‘Seat Two at Table 22 Is Celiac’

Here’s how the busiest restaurant in Philadelphia built its allergy-alert protocol: “We are not taking a single chance.”

Good Morning!

Here are today’s highlights:            

• Big businesses—and a few small ones—are lining up to fight the FTC’s ban of non-competes.

• Ami Kassar says he knows some owners are wary of debt, but he believes there are times when a line of credit can make a business less risky.

• Job-title inflation is making it possible to go straight from being a senior in college to being a senior employee.

• It’s getting a lot harder to find high paid positions that can be done remotely.

MANAGEMENT

This restaurant chain has thoroughly systematized its handling of customers with food allergies: “On any given day, 100 people walk into Center City’s busiest restaurant with a declared food allergy or intolerance. Each arrival to Parc on Rittenhouse Square sets off an intricate dance of highly choreographed steps between the front and back of the house: Big yellow tickets go flying, clean pans and cutting boards come out of hiding, meats are sliced and prepped from scratch. The elaborately layered allergen protocol at Parc — and Starr Restaurants’ 34 other full-service establishments — is the most detailed I’ve encountered in three years of researching gluten-free restaurants. It’s one reason why I’ve found the restaurant group has such a strong reputation in the gluten-free community and beyond. ‘We are not taking a single chance,’ says Jenna Velella, who developed the protocol as the company’s vice president in charge of strategic initiatives.”

• “The first step for staff once guests are seated is identifying any restrictions; diners should let the restaurant know of their dietary needs either in advance, when making the reservation, or before ordering. Once an issue is noted, the staff will also clarify any specific details: For example, is a guest eating gluten-free by preference, where some cross-contamination is allowable, or is it a more serious health issue, such as an allergy or celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder which requires gluten to be avoided entirely?”

• “Once a dietary restriction is confirmed, the restaurant’s ‘allergy alert process’ is triggered. In addition to a flag in the restaurant’s ordering software, the server fills out an enormous, school-bus yellow card headlined “ALLERGY ALERT!” that details a diner’s specific allergies, their table, and their seat position. The card is handed off to a manager, who then delivers it to the kitchen, so the staff knows an allergy precaution is coming, often before an order is even placed: ‘Seat two at table 22 is celiac,’ for example.”

• “The service staff is trained on the allergens contained in every dish, ‘but nobody guesses tableside,’ Velella says. A direct conversation about each order is still required between a server or manager and the kitchen to verify allergens. ‘There is no assuming.’ For this reason, Parc’s famed bread basket is not usually delivered until after an order is placed, Velella says, and only if guests are comfortable with bread on the table; even then, it’s placed as far as possible from the gluten-free diner.” READ MORE

REGULATION

Big businesses will fight the ban on non-competes: “The ban is set to go into effect at the end of August, but could be delayed or struck down by lawsuits. The new rules shift the balance of power between U.S. workers and their bosses yet again, following years of workplace clashes over remote work and pay, as well as a wave of resignations and layoffs. Employees say non-competes have kept them tied to bad bosses or unreasonably limited their career mobility. Businesses say they need non-competes to protect trade secrets and other confidential information, including customer lists and financial data.”

• “Non-compete clauses have been effectively unenforceable in California for decades, freeing workers to jump to rivals and allowing companies to poach talent at will. Many leaders in the tech sector have attributed much of the success of Silicon Valley to talent that’s unfettered by non-competes.”

• “At Winton Machine, a roughly 40-person manufacturer based outside of Atlanta, Chief Executive Lisa Winton said she asks her salespeople and senior engineers to sign one-year noncompetes. Those employees have access to confidential information on industrial processes and receive a lot of on-the-job training, so Winton doesn’t want them to be able to quit and immediately take that knowledge to a rival.”

• “‘These are big, huge investments we’re making as a small company,’ she said. ‘It’d be very hard for somebody to give you two weeks’ notice and to go directly to a competitor.’ Winton doesn’t have a direct competitor located nearby, but in the remote-work era, it is also easier for an engineer or salesperson to join one several states away. If the ban on non-competes remains, Winton expects to be more guarded with how she shares information and data internally: ‘I would hope it gets struck down.’”

