restaurant manager

restaurant staff

shift manager

general manager

delivery driver

Boston Market

I must admit Boston Market does well with customer complaints, and the previous general manager taught me a lot about how to make sure that a customer leaves feeling appreciated and listened too.  That is definitely a pro that this company has. A con I believe this company has is that they don’t really care too much about employees, you know the little guys like me. I have shared several concerns about a general manager who I believe has been discriminatory and retaliatory towards some of the staff and I for an entire year. However, nothing has been done.  I believe the general manager gives them the numbers they want in terms of inventory and labor so I believe they either tolerate the general manager, or they are not taking the concerns of employees seriously. However, I believe this manager has discriminated against an employee because of the color of their skin when the employee was up for promotion. The general manager denied that employees promotion to management even after the employee was known as well qualified and gave it to someone they knew personally that only worked at the company for a few weeks without prior managerial experience.  The employee complained along with another employee and all that upper management said was the position is already filled. The general manager doesn’t hire any new employees with diversity in mind, and has even cut down the hours of an employee to one day, who has been with the company for two years and originally was working five days a week with previous management. The general manager even has legal complaints against them for discrimination and numerous reports of unfair treatment, retaliatory acts and discrimination and the general manager continues to work there while the employees that speak up against these issues are having their days cut, or were demoted. I thoroughly enjoyed working at Boston Market when I first began. It was an excellent experience and the previous managers were fair and although they were tough, they definitely showed equity and equality amongst the staff. There was so much diversity among the staff and fair treatment to all without nepotism nor favoritism. However, when this general manager was hired at this location things changed drastically, and not in terms of workload.  They changed drastically in terms of how certain employees were treated versus others. Anyone this general manager hired specifically was treated excellent, fairly and with favoritism, while those that had been there for awhile or those that began to realize and speak their concerns about the amount of discrimination, retaliation, lack of diversity and mistreatment that was displayed by the general manager were treated horribly. Many employees have left, and those who spoke out were retaliated against.  Corporate and upper management has done nothing despite numerous complaints, and concerns. A few years ago, I would say this was an excellent place to work at. I would have definitely recommended working here in the past! The previous management gave us pizza parties, encouraged friendly competition amongst staff, and even gave employees a choice of dessert for their birthdays. I loved my previous managers and their professionalism. The way they spoke to employees when an issue occurred or a new policy came out was very professional. They treated everyone fairly and worked very well with those that were still training. I never felt degraded or mistreated by previous management and truly felt that I was working for a very wholesome and uplifting company. I enjoyed working with the employees and I even have an excellent rapport with a few of our loyal customers due to encouragement and guidance by previous management. However, you know that things are not right when even the loyal customers come in and say “something’s not right, and I see it,” or “things changed since the other manager left.” I would suggest working for another company if possible. This is disappointing and unfortunate to report because amidst the entire black lives matter movement and living in 2020 this should not be occurring within businesses, and employees should have their concerns taken seriously especially if their is a pattern, or after several occurrences, or if many employees have made their concerns known.

