server

line cook

bartender

dishwasher

crew member

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

My overall take: do not work here any longer than maybe a shift or two on the weekends for extra cash. The wages are poor and the work environment (on the serving side) is inefficient in terms of the workflow structure and overly stressful because of it.  Some toxic people to deal with -- mostly certain servers and some of the people in management.

A typical day at work: the day consists of a movie schedule running for nine theaters in which food services are provided for guests. You clock in, run orders to guests in theaters in a rush that lasts 20-45 mins, then you attend to any orders during the show that guests may want also. The next rush occurs either after cleaning a theater post-showing as a server or as a runner whatever the next showing may be on the schedule. How busy you are depends on how popular the movies are at the time. Either you open a day with particular tasks pre-opening or you close a day with certain closing tasks.

What I learned: nothing, really. All of the work is pretty basic if you have ever performed routine cleaning tasks or can follow the order routine and not be confused.

Management: can range from being out to lunch and not really caring what is happening during the day to being overly zealous about imposing their authority and being pigheaded about making idiotic points that do a disservice to the restaurant. Some managers are cool headed, friendly and try to listen to the concerns of the employees, I will admit. You will know which managers these are almost immediately. However, it's just inconsistent across the board. For example, the ardent refusal to spend any money on cleaning supplies for the staff is just impossibly stupid. The theater is overall just a gross cesspool that feels rundown because of this neglect. It really depends on the day, depends on their moods, depends on if they like you or not. The GM, in particular, has a bad tendency of playing favorites and just not following through afterward if you meet with him in a job interview. Communication overall, other than sickeningly corporate newsletters, is poor -- to say the least. For how corporate this place is, they need more positions to attend to the restaurant's and the building's needs, i.e. maintenance, human relations, etc. Generally speaking management only cares about the employees if corporate forces their hand in terms of if they get bonuses or not. They actually told the staff this at 
a meeting.

Workplace culture: can be pretty casual with certain people. Many younger people work on the service side, so get ready for edgy memes galore and borderline high school soap opera drama. Not all, but a lot of servers are (surprise!) incredibly whiny. Certain servers are just toxic people. For example, watch out for a certain male server. He is a rat who cares about his cut more than anything. Nice to your face, but will try to get management and the people around you against you if it benefits himself, often in terms of his schedule against yours. The veterans there will know who I am talking about as most workers there hate him. He has a subtle racism about him that is off putting, to say the least. Other than a few other bad apples, the workers there are generally nice, if not over-stressed and overworked.

Hardest part of the job: dealing with silly corporate decision making, the above issues with management and whiny/toxic servers. Low wages for what can be high exertion work. Do not listen to management when they claim certain numbers. Tip share, when you are working for below minimum wage is garbage. Dealing with the public can be a drag.

The most enjoyable part of the job: some really nice, laid-back and often funny employees. Free movie tickets. A minimal discount on overpriced food.

Hands down, this has to be my favorite job I've ever had. It was also the most challenging and stressful job I've ever had (constantly saying how I was going to quit every shift ha ha) but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything! There was always something crazy/ eventful happening at the location I worked (6th street). I loved (most of) my co-workers. Obviously there are always exceptions, but it seriously felt like family working there. I worked as a runner for the first year before getting bumped up to serving. Running was WAY easier than being a server. No question. It's incredibly stressful being a server in a dark movie theater. Especially when having to deal with weekend (opening night) rushes. My particular location had a balcony which added to the challenge (assuming you got those that shift) but also (generally) meant more money. Sometimes it felt like the money you made wasn't worth it for what you did. It seemed like things were constantly changing and you had to keep up/ adjust. I did enjoy the fact that shift meals were free (then) but on a negative note, there was no set break time. Your break time/ lunch was whenever you could fit it in between theater checks, pre-bussing, check drops and theater cleans which generally meant sometime near the end of the movie. Of course, if you timed it right (like i eventually did), you found the perfect time (so you weren't eating cold food) but this job is constant. Moving. But that really only applied to the busy shows. Which everyone vied for. We had nights where nothing was going on and it was beyond dead where you had too much time. Which leads to my next point that money wasn't consistent. It depended on how well you did (seniority), picking up as many shows as you could and how well you were liked by certain managers. Favoritism was DEFINITELY a thing. It got better when certain people started leaving  which is when I started moving up in the ranks and getting better shows. The turnover rate was pretty high and I think the main reason a lot of my co-workers stayed was how much we loved each other because their wasn't a night that when by that someone wasn't cussing or saying they weren't going to quit but at the same time we made it fun and that's what I believe kept us all there. 
RIP Ritz

