sandwich maker

manager

assistant manager

team member

store manager

Altman Management Company, Inc.

Well I've done Subway for 7 years. For the most part, it was the best job I've ever had, despite it being incredibly stressful at times and some situations were unbearable (yes there can be some rough moments). But overall, the more you learn the more patience you gain and can withstand the tests that are thrown at you every other typical work day. 

I will try to put as much input on my experience as possible on here. (Some misspellings and errors are probably among the paragraphs and have not been corrected, so I do apologize.)


Making sandwiches was great discipline. I wouldn't go as far as to say it was great fun, but it was okay. I say it was "discipline" because you got learn the fantastic process of making a sandwich for some of the most rudest, pickiest people ever to walk into a restaurant, and know how to be able to please them to their satisfaction. Overtime, you can achieve pleasing everybody will a little skill and patience, it goes a long way. And yes, there is a certain formula to making a sandwich. I thought it was because it's an easy way to do it, now it's considered 'Mandatory" and you're told you'll get wrote up if you don't do it right. Not doing it right meant that the tomatoes had to go in a certain place on the sandwich, so did the mayo and the cheese and the meats not to mention how many of everything you put on, etc. etc. You have to count how many pickles you put, how many banana peppers, sweet peppers, whatever the customer wants. It's OK if you don't count, you just can't put a whole lot or you'll get fussed at.

Be aware that you will experience the delivery truck coming twice a week to bring some heavy stuff like tomatoes, olives, pickles, sauces, etc. You have to sort these items in their respective places and cut the boxes then dispose of them. Some items are frozen which would have to be put away immediately. After a few times it's a no brainer, but doing it twice every week can be tedious. 


It would help working at Subway to know some how to work some of gadgets there and be able to fix them. Over time, you will learn how to do all of this, but it can be quite a bit to learn. The receipt paper, cash register, credit card machine are some of the basics. The soda machine and changing the sodas when they run out is some more. Also have to change the soap and sanitizer dispensers when doing dishes, and soap & toilet papers in restrooms, the paper towels dispensers, learning to make coffee & tea, working the microwaves & toaster, and the oven & proofer. And of course, you'll end up having to clean everything I just mentioned.

Dishes were a lot, in case you're wondering. Every fast food place has their abundance of dishes to do, and this place is definitely one. You are constantly having to keep the food in the bain/sandwich making area clean and freshly kept with veggies, meats and cheeses. It's no easy task because the buckets in which they're sitting in (cambros) are having to be changed daily to prevent bacteria and food expiration. ALSO very important, you cannot keep the food above the surface of the cambro. It will be considered highly dangerous and above food temperatures if kept in the open warm air too long. It needs to be kept cold at all times and just below the "chill line" which every cambro has built in. So for that not being able to fill food up to the top, you have to change them constantly, which would make more dishes. You have rotate this procedure at least twice daily to about 30 items in the food area.

All food in dated/labeled with the date, time and person's initials in which they last handled that food. This is to ensure that all food is rotated out to keep the oldest getting used first and the newest batch of stock getting used last. This goes for every single edible item in the store, even the freshly cut prepped food such has prepped cut tomatoes, green peppers, onions, etc. Subways keep masking tape handy or personalized labels of some type to be able to manually write all this out. You must do this for it is mandatory. Where I worked, if you didn't do it properly for each and every time, you got written up. Oh, you also have to label the sauce bottles now too because they are edible.

Some of the most incredibly stressful moments, was when I had to deal with not only rude customers.....but having to get through big or stressful orders. 