I have been a manager now for 4 years and have worked here for 5. This is one of the worst jobs I've ever had. Corporate is a mess and it just keeps getting worse and worse. They expect too much and don't take into account what is actually happening in the stores. They don't look at all at how busy a store is or how slow. They just make up these numbers and expect you to make them at all costs and if you don't reach goals every gosh darn day it's a huge issue and your job is threatened. Even if your store had a very slow day and your sales are down by a major amount they don't take that into account and threaten you into shoving these items down your customers throats. If your store is understaffed then it's tough crackers and you have to work 7 days a week for several weeks in a row until you can hire someone. The issue is that the area I'm working in right now we've only had 2 applications for several months and they couldn't take the job realizing how far it is. Despite that the upper management does NOTHING to help the store out. I haven't seen a raise in forever since I got moved to the new store! Reviews just came out and when looking at it, it's the same gosh darn review from my old store. I get reviewed in the same items and lose points because this store doesn't do catering or have a dining room. Instead of taking that into account with this store it's just left in there and I've lost points on it to get a raise! I will never be able to get a raise at this point unless they change the reviews to suit the individual stores. My store doesn't have catering so why am I still getting reviewed on catering?? Boston Market is failing as a business and they are spending more money on stupid limited time only products and not on their employees or customers. They've resorted to forcing us to make customers pay 2.99 for a cup of ice cause they don't want to lose money on the cups. They make us hide all the napkins and utensils and salt and pepper packets to have more control so they don't lose money on little things like that. 2 napkins per customer they say. How the heck is a customer supposed to wipe themselves with just 2 napkins when our food is such a mess. They just keep cutting back on things and expect the stores to just be able to handle it when it's literally injuring our general managers. No kidding there. I've got at least 2 or 3 that I know of from not just my store but other stores that are in and out of the hospital due to stress from the job. It's taking a toll on their bodies. It's taking a toll on my body and I'm just an HSS. If you can avoid this job, avoid it! I do not recommend trying to move up in this place or being hired as a manager. There's not much opportunity for it anyways. Also you cannot request a day off like at all. Some stores are so short staffed that even if you give the proper 2 weeks notice or even a month notice in advanced you will get denied the day off. My current boss took the calender down because she got sick of all the requests and is no longer accepting them unless the current month is up there. Its so rediculous. Boston Market sucks and I've had enough of it. The only pro to this place is the free food as a manager and the good employees if you wind up with some.

My coworkers were great but corporate leaves things to be desired. I do not recommend working for Boston Market if you value your time. I don't regret the 3 years I did work there however. And that's only because it gave me a lot of customer service experience, a shame I wasn't paid well for it.

The way hours were set up in a way that meant we could only have so many people on shift even though we were already understaffed and we couldn't have more workers as they pushed us to not have to pay overtime. 
If we did work over time there were multiple times where either I or other management had to ask staff to volunteer and not accept overtime pay. Even I had waived my overtime pay multiple times as I felt pressured to by our General Manager. As Shift supervisor if I felt pressured I cannot imagine how our staff felt.

Aside from that the workload was heavy, especially during winter holidays and evenings, often times we could barely get a break if at all. The last winter I worked we were short staffed during this time as well and even though we were still making very high sales it wasn't enough for upper management to give us more hours.

In regards to the pay as a shift supervisor at that time it was $1 over min wage of the city. Which was barely enough to get by in a month in Chicago alone. Shift supervisors need to know every single position in the store and we only were being paid a single dollar more for learning it all. Crew member didn't even get a raise if they learned other positions. At my shop the only ones that did were those that had worked there 15+ years. Even then it still wasn't much. 

By the time I left Boston Market crew morale was at an all time low, turnover rates were incredibly high and several people were quitting around the same time I did. At this point its been a year since I have worked there and while I hope it may have gotten better I doubt it as I have only heard more people have left since I have.


I cannot edit the pro/cons anymore however fulltime flexible scheduling last I heard may not be as flexible as it once was. It could be different store to store.


hi,
iam 50 years old. and i had work in boston market on and off for a total of 14 years. the off when my hours were cut. and i worked a second job; or had left altogether. only to come back again.
in 1999 when i worked there. it was a fantastic place to work at.
a great management team. a good crew. and even though i started out as a utility guy at night. they the management and crew were always friendly. and helpful.
in 2009 i returned to boston market; here in somers point for full time.
things were ok at first. but the firm (a banking firm) that now owned the place. maded some changes.
first changes that they maded was changing rotisserie prep from evening hours to morning hours. it was tough at first. but i adapted.
they also maded changes during the times that trash would be taken out. only in the mornings. as well as other changes including in backup.
the changes in short gave license to the night employees not to do their job. and leave those of us in the morning to not only do our work but theirs as well.
when i and the others brought this to the attention of the management. they pretty much blew it off either by ignoring us. or just lie. and said they will take care of it. and they never did.
what's more there was alot of favoritism being shown to certain employees by the management. like some got more hours or certain days off. while the rest never got anything.
in the end alot of employees including myself; either quit, forced to resign, or got fired for 'not following company policy.' when they themselves some of the management ignored the policy. by doing the above.
i have nothing to lose in posting my story here. iam in poor health.
don't know if i will be able to work again. if i do. i hope it will be a better place than boston market.
and the company as a whole would be in a lot better situration if it was run by owners and management that had restaurant experience. which they seem to lack.
to anybody who considers getting a job in boston market in the NJ Philadelphia area. please reconsider. it may be better if you work at KFC. or Popeye's