Losing my Job at Alamo Drafthouse was one of the best things that happened for my career this year. In that sense, you could say it was a positive experience. I appreciate the bar training I received. I had some helpful and positive managers/coworkers who were very knowledgeable. 
I started at Alamo with much confusion. I was hired by the GM, and thereafter met the bar manager, who was no longer working at that theater by my hire date. I was told hours would fluctuate, but that I'd be guaranteed FT to start out with. I think my 1st 2 weeks of work was the only time the schedule had any consistency. Holiday weeks I'd be scheduled 40+ hours (no overtime haha) other weeks, 17. Sometimes managers would cut me and my coworkers early/kick us out.
The pay for such a demanding job was absolutely bogus. It wasn't just making drinks. It was doing loads of dishes, cleaning out machinery, cleaning floors. This was expected every shift. It's not so much the work that bothered me as it was the pay rate. I've been paid more to do less and learn more. On top of that, managers were not flexible...unless they liked you. In my 5 months working with Alamo, I attempted to call in twice. The 1st time I stayed out...and was threatened with being fired. The 2nd time I was sick, and the bar manager dismissed my illness. She wrote it off as allergies. I had strep, and could've gotten my coworkers sick.  I had other coworkers call in plenty of times and they somehow still worked there.
There is some room for growth, especially if you know how to smooth talk. But having had discussions with many of my coworkers (the community at Alamo is literally the only draw) (okay free movies too) I could tell work ethic was not fully appreciated. 
There were many management shifts in the 5 months I worked there. It truly is a revolving door. This may be a crux of the service industry. It's also a crux of company that could care less about the well being of ALL their employees.

Alamo was a great employer. I loved the Alamo culture, my coworkers, and the benefits of working for the company. Alamo really strives to be a unique movie going and dining experience. For the most part, the company makes an effort to enforce communication throughout the store.....until they don't. often policies were changed, or procedures, and the effort to communicate that to everyone in the department was never made. Unfortunately much of the power in management and supervisors went unchecked, and in a few cases, that unchecked power created unsafe work environments, and a workplace where employees could find themselves the subject of a "teaching moment" or even the recipient of bullying and "mean girls" type of unwarranted picking behavior from management. They will constantly tell you that you are empowered to do the right thing, and if you are interested in advancement opportunities, to let them know how to get on track for that. This is not true and simply a bait and switch to keep you interested enough to stick around. You are empowered to do the right thing on your own, unless that thing is honesty about not having the skills or knowledge to complete a task. If you choose to work here, make great friends with management if you ever want to go anywhere. have lots of one on one meetings. Make yourself as quiet as possible until you do something valuable, and the tell management about that. If your co-worker screws up, be sure to document that as well and quietly let management know. . You can go far if you create your own path. You can get away with appalling behavior towards others if everyone is your friend or afraid of you.

Positives: 
- By far the best paying job I've ever had, as the service charge is the majority of your paycheck.
- Accepting and progressive work environment. Many people are openly LGBT and everyone that works there is chill and accomodating.
- Flexible schedule. You can pick your work days and times and its usually followed.

Negatives:
- Extremely poor management. 
A lot of things go into this, but do not expect managers to have your back most of the time. They'll listen to feedback but its a coinflip whether something will be done. 
There's major issues with favoritism, certain people get away with things that others would be written up for immediately. 
If you're not a favorite, you will only receive negative feedback--the entire time I've worked here I've never been told by a manager I was doing a good job.
- Multiple things are always breaking/barely functioning and there never seems to be any money to fix them. The burden of these things not working falls solely on you.
- Advancement is a crapshoot. You can be told you're next in line for promotion then never hear anything about it ever again. (Might be expedited if you're a favorite though.)
- Hours are incredibly iffy, and on the days you are scheduled you can be majorly understaffed. Managers frequently forget to properly schedule for calendar holidays.
- No holiday pay except Thanksgiving and Christmas.
- Benefits are for full time only, and getting full time is impossible for most.

Neutral:
- It is very easy to get overwhelmed. Even an easy theater can become a nightmare if just the right amount of things go wrong. And just as easily you can have a dead day with nothing to do that drags on endlessly.

What first drew me to the Alamo Drafthouse was the amount of new and exciting craft beers that were going to be offered and the fact you could enjoy fried pickles, a cold beer all while watching  a movie. When I was hired on I was excited because after doing research, this place was going to be a hip and no nonsense from the guests kind of place to work. One where being different and unique were encouraged. After working for this company for a little bit, I began to see their idea of what the Alamo Drafthouse should be was different than the original. We were not encouraged to be unique but to conform. We were not a hip and no nonsense place, we were instead family oriented where it is ok to bring an infant to see The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. The management was more on the irrational guests side than that of their employees.  There are no benefits other than 2 free tickets every pay period. I hear stories of all the cool events, promotions, celebrity guest appearances and other cool things the other Alamos have on the regular. The Winchester Alamo doesn't even offer an after shift beer like the other ones do.  It's not Alamos fault. It's the owners and GM of this particular one.  The managers, when not belittling eachother behind their backs, are making false promises to crew and playing favorites. Most managers do not encourage crew and the only incentive is hours which may not even be beneficial financially. When you do get a compliment it just falls on deaf ears as the GM doesn't even look up from her phone when she says a monotone "good job."  