Sometimes you have party platters to make, not just sandwiches. Be advised, that Subway caters to their people. They make everywhere from multiple platters of sandwiches and cookies to 6 foot party subs. All are to be done with skill and preparation. It's usually fun to make when you have the time, but sometimes things don't always go so smoothly and you have to learn how to get through some of the toughest situations. Subway is a hot spot for military men & women and they often frequent the restaurant a couple times a week. If you're at a busy Subway that often handles with the military, you can expect to be making up to 20 footlong sandwiches in a single order, all of which can usually be different from the other. They will stand there and watch you make them one by one, usually with a list in his/her hand. It is frustrating but you can do it. I once had a bus load of girls & coaches from a high school softball team come in all wanting Subway. 30 minutes later, another bus came into the store and wanted to order. It was the most stressful night ever, and even though it made time go by fast, it was still noisy and difficult to get everything perfect because it was so many people at once. I know how to handle something like that because I'm used to it, but for somebody new to Subway it would be frustrating. Then you have the big families that like to come in and eat and be choosy, or the moms with like 5 kids under the age of 10 and they make their kids order for themselves. Half the time, they don't know what they want. You have your typical prejudice a holes that like to just make you miserable by treating like dirt just because you're making their sandwich. Sometimes you'll get the cranky elderly people or the snot nosed kids in there with no manners. All of these types of people, you must learn to take with a grain of salt and remember that they are all customers and you're there to serve them. No easy task I'm sure. Just remember to be polite at all times, but if somebody is not treating fairly then don't hesitate to refuse service to them. You don't have to let them walk all over you, as long as you do it properly.

For what it's worth, it was a very stressful job day in & day out. But it did have it's perks as well. I think be able to meet those challenges and have a free lunch everyday whenever I got hungry and the free soda to drink was always nice. It kept me going. Many times when I felt like I couldn't handle it, I stuck with it and felt like it was getting better. It just takes lots of patience and repetitiveness, but you'll get used to it and know what to do in the long run. I think it's the best place to work at to gain experience for all different types of levels of jobs out there in the world. You take on a level of stress you otherwise wouldn't know your own strengths until you're dealt with them. So I would say that with the bad there's also the good that comes with it. You gain knowledge and wisdom most definitely. You able to get the hours you want and the flexibility is good too. Being sick and finding someone to cover for you sucked too, but it's whatever. All in all, if I could still work at Subway if the people were okay, then hell yeah I would probably do it. I am going to work for Golden Corral soon, so I will definitely miss Subway to some degree. All the hard work though, I probably will not.







I spent a few years at my store. It was nice at first. I took it very seriously, performed above and beyond, and had high hopes for my future. Funny enough my boss told us we wouldn't have one. 
As a high schooler with a family who had enough financial stability to not require my support, it was fantastic. In all honesty though, this is nowhere near credit to subway as much as it is an acknowledgment to the benefits of a circumstance.
 Employees worked illegal hours all the time. We never actually got our breaks, because we could sit down as much as we wanted to long as chores were taken care of, according to our abhorrent excuse for a manager. I worked for 2 years before I was given an account for subway university, the online training this company has. I honestly had no clue this existed. 
The manager knowingly hired employees who had little to no experience with food as well as people who usually didn't have another job before subway, or cars, to go to other subways. For Example I worked with some clown who survived a few months without understanding the appropriate way to prepare green peppers or tomatoes. Regardless though, he was consistently scheduled at a time when that prep was his explicit responsibility. I can not believe how ridiculous that place was allowed to be. 
Most employees didn't even understand the rules enough to be able to report anyone. Nobody ever got written up, or fired. Plenty of employees had destroyed company property, no call no showed more than 3 times, or put some of our larger catering contracts in jeopardy, without consequence. 
The few employees that did seem to care were expected to overwork for no bonus pay while the back of the pack gets to enjoy free money.
 I ended up quitting because my manager disrespected my wife and I 2 too many times. 
There was once a time I tried speaking to our corporate inspector in charge of making sure we properly execute promotions (which we never did) and he told me I should be thankful because my store was a good one. He genuinely implied that it gets worse. 
My manager left the store in the hands of a coworker and I while he went on vacation overseas. The employees intentionally did not support us and I worked 200 hours in 10 days. Sure I got paid for it, but not without a fight. The group of offending callouts however, suffered no consequence besides not being paid for not clocking in.
 My coworker and I had the skills to push our record 68 subs in an hour as two employees while simultaneously being inspected. That being said. I busted my behind to get good at what I did and got nothing to show for it. 
Never got serv safe certified, never got supervisor trained, as much as I had asked and in all honesty if the customers understood what the employees did consistently EVERYDAY to mishandle their food, I doubt that those people would be keeping their jobs. 
If this isn't the worst, I'm not sure what could be. 
I do encourage those considering working at subway to understand that they should be careful. 
The HR chain of command seems to be nonexistent sometimes because as long as the store makes a certain amount of profit, nobody is gonna try to shut you down. We actually got tons of leeway on health inspections and corporate inspections because we serve so many people. It's backwards.  97% of subway's promotional items and new products were just cheap shams to dress up the aesthetics of the business to give the illusion of higher quality. Most sandwiches with legit fresh ingredients from our store couldn't last 20 minutes after they left the front line. God bless those poor customers who thought "I'll save it for tomorrow." 
As the prices raise across the board, Subway would continue to add these metaphorical sprinkles and cherries on top without remotely changing the actual quality of the products you're really paying for. For example. The meat quality has remained relatively unchanged in my experience. Subway's brand of meats don't come close to any old deli slices from boars head. However, subway has new fancy salt and pepper grinders, or fancy garlic herb oil and balsamic vinaigrette! From a business standpoint, this is a clever move to rake in profits without altering cost of production. I get that. However, according to Subway University, what makes subway special (their own unique selling point) is its customer service! 
I honestly think the customer service aspect might be the closest thing to properly functioning in that place, and even then, customer service couldn't be properly executed without incident for 24 hours. I genuinely Think in all my years at one subway, that I never visited that store and everything was actually cleaned or prepared up to standard for more than 8 hours. Out of an average 15 employees at a rare 24/7 subway, it was never possible to actually have nothing to do. People just wouldn't do things because they knew they would not get support. It ultimately fell on the same 4 people every time. I held on for a while because I wanted to be the best, and commit to my brand and my company. I just never got appreciated. All in all I stayed for 3 reasons. 
1. My wife had the same schedule as me 
2.Military, emergency services, and other government personnel were the vast majority customers
3. Free food as a reward for being the best employees