Working here was a good starting job for a few months but after that you’re on your own. The GM doesn’t even train you it’s always a regular employee and the GM expects you to know everything in a few days. They only care about money, unfair hours/days due to “cutting hours”, there’s definitely favoritism and if you’re not one of them you won’t get hours. The general manger expects you to know how to open and close every position in about a week or 2 even though you should only be learning the main position you applied for like cashier, backup, or carver. There we’re only 2 good managers and 3 employees that actually worked as a team with you, but the rest of the employees didn’t care and expect you to do their work for them. The GM was unfair, rude, and selfish especially with giving hours and would always tell you to leave early. This company only cares about sales and money they don’t think about their employees. I have had co-workers come in sick or with a pink eye due to poor staff and no one wanting to work. There’s been incidents where employees and I have had real urgent family emergencies and they wouldn’t let you leave. I burned myself badly several times and the GM didn’t report it at all or gave me medical care at that moment I couldn’t go home or take a break for the pain to go away because there was a line at the door and the manger made me work with that pain (other employees have gotten injured as well it wasn’t reported either). Customers can be understanding because the store is always low on staff but some will get impatient and be very rude, as much as the employees work as quick as they can some customers don’t care and will go off on you. The only thing I learned here was how to count drawers and how to improve my customer service, but that’s all there’s really no benefits or anything special. I only recommend at least 6 months here but leave as soon as you get experience and find a new job.

For crew members, you simply show up do your tasks and go home. That's all that is ever asked. Nothing unexpected rarely happens. They'll train you on your position and are willing to answer questions even if they seem like dumb questions to you. Just don't shirk anything.
For Supervisors, on any given day, you may have to find someone to cover for multiple different shifts due to call outs. If you can't find someone then that means you're doing that job as well this shift. The easiest part of the job would be all the paper and computer work, the hardest part is dealing with lazy employees and management that may take their side. You'll have to watch crew members like a hawk and remind them of their job duties every step of the way and when you do they may retaliate with hostility in one form or another. Unfortunately, depending on your store managers like in my situation, they may sweep issues with hostile employees under the rug as no big deal. The most enjoyable part of the job is working with crew members that complete all their responsibilities without a tantrum. 

As far as what the employee gets goes, benefits for full-time employees are all but useless, every supervisor at my store was covered by a healthcare plan that wasn't provided by Boston Market. Vacation days are no longer given at the beginning of the year, it must be accrued through a % of hours worked just like sick time. The pay is absolutely criminal when compared to a crew member's wage/responsibility ratio. What's worse is supervisors that have worked at this company for more than a decade were getting paid less than what I was. I know this because upper management, at my store, is extremely liberal with their interpretation of professionalism and employee confidentiality.

When I first started working at Boston Market I could honestly say I loved my job. I loved my managers and how much they cared about their employees and I loved the family feel you got when working with everyone. Everyone in Boston Market cared about each other and did there best to help out when they knew they needed help. They where very flexiable with my hours. And I loved all the customers that came in and how easy it was to remember them and make sure they had the best dinning experience. The knew managers I didn't get to know much before I left but they did work hard at their jobs. 
A typical work day when I worked night shift was, I would clock on and go right to my regester and count it to make sure it was the right amount of money before I got on. Depending on if it was slow I would help out with serving and Drive Thru. I would ring the customers up and make sure before they left they had the best experience and everything was ordered right. If they ate in I would carry there food to their tables. If there was a problem I would try my best to handle it and make sure they were happy, if it was a problem I could not fix I would call in the Manager. At the end of the day I would clean the hotcase and put the food away, or swep/mop and scrub the dinning area and/ or clean the bathrooms. Then before I left I would make a drop of the stores earnings in the safe. 
A typical Work Day when I worked Day shift was I would clock on prepair the desserts. Then I would stack all the plates and wrap any unwrapped sliverware. I would count my drawer. I would run drive thru, at the same time as serving and working as a cashier. I would make sure they were happy like night shift and would carry their food to their table if they ate inside. I would then before I left clean my area and wrapp sliver ware. Then make a drop of the stores earnings in the safe.