• “David Fritz, an entertainment lawyer and co-founder of Creative Intell, an educational platform for the music business, said that non-competes are particularly important for small businesses because employees often wear many hats and are exposed to all parts of the operation. The agreements should be permitted for employees who deal with the development and transfer of knowledge, he said. ‘How do you stop them from taking the knowledge of what doesn’t work, going to a competitor and saying, Don’t try that.’” READ MORE

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Perplexity AI has announced its first product designed for business: “Businesses that are already using Perplexity Enterprise Pro, according to the company, include Stripe, Thrive, HP, Zoom, and the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball franchise. According to an official blog post from Perplexity, data teams on the Cavs use the app to research ticket sales trends and prospect for partnerships, while HP's sales teams use it to craft compelling pitches and expedite the sales process. Perplexity Enterprise Pro will charge/charges companies a monthly fee of $40 per seat or an annual fee of $400 per seat.”

• “Thrive founder and CEO Arianna Huffington posted on X that her company, which provides solutions to help workers improve their mental and physical well-being, is using Perplexity to find the latest peer-reviewed medical research on daily behaviors. The research findings are used to inform microsteps, small actions that workers can take to improve their health.” READ MORE

THE ECONOMY

Economic growth slowed in the first quarter: “Gross domestic product expanded at a 1.6 percent seasonally and inflation-adjusted annual rate in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday, a pullback from the previous period. Growth in the first quarter lagged behind the 2.4 percent projected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. The snapshot comes after a string of federal data in recent weeks suggested that the American economy keeps powering through the highest interest rates in 23 years.”

• “So far in 2024, employers around the country have added staff at rates outpacing Wall Street’s projections. An influx of immigrants is boosting growth and tax revenues, economists say, even as it strains some governments’ resources. Credit card companies have recently reported that customers are spending more than they did last year.” READ MORE

FINANCE

Ami Kassar explains when it’s time to use a line of credit: “I understand that many business owners are wary of taking on debt. But I also know that having a line of credit can add substantially to the financial stability and security of a business. And it’s not just for use in an emergency. In fact, some businesses would have a very hard time operating without a line of credit. I have often said that a line of credit should be part of the furniture in certain businesses, a routine part of the business’s operating system.”

• “Some businesses have seasonality issues. These businesses know they will have down months and up months, depending on the cycles in their industry. One example is a retail business, where you can predict that a large percentage of your revenue will come around the holiday season.”

• “The second scenario includes businesses that have to hold significant amounts of inventory and that accumulate accounts receivable. Inventory-heavy businesses need to have goods on the shelf when customers come into the door and order, and they often have to pay their suppliers before the goods are sold. Other businesses must wait for customers to pay after delivering their product or service. In these instances, as well, I believe using a line of credit is appropriate.”

• “As a reminder, a good rule of thumb for lines of credit is 10 percent of your top-line sales or 85 percent of your accounts receivable and inventory.” READ MORE

HUMAN RESOURCES

Job-title inflation is getting almost as bad as inflation inflation: “The job titles imply a wealth of real-world expertise: senior client associate at JPMorgan Advisors, senior analyst at Johnson & Johnson, senior associate application engineer at Discover Financial. In reality these recently advertised roles are among a slew of jobs that sound high level yet require a year or less of work experience, according to their postings. I searched for entry-level openings on Indeed’s job board this week with ‘senior’ as the keyword and got more than 8,000 results. In some cases, you could go straight from being a senior in college to a senior employee.”

• “Title inflation is a well-worn corporate practice in the middle and upper ranks, where chiefs proliferate far outside the C-suite and almost as many vice presidents exist as Mets fans at Citi Field this season. Then there are the Dwight Schrute types—the regional assistant deputy managers of such-and-such who wield many adjectives and little power.”