I am currently going into my senior year of high school. I have worked at a moderately paced Subway for over a year now doing every kind of shift out there except opening. Currently I am mostly Pre-Closing and Closing. If you are someone who enjoys working at a fast pace, but not horrendously fast, I recommend working at Subway, especially during day shifts. If you enjoy the benefits of nighttime or evening work (less customers than day shift, working independently, and focusing on more of the aspect of getting subway ready to end its day, and ready for the next morning). It is very easy to get into the jive of how subway runs, and everyone naturally picks up the tasks quickly. Below I will describe the responsibilities that will be expected if you start working at subway, categorized type of shift. 

Opening - You will get all of the food out from the walk in and place it out int the front, prep all the food for the day, bake bread and cookies, whilst also making sandwiches. You do this by yourself until the first day shift person comes in after a few hours.
Pros: You still have the whole day ahead of you by the time you leave usually. Sometime mornings can be slow.
Cons: Waking up early, prepping while also taking customers orders can be a ginormous pain especially if it is even a little bit busy in the morning. It is a big responsibility because it can make or break how the majority of a day goes for everyone.

Day Shift - You will be make sandwiches for people at a fast pace, sometimes for long periods of time. You are also consistently cleaning the lobby and bain and the back area. You must also do dishes, clean bread forms, prep sauces, stock all chips and cooler, pull frozen items, make more bread, and prep cambros of food for the front (Cambros ~ metal and plastic containers of food in subway lingo). 
Pros: Fast pace - you are never wondering "Hey, I don't know what I should be doing" because it's all right in front of you. You aren't going to be working by yourself during the day so it's nice to always have a coworker. 
Cons: Sometimes the rate at which customers come can be too fast paced, and then you get behind on all the other things you have to do in the back, which can be extremely stressful if you are new or have trouble managing tasks in an efficient order. 

Pre-Closing - You will be responsible for helping the closer get everything ready for the night. This includes lot's of customers, and lots of dishes (sometimes). Your main goal is to help the closer work efficiently by allowing them time to clean the store and break it down. You also have to clean out the oven and proofer when necessary, as well as take out the trash and recycling. Never is usually extremely fast paced. 
Pros: Not much responsibility besides making sure the closer is able to complete their duties, and dishes. You're sometimes are able to leave early if you're into that, if it's a slow night. 

