LineReady / Guides / Write-ups
Restaurant employee write-ups and point systems that hold up
A write-up does two jobs at once: it tells the employee exactly what happened and what changes, and it proves to someone who wasn't there, months later, that your store handled it fairly and consistently. Both jobs fail if the write-up is opinions instead of facts, or if it lives in a drawer nobody can find. None of this is legal advice, just the operating practice that keeps you from needing any.
What belongs on the form
Facts with timestamps, nothing else
- Who, with the date and time of the incident, not the date you got around to writing it
- The specific violation, named against a written code your whole store uses
- What happened, in observable terms: "clocked in at 2:47 for a 2:00 shift," not "has a bad attitude"
- The points assigned, if you run a point system
- What was communicated, and what improvement looks like
- Who logged it
The discipline of naming a code matters more than it looks. When "late over 15 minutes" is a defined code worth a defined number of points, two different managers write the same incident the same way, and consistency is the entire defense if a decision is ever challenged.
How rolling point windows work
Most restaurant point systems give each infraction a weight (one point for a dress-code miss, several for a no-call/no-show) and total them over a rolling window, commonly 90 days. Crossing thresholds triggers defined consequences: a conversation, a final warning, separation. The rolling part is what makes it fair: a rough month a year ago doesn't follow someone forever, and improvement shows up as points aging out on their own.
Two rules keep a point system healthy. Every point is tied to a logged, dated incident, with no "I'm pretty sure there was a third one." And the employee can always see their own total; a score someone discovers at their own termination meeting was never a system, it was an ambush.
Keep the history, not the memory
When the sit-down conversation comes, what you want in your hand is the history: every incident, dated, coded, pointed, with who logged it. Paper forms scatter across folders and manager turnover. The practical standard is a record you can pull up in ten seconds, that neither party can quietly rewrite after the fact.
Running accountability in LineReady
LineReady's accountability module is the write-up drawer that can't lose anything. Define your own infraction codes and point values, log incidents in a minute, and the rolling total computes itself.
- Your own codes with your own point values; rename, reprice, or retire them anytime
- A rolling points window you set (90 days by default)
- Each entry keeps the code, points, note, date, and who logged it
- Team members see their own record, so there are no ambushes