Pros
Good, reliable amount of hours, decent pay, lots of hands on experience, most lower level, day to day management is good, opportunities for promotion
Cons
The difference in how they treat Front of House (wait staff, bartenders, cashiers, bussers, etc) and Back of House (line cooks, prep cooks, dishwashers) is like night and day. This is mostly likely because FOH is handled by one owner, and BOH is handled by another, both with very different attitudes on how to treat employees. FOH were always told they were a valuable part of the team and upper management often listened to their suggestions and feedback. BOH was basically treated like a disposable, replaceable workforce, and I saw management literally say to my co-workers "We don't want to hear your ideas, just make the food." As for my own personal experience, I routinely heard both owners tell reporters in interview how they treat all of their employees like family and know everyone's name. Unless they genuinely believed my name is Heyman Howsitgoing, they had no idea what my name was for 2 years. Also, I once needed time off for a funeral out of state, and it was like pulling teeth to get 2 days off instead of one. I worked there for just shy of 2 years, and there was a revolving door of chefs, sous chefs, and supervisors, all with different expectations. On top of that, no one in day to day management lasts more than 6 months to a year because upper management is so demanding. Along with a revolving door and chefs with different expectations every few months, Dan Holzmann seemingly has different expectations for how he wants food prepared every week. One week it's more sauce on sandwiches, one week it's less; one day he wants the mashed potatoes thick, the next he wants them thin. There's literally no pleasing him. The company often hired less experienced cooks (usually fresh out of high school) so they could pay them less, and then complain when they don't have skills. Lastly, cleanliness is not their priority. We were often trained how to trick the heath department during inspections. During my time there, we had a literal mouse infestation and management refused to do anything about it until we were nearly shut down by the Department of Health. Simply put, upper management does not care about their back of house employees
