With the governor deciding to "reopen" Tennessee on May 1 and talks in the city centering around May 4, lots of folks asking if we're reopening on May 5...
1. THANK YOU for your enthusiasm! We miss you as much as (or maybe even more than!!!) you miss us. XOXO!
2. I doubt that we will open on May 5. Honestly, I anticipate that it will be sometime in June.
Warning... what follows might be WAY more detail than any of you actually wanted, but I've always tried to run Muddy's with transparency. After all, YOU are a key stakeholder :)
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How Decision-Making in General Works at Muddy's
When I teach our "Welcome to Muddy's" class to new hires, we talk about how to make decisions. When faced with a decision, ask yourself "What serves the mission here? Which values most apply and how does this decision support them?" The questions for framing the decision are the same whether it's a baker faced with a decision about whether this pie is "good enough" or a server deciding how best to "make it right" for a disappointed guest... or an owner deciding what call to make in a global pandemic (you know, hypothetically...).
Our guiding values are: hospitality, stewardship, craftsmanship, gratitude, integrity, and work with purpose.
All of those values come into play here, but top of mind lately have been "stewardship" and "integrity". Stewardship means not just stewarding my own business and resources, but the piece of the common good that has been entrusted to me-- how my business, my team, and our decisions can impact others in our community. Integrity of course means honesty, doing the right thing, etc, but interestingly, it comes from "integer" which means "whole". So integrity isn't just doing the right thing- the responsible thing- for myself and my business, it's reminding me to think of the whole.
Ok, so that's the context...
what about some specifics on THIS decision?
what about some specifics on THIS decision?
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There are many factors, but public safety must be first and foremost.
We are not going to rush a reopen and in doing so, risk undoing all the progress our community has made by staying at home. I want to see that our city has sufficient testing practices, antibody testing, and 14 consecutive days of decreasing cases. - In order to ensure the safety of customers and staff, I feel strongly that our community must have widespread availability of PPE (ie: I'm also not going to hoard PPE, placing my business operations above hospital operations)
- While we have always operated with high health & safety standards, I want to be very intentional in reworking how to do what we do with staff (and guests) being MUCH more spaced out... while still ensuring that our team has the support they need to deliver top notch food & service. This is more challenging that you'd think for a business that makes everything fresh, from scratch!
- There are a LOT of new rules, regulations, etc around sick leave, what to do if someone on the team tests positive, what to do if a household member of someone on the team tests positive, etc. (and a lot of it seems to be in conflict with itself). I owe it to my team and our customers to do my best to learn everything I can so I can teach it, implement it, manage it, etc both safely and with integrity. (ie: yes, you can take an employee's temperature, but did you know there are rules about who can take it, what training and protection that person needs to have, and how/where you document the temp?... I didn't, but I do now...)
- and about a thousand more things...
Basically, I'm going to re-open as thoughtfully as we closed. In the meantime, we are continuing to stay in touch, put together fun (albeit kooky) content to entertain, and offering a very limited grocery/pantry staples program.
I miss y'all dearly and never fear... Muddy's may be hibernating, but I am wide awake and working hard to get this thing figured out so that when we do reopen, you can feel safe, confident, and appreciated!
xoxo,
Kat