Closing - This shift is the biggest responsibility. You have to break down subway, sweep and mop and wipe down the entire establishment, while also taking peoples orders when the Pre-Closer is occupied with someone else. You have to make sure everything is clean, all dishes are done all food is put away into the walk-in fridge. You must get all bread pulled and put in the bread retarder for the morning. It is your responsibility to shut everything off, and do a final inventory at the end of the night and drop the register money. You must set the alarm and lock the doors at the end. The time you leave will fluctuate, but you can expect on a fast-paced night to be at work an extra 30-45 minutes. 
Pros: Slow rate of customers which dwindles during your shift, sometimes none the last hour or so if it is slow. You get to work independently (my store has one closer every night). Focus is mainly on breaking down subway for the night and getting everything cleaned and all the floors mopped and everything wiped mop and accounted for, so the attention to customers is diverted to the pre-closer when it works. 
Cons: Needing to stay longer than scheduled, frequently. Can be very stressful if you have to also deal with rushes of night customers, especially after the pre-closer has left. There are lots of little details you must remember, and forgetting to shut off or clean things can be very detrimental and dangerous. If you don't like sweeping or mopping, then don't be a closer. 

Other thoughts: If you enjoy a moderately paced work environment, and don't have a hard time with time and task management, then Subway should probably suit you in some way. The responsibilities a Subway worker holds, as well as types of shifts available are very beneficial because it allows you to explore other aspects of the job besides just making sandwiches. Sustaining a good relationship with your management through communication will allow you to let them know what you are struggling with and what you need improvement on.

Where to begin? From the complete lack of training time available to the inconsistencies of upper management, this brand is in free fall.  The biggest problem is the lack of competitive pay from Sandwich Artist to District Manager, which was my position. Sandwhich Artist starts at 7.25 an hour unless you have experience and even then, you are lucky to get 7.75 an hour. Considering the Chick Fil A's that litter Athens, where you can start out at 9.00 an hour with little to no experience. Subway is a National Brand, well known especially due to their marketing techniques and the fact that minimum wage is the base pay is shocking. Now, I know many people are thinking "this is basically an entry level job, mostly high school kids will work here" etc, but the fact is there are 0 hours dedicated to training. My first day consisted of filling out paperwork and the other DM saying "Here is your trainer, good luck". You are thrown to the wolves and after only 2 days, I was left completely alone for a 12-5 shift in an extremely busy store. I handled it just fine due to my experience, but imagine being a teenager in your first job environment and this is your first taste of the work life. Absolutely unacceptable and no business should ever leave an employee alone when the business is open, yet it happens at all 6 locations in Athens, GA and I have seen it at several other locations in Georgia and Tennessee. I haven't even gotten to what makes the DM portion of this job so awful. 

The starting point, is the pay. Now, during my interview, I was offered between 33,000-35,000 a year plus monthly bonus incentives along with vacation time. Pretty nice, considering I have very little DM experience, but 16 years of food service experience. The next time I heard back from my interviewer, the Owner would not pay that much, but would be willing to do 30,000 a year. I found out, also, I would be working side by side with another District Manager to help show me the ropes. I figure, ok, this is my chance to move up, finally and I will get monthly bonuses from all 7 stores at the time. Not a bad deal, if you ask me!!  This was all fine and well until I recieved my first paycheck and it was not equal to a 30,000 a year salary minus the taxes, it was 28,000. I figured it was a mistake so, I waited until my next paycheck and the same thing occured and soon after, I found out through an outside source that the bonus payouts were backed up by nearly 6 months, meaning I would have to be in position for 6 months before recieving this incentive, which was one of the reasons I started in the first place after hearing I would not be making what they initially offered. Things started become apperant that the other DM was not only a horrible manager, but a terrible person in general. I began to receive complaints of time missing from hourly workers paychecks, including overtime and everytime this was brought to the attention of the other DM or the Operations Manager, it never was handled with any kind of effort. It was always handed with just a simple "oh, I will fix that on your next paycheck".  

Suffice it to say, this never happened. Across what is now 6 stores, because one was closed due to a remodel, we have hourly employees and managers walking out left and right and upper management just sending me to fill the gaps, because I did not count against labor percentage, another shoddy way to run your business. Eventually, I began gathering evidence about the time theft occurring and presented it to the corporate offices and to my shock, never recieved a call back from them nor did I receive an email in return. Leading me to believe the level of incompetency leads all the way to the top with this company. After an incident involving the other DM going to where my Fiance works, raising his voice to her and demanding to know where I was, I was off that day and had been out of town, I quit the job and turned my keys in.

