cook

sous chef

food service worker

executive chef

director of dining services

Chartwells-Higher-Education

Overall I enjoyed this job more than any other job I've had. And I've had a handful. It was a great job for what I wanted/needed. However, it was very stressful at times. I felt like adequate training was not given when I was first hired and not thereafter either. Although you could say that the advice and counsel of my boss was on the job training. I could go to her when I had a problem and she would help me out as best she could. So I didn't feel like I knew much more than anyone else when I first started. Yet if people had a problem or concern they were supposed to come to me. So I felt like I was inadequate for the first year or so. After that I gained experience and had responsibilities only supervisors had so I felt a little bit more qualified and confident. 

As a supervisor of one of the eating locations on campus I was to supervise my associates but I did not have the responsibility to hire or fire or even utilize company disciplinary action. I had to go to my boss for that. Basically that looked like me reporting anything that happened and then waiting for her to address it. Not that I couldn't use my words and talk to my associates about things that needed to be addressed. But if disciplinary action needed to happen I could not do anything except report o my boss. And believe me there were people that were hired and assigned to us that I would have never hired and some that I would have fired a lot sooner than they were fired. And always because they weren't fit for the work the job required. It had nothing to do with them as a person. It was usually because they couldn't meet the physical demands for the job and rarely but sometimes because of the mental demands (mainly following recipes accurately. Sometimes they deliberately didn't follow them accurately). And that made it harder on everyone else. And it was irritating.

For the first two maybe even three years we were understaffed according to the amount of business we were doing. I felt like too much was expected of me. And I only had so much time to do it. Because they didn't like giving overtime. That put a lot of pressure on me. But it also helped me to learn better time management. And when we did have enough staff I learned that time management is still just as important because then it becomes easy to waste time. 

I learned a lot about managing and interacting and communicating with people. And I developed a little bit tougher skin and a sense of responsibility. The workplace was diverse in the background of people working there. Generally it was people who were probably 40 and older for fulltime associates. And about half had been around for many years even decades. And then there were the student part-time workers. Which were mostly international students. Working with them afforded me the opportunity to learn about their culture. I enjoyed this. 

They seldom offer overtime. And if you do get it it will be probably in the beginning of the fall semester. 

I didn't like the layoffs when students went on break and we weren't working. We automatically qualified for unemployment but that was always a hassle to deal with in my opinion. 

Union employees generally didn't complain about their pay but supervisors definitely did. The common thing you would hear is, "They don't pay us enough for what we do. " And then some of the union employees who could have been supervisors and were even asked to be supervisors would say that it wasn't worth it because the pay wasn't good enough and neither were the benefits. 

For me I thought the pay was decent. The way I looked at it is I was getting paid in supervising experience. So I wasn't too disappointed in the hourly wage. 

Although I built an excellent relationship with my boss, (the most senior team member in our district) stemming from acknowledged hard work and on a personal level, the company's other faults tipped the scales to the negative side. There was flexibility as far as allowing any needed time off or late start times to accommodate doctor appointments.  I was considered to be at the top of the list of employees in regard to performance level and my superior did do all she could do with upper management to secure higher raise amounts for me in particular when the standard incremental raises were issued.  These raises employees received were about ten cents per hour.  At the same time, I might receive 35 cents more than others, which I did not disclose to anyone.  I always appreciated the extra amount, knowing that if she could have gotten approval then I would have received more but the company was just so terrible at rewarding hard work and their pay was extremely low.  There were some of us who worked circles around a few employees who had been there for many, many years.  The pay did not reflect that as their pay rate was several dollars more per hour, only because they built up that rate over many years.  Still. it feels wrong to work so hard knowing that a sub-par coworker with the same position/job title as you is making so much more than you are. 
 It's a tough spot to be in when you feel loyalty to your supervisor and you know that they too realize that you deserve much more than what you are paid yet they have no recourse to level the playing field because the upper management pushes the "everyone is replaceable" mantra, no matter how much extra an employee actually does. 
 I was given access to extra responsibilities that were reserved only for the director, such as access to the P.O.S. system's management menus and students' accounts.  I was also the go-to person called upon to fix or assist with other locations' issues or when another school, usually with somewhat different point of sale/daily procedures, needed someone to cover. I enjoyed the fact that I was trusted with such things and in all honesty, I liked being able to do them.  Again, my supervisor, whom many somewhat "feared" and felt scared of, truly appreciated me and valued me as an employee and on a personal level, and I, she.   My loyalty is what kept me there even after the realization that we were so very underpaid. 

