Pros

Career Opportunities, in a little over two years I went from a server to a general manager. As a GM the first two years were great, learned many skills that are helping me in my current position today. In essence you ran the business, from purchasing, marketing, human resources, to profit and loss reports. Great experience to add to anyone's resume.

Cons

My first 2 years as a GM would have gotten you a blank answer here. However, in FY 2007 the "Powers that Be" decided that it would be a good idea to cut out 1 salaried manager in over 80% of company owned stores. They even sold it to the managers and general managers as a way to help "Quality of Life". HA, HA , this takes me to my last two years as a GM for Ruby Tuesday which were brutal. Basicaly with this new management system the assistants would work less, and if there were any unplanned abscences or manager vacations the GM would work the extra hours and get comp time later. HA HA HA after several months of this I lost count with the number of days I was owed off. Regional Managers and District Managers knew that the GM's were working in most cases 70 hours or more per week. This was especially true in stores that could not afford shift leaders in their labor budgets, which in some cases reduced the work load on the GM. Now there were GM's that refused to work these schedules, but to their own demise. In my last year as a GM there were at least 3 weeks (WED-TUES) that I worked over 90 hours due to manager vacations and limits on the hours an assistant manager worked 45-50 on average because they were forced to close every shift, which historicaly is the shortest shift. After the last 90 hour work week I was done, after having a suprise visit from my Regional Manager after snooping my resume out on line, I gave him a respectful earfull on how big of a mistake the company made when they dropped to 3 man teams. With only 1 manager in the unit 75% of the shifts were a disaster waiting to happen. The days of knowing you had back-up aka kitchen manager were over and I was living proof of how this process had burnt out a once passionate GM. Of course a blind eye and blame on the area manager was placed to the 90 hour weeks, but I knew that there was no way this would work, and I could tell just by looking at him (regional) this was not his first conversation about this topic. So I did what any self-respecting human being would do, I found a new company utlizing all of the extensive training and development Ruby Tuesday had invested in me for over 6 years. As you can imagine this was not a decision that was made lightly, but in the end had to be made. I left in March of 2008 as well as many other great GM's and district managers. From what I hear now nothing has changed except the financial ruin they are in , so what are they doing now, they are laying off all of those managers who just couldn't read the writing on the wall soon enough. So all in all biggest downside is senior managent, the CEO is surrounded by "yes" men and makes careless decisions on a whim, without regard to the effects. Some of those include: 3 Man Manager Teams ( Killed them in manager turnover), MENU HAPPY, they changed the menu more times than Sandy Beall changed underwear in his entire time as CEO. And last but not least Sand's (Re-Imaging) of over 900 stores. I can only imagine how he pitched it to the little "yes" men . "Hey guys, lets spend 55 million dollars that we don't have and ruin / re-image perfectly good operations." " And while we are at it we will abondon all of the middle class patrons who got us on the map for a higer quailty , upper middle class that will pay more $$$$$ for the same bland food. Should I go on; this once great company that seemed so promising is now a terrible memory in the minds of many, and now will be lucky if they even exist in two years. P.S. I am not bitter, well just a little, must have been the 90 hours.

Advice to Senior Management

REMOVE SANDY IMMEDIATLEY FROM THE BUILDING AND THINK ON YOUR OWN FOR A TRY. THE ONLY CHANGE THIS COMPANY NEEDS IS IN SENIOR MANAGEMENT. GO BACK TO THE BASICS, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE RUBY TUESDAY THAT FOCUSED ON PEOPLE. ALSO TRY THE 3 MAN TEAM IN MARYVILLE , SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT. I AND COUNTLESS OTHER FORMER VALUABLE EMPLOYEES ALL AGREE THAT WAS WHERE YOU FIRST WENT WRONG. THANKS FOR BURNING OUT SO MANY GOOD PEOPLE, AND THANKS FOR THE REMODEL, AS THAT IS WHAT WILL BRING THIS DISASTER TO AN SUDDEN END. HOW MANY STORES ARE YOU CLOSING THIS WEEK MR. BEALL