This all happened in a span of 2 months. This was, without a doubt, the WORST company I have ever worked for in 16 years and I would not recommend anyone, ever working here. Stay far, far away and never do it. You may need a job, but look elsewhere for something where people actually care about your well being. You may be a teenager looking to get into the work force for the first time, go elsewhere and find something that will help you build for the future. 

STAY AWAY FROM SUBWAY

The only good thing about this job is they are flexible with your hours and you can expect 30 on average. But, that’s also because we’re horribly understaffed. If you work in a super busy store, like the ones in Walmart, it’s not uncommon for you to have a line of 10+ customers while working alone. Sometimes the lines are nearly out the door. Ideally, there would be three people working at all times. Or two for the first couple of opening and last closing hours, and at all other times three. But, this company obviously doesn’t care about putting their workers in a conducive environment. Especially not for the minimum wage pay. There is room for growth, you could probably make Assistant Manager in a year or so. More responsibility with a slight increase in pay. 
Expect to never get a break, even if you’re working 10+ hour shifts. that’s not an issue for me personally, but it’s frustrating when it’s really busy for hours and you barely have time to take a sip of water.  The employee turnover rate is extremely high (even for managers). Meaning you’ll always be responsible for training somebody (which is not what you’re paid to do..) and again, if your store is busy it’s inconvenient to have a slower worker on the line or fumbling with the register. A lot of minors also work here which means they’ll need a 30minute break every shift (makes it harder for you). Customers get so mad when they see a worker sitting in the lobby eating, as if we aren’t humans. The customers absolutely suck and it’s hard to be the least bit polite to them. They’ll have you make their sandwich, realize they don’t have enough money or that we don’t accept certain forms of money, then just walk away. Or they’ll get an attitude and say never mind after the sandwich is half made. They’ll walk up to the line like they’re ready to order then take ten minutes staring at the menu like there isn’t a line behind them. They don’t tip even after you’ve made 7 sandwiches for them. They’ll have their children order when the child can barely speak or they whisper, which makes it hard for you to make the sandwich. They’ll get one sandwich made, wait until you’re wrapping that sandwich up, ready to check them out, then tell you they have another sandwich to order. They take forever to tell you what other vegetables they want on their sandwich so You have to keep asking “what else would you like?” And then they get an attitude about that. So many of them are  just very rude, lack etiquette and have no consideration for the people making their subs or any other customers  in line. I understand there’s not much the company can do about the type of customers we deal with, but I feel it warrants a significant bump in pay. This job is too stressful for us to be getting paid scraps. Honestly, it’s a slap in the face. I’m sure if they could pay us less, they would. They expect us to prep veggies, meat, cheese, beverages, wash dishes, keep the lobby clean, keep the line stocked, bake bread, make coffee, work the register, work both sides of the line, take the trash out, sweep & mop, and a host of other things in the span of our 6-8 hour shifts. It’s only doable if it’s extremely slow. And if you clock out too late you get in trouble so when exactly are we supposed to complete our tasks all while serving customers? If I’m going to be this stressed, they should pay more. There is no air conditioning (for us in the back. the customers have fans in the lobby), and we have flies and roaches, which the customers love to complain about, even though there is nothing we can do about it. I don’t blame the managers either, because they don’t like the situation. It’s the company’s fault they obviously have no compassion for the people that work for them and lack humanity all together.

It's food service, and there is nothing quite like working food service.. 

I am a General Manager and here is my life...

Typical day is come in @ 6:15 am and loose your mind trying to get bread baked, cookies baked, tea brewed, dishes washed, products restocked, food prepped, bread loaded (to bake after lunch) and a million other things all while you are taking care of your breakfast/brunch crowd ON YOUR OWN until your first employee comes in at 11.

While you have to get all the above done before your lunch rush hits at 10:30-11:00, you also have your General Manager duties to tend to: Bank Deposits, Supply Orders, Inventories, Payroll, Scheduling, HR work, Deliveries, Customer Issues, Corporate Issues, Inspections, etc.

