Office Culture:Gossipy and unprofessional co-workers. Would literally talk about each other's sex lives while being extremely strict on store rules. I had to endure people making fun of my weight (making comments about how skinny I was and how I needed help lifting things (WHILE the managers stood there and watched, I had to beg for help) ((LOL!!! SO FREAKING FUNNY!!)). One high schooler who thought she was hot crap because she was "keyholder" was very rude and disrespectful. Once stated she could "Tell people what to do." Excuse me, I have a college degree, and you are not the manager. Immature and unprofessional co workers who laughed about giving co-workers condoms and made lewd remarks about a high school co worker being a virgin...yet we were supposed to follow very strict rules and I get yelled at for putting mayo on the wrong bun. Makes perfect sense. It was either you were in the clique of the people who worked there for years or you were hazed upon and forced to do extra work outside of your job requirements to compensate for them slacking off. They would always congregate for smoke breaks or just general gossip, but if a red shirt were to talk to another "red shirt" the managers would be there to overhear and be nosy.
Tips- Sharing tips sucked!!!! Especially because I essentially worked register/lobby every shift. I worked my butt of sucking up to customers and running back and forth from cleaning the lobby to take their orders while my lazy co workers stared at me and offered no help. Yet at the end of each shift, I had to split my tips with the aforementioned people. One night I made $30 and went home with $5. Unfair; working there I never felt like I was a part of a "team".
Horrible management- I worked the same positiion every day (reg/lobby). It was very frustrating that I was required to run back and forth when the store was hardly ever busy; the managers would not be doing anything, yet would force me to stop cleaning a messy lobby to sprint back and take a customer's orders. When my shift was off at 10pm, I was told I could not leave until I essentially closed the lobby down. When this was questioned after another manager asked me why I was doing so much, because I was off at 10 and not supposed to close, the other manager was furious the next day and I was the "snitch." Lazy managers. Unproffessional managers who would eat sweet frog in the back, while you were not allowed to stand at the register when it was slow and everything was spotless, you had to go clean the lobby because "There's always something to do or clean," and yet they could congregate in the back, gossip about everyone and take long cigarette breaks every 30 minutes. One manager referred to this crappy treatment as "hazing." What the hell, that is not funny or enjoyable; not to mention prohibited especially from an establishment who touts such high standards for everything. But oh, I forgot, once you're a manager, rules don't apply to the higher ups. We only got a 15 minute break, even after a 9 hour shift because if we took a 30 minute break, management would "have to bring an extra person on shift" when a lot of times, that extra person was needed.
Underpay- Seriously, for the aforementioned crap I endured for 3 months, I was paid minimum wage, barely scraping in $200 a week/working 20 hours a week. I overheard on different occasions the managers laughing about how $600-$800 is nothing; yet would schedule us for 20 hours a week, when we signed up for a full time job; however in retrospect I think I would've gone insane if I had to work there for full time. Everyday was like going to work with high schoolers who would smile in your face and laugh about you behind your back. (This actually happened, every shift).
Not enough hours- Once I had a work week that was 13 hours...I quit when I realized that even after the false promise of being promoted was a lie, they will not give you full time hours in the effort to not give you benefits (health care, etc) which is crap because a job which requires you to spend long hours on your feet, running around etc. should care about its employees; no one is going to put up with this crap for $200 measly dollars a week in the LONG TERM.
