I really struggled and made mistakes the first few schedules I made. Shit, I still make silly mistakes sometimes.

For request offs I just bought a cheap daily planner from Amazon. The employees write their name on the day they need off. Sometimes they just need the morning or night off so they write that in too. I try my absolute best to give everyone what they want. Trying to give everyone a set schedule is the goal but people always need off and it’s been hard to stick to one.

I also have a group chat with everyone in it. Makes it easy to let everyone know important things and they can switch shifts easily there. I have a silly staff so sometimes the silliness gets out of hand but they know if I send something important to not do that until the issues been fully addressed.

I’m fairly dyslexic so reading all the columns and rows is difficult. I color code everything. Doubles time is in red, bartending the upstairs bar is blue, downstairs bar is pink. If someone can’t work certain days I just put an X in that days box.

I have a handful of college kids that come back for summer and winter break. They know to let me know the dates they’ll be back and wanting shifts. Most of them started as bus boys or hosts so they know the restaurant well and can cover those shifts if they want to or it’s needed.

One thing I struggle with and feel bad about is the outside patio. Unfortunately I can’t predict the weather that far in advance so if it’s too hot or rainy the people on to work out there get cut. But they’re all good about it and take turns having the night off.

Okay now I feel like I’m just rambling but I hope it helped a little.