Then you have your lunch rush which never really stops once it hits, it just slows down a little and becomes a steady stream of hungry customers until the dinner rush hits that evening. 

Once your lunch line slows down enough for you to get a chance to break away, it's time to do the exact same things you did before lunch so that the night crew is set up and ready for the dinner rush, which is even bigger than lunch at my store. PLUS, cleaning the entire store from the mess that your lunch customers made, and you have to get all of this done by 4 with as few employees as possible because your boss wants to you CONSTANTLY cut back on your labor so the franchisee can make more money.

Well, enough of that rant...
SUBWAY® has been good for me in the fact that it has taught me a lot about time-management and handling employees. I handle my employees in a respectful way so that they will work hard for me out of respect and not fear! As far as Managing goes, it's not terrible since the operations are pretty simple and you only need a small staff.

The hardest part of the job is probably the amount of time you have to give to this job v/s lack of pay and benefits.
I say lack of pay because most Management jobs are salary based and at SUBWAY® your franchisee can not afford to pay you anymore than the bare-minimum salary they can get away with! On top of the low pay, you are also going to have to clock-in about 50-55 hours per week, this is not counting the 8:30 pm phone calls you get from your staff saying that the ice machine is broken, the oven is not baking, or we just ran out of turkey, all of which require you to stop whatever you're doing during your few hours away from the store, and rush up to work to handle whatever madness is occuring! There are no sick-days, personal days, or vacation DAYS (our franchisee is kind enough to give us a 1-week paid vacation each year, for which I am greatful!) so even if you have the flu, you will be at work doing something! Benefits...that's funny. You get none.

The most enjoyable part of my job is interacting with my customers, employees and fellow managers. I am lucky at my store to have a great customer base! We rarely have customers that are grumpy or rude and that makes our jobs A LOT easier!  We have also always had a more family feel towards one another instead of just co-workers. All of my employees I treat as my family! We have parties and see each other outside of work, and the same goes with the other store managers as well as my district manager. We are always there for one another and will take our precious, minimal free time to help each other without hesitation!

Working for SUBWAY® can be rough, but it can also be very rewarding, in the friendships you make and work experience you get. It all just depends on the amount of work you put into it just like any other Management position.

I remember visiting my first training store in 1980. A tiny place in a run down part of town. I had to push a buzzer to be let in. The first thing I noticed was the automatic electric meat slicer sitting squarely on the front service counter, next to the cash register. Below was a glass display case with huge sticks of deli meats. The employee wrote my order on a pad and said "why don't you shop a little, there's a nice boutique just down the street. I'll have your sub ready in about 15 minutes." I laughed under my breath. I had already been running my new store in a tourist heavy district and had service times down to about 120 seconds per customer per sub and I knew we could cut that in half with a little more practice. Sure I said, but I'm curious why you don't slice up some of the most popular meats and put them on wax deli papers so you can make the sandwich quickly in front of me? Wouldn't most customers prefer that? The employee replied "well we just don't do it that way". Oh I said. Is that what your manager told you? "No, I AM the manager!" I left and sat in my car as the employee laboriously placed different meat sticks on the meat slicer and carefully piled 23 slices on the sub role. I nearly fell asleep when I heard a shout ït's ready!"

I was assigned to that very store the next night together with two other trainees. We arrived a few minutes early but nobody would answer the door. So we walked around back to find the manager in the parking lot with her boyfriend. The manager said "Hey it's my birthday, I shouldn't be working tonight anyway so give me a break!" So I suggested she take the night off and we would cover for her. We had a blast! First thing we did was move the slicer to the back room where it belonged. We checked out last night's control sheet to determine what was selling on the night shift. Then we began slicing meats and piling them in proper order on deli paper for the four most popular sandwiches. Then we sliced up some cheese and rearranged the sandwich unit for better flow. We took turns working the counter while the others cleaned the store and front entrance, and waved people in off the street. It seemed like a slow night to me but the control sheet verified that our shift had more than double the volume of the previous night shift. Not bad for a first training store shift. We were scolded for tampering with the system but after discussing what went on that night with the training director, they cut us some slack and offered to let us three trainees float around to stores of our choice. We had a good time sharing what we had learned outside the corporate training store world, and learned some neat tricks from a few of the experienced training store managers. 

