Last week was about the cash sitting on your shelves. This week it's the cash sitting on your schedule.
If you build the schedule, this one's yours. If you sign the checks, there's a question for you near the end.
The situation
I've heard some version of this from owners for years: "Labor is too high." Then, in the same breath: "And we're short-staffed."
Both can be true at once. An operation can feel thin on the floor and still carry more payroll than its sales can support.
When I hear both, I ask how the schedule gets built. Most of the time, it starts with a list of names. Who's available. Who wants mornings. Who has always had Saturdays.
Then the week gets built around those people. It feels practical. It's also backwards.
How I think about it
A schedule is a bet on next week. Shake your crystal ball and cross your fingers. You're betting the hours on paper will match the work that walks through the door.
So before a single name goes on it, I want to know what the business needs, hour by hour:
What has to be produced, and by when?
Which stations have to be covered at that volume?
When does the rush actually start and stop? Not when it feels like it does. When the sales say it does.
Which roles are needed, and for how long?
That's the first layer: roles. People come second.
Built in that order, the real problem is easy to see:
Can't fill the roles? That's a hiring or availability problem.
More people on the clock than the roles call for? That's a design problem.
Those need very different fixes. When names come first, the two blur together, and managers spend the week cutting, calling and covering instead of leading.
There's a quieter cost too. A schedule built around people bends toward whoever asks the most. The person who never complains likely ends up with the closes and the doubles. That's how a schedule that works on paper starts to feel unfair.
What changes when you flip it
A high-volume kitchen I worked in did about $12 million a year. I hated the hours. But it taught me what proper labor looks like: the schedule served the work, not the other way around. Our prep kitchen had a total of six people. Six. For $12 million in revenue. I still use that labor shell all the time.
Once you build from the work, two things open up.
The shifts get shorter where they should. The moments that matter most are often short: the breakfast push, the lunch rush, the after-work wave. You may not need another eight-hour position. You may need the right person for three hours, and some of the best people out there want exactly that.
And the role plan becomes the standard. Every week's schedule gets checked against it before it posts. When the season, the menu or the sales change, you change the plan first, then the names. That's what keeps the fix from sliding back into old habits.
Try this this week
Pick last Thursday, or whatever your most typical day is.
Pull sales by hour from your point of sale.
For each hour, write the stations or sections you truly needed covered at that volume.
Next to it, write who was actually on the clock.
Circle every hour where people outnumber the stations you needed.
Add up the circled hours and multiply by your average hourly rate. That's what one day of building around names cost you.
It's rarely one big mistake. It's a quarter-hour here and an extra closer there, every single day. It all adds up.
If you run the kitchen, your prep list is half of step two. Bring it to whoever writes the schedule. Is it efficient or only when so-and-so is working?
If you sign the checks, ask one question: "How many hours does next week need before anyone's name goes on it?" A number and a reason means you're in good shape. A list of names means you've found where to start.
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That's it for this week.
I'm curious how it works where you are. Does your schedule start with the roles or with the names? Reply and tell me. I read every reply, and if you'd like to talk it through, just say so and we'll find 30 minutes.
Thinking out loud with you,
Dusty
P.S. Know someone who builds the schedule every Sunday night? Forward this to them. That's how this list grows.