cake decorator

crew member

team member

shift leader

seasonal warehouse associate

Baskin-Robbins

Work Expectations & Environment:

To begin with, employees should not expect to receive opening or morning shifts unless absolutely necessary.

Workdays can be quite unpredictable—some days are calm and uneventful, while others are extremely busy, particularly on weekends and during peak seasons. This variability can be overwhelming at times.

That said, this job offers valuable learning experiences, especially for those looking to develop customer service skills or gain their first professional experience. Employees quickly become proficient in essential tasks such as operating the cash register, handling phone inquiries, and crafting store products.

Management & Workplace Culture:

Management quality can vary significantly. While some managers are excellent, others may struggle with leadership responsibilities despite being good individuals. As a management student, I have observed that some managerial decisions can come across as immature or inconsiderate, with favoritism occasionally being an issue. However, managers from other locations often demonstrate stronger leadership skills, including effective communication, team collaboration, and accountability.

The workplace fosters an environment of respect for different cultures, values, and beliefs. While I have never felt uncomfortable with my colleagues, forming deeper connections with them has proven to be somewhat challenging. Although this is not a major concern, a strong sense of camaraderie can enhance motivation and teamwork.

Work-Life Balance & Scheduling:

Balancing work and academics can be difficult, especially since this store primarily assigns night and closing shifts. Additionally, I have encountered instances where my agreed-upon availability was not respected, leading to significant physical and mental strain.

Final Thoughts:

Despite the challenges, it is important to acknowledge the positives. Most employees are friendly and approachable, making for a generally pleasant work atmosphere.

Training is through online videos primarily, it takes several hours, gets monotonous, and not paid time. Manager is impatient and overall difficult to please. If you can learn something by watching it with pretty much zero practice, you might be ok. There is a very weak sense of job security, since mistakes are often harshly pointed out. Manager insists that she is nice during the first month of employment and expects to hear questions when necessary, but also reminds us that she will be letting go anyone who does not quickly adapt to the standards. The fact that she answers many questions about how to do the job with an exasperated “this was in the training” is pretty demoralizing for new employees, especially if you need a little practice (and by a little, I definitely mean a little because these incidents all occurred within training and my first few shifts) to get the hang of it.
I’ve spoken to both past and present employees to get some perspective because I considered myself just incompetent, but they have all shared my experience. I feel like the high turnover rate here should be a red flag for the management as well; I think more patience with new employees would change this and lead to longer employment and better performance but whatever works I guess. 
Overall, the job is very enjoyable when she’s not around and I feel safe asking my more experienced coworkers for hints at how to approach tasks. I wouldn’t recommend it to people who may learn by doing and not seeing. 
A coworker told me that we get discounts on almost everything and are encouraged to sample flavors in order to be ready for customer recommendations, so those are the benefits. 
Allegedly there was also some shady business during training where trainees were underpaid for their time and the manager had to increase their pay after she was directly addressed about it, but this is all through the team grapevine.

Some Baskin Robbins are better than others, as someone who has only worked for one store but been to many others, this review is on the one I’ve worked. Ideally, the job was easy enough, the owner chilled in flexibility but often gave raises to those that made zero sense. Someone would get a dollar raise, while someone else of the same position would only get a twenty-five cent raise. They try to say it is based on work ethic and availability, but someone who only worked two to three days a week, made more than someone who worked five days a week.

High Schoolers are often hired for evening shifts, but this leads them into a false sense of job expectations as they do not endure what one might at most evening jobs. I feel that this is most of their first jobs and they will be in for a rude awakening once they try for a more solid job. It leads the day shifters having to pick up whatever was not done the night before, and usually it is only one day shifter and one cake decorator. If brought up to management, excuses are made and day shifters are told to look out for more things because they may not get as busy as evening workers. 

Someone will tell you one thing, and someone else will tell you something else entirely and you are expected to listen to both parties.