Fast forward six and a half years later. My 8 stores were banging it with more than double the chain average sales and profits. I had been appointed marketing director for the region due to my store's success. I had 26 different achievement awards hanging on my office walls. The 1985 convention celebrated the chain's anniversary and was the largest turnout to date. I remember asking the corporate CEO if I could just wait by the stage for the next award plaque because I was getting tired walking all the way from our table back to the stage for what amounted to 8 awards that were presented to me that night.

I honestly loved my job at Subway. I had a few very simple and basic complaints however. 

Just before working at Subway, I had been unemployed for two months. I was looking for almost any work at this point. I had turned to fast food because I needed a flexible schedule and preferably full time. I had been lucky enough thus far in my life to never have worked at minimum wage, and I was not looking forward to it. 
My interview is where my disappoints stemmed.
During my interview with Jay Sharda, the owner and manager of four Subway locations, he promised me several things. First, he told me that the position was full time. I told him that was fine, that I was used to working 40 full hours a week if not more. HE corrected me by informing me that in the fast food industry, full time usually meant around 30-33 hours a week. I was fine with this as well. He told me I would be scheduled at least that many hours weekly, starting immediately. (Lie #1) In reality, during the short time i worked there, after my first two weeks, i was never scheduled more that 25 hours. It came to the point that after asking him for more hours multiple times, I simply began to come into work early and leave late. He was attentive enough to notice. I was told that during my probationary time i would in fact be making minimum wage. 7.25/hr. However, seeing as how I was full time and would be working during the day, he told me I would rise to close to $9.00/hour after my first 60 days, depending on how quickly I had picked up the skills. (Lie #2) I worked for Sharda Enterprises for 108 days. It wasn't until my last full check that I received a raise of 50 cents. This was still not what I was promised. Even with all of that, it was still a good job, with amazing people. I mainly worked at the Clear Creek store, attached to Kroger on the South Side of Bloomington. The store manager there, Kari, is a godsend. She does an amazing job of balancing Jay's demands and her workers. The main reason I left was because I was tired of dealing with Jay's drama. He was horrible at making schedules, in a bad mood most days, and downright rude 90% of the time. He was always very difficult to talk to. I was once scheduled to change locations in the middle of a shift. I went to him to ask how to clock in/out during this transition. I wanted to be on the clock during my transition in case anything would happen, I would be covered on company time. Instead of working with me to come up with a solution, he did what can only be likened to growling at me, then proceeded to ignore me while he made a few phone calls. I waited patiently. The meeting ended with him telling me to not worry about it. He had called someone else in for my entire shift. I not only lost an 8 hour day, which was almost half of my hours that week, but was also told that he would remember not to schedule me long shifts again. That was one of the only promises he did keep. Jay Sharda is a horrible owner and manager. He uses broken equipment and tells his associates to make due. At one point the cash register drawer ceased working. Instead of buying a new one, he found someone on craigslist with an old one, bought it from this person, and when the drawers and the box didn't fit together, he created what we called the "PlaySchool" cash drawer. It was duct taped together cups that had been cut down and pieces of cardboard. It remained this way for months. He is cheap and neglectful. I will never work for him again.

Working at subway has been awesome and terrible. Awesome because it’s an easy job and one that you can learn easily. Terrible because of management at the store I worked at. (Not all Subways are terrible.)

I worked at Subway, (My first job,) for three years and it was a great introduction to fast food and a somewhat rushed working environment. I worked mornings and nights. A typical day would be to come into the store and start baking the bread for the day. Then we would prepare the ingredients that we would need. (Sauce bottles, sliced meats, and Vegetables.) Most of the time the prep work took most of the morning so we had one person helping customers while the other did the prep work. We would alternate between helping customers and doing prep work so we could be as efficient as possible. Unfortunately our bosses told us only to prep what we needed for the day and not to prep extra. And so of course we would run out of ingredients around 7:00pm. 

Because our store was located next to a freeway and a hotel so we would get a lot of customers, which is not a bad thing but we couldn’t keep up with them because we didn’t have enough prepped. (Not morning crew’s fault, management’s fault!).

