First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers
Directly supervise and coordinate activities of workers engaged in preparing and serving food.
Most important skills
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Speaking
- Monitoring
- Coordination
- Active Listening
- Instructing
- Service Orientation
- Reading Comprehension
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- Administration and Management
- Food Production
- English Language
- Production and Processing
- Sales and Marketing
- Education and Training
- Personnel and Human Resources
What the work involves
- Resolve customer complaints regarding food service.
- Train workers in food preparation, and in service, sanitation, and safety procedures.
- Inspect supplies, equipment, and work areas to ensure efficient service and conformance to standards.
- Control inventories of food, equipment, smallware, and liquor, and report shortages to designated personnel.
- Assign duties, responsibilities, and work stations to employees in accordance with work requirements.
- Analyze operational problems, such as theft and wastage, and establish procedures to alleviate these problems.
- Specify food portions and courses, production and time sequences, and workstation and equipment arrangements.
- Recommend measures for improving work procedures and worker performance to increase service quality and enhance job safety.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Enterprising, Conventional, Realistic.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (69.6% of respondents)
- Related experience
- None (24.8%)
- On-the-job training
- Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month (43.5%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 2: Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | High | Higher on contact with others than 67% of occupations compared | 77% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | High | Higher on dealing with the public than 77% of occupations compared | — |
| Teamwork | High | Higher on teamwork than 63% of occupations compared | 50% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very low | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 80% of occupations compared | 44% of surveyed respondents chose “Limited freedom” |
| Time pressure | Very low | Lower on time pressure than 80% of occupations compared | — |
| Conflict situations | High | Higher on conflict situations than 72% of occupations compared | 52% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Very high | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 81% of occupations compared | — |
| Consequence of error | Moderate | Lower on consequence of error than 52% of occupations compared | 31% of surveyed respondents chose “Fairly serious” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: very low
- Conflict situations: high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: very high
- Consequence of error: moderate
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 6.33%
- Contact with others about half the time: 6.83%
- Contact with others most of the time: 9.49%
- Constant contact with others: 77.35%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2025
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 0.49%
- Fairly important: 2.44%
- Important: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Very important: 1.5%
- Extremely important: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 24, Incumbent 08/2025
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 2.96%
- Important: 0.95%
- Very important: 46.14%
- Extremely important: 49.95%
n = 24, Incumbent 08/2025
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 0%
- Limited freedom: 44.03%
- Some freedom: 37.93%
- A lot of freedom: 18.04%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2025
Time pressure
- Never: 25.32%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 0%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 26.56%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 1.42%
- Every day: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2025
Conflict situations
- Never: 19.15%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 6.33%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 18.34%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 51.77%
- Every day: 4.41%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2025
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 7.3%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 26.97%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 8.74%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 26.83%
- Every day: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2025
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 9.26%
- Fairly serious: 30.96%
- Serious: 23.98%
- Very serious: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Extremely serious: 6.81%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2025
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O*NET-SOC 35-1012.00 · SOC 35-1012 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8