It is an easy job, but can get boring when slowed down and one can only clean so much. I could go on-and-on but really it just varies from store-to-store and owner-to-owner. On the bright side, the company has started to diversify their ice cream in terms of offering dairy free products, as well as making it all natural (free of artificial colors).

Baskin Robbins will typically be better as a first job or as a second, part time job. This is not a job where many people can "move up the ladder." There are crew members, cake decorators, and a manger or two. Baskin Robbins in general is set up to have the franchise owner, who may have an additional manager and/or assistant manager or two. Usually, these managers will also work on the cakes, although some places may have a specific cake decorator. Then there are the crew members. 


Crew members are the starting position and should expect to start at minimum wage. Wage increases and benefits are entirely at the discretion of the owner. Most shifts will have two crew member, and sometimes a third during busy times, who will be responsible for doing everything in the store. During winter this works out fine, but summer can be stressful because the lines are often long and last a while. If you work with good people, the busy times are fine but if you have to work with slow, lazy co-workers, or just bad attitudes, these shifts are frustrating. A typically day for a crew member is serving customers, and in between restocking and cleaning the store. It may seem overwhelming because there are so many items and flavors but it really does not take that long to remember how to make things. 

The hardest part of the job is dealing with dramatic customers, particularly ones who are buying cakes. The best part is becoming friends with great customers and coworkers.

The most enjoyable part of the job is the customers and certain co-workers you work with. Otherwise, management seems to struggle greatly with issues that arise and they keep repeating the same mistakes for years with no one doing anything about them. Morning shift tends to do nothing while afternoon shift does everything and has to pick after the morning shift if they failed to do something. The common outlook is that afternoon is slow and does nothing with just counting our hours but in actually it is the morning that are doing the minimal. Afternoon takes all the heat while morning shift can just relax.  If afternoon does something wrong you better believe we will hear it next morning while if the morning does something it is a slap on the wrist or is never convey to them. Management tries to force your hand to work on days that are out of your availability if they are truly desperate to replace the missing person that called out and because of their lack of not hiring enough people. Also, lack of raises and advancement in this company and if their is an opportunity to advance they usually don't hired good ethical people for these positions. Overall, the work place is toxic, manipulative, and self-serving for those higher than you. They seemed to care either very little to not at all about your well- being and welfare. Only if you can work the days given and if you can't be prepared for your phone to get a lot of calls and notifications from them even though it was an emergency for doing so.  

As you should probably know, Baskin Robbins is a franchise. No two stores are truly the same. This goes for the atmosphere all the way to the flavors themselves. One might sell Mom's Making Cookies while the other sells Daiquiri Ice. 

My experience was definitely one of the better ones. I arrived every morning at 10 to open shop, which is fairly easy to do. At some point, the amazing owner would come in, and we'd chat while I continued to open. At 11, we turned the sign on, and I'd make cakes and cones while waiting for customers.

Cakes can be stressful at times, due to their ability to literally melt if you even look at them funny, but you learn quickly how to manage your time. 

After cakes are made and cones are done, we had to scrape the insides of the partially filled tubs to freshen up their appearance. Cleaning up after yourself was just common sense.

The music was nice. We'd have Spotify going, and you get to choose the music as long as it's clean. My coworkers were great, and we really weren't the type to gossip, so there was little drama to be had. My boss was a wonderful woman who often brought her granddaughter to visit. It really felt like being part of a family.

If not for budgeting purposes, I would definitely still have stayed until the end, but I had to move on.

If you're a college or high schooler looking for some good cash with good people, then this would be a good job for you. 

Pros : I enjoyed getting to know the owners and they really wanted to know me as an individual as well. Whenever you have a question, they want you to call them and they don't mind helping you out. Wasn't hard at all and is a nice place to start off working. Also you get tips. You can play your own music in the store or none at all. You have a small percentage of a discount, not much honestly. Can eat little samples of ice cream all day. Thankfully upgraded their register system when I worked there, so it's much easier to handle. Regulars there are super nice and understanding if you're new.

