team member

shift manager

general manager

assistant manager

assistant general manager

Arbys

It is not difficult to secure a management position with this company. They have amazing brand goals, and one of the top points of the interview process is for the interviewer to "sell" the company to the interviewee. This will leave you feeling very excited to work for a company that claims to exhibit all of the things you have been looking for throughout your entire career but BEWARE. 

The interviewer will spend more time talking about themselves and the company rather than asking questions about you or getting to know you as a prospective employee. 

Once you are hired as a manager, you will be placed in a "training store". There is only one training store in the Tennessee
 market that actually spends time attempting to make sure you are prepared for the task at hand. All of the other "training" stores are a joke at best. They were certified under previous General Managers, or during their certification process, they were certified as training stores quickly so that managers in training would not have to travel a great distance resulting in more cost for the company.

After your training is complete, you will spend more time in the store being placed in an hourly position rather than doing any management duties. If you are working an hourly position and fail to complete all of your supervisory duties, you will then be chastised by upper management for not utilizing your time correctly.

Most of the General Managers that are in the Tennessee market have been with the company for several years, and value their own positions and lives more than their employees. They will take employee ideas that have helped the unit succeed and pass them off as their own while demeaning and criticizing the same people who are helping the unit succeed. 

If you are injured on the job and require workman's comp and you DON'T get fired, they will say they are adhering to work restrictions from the doctor but schedule you in a way that will restrict any possibility of following restrictive orders. 

The General Managers care only for themselves and make it look like they are the most knowledgeable and successful workers in the store. They are not team-oriented. 

They will blow labor out of the water on the shifts that they are scheduled to work so that they do not have to run a position (while scheduling themselves INTO an hourly position on the printed schedule) and then force the other shifts to make up labor by being short-staffed. 

Submitting complaints to HR and to Upper-level supervisors does not go anywhere, as there are too many personal relationships inside the company to have effective or productive problem-solving outcome.

Arbys is extremely guest service oriented to the point that if a customer is abusive towards a worker, we are to apologize as workers and give them whatever they want and invite them to come back. I have witnessed customers call employees names, and even be violent towards employees and the employee was coached instead of being defended. 

The benefits are hard to beat. They have excellent vacations, and quite a bit of PTO (that will be asked for you to use instead of controlling labor). The health, vision, and dental plans are amazing, but being allowed to utilize these with time off for such appointments is hard as you will be told to organize them around an incredibly hectic and ever-changing schedule. You can put in for the time off ahead of time for such appointments, only to be told you have to reschedule because they forgot. 

If you are injured, they will tell you that you are making mistakes and aren't giving everything that you are capable of giving to the company, and when you attempt to resign, they will ask you to stay and quote statements regarding you being an asset to the company and then turn around and issue write-ups for asking questions or defending yourself. 

This company has a great goal for what they want to be with absolutely horrible execution. The only people that have a voice are the GMs that have a "yes-sir" mindset. You will have a hard time finding someone in upper management that can explain the "why" to their employees or even better, you will have a hard time finding ANYONE that can even tell you how much it costs to turn over one hourly employee, much less a manager. 

DO NOT be scammed by the "sell". It is important that you understand how this company is operating currently and that their turnover rate is upwards to 300 percent, and instead of looking at their upper management skills, they blame lower management and hourly employees as the cause. 

10/10 would NOT recommend working for this company



A typical day at work is hectic. For the past two months our General Manager has given most people 13 to at most 16 hours a week. So with that said we are short handed a lot of the time. At times we will have three employees and 4 work stations which need to be filled so we all have to pick up slack of someone else not being there. The managers are suppose to run the food to the customers at the front counter or drive thru. Most the time the General Manager isn't doing that so that is more slack we have to pick up. 

What I have learned is safety first, First in first out (FIFO), Clean as you go. I had to learn everything I know by myself, the GM at that time was worse then the one now. Some co-workers helped me by telling me the basics of things and the rest I had to figure out. Fry station is what I was put on for 3-4 straight months of first working there. I then was put front cash register where only one manager took the time to teach me, which was the Assistant Manager.

