Village Inn Restaurants

My husband and I are both disabled and unable to cook at home. Consequently we eat out a lot. Over the past 4 years or so we've visited the Village Inn at 310 E. Bell Rd in Phoenix AZ 4-5 times per week. We've gotten to know most of the evening staff there. From managers, servers, cooks and even the one buser they have. Everyone has always been super nice with the exception of the General Manager. I'm not sure of his last name but his first name is Juan. On the occasions I've had any direct dealings with him his attitude has been something along the lines of go tell someone who cares. Indirectly my husband and I have witnessed the same type of attitude in his dealings with his staff. Especially in the past 6-8 months. We've seen server after server leave. We realize there's a lot of turnover in that profession but this is really extreme. On more than one occasion when they've been short staffed I've seen him just stand there doing nothing while customers waited to pay or be seated. Last night we waited 15 mins to be seated even when the restaurant was less than half full. We found out later it was because 2 more servers left without notice and they only had 2 servers left on the busiest night of the week. One of them just walked out the door before their shift. EVERY time we ask about why people are leaving and why everyone seems so unhappy lately it's the same answer. "Juan, he just doesn't care about us." His night crew is under staffed and over worked. The service has gotten slow because of it. The wait staff is obviously unhappy and it's starting to show in the number of people coming there. We've really enjoyed Saturday nights there lately because we have the entire restaurant to ourselves. Free pie Wednesdays have always been busy but lately even those nights have slowed way down. We typically wait until after 9pm to avoid the rush. Lately we've been able to go in an hour earlier and the restaurant's half empty. To sum it all up, we used to enjoy going to this restaurant because of the casual, friendly atmosphere. The staff worked well together, were helpful and knowledgeable and the environment reflected that. Lately everyone seems tired, frustrated, and even angry. I thought twice about writing this because I didn't want to get anyone in trouble but, all the people we've enjoyed talking to there are gone. I hope there's something that can be done to improve moral there. I don't want to have to find a different place to go. Who knows? Maybe Juan just isn't happy there either!