Mia is the Restaurant Manager at Grill’d on Melbourne’s Swan Street. In her 13 years of working at Grill’d she’s had some incredible experiences- from flying to the USA to visit the Impossible Headquarters to managing one of Melbourne busiest Grill’d restaurants.  She also manages to run an amazing team at Grill’d while juggling life with her 2-year-old son!

What has been your Grill’d career journey? 

I started as a team member and moved up to team leader within three months of starting. (which is really quick), Two years later I moved to Assistant Restaurant Manager. 

I did some travelling during my time as Assistant Restaurant Manager, including 3 months of backpacking through Europe. This is often really hard to do in most hospitality roles but Grill’d was more than happy for me to take a holiday. I had annual leave built up so I got paid the whole three months too! I then became a restaurant manager, which I have now been for seven years.

Flexibility is such a great thing at Grill’d. It’s not a huge issue if you ever want to take time off as long as you give everyone enough notice, then we are more than happy to make it happen. This is something that is often really difficult in most hospitality jobs. 

What has been a memorable experience at work? 

Four years ago Grill’d had a reward and recognition program where they flew me and a few other managers to America! We went to San Francisco to visit the Impossible headquarters. It is really cool now to see it in all of our restaurants. We then went to Disneyland in LA where we did a two-day course with Disney. The people I went on that trip with are still some of my closest friends today. It was such an amazing experience. 

How has Grill’d supported you in your incredible 15-year (and counting) journey? 

Grill’d was really supportive during my pregnancy. I was a restaurant manager at Windsor but towards the end of my pregnancy they let me move into the support office where I helped out in Operations. During that time I helped a lot with setting up Uber eats and the new Grill’d at Melbourne Airport. 

After coming back from maternity leave I was able to pick my hours and when I worked. I started with only a couple of shifts a week as a Supporting Restaurant Manager and then I eventually moved back to full time as a Restaurant Manager at Swan St. 

You must be pretty busy managing a restaurant and having a two-year-old. How do you make it work? 

I’m a lot better at managing my time now. I have the flexibility to set my shifts around my son’s daycare. So, If I need two days off in a row I can plan that in. 

I used to do a lot of work outside of work hours but now I’m a lot better at managing mine and my team’s time.  I still work the same hours but it’s definitely more flexible. Grill’d has really looked after me which I’m really grateful for. 

 

What are your duties at Grill’d and what do you love about your job?

Providing great customer service and making amazing burgers! But more importantly, my role involves a lot of training and hiring new team members. 

My favourite part of my job is developing a team. We’ve had so many people that have gone from team members to team leaders and from team leaders to Assistant Restaurant managers – I really enjoy seeing people develop both personally and professionally; seeing team members grow up and come into themselves is very rewarding. We often have shy 15 year old kids who really come out of their shells.

I also really love the peak times. I know it sounds crazy, but the dinner and lunch rush is great. Being on the servery or wrapping the burgers on a super busy shift is a lot of fun. Especially with events when we’re really busy. I really love that. 

 

What would you say to someone thinking of working at Grill’d?

The people you meet, the culture, the values. There are so many different routes for progression as well. If you come up through a restaurant you can go on to be a franchise partner, work in the support office or become an area manager. I’ve worked for 13 years and if I didn’t love it I wouldn’t have stayed for so long! I still love it every day here. Come work with us! You won’t regret it.