Cons : Working by yourself in the whole store during winter / fall. Winter season is SO slow but you'd have a lot of down time, 2 hours of work feels like 5 hours when it's slow. You tend to get lonely and you don't really get to know your coworkers. Only times you work with your coworkers during slow seasons are every other month on the 31st. You have to bring your uniform back home with you, having to always remember to bring it to work. Uniforms get messy easily, so you constantly have to wash them (you're provided 1 shirt, 1 hat, and 1 apron. I suppose you can ask for more.)  Kind of short staffed, so not many people can cover your shift if really needed.

Typical day consist of maintaining the stores cleanliness, taking orders, serving customers, and scraping the buckets.

Would suggest working here for somebody starting off on a job.

Baskin Robbins is one of the easiest environments to work where one can improve their customer service and communication skills with other people. Working closely with fellow employees allows for friendships to develop. Everyday, each shift had specific duties to perform, but everyone also had the same basic job; help customers with a smile on your face, and help keep the operations in the store running smoothly throughout the day. Here, I learned how to listen and to understand the problems that my co-workers faced at Baskin Robbins, and as such, I also learned the best ways to solve those problems. My direct supervisor (store owner) answered any and all questions I had in such a way that it was easy for me to understand, thus enabling me to perform better at my job. I learned the best way to deal with customers as well. When a disgruntled customer was present, it was never fun to handle the situation, but I never showed my discomfort or frustration, handling the situation as best I was able. The part I enjoyed most about my job, however, was creating desserts for people who loved watching my artistic skills through a sundae or cake masterpiece. Some even took pictures! Others would ask specifically for me. These little things made it easy to come to work every day, looking forward to making someone else happy and leaving the store in a better mood than when they first walked in.

At the store I worked at when I was 16 it was in an area with a lot of sketchy homeless people and I often got fake bills while I was working completely alone at dark. Past 8pm there was legally suppose to be someone else with me and there rarely was. My managers did not speak fluent English and it made it hard to communicate. The boss would be working and I would go to pick up my check before school around 12:30pm and the open sign and lights were on, however the doors were locked because he left to get lunch, this happened multiple times. I would call the store and sometimes the bosses personal cell if it was important and rarely got an answer. When I quit in March, I didn’t get my last check until may because they wouldn’t answer the phone and the amount was not correct. The system for logging hours at my store was terrible. At the end of your shift you had to write down your hours for that day in a book in the back and if you forgot you basically don’t get paid for those hours unless you remember to do it before the next pay period. They owned two stores 15 minutes apart and I worked in both. The very sketchy one shut down only a few months after I quit. You could request days off which was nice but being a young girl and working alone at night is not worth it. I would not recommend working here unless you know the owners and they are nice, caring, and follow the laws when it comes to working alone and getting paid correctly. 

A typical day at work at Baskin-Robbins goes as follows, You start your shift after washing your hands, you get your calibration scoop, you write it down in the manager’s book, you do temps (Dipping Cabinet, 3-Door, Flash Freeze, etc…), change the sink water, wipe down tables every 30 minutes, and make a waffle cone every hour. What I have learned from this is proper communication among customers and peers, how to navigate stressful conditions, and how to navigate fast environments with ease. Management is decent considering flexibility in terms of scheduling, however in some terms of communication they may be lacking and therefore causing a deficit in productivity. The workplace culture of a Baskin-Robbins is somewhat of a melting pot. It is mainly comprised of young employees and occasional older employees making it a very challenging environment at times, but most of the time everyone communicates well with one another. The hardest part of the job is miscommunication during busy hours, it really sets back progress and creates anxiety and frustration among staff and customers. The most enjoyable part of the job is socializing with customers and peers, which is very frequent as socializing is a key component of the job.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Cake decorator 57 salaries reported	$19.81 per hour
Crew member 44 salaries reported	$16.40 per hour
Team member 31 salaries reported	$15.13 per hour
Shift leader 5 salaries reported	$13.10 per hour
Seasonal warehouse associate 8 salaries reported	$16.53 per hour

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