A typical day at work is stressful due to low staffing, un-needed drama from a select few students and co-workers. You may be lucky that you might gain a few co-workers that are stressed but understand the struggle, but many will be stressed and cause problems amongst the team. (Which for some I understand with because of the high stress environment.)

As a franchised business under chartwells, it’s already stressful enough due to overlapping policies regarding safety and standards which requires a lot of training and remembering. You can find yourself, even without being management trying to remember the slightest things you are audited on. If you happened to be under a campus owner concept, it will be slightly easier but not by much.

The upper management is unbelievably difficult to stand by as this company is completely profit based. If you happen to not have a good operations manager (the person in tandem with the stores GM, who hires and buys supplies.) You can expect incredibly low job security. My lower management are some of the coolest people I know, but only because to get through this company, you have to work together and not butt heads or it will fall apart easily. 

Our operations manager, and upper management fail the store by not doing the basic duties they’re required of. It could be the most simplest thing, oh we’re out of cups? Sorry guys. Then they will shift the blame to one of our mistakes we might have made earlier. There is no accountability in the upper management.

I would say, in some places working in lower roles might be okay. But at some locations, it’s absolutely an abysmal time. The only grace I can give to upper management is that they might have a lot on their plate. But I have not been told about their work load nor a sorry for their own mistakes.

On a side note I was hired on as a FSW -> switched to a Cook -> and promoted to a Shift manager after about 3 weeks, and I am 18. The one thing that dread me the most is that my workplace is a grand old high school with loads of unnecessary drama.

Save yourself some time.


The most enjoyable: Working with such a varied background of clients; Getting to tap into critical thinking and creativity; Exchanging ideas and skills with incredible project teams of talented individuals; Having access to other individuals nationwide to celebrate and exchange successes and challenges and grow together; Seeing the growth of teams by tapping into the talents of our local group who's eagerness to expand their knowledge and skills just needed recognition and support to shine.

This is a fantastic company for go-getters who are proven in their field of running a professional culinary workplace. The company has grown exponentially and thus comes with amazing benefits for those whom are self motivated believers and doers, not so for those who are too prideful to understand the support system.

You must be strong and have your head in the right place, instinctual and professional, you must know what you are doing and know how to find the right connections for what you need. The right people in this company recognize talent and skills and are eager to find those people and get them into place for the broader picture. 

The hardest part of working here depends on your particular region not the positions themselves: Training of your positions expectations, responsibilities and goals is not a given but extremely important with this growing company. Keeping excellent records on assisgnments and who's roles for those assignments is a must with such a fast growth company and those that may not be succeeding in handling themselves with integrity.

If you are smart, professional in your actions towards others and dedicated to your own growth, career, company goals and knowledge, this will be an amazing fit. Chartwells is an amazing company looking for the right professionals.

A typical day at work:
Regardless of your actual competence or attitude, your treatment is completely at the whim of whatever emotional issues management is going through that day. Was often pulled into conflict irrelevant to me, yelled at aggressively for a minor mistake, or just had a passive aggressive comment directed at me for not showing submissive body language or something. You are expected to operate as efficiently as a machine most days, yet will still be treated as completely disposable unless you're in management. 

What I believe I learned: I believe this allowed me to grasp how to survive in a deeply broken workplace without real support.

Management: My experience showed a completely infantile and manipulative, probably even malicious management staff across two locations. I only knew of a single manager that did not regularly abuse their workers. They will generally analyze everyone and badmouth anyone beneath themselves amongst each other loudly and openly, assuming those they target will be too intimidated to respond or take proper actions. We were all pulled into a large meeting one day entirely based around two members of management having conflict over who had power over who, which became immediately vulgar and hostile. No sense of maturity was present at all. They will target and mock individuals as a group.

