A delivery arrives at exactly the wrong moment. The walk-in needs attention. A customer wants a manager. The schedule needs to be finished. There's a problem with yesterday's deposit. Somebody needs an override. The dishwasher just stopped working.

And somewhere on that list was employee safety training.

Maybe even robbery prevention training.

But TMT™ stole the time.

Again.

Robbery Prevention Is Easy to Put Off—Until There's a Robbery

That's one of the problems with preventive safety training.

There isn't necessarily an emergency happening right now.

Nobody is standing at the register demanding money. Nobody is trying to enter through the back door. Nobody is frightening your closing employees in the parking lot.

So robbery prevention training can feel like something that can wait.

We'll cover it tomorrow.

We'll talk about it at the next meeting.

We'll make sure the closing crew knows what to do.

We'll get to it when things settle down.

TMT™ loves that last one.

Because if you've spent any amount of time managing restaurants, you already know:

Restaurants don't settle down.

One problem gets solved and another one takes its place.

If safety has to wait until managers have extra time, TMT™ may make sure it waits forever.

TMT™ Doesn't Need Managers to Believe Safety Isn't Important

This is what makes TMT™ different from the other Restaurant Safety Killers™.

He doesn't have to convince a restaurant manager that robbery prevention doesn't matter.

Of course it matters.

Managers know they don't want employees confronting a robber. They don't want employees putting themselves in danger over the restaurant's money. They want employees to understand the restaurant's procedures and know what to do if something frightening happens.

TMT™ doesn't argue with any of that.

He simply says:

“You don't have time for it today.”

And that can be enough.

Because there is always one more thing.

One more customer.

One more phone call.

One more schedule change.

One more problem in the kitchen.

One more thing that feels more urgent than preventing something that hasn't happened yet.

And That's How TMT™ Lets the Other Restaurant Safety Killers™ In

TMT™ may be the Restaurant Safety Killer™ who makes life easier for every other member of the group.

When there isn't time to properly train an employee in the first place, LOT™—Lack of Training™—gets an opening.

When employees received robbery prevention information during orientation but there never seems to be time to reinforce it again, NOT™—No Ongoing Training™—moves in.

When the training happened but nobody had time to make sure it was properly recorded, NOD™—No Ongoing Documentation™—gets exactly what he wants.

And standing behind all three of them is TMT™.

There wasn't enough time.

Not enough time to train.

Not enough time to retrain.

Not enough time to document.

That's why eliminating TMT™ matters so much.

Give managers back enough time for safety training, and suddenly the other Restaurant Safety Killers™ have a much harder time getting through the door.

Employees Need to Know What to Do Before They're Frightened

Robbery prevention isn't the kind of training you want employees trying to remember for the first time while they're terrified.

An employee who suddenly encounters a threatening person may have only seconds to make decisions.

That isn't the moment to wonder:

Should I cooperate?

Should I try to stop them?

Should I follow them?

What am I supposed to notice?

When should I call for help?

What do I do after they're gone?

Employees should understand the restaurant's robbery procedures before they're ever placed in that situation.

Training can't guarantee that a robbery won't occur.

What it can do is help employees understand that their personal safety comes first and give them a framework for responding rather than expecting them to invent one during an emergency.

Fifteen Minutes Suddenly Doesn't Sound Like Very Much

TMT™ is very good at making fifteen minutes sound enormous.

• We can't pull an employee away for fifteen minutes.
• We're too busy.
• We'll do it another day.

But imagine if the restaurant actually experiences a robbery.

How much management time will that take?

There may be police interviews. Employees may need attention and support. Statements may need to be collected. Reports may need to be completed. Video footage may need to be located and preserved. Corporate management, ownership, insurance representatives, or others may need information.

Schedules may have to change.

Employees may have questions.

Managers may spend hours dealing with the aftermath.

And the restaurant still has to operate.

Suddenly, those few minutes of preventive training don't seem quite so expensive.

Prevention Takes Minutes. The Aftermath Can Take Hours.

That's the trick TMT™ plays on restaurant managers over and over again.

He makes you focus on the time prevention takes before something happens.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

Fifteen minutes.

That feels like time you don't have.

But TMT™ conveniently leaves out the other side of the equation.

An emergency can take hours.

An employee injury can take hours.

An investigation can take hours.

Trying to reconstruct training records can take hours.

And unlike preventive training, those hours aren't something you can postpone until next Tuesday.

Once something has happened, your schedule no longer matters.

The emergency owns your time.

Restaurant Safety Training Shouldn't Require Another Manager Meeting

Part of the problem is that traditional safety training often wasn't designed around the reality of restaurant operations.

If safety requires gathering every employee together in one room for an hour-long meeting, finding a quiet afternoon, creating a presentation, keeping track of paperwork, and somehow scheduling everyone at the same time, TMT™ has practically already won.

That's not how restaurants operate.

Your opening cook doesn't work the same hours as your closing server. Your dishwasher may be leaving when your dinner crew is arriving. Someone is always off. Someone is covering another shift. Someone is on break.

Trying to stop restaurant operations so everybody can “do safety” doesn't make much sense.

Safety has to fit the restaurant—not the other way around.

That's Why REST Was Built Around Minutes, Not Meetings

The REST Compliance Protection System™ was designed around something restaurant managers already know:

You don't have hours to give to safety training.

And you shouldn't need them.

REST requires only about five minutes a week of managers' time to keep the safety system moving.

Employees can complete their training individually when it works with restaurant operations, generally taking about 15 minutes to complete their training and quiz.

You don't have to gather twenty employees together.

You don't have to shut down operations.

You don't have to create the training yourself.

You don't have to keep inventing the next safety topic.

The system is already there.

That's how you beat TMT™.

Not by magically giving restaurant managers more hours in the day.

By requiring very little of the time they already have.

Robbery Prevention Doesn't Need to Compete With Running the Restaurant

That's the larger point.

Restaurant safety shouldn't become one more enormous project sitting on a manager's desk.

When safety becomes complicated, time-consuming, or difficult to coordinate, TMT™ has an advantage.

But a few minutes?

That can fit.

A manager can keep the safety cycle moving without turning the week upside down. Employees can complete training without everybody being scheduled for the same meeting. Quizzes help reinforce what employees learned. Certificates and tracking tools help create the documentation that NOD™ would rather you forget.

Suddenly LOT™, NOT™, and NOD™ aren't getting nearly as much help from their friend TMT™.

And the restaurant hasn't stopped running to make it happen.

Don't Let TMT™ Rob You Twice

TMT™'s first theft is easy to miss.

Five minutes here.

Fifteen minutes there.

The safety training that gets moved to tomorrow.

The refresher that never quite happens.

The documentation somebody meant to finish.

But if an emergency happens because employees weren't prepared, TMT™ may come back for something much bigger.

Hours of your managers' time dealing with the aftermath.

That's a lousy trade.

Restaurant robbery prevention training doesn't have to take over your operation. It simply needs to become part of how your restaurant operates.

Because the goal isn't to find more time for safety.

The goal is to stop TMT™ from stealing the little bit of time safety actually needs.