Before I rant, I am amazingly grateful that they took a risk with me and I appreciate them hiring me considering this was my first job. Work was okay, the only complaint was late comers. I was appointed as a cashier but kinda did a little of everything. My management was pretty bad, my manager although nice at times never confiscated in me when she changed the schedule and always booked me just because; "never asked if I had anything going that day expecially one day when I was off and she was like so come in at 5 instead of 4:30 and I replied I do not work today and she said oh I changed it yesterday". My coworkers were awesome and I enjoyed working here the most part but the general manager was inconsiderate; I ended up quitting because we had agreed that since the new schedule hadnt been made yet and I had informed her prior to the beginning of the month that I was leaving she said ok. Next thing you know she booked me for 3 days the next week and I was commuting so I said sure because they were afternoon shifts. Then without acknowledging me she added another day and appointed me 3 night shifts all in a row plus an additional afternoon that being said I did not want to be cleaning up toilets "my last week" . The assistant manager was lazy and sat on her butt most of the time and complaining to me that she was tired? both managers always handed out a bunch of food to their families for free; over $30+ worth and I know that managers only get about 11$ off which she also already received. I loved my coworkers and shift managers but the people running this place were pretty bad.

Didn't work here long after the shock of the strenuous amount of work I and I alone was responsible for.

- Utility (aka Dishwasher) - No equipment, absolutely manual handling of more pots and pans and heavy objects than you can imagine. I can speak of the closing shift but it's probably not much better during the day.

 ** Also includes all protein preparation, all chicken, etc. This job alone will take 2-3 hours. 

In summary, a day is witnessing only yourself not able to pace yourself, the requirement of extreme diligence, scrubbing without break, you cannot afford a break, nonstop, until about closing time for meal service, 10pm, when you will be required to at least double time on already nonstop diligent breathless scrubbing and preparation, and lifting. That double time will be for the next hour and a half and will be absolutely horrible. I witnessed no help at all. 

You will likely be the only one doing the nasty jobs (aside from maybe cleaning the restroom which I did not witness) and it will never end. You will wake up in the morning aching.

Hours were terrible. At first I got 2 days the first week, the second week was my regular schedule of 4 days. But the evening shift is 5pm to 11:30, do the math, that's not much to live on. And will be difficult to work around with other jobs leaving at 5pm. 

6.5 hour day shifts. Ouch. And for the close to 11:30.

The only job worse than this was maybe repetitive 18 wheeler unloading nonstop at walmart for the same rate. That left me walkless for 3 weeks after the first day.

I usually worked drive thru , so I would take orders with my sweetest of voices, handled money , checked to make sure everything in the bag was correct before handing it out , tried my best to have a conversation with the customers through the window . I learned that I am a strong person and that I am very smart. I shouldn't be settling for less than what I'm worth. I was promised a raise after working there for 4 months , and also possible management position. I worked several doubles, basically did anything and everything I could. Dishes, served, took orders at the front cash if there was no cars, rolled silverware, cleaned bathrooms, swept and mopped lobby at nights. I've stayed 2 hours after the store had closed to help with dishes so my managers wouldn't be stuck there alone doing them by themselves, I worked a double on a Saturday, and was scheduled for a double on Sunday, but they needed me in 2 hours earlier. I show up at 10 am ready for whatever they threw at me, and no one was there.  But when evaluation came around, I had made mainly 5's on a 1-5 scale, but still did not receive my promotion nor a raise . I simply had to quit  because I am now living off of 6 dollars for the next 2 weeks until I would have gotten paid again, after bills. I've talked with them several times about this and word for word I got "That's how a job works".

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