Informational Interview on a Local Family Diner

For my informational interview, I met with Dora Wisniewski, the owner and manager of Tom’s Family Restaurant, a family-owned diner in Buffalo, NY. As the owner and manager at Tom’s, Dora is responsible for “…a little bit of everything.” She is usually working “on the floor”, where she will greet and seat people. She is constantly communicating with and coordinating employees, whether she is hiring and training a new girl or trying to fill a shift when someone has called in saying they couldn’t work their scheduled time. She also has to check inventory, and once a week she orders from different companies for food, paper products, and cleaning supplies. In Dora’s opinion, this is the main goal of the restaurant industry; customer satisfaction and retention.

            I found that it is not easy managing a restaurant. Even if Dora is not working, she is always “on-call”, because anything could happen at the restaurant even if she isn’t there. I asked her what her favorite part about her job is, and she told me that she likes being able to interact and work with different people all the time, and as a manager, she likes having responsibility and being able to influence her co-workers and customers in a positive way.