My current General Manager cares about the store but I strongly feel she doesn't care about her employee's. This being my reasons: I use to organize and stock the store from the truck load. I tore my muscle in my arm and told not my GM but my stock manager. He told me to tell the GM about it and the only time I could talk to her was in person because she never has time for my phone calls. I told her she said she would give me days off with no pay but workers comp would not help me at all. Which I don't believe that is very true. Another time pretty much after my arm had healed, 350 degree grease splashed into my eye and I screamed to the top of my lungs in pain my GM was there this time she looked at my face and I asked her "Is there something wrong with my eye?" which she replied no.

She said I was fine even though I told her my vision was blurred. I rinsed my eye and it was less blurred and I had to have my wife escort me home that day because I didn't feel comfortable with driving. Later I asked her if I can get workers comp and she said I never said my vision was blurred or that my eye hurt. She claimed that I asked that day "Is there anything wrong with my face?" Which I knew then what was going on. She was avoiding giving me workers comp because it may look bad on her. So I went to the eye doctor and then she wanted to pay for it but I had to pay for it up front so she was to late. After that I have felt very unsafe because I don't make nearly enough to pay for health insurance with my bills. My other managers are fine and do their job yet the only one I personally like is my assistant manager for actually helping me and teaching me.

Most my co-workers are alright people that work hard and as well have husbands and wife's to take care of. Although a few like to just lie and start arguments between others. 

Hardest part of the job is to pick up slack where there is no one to help and picking up slack of others but thats what makes us all a team in my opinion. Where the others cant succeed you must succeed in order to be a team.

The most enjoyable part of work is serving others and making them happy by fulfilling their needs.

A typical day at work has alot to do with where you're stationed. Back line can get pretty hectic if you're back there by yourself, with two people it's fairly smooth. Drive thru (in my personal opinion) can get a little stressful at times and would be so, so much easier if we had had the option of making our own pre-recorded message- typically includes your greeting, current specials, and promotional or new/seasonal items (when applicable) ending with "please take your time and order when you're ready!" All while insuring the customer hears the smile in your voice.  This makes it significantly easier to run the drive thru as a one man show. For instance neither customer (at the window or the speaker) feels rushed, you don't have to put one of them on hold to take care of the other, etc. I learned alot about  working in a typical "fast food" establishment as opposed to a homestyle cooking restaurant. Including alot more about (but not limited to) several types of prep work, an assortment of different breads, cold meats and cheeses along with their hold times, different types of salads, how to clean, operate, dis and reassemble different types of slicers, as well as a shake machine. I (personally) do feel like they should have a little higher standards with their management. As far as culture, while I do appreciate them being closed for our major Christian holidays, I do not appreciate how they treat their employees as far as calling in, medical conditions or disabilities, playing favorites among crew members, upper management making snide remarks pertaining to the previous mentioned.  But overall, I would consider it a fairly friendly work environment. As a crew leader myself, these are just some of what most I believe would deem "unfavorable" characteristics I observed exhibited via my general and assistant manager. As far as leadership, (at least among the crew leaders) we tried to make sure we got everyone completely trained, making sure they were confident in their position, before leaving them in that spot on their own, try and have a game plan for the shift including breaks, cleaning duties, etc. Trying to make sure everything ran as smooth as possible, making sure nobody was struggling, keep everything rotated as far as hold times. I think they could show a little more compassion for their employees in their personal lives, like as far as their well-being is concerned, as to how it may inconvenience them. They also don't give raises on a regular basis that I'm aware of.  They expect more out of people who have been working for them for a substantial amount of time, but offer no incentive for them to do so. I'd have to say the hardest part of my job has probably been dealing with irate customers, corporate inspections, and smug teenagers (lol).  The most enjoyable part of my job by far, was my personal relationship with my regulars and elderly customers. They were truly a treasure in my daily life. 

Day shifts: Can be very fast paced, because this is the busier part of each day. Especially in the summertime. The more hardworking crew members are put on day-shifts. The better managers are put onto day-shifts too, so more is expected of you, however it is not bad by any means. The worst you can be asked to do is to do random cleaning jobs.

Night shifts: Typically slower paced than the day shifts. Workers do not work as hard here, and often stand around as opposed to getting much work done. That's not so much that these workers are lazy, but more the atmosphere that has been created. Everyone is very friendly with each other, they like to goof off and have a good time. Because the managers on the night shift don't care as much as the day shift, people tend to get away with a lot more. There are times we have gotten complaints for workers behaving inappropriately.

