The assistant general manager, and why a site needs a deputy

A general manager works five days, perhaps six. The site opens seven. On the days the GM is not there, the site still needs someone with the authority to make a decision that sticks: to send a chef home, to comp a table, to call the engineer out on a Sunday and approve the bill. That person is the assistant general manager.

Being in charge when the GM is out is only half the role. The other half, and the part that distinguishes a proper AGM from a senior shift manager, is a share of the GM’s job that belongs to the AGM all the time.

AGM or duty manager

The two are easy to confuse because both will be the most senior person on site for some shifts. The difference is scope. A duty manager runs a shift: they open or close, handle what happens during it, and hand over. When the shift ends, so does their responsibility.

An AGM holds a portfolio that carries on between shifts, and deputises for the GM with the GM’s authority rather than a shift’s. If the head chef needs a decision on overtime during the GM’s holiday, it is the AGM who makes it, not whoever happens to be on the door that night. One AGM can sit above a whole rota of duty managers.

The portfolio

What an AGM owns varies by site, and a good GM hands over things that genuinely matter rather than leftovers. Common pieces:

• The rota across front of house, built to the labour budget the GM sets.
• Recruitment and onboarding: reading applications, running interviews and trial shifts, doing the paperwork and checks for new starters, and making sure the first week is planned.
• Training records, including allergen, licensing and food safety training, and chasing the gaps.
• Health and safety and food safety paperwork, fire checks and the audit folder that an inspector or head office will ask to see.
• Stock and ordering for one department, often the bar or wine.
• Payroll inputs: hours, holidays, sickness and the tronc allocation, ready for the GM to sign off.

On top of that, the AGM works service, usually on the floor, and is on the rota for the heaviest nights alongside the GM or instead of them.

Why a site creates the role

A single-site restaurant with an owner who is present, a restaurant manager and a couple of supervisors may have no need for an AGM. The owner covers the gaps, and the supervisors run the shifts.

The role earns its place once there is a GM whose time is being eaten by tasks that someone else could own, and whose absence leaves the site without a decision-maker. The signs are usually obvious to the team before the owner sees them: the GM has not taken a full week off in a year, recruitment has stalled because interviews only happen when the GM is free, and staff know that anything difficult waits until the GM is back.

Groups also create AGM roles deliberately as the training ground for their next GMs. If that is the reason, an advert should say so, because it is the most attractive thing about the job.

Where it sits

The AGM reports to the GM. On paper the restaurant manager, bar manager, supervisors and duty managers answer to the AGM, though in practice senior department heads such as the head chef usually still go to the GM when both are in. The AGM takes the handover from the GM before any absence, and in a well-run site there is a standing written note on what the AGM can decide alone and what needs a call.

What venues look for

Evidence of having owned something: a rota budget, a recruitment drive, an audit score. An AGM candidate who can only describe running shifts is describing duty manager experience, which is a fine step towards the job but not the same thing.

The quality that separates a good AGM from an adequate one is judgement in the GM’s absence. An adequate AGM keeps things ticking over and saves the hard calls for the GM’s return. A good one makes the calls the GM would have made, writes down why, and leaves nothing in the in-tray for Monday.

From here to general manager

People reach AGM from restaurant manager, bar manager or senior duty manager roles, sometimes within the same group. The obvious next step is general manager, either on the same site when the GM moves on or on a new opening. Time as an AGM under a strong GM is one of the better apprenticeships in hospitality management, and one under a weak GM teaches the job faster but more painfully.

The advert

State the salary and bonus, and be specific about the portfolio: which of the GM’s responsibilities the AGM will own. Say how many days and closes a week are usual, whether managers share in the tronc, and whether there is a route to GM.

What deputy and senior managers are being paid: the management pay page

The shift-level role: what a duty manager does

Sites hiring now: AGM and manager vacancies