Every place has their ups and downs. You just have to find one you are willing to deal with.

Pay sucks currently. You have to share your tips and even though everyone messages corporate about changing back to everyone making their own tips, the messages get ignored. They only reason they probably won’t get rid of it is to make servers share all their tips to runners and bar workers instead of paying the base wage plus tip share to a certain % of sales that come from tips. They don’t even raise server base pay to help even a little. Health insurance and benefits aren’t bad but you have to maintain a certain amount of hours to keep it which can be hard during slow times. They required everyone to get vaccinated and then don’t have hazard pay even though all the employees got vaccinated. Literally corporate doesn’t care about anyone even though they try to seem like a progressive workplace. They are not progressive, they are a soulless corporation who could care of you get sick or have a medical condition that prevents you from working at times. We use to get free tickets to movies but now we all get 2 free tickets a month and after that you have to pay $5 a ticket. You do get 50% off your meal and free shift meals. I love my coworkers and believe them to be the most supportive and wonderful people I have ever worked with. Managers are so so. There are very few managers that are amazing and are team players. Many of them will tell you to ask for help when you need it and then never actually help you when you do need help. If you like movies and cool coworkers this place is for you. But if you need money, hours, and a job that cares about you, this ain’t it. 

There are multiple things as a server that just aren't very fair... I also don't exactly have the solution for these problems either. I'm sure that over a 20 + year operation, these things have likely been talked about and are worked on...? 

My thoughts on such a mega-company are that they can afford to pay servers more than the base server minimum wage of $2.13 an hour. Especially considering these facts:
-We pay 3% tipshare to our runners based on our SALES, not our ACTUAL TIPS. So if my sales are really high AND I get stiffed a bunch, I'm still paying a large tipout... to possibly not even make as much as the runner did that night!
-Alamo says that if you don't make at least $12 an hour that they will make up the difference. Which sounded great when I thought it was per shift... but of course it's per pay period! So if you have ONE good night and make a great hourly rate, it will make it so your hourly average over the pay period is over $12. Which is really disheartening when it's really dead and you have multiple shifts where you make next to nothing...
-They require us to drink run for the round after we're finished actually serving... meaning we make only the $2.13 an hour to be there an extra hour to get all sweaty again and not make any cut of the tips.

I love the people I work with a lot. Everyone is a team-player (at least the team we have right now) and usually shows respect... it just feels extremely corporate, like we're taken advantage of a lot... with very little thanks. It's also A LOT of physical work. 


With all that said, lately I've been averaging between $20 and $30 an hour as a server in Austin, TX. I also LOVE the free movies and popcorn <3

To start, there is good from this company being its employees. Management, on the other hand never sets you up for success: saying they have benefits but won't give you them, having you work crazy hours and doubles while understaffed. Never allowing you to say you are understaffed, even though it's just you serving. Never giving recognition to hard working employees or co-workers. It feels like the only way to get to a higher position is being okay with how the system is running and never question what management says, even though it can be unethical. Management also doesn't care about experienced employees and even though they will work ragged for them, they will be expected to do this constantly with no appreciation. The workplace culture has strong messages, which I believed in but with management not believing in them themselves, this place is falling apart. I've learned to be a hard worker from this job, and constantly challenged myself, but there comes a point where even a simple "You did a good job" is appreciated, which was never given. The hardest part of my job was seeing my co-workers break down because of unmanageable numbers and management doing nothing to make the situation better. Because I'm a team-player it was very difficult for me to see daily. The pluses of this company again was some of the co-workers and the regulars who loved movies just as much as myself, I felt good after giving them a good experience and felt over-joyed when they came back and remembered me. Thus, this place would be very good to work at if the management was changed out for people that had morals.

I used to work as a Dishwasher at the BOH and I have to say that this job is alright as long as you're willing to get your hands dirty on sanitizing incoming dishes and kitchen equipment on the daily basis. At first, you might struggle in the starting two weeks of training such as operating the machine and learning the fundamentals around the venue, but afterwards, the workcycle gets easier overtime as you work at your own pace. Sometimes, things can be very complicated as there will be bigger movie premieres filled with bigger crowds and crossover events taking place in the building where corporate parties come in and the work volume increases/decreases before the party's over based on the timestamp given by the host. Depending on how much business goes, you're expected to work around more or less than 25+ hours a week in the venue. Mainly this job is more evening oriented than day since it does not open morning/noon on the weekdays except weekends. 

On the bright side though, most of my former coworkers that I used to  collaborate with were pretty awesome. And some managers care about you as long as you demonstrate and prove that you are capable to finish the job right. If you have school during the day or needed a second part-time job to cope with on your schedule, well Alamo Drafthouse KC is there for you.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Server 9 salaries reported	$17.14 per hour
Line cook 70 salaries reported	$20.59 per hour
Bartender 8 salaries reported	$19.93 per hour
Dishwasher 34 salaries reported	$19.41 per hour
Crew member 117 salaries reported	$19.08 per hour

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