Management is decent. The bad management has been weeded out, and it has been getting much better than what it was in the past.

Turn over rates in the store are high. However, it's not common for people to get fired here. Most of the time, if someone's performance is poor, their hours are cut back first and a manager will have a discussion with that employee. There have been instances that cutting hours back alone had been enough to make one quit.
Most of the crew I work with is ok. There are a few I really dislike to work with because they do not do well at the job at all, and it creates more work for me, because I have to pick up more to keep the flow of things going.

One thing that really makes me angry here is the speed of service. It is not uncommon for someone to wait over five minutes to get their food. I work as fast as I can, but the philosophy of fresh food with this company often can be the downfall. We are not very busy, and cannot afford to keep up some items we have to cook for a period of time. The regulars tend to realize this, but people traveling through can be very rude.

Fortunately, rude people here are not common. Exceptionally rude people are few and far between, however I promise it will still make you cringe and question your job when you do have one. Crew members tend to support one another here, and if there is an issue no one will hesitate to step in and clear up the problem, and if nothing else will provide advice or the ability to talk it out.

My experience working here has been a roller-coaster. There are periods where I hate my job, and then where I really like my job.

The hardest part of the job is dealing with people who won't learn, and trying to pick up their slack. It puts everyone in a bad mood.

What I love about my job is dealing with people. As long as you're happy and can contribute to a good atmosphere, people here will like you. If you give good customer service, most of the time people will be kind in return. You give what you take. This isn't a difficult job.

This was my second fast food job and quite honestly I took it for granted. I worked for the FX4 LLC franchise and my experience at Arby’s was better than most fast food places. I worked here for about 15 months. I was a backline cook, we were responsible for night prep, making and preparing items, cleaning, mild stocking. Working on the backing was fun most days, it was usually me and one other main backline person. We’d tag team on large orders, wash dishes in between and get food out quickly. We’d have to wash sauce bottles and re-fill them daily. Baking cookies and turnovers was easy. The job was fairly simple. It took me about 6 months to perfect my speed and my routine but as soon as I got it down, I could make those classic roast beefs fly off the backline with ease and frankly all menu items. This was the easiest fast food job I ever worked at, doing prep was easy, baking cookies and pastries was easy. Making sandwiches was easy. The only thing that was rough is when people would order like 40-60 sandwiches at a time and that’s no exaggeration, that would really mess up our times. My hours were always good here I got between 30-40 hours weekly. The pay rate is higher than local wage so that was a plus. 

Backline responsibilities: Cooking and preparing food, prep including meat slicing and rare veggie slicing, three slicer cleanings daily (spot cleanings in-between), portioning out Turkey, Smoked Ham, Gyro meat and Pizza portions, washing and re-filling sauce bottles, baking salted caramel and chocolate cookies, baking apple and cherry turnovers, putting roasts in the oven with probes, pulling bread from the freezer and dating it accordingly, sweeping and mopping, washing dishes, putting away dishes. Cleaning the ovens. Occasionally running orders outside. It wasn’t in my job description but I learned how to clean and refill the fryers and it was an easy task. Managers loved that! I also would drop all fried goods for them in-between orders. 

My managers loved me and in fact I was recognized for promotion by my fifth month. I didn’t take the promotion because I was constantly doubting myself. In my first year I was awarded employee of the month twice which means you get a certificate for you and four of your family members to get FREE FOOD. My managers always looked out for the best in their employees and always looked out for me because they saw my potential. Of course I was dead-set on going back to my previous employer and I really regret that decision. I had it good here and I spoiled that opportunity. If you work at Arby’s or at this specific location it’s easy work and great pay! Employees are paid every two weeks on a Friday, you can do direct deposit or whatever you choose. Employees that work for Arby’s after a certain time get an an annual bonus. Usually it’s over $100.00.

A typical day at work for me is coming in as one of the openers. I always come in with a positive attitude and thinking, "how am I going to make everyone else's day easier?" Usually the amount of work that needs to be done requires two people, but I usually move pretty fast and can manage to get everything done by myself. The amount of work keeps adding up even when we open the store. I keep working as fast as I can and I don't stop until all my work is done, even if it takes as me until the end of my shift.

What I learn from this job is the team building skills. Having to get the customers orders out fast and accurately.