Night crew gets there around 4:00pm and they are expected to prepare extra because we don’t have enough food to last the night. This was not fair to the closers because morning crew would be so busy prepping that they would just leave all the dishes for the night crew, which would be ok if we didn’t have to do more prep work as well as working on dinner rush. 

At that point in the day the store would look terrible so we would have to clean the lobby on top of that. Oh, and did I forget to mention that they hate scheduling more than two people per shift? Yep, usually I would just do what I could to keep they flow of people moving so we could keep switching between cleaning the lobby, prepping food, and helping customers. (Like I said, not all stores are like this, just the one I worked at.) 

The job wasn’t that bad, just mentally exhausting sometimes. Both morning and night crew were just trying to do their best. 

While employed over the course of three years I have had 9 different bosses. Most of them were just trying to do their best and get the store in working order. Unfortunately I have also worked with terrible bosses that were lazy and neglectful towards their staff. Also they lied about the pay. When someone gets hired they say that the pay is not the advertised $12-14 an hour, it’s actually $10 an hour, plus tips, which isn’t what they told us but I guess they are allowed to lie to their employees without repercussions. Not cool. 

An upside to all this is a free 6in sandwich and chips every 4 hours worked. You are allowed to put whatever you would like in your sandwich but some stores will make you pay for extra meat. Drinks are free for employees and you can refill them as much as you want.

The workplace isn’t all fast paced. Sometimes it’s pretty slow during the day. And when it is most people take their 15 minute break if there isn’t a lot to do.

The hardest part of the job is probably going to be dealing with terrible scheduling and sometimes the occasional rude customer.

The easiest part of the job is the prep work. It’s not that hard to do, it’s just time consuming.

I enjoyed working for Subway. The owner and store manager were great people and fun to work with. I loved serving 90% of the customers and many of them were daily customers who got the same thing, and even came to see me when I was working at a different Subway, after a hurricane destroyed the first one. 

I believe that for the most part, Subway customers treat the employees better than most fast food places I have been to. In general, customers that are in the lobby will be nicer than drive thru pickup customers. Also, since you are making their food right in front of the customers in the lobby, there's less communication errors and mistakes, so they're usually happier.

The job itself is fairly easy, once you get the hang of it, and depending on your location, I'd say that the coworkers and management can make or break your job at a Subway, since if you're at a small store, it could be just 2 people working at a time, or 4-5 if it's a busy store. 

As far as common tasks, you have to make bread and cookies, cut, prep, and date meats and vegetables, stock the 'bain' before and after rushes, stock chips and sodas, make tea, clean tables and chairs, sweep and mop the lobby, wash dishes, occasionally make sub platters, take out the trash, take and/or make pick-up orders over the phone, or online orders, check out customers on the register, etc.

Openers typically have to turn everything on and make tea, bread and cookies, thaw more bread for the afternoon, prep food for lunch, stock the bain with food products, and usually before they leave, stock chips and drinks, clean the lobby, take out trash, and maybe make a little more prep or tea. 

Closers typically have to prep food for supper, make 2nd run of bread and cookies, deep clean lobby, restrooms, and the back area, pull the food in the front to the walk-in fridge, and clean the bain and sneeze guard, clean the oven, proofer, toaster, and microwave, stock chips and drinks, thaw bread for the next day, wash dishes, take out trash, and turn everything off.

The nice thing is that once you get everything down pat, you can settle into a routine where you pretty much know what you're walking into before you get there. The only real curveballs will be if there's platters or other catering orders to make, any equipment issues, whether other employees show up or not, and if you get messy or rowdy customers right before closing. One store I worked at had a church group that would come every Wednesday night an hour before close, and mess up the whole lobby and stay until closing time or even slightly after, which made it difficult to clean the whole store and get out in the 30 minutes that our owner wanted us to do. 

The pay usually differs from state to state, and is pretty on-par for fast food places, but I believe I was paid fairly both times I worked for Subway. In my experience, getting promotion opportunities at Subway usually happens quickly and easily if you are hard-working and dependable, as many people employed in fast food are not. I moved up to assistant manager in a month or 2 at one store, and after starting at a different store, became P.I.C (Person in charge) in a month or 2 there, and had the opportunity to become assistant manager there in only around 5 months, if I had chosen to continue.

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