Digital to Analog shift
I recently took a job as a Retaurant outlet manager at a major resort here on Hawaii island. I have spent many years in the Food Service industry, both on the restaurant side and on the suppler side (food and liquor).
The most notable of my past experience was a 9 year stint with TGI Fridays restaurants back in the 80s and owning my own cafe in Hilo, Hawaii from 1995–2004. I was mostly either kitchen manager, floor manager or general manager. I was also promotions manager for a Miller Beer Distributor, sales manager at a food broker and an account manager for a wine and liquor wholesaler.
Embracing technology…
During the 11 years from 2004 -present I was mostly out of the foodservice industry. I spent 5 years working for a radio group owned by an old associate, this is when I made a shift towards tech. I have always been a nerd, my Dad used bring home HeathKit computer kits, I had an Apple II, and IBM PC, an early Toshiba laptop, and always tried to bring technology into places that I managed. My Dad used by purchase software packages and give them to me to figure out, them put them on his computer and show him how it worked. While at the radio station I started my own Website development company. I’ve built over 70 sites and currently manage 30 of them, though I will be closing down that company this spring.
All of this time I was a neck deep in the latest gadgets, software and technology available. I had everything.
When I left the radio group, I became IT and Advancement manager at a local non-denominational private school. Hualalai Academy was an all Apple school. 70 iPads in the lower School, All Macs for the faculty, 2 Mac Servers, 10 Airport Extremes and over a dozen iMacs. While I was there, we decommissioned over 40 eMacs. This job was geek’s dream.
Unfortunately due to the economy and a poor admissions policy, the school closed in 2013 after 20 years. Lucky for me, the store manager job at a local Apple Specialist and Bose retailer became available. I knew the owner, I’ve purchased Macs from them personally and for the school.
Becoming the manager at an Apple and Bose retailer was like geek heaven. I was able to talk to and hang around other nerds and have access to the latest stuff. I was at the epicenter of nerdville for 2 years. People walked in and expected us to know the answer or just talk about the new stuff. The store would fill up after any Apple keynote or announcement. The first time I took my Apple Certifications tests, I was ranked as high as 45th in the world for 3 weeks.
Falling out of love…
This was fun for a while, but after a number of years of running as fast as I can to keep up with the leading edge of technology, I was getting tired. It may sound strange, but I wanted to get back in to hospitality. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of tech in Food and Beverage with reservations systems, computers for purchasing, tracking costs and scheduling, but the most important part of a food service manager’s job is people.
There are the employees, the chefs, the cooks, the stewards and especially the customers. Then there’s the food and beverage, not much room for technology there. Our chef has a 2 shelves of cook books.
I’ve been in the job for a month now. I open my Mac maybe once a day, pick up my iPad after work and look at my iPhone for text messages or work emails while I’m out of the ofice. My ringer has been off for the entire month. I haven’t purchased any new apps and the only piece of tech that I’ve purchased in the Lytro Illum Camera. I’ve unsubscribed from virtually every tech newsletter I was reading. I don’t even care what happens at CES.
On my days off, I read books, maybe check my Twitter feed once or twice and listen to music. At work, I talk to people all day. A mostly analog life.
I have basically gone off the grid for most of my days. The resort where I manage is a high end residence and hotel resort. We have tech stars, movie and TV stars, rock stars and financiers as guests and for the sake of their privacy, it’s much better to leave the device behind.
It’s actually quite refreshing.