Management is all over the place. Not to make it sound bad, but each manager we have runs their shift differently. So each manager has their own pros and cons with the way they do things within the store.

I've been with the same co-workers for quite awhile and even though they're good workers, they sometimes  have their negative or bad sides to them. I try not to let them get to me if they're being negative to me or others, but if they're being negative towards other I will stick up for another employee.

There are many hard responsibilities that come with working at Arbys. The one con to being "the guy that everyone relies on" is that everyone comes to you when they need something. Not that I don't mind employee's asking me for my opinion on something, but at the same time there are other employees that can be asked to do the job. Also I am always required to do something, everyone relies on me, but like I said before it's not a problem, but at the same time I'm only one person and can't do everything when we have other employee's that can do the same task. Other times I feel like all the males within the workplace are the only ones that do all the work. Even though I read the paperwork that says everyone that works within the store is required to do and know how to do everything. Sometimes I feel like I'm being taken advantage of and my work is not being appreciated enough.

The most enjoyable part of my job is coming in and leaving knowing that I made everyone else's day easier even if I had the hardest work day.

***One thing that I was not to happy about is that my work does not have camera's in the parking lot. My 2015 Kia optima was hit awhile ago and I asked my owners to provide a camera outside. They pretty much said no and now I have to pay for the damages to my car. So hearing that shows that if something within my companies store does not make them money then they don't care. Even though providing one camera to help catch the people that hit the employee's car while working can prevent future problems because we have had past employee's been hit and had to pay for serious damages to their cars.

I have never in my life had a job taken away from me as quickly until now when a certain Arby's location in Spokane, WA recently did to me.
The reason: I accidentally failed their written test of every single sandwich, salad, wrap item, and name every ingredient on each item from their menu.
they gave me a few days to study for it and study I did. 
Worst part of this whole ordeal is, they had just hired me just days earlier before Thanksgiving.
I was both grateful and thankful that I had found this job during this pandemic, & this was going to help me out a lot financially right now from covering rent to being able to get Christmas gifts for people.
On December 3, I go to take the sandwich test and despite being on the right track with ingredients, I couldn't remember everything and even wrong  sandwich bun as an answer was counted against me.
Sadly my test knowledge wasn't good enough to even start my first workday with them and they took the job away from me without even a retake or a glimpse of the ones that I got correct.
The rude store GM that gave me the sandwich test told me goodbye and they were done with me.
I was basically tossed away before I even got the chance to start.
Granted I'm not always the best when it comes to knowledge testing and I've always been more of a hands on learning person and I learn much better and quicker that way compared to their written test.
despite making a good first impression by showing up early at the interview and test day, paying $10 for a new food handlers card, filling out all the necessary paperwork, and copying my IDs, I was still robbed of this job without a second try at least and just my opinion, but the whole situation just seems backwards and unfair.
Why don't they at least do their required sandwich test first before they hire them?
At least that way it would've made a lot more sense and it wouldn't have been as disappointing to me.
In closing of this very long review or complaint:
In fairness, I don't know if all Arby's locations do a sandwich test before people can start working, this was a franchise location. 
But if there is a sandwich test at your location, whatever you do, please do not fail it! 
They'll take the job away from you just as quickly as they did to me and thanks to them & their 1 chance policy, my job search continues.
I know I'm not alone in failing this sandwich test, and it makes me wonder how many other good and decent candidates out there that have also failed it and got tossed out the window without a chance to prove themselves? :-/