• “Businesses should think carefully before pumping helium into job titles, says Paul Wolfe, a fractional chief people officer at Glaad, the LGBTQ nonprofit, who previously held top HR posts at Condé Nast, Match and Indeed. One way to make clients feel like they’re getting top-notch service is to assign them senior employees or, at least, people carrying the imprimatur of seniority.”

• “‘If I’m meeting with a senior so-and-so, I’m expecting somebody with gravitas and experience—somebody different than a 24-year-old,’ Wolfe says, adding that age-based assumptions can be unfair.” READ MORE

Those who want a high-paying job just might have to come into the office: “The number of high-paying remote jobs commanding a salary of $100,000 or more dropped 33 percent across the first quarter of the year compared to the final three months of 2023, with more companies now demanding that workers with higher salaries report to the office. According to data compiled by Ladders Inc., a staffing and recruiting firm for high-paying jobs, remote jobs now make up just 9 percent of all high-paying jobs — compared to 89 percent of high-paying jobs that require in-office attendance. Hybrid jobs were just 2 percent of the total jobs tracked.”

• “‘The good news is that there are more high-paying jobs overall. However, that salary comes with a trade off: Jobs with higher pay have higher expectations that you’ll show up in-person,’ said John Mullinix, director of growth marketing for Ladders, in a statement with the findings. Mullinix led the company's research effort.”

• “Irrespective of where the work is done, the industry segment that saw the biggest growth in six-figure jobs in the first quarter was legal and accounting, which saw its share of all high-paying jobs tracked by Ladders increase 30 percent in the first quarter of 2024 over the last quarter of 2023.” READ MORE

Canada is backing off on immigration: “Canada’s broad support for immigration, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said is necessary to counter an aging labor force and low fertility rates, has set the country apart. The United States’ closest neighbor is growing faster than its Group of Seven peers, as well as developing and more fertile countries such as India. In 2023, the population here grew by more than 1.2 million people, up 3.2 percent from the year before — the highest annual increase since 1957. About 98 percent came from immigration. But now, amid a housing affordability crisis and strain on social services, Trudeau’s government is rolling up the welcome mat for some immigrants.”

• “It has capped the number of permanent residents it will welcome, announced a temporary limit on international student visas, and pledged to shrink the proportion of the population made up of temporary immigrants such as foreign workers. A ‘massive spike’ in temporary immigrants has exceeded ‘what Canada has been able to absorb,’ Trudeau told reporters this month. ‘That’s something we need to get back under control.’”

• “The plan was bold: By 2025, Canadian officials announced, the country would take in nearly 1.5 million new permanent residents. For the most part, they would be economic immigrants, selected through a points system that values skilled work, education, and youth.”

• “But behind the scenes of that 2022 announcement, the Canadian Press reported, federal public servants had warned that rapid population growth could strain the health care system and housing affordability. Housing stock, they said, had not kept pace with the population.” READ MORE

THE 21 HATS PODCAST

You Need to Accept That You’re the Boss: This week, in episode 193, Sarah Segal takes Paul Downs and Jay Goltz through her recent QuickBooks nightmare. Right before tax season, Sarah ran her P&L, and it showed a profit of $250,000—but she knew right away that that couldn’t be right. It then took a bookkeeping SWAT team to figure out what exactly had gone wrong. “I was literally on the verge of tears,” Sarah tells us. “How am I going to do this and not be late on filing my taxes? And credit to this woman, who, I swear to God, was like my therapist and my bookkeeper. She was like, ‘Don't worry, Sarah. We're going to figure it out.’” Which they did—and which brings an important reminder: Not every dollar that comes in the door should be counted as revenue.

• Plus: What do you do when a new employee isn’t working out? When is the right time to intervene? Do performance improvement plans actually work? Are grace periods a good idea?

• Also: Jay emphasizes a little understood reason why it can be important to fire fast. And Paul explains what he likes about the AI search engine Perplexity.

• You can subscribe to the 21 Hats Podcast wherever you get podcasts.

Thanks for reading, everyone. — Loren