Went in at 6:30am. Got Food prepared and Setup by 7;30am. Opened at 8am. If call offs or sick employees rescheduled other empolyees to work those shifts. Handled food and business supplies ordering, Took inventory of food and supplies, Did the work scheduling, Handled payroll and employee work hours, Hired and fired employees, Conducted all paperwork: faxing, sorting, mail, copying, billing, etc. Distruibuted advertising coupons, promotions & ads. Handled corporate and health department inspections. Learned a great deal in handling, preparation and temperaturing foods as well as working with various resturant appliances and register systems. Our employees were very close and somewhat more like family. They were very reliable and dependable. Many were employees for years. The most difficult part of working here was that the owner did not like to invest in new appliances until the old ones were dead. By the time that I began managing we had been refixing some things every week and had been for over ten years. It was time for new appliances and that did happen. We actually had help from the Health Dept. with this due to the fact that food on our backline was not keeping the temps that the foods needed to be kept at due to our refrigartion and one of our fry stations was not cold enough as well. This owner did not always do as corporate expected and that caused some problems. The most enjoyable part of this job was the employees that I worked with. At times we were very busy and I could always rely on them to help out when they were needed. Half of the town lost power one day and we were hit extremely hard since 5 of the resturants were not operating. we had to triple up on employees and we were hit hard. I even had employees who were in school that heard of this without being called that just came in when they heard. I explained labor hours to them and that their wages also affected scheduling. If an employee wanted to cover for another employee that was allowed as long as it didn't affect any of these and it was ok'd with me first. This was not abused and usually only a factor when a death occured. Did have one younger man ask to have a sat.off just because he wanted to party and felt that since he could be that honest with me I'd cover for him myself. That young man now holds down two jobs and goes to college.

A typical day at work included clocking in and reviewing the duties for the shift one is on. After reviewing the duties one must report to their register or assigned work area. Then when ones shift starts they take over from the person before them. One could be taking orders in drive through or at the counter. There are also employees that expidiate, which means bagging food or putting food on the trays. There is also employees that make and prepare the food. Everything is made to order on how a customer would like them to be made. One that is taking orders may also be required to collect money and return the change, while also preparing the customers drinks and sauces in drive through. At the end of ones shift before one clocks out, if on the front counter one must first clean the dining room and check what needs restocked in the dining room area. Then one must stock what needs to be stocked also one must clean the trays and leave them to dry for next shift. If in drive through one must stock every thing in drive through for the next shift. After one has done their duties and their shift has ended then they can clock out and must use the front door to exit the work place. 

I learned what it means to work at a fast paced enjoyable environment. I believe this was a wonderful first job for myself, as I learned amazing customer service skills along with co-employer skills.
The management at the Elida Road location is wonderful and easy to explain things to someone if need be. 

I loved working with all my co-workers that I did for a year. They are all very enjoyable and friendly to be around. 


The hardest part of the job would be on third shift when the bar rush comes in and one must deal with certain attitudes of some customers. Another hard quality is one must be good at multitasking and working faster when different rush hours come through. An example would be during lunch or supper rush and their are multiple customers that need their orders placed and served all at once. 

The most enjoyable part of working at Arby's was when customers come up to you and tell you that they appreciate the service you have provided for them. It makes the things you do for the customers so much more enjoyable knowing that your service was appreciated.

A typical day at work involves serving guests according to various speed, quality, and customer service standards. Achieving these standards is not a major issue with a good staff and an inspiring manager.

The problems arise when you introduce some of the corporate elements into the mix.

Hours are determined in part by sales projections, like many jobs, but the mix of how many hours you actually get to schedule based on a certain projected dollar amount has gone down over time, again like many jobs. Labor cuts become more aggressive to allow corporate to pay for things that the store managers have no meaningful say or input over, and strange menu and business choices abound in the face of trying to do meaningful work.

Inspire Brands has taken a troubling trend acquiring new brands in a needless hurry instead of focusing on and improving what they do right. Complaints are made about staffing restaurants properly without using the most powerful tool to acquire and keep talent: money.

The hardest part of the job is maintaining standards in the face of stick-thin labor availability and a company that doesn't want to give general managers the ability to pay people enough to care about standards across a 15 hour business day. It gets worse when coupons are distributed that actively damage sales ability and create crippling sales interruptions. (I'm looking at you, $12 Family Pack.)

The most enjoyable part of the job is, assuming you're in the right store for this, teaming up with great people to conquer insurmountable odds and come out with high sales, great service time, and a clean store. Be great if there was meaningful compensation incentives attached to the hard work of hourly staff when these things get pulled off.

I got to work with a great manager and a horrid one. I learned a lot in the way of purchasing, inventory, P&L control, and metrics-driven training. And then I saw something I helped build and encourage get torn down in half a year by a boss wrapped up in pleasing corporate and tearing their people down unnecessarily.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Team member 1779 salaries reported	$12.95 per hour
Shift manager 1485 salaries reported	$15.15 per hour
General manager 1072 salaries reported	$53,764 per year
Assistant manager 405 salaries reported	$43,986 per year
Assistant general manager 40 salaries reported	$15.21 per hour

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