Workplace culture: as said, you are treated with absolute minimal respect unless you're a member of management. Often you will be set up to fail so they can later blame and demean you later on. Everyone seems to be trying to manipulate each other into doing eachothers work, and there are constant small petty passive aggressive power plays from all levels of staff.  

The hardest part of the job:dealing with the volatile management and work culture

The most enjoyable part of the job: leaving

When working for the college I would normally go into work and clock in. Turn on the dish washer and wait for it to warm up. As it is warming up I would go around piling up as much work as I could so I could be active as much as possible throughout the day. When I have caught up, I decide to look for more work. I can choose to do various things like cleaning up after others and help them to catch up. Either that or ask for more work to do.

I have learned that no matter how impossible the task seems to be you can still do it. Using planning, strategy, and hard work can accomplish a lot of things.

When it comes to management, one supervisor actually has a reputation. He tapped me on the back on the head when I went for his key's. I didn't know he meant the ones in the office. I thought he meant the one's in his hand. He never gave a clear indication of what he wanted from me then has the audacity to hit me. However, I decided to show mercy. He seems to have a somewhat high position and I wouldn't want him to lose his job. Besides that, management wasn't always aware of the things their co-workers were doing, if so, I don't think they cared. I wouldn't be surprised if they were in on things. A lot of the time rules were not followed through.

As for my coworkers and other supervisors, some of them were rather delightful. They were kind, generous, compassionate. Then again, some of them were not.

The hardest part of the job I guess was dealing with all the harassment, other than that work is work.

The most enjoyable part of work I guess is trying to finish as fast asI can. Then set new goals.

As a former Barista at the UC location I can say you are constantly micromanaged and under the microscope for EVERYTHING or anything they see fit. There’s not much organization so it’s up the the management to decide how and when they feel like put red tape on something if it makes them look bad. 
I wouldn’t recommend working for them for too long because there’s not much organization the daily workload is usually unreasonable because of that. The market is very small so when you finish work even on a slow day they still make you work HARDER as if there were people there ??? 
They don’t seem to care who they hire, and because of that the efforts and skills that the workers provide varies widely, I had more seniority at that job so I had the most work out of my co workers so I had to delegate ….they offered me more work with no promise of higher pay ( please watch out for that ) My location had a favoritism issue, certain people they will bend rules for but even if they like you (if you aren’t management ) depending on your position you don’t matter. 
From my experience their baristas have very high turnover and you don’t get your PTO, vacation days til after a full year cycle so if you get sick for just 2 days your done.

I didn’t like the gossip in the environment too many people hooking up or having jealousy and talking nonsense ESPECIALLY in the kitchen area.
I will say, some of the managers were really nice people, but unfortunately a lot of negative things still went on throughout my months m  as an employee. if you are neurodivergent please reconsider employment options. 


I have experience going into classrooms for home economics as well as daycare centers to demonstrate how –to as well as help prepare and make recipes.  However in the daycare it’s more like making homemade playdough and candy covered apples as well as other fun items and teaching about how important it is to eat different veggies and fruits.  It give the kids the ability to try vegetables and fruits on there own term in a fun environment when someone isn’t forcing it on them.  
I particularly like working in special needs classrooms.  I’ve volunteered with my nieces’ and cousins and I continue to do that once a year.  I would do more but there school is in PA.  

A typical day at work involves getting everything turned on and open and making sure everyone knows what there doing as well as has the right tools needed to do there job. 

I’ve learned that student workers work harder then paid hourly employees.

I’m a very hands on manager, I have no problem getting dirty and showing the team that I’m a team player too and not just someone that’s going to stand in one spot and point.  

The hardest part of my job is being hiring new employees.  I’ve learned many different tactics and ways other people like to higher people and what to look for.  However I don’t agree with the outcome that I’ve seen so trying my own way has seemed to work best.  

The most enjoyable part of my job is training the new employees.  Watching someone succeed at something that there doing for the first time.  You can see it in there eyes, when it clicks for the first time. 


It's very stressful. Look if you go in with expectations that are non-existent or you expect to be treated like you're replaceable, then you're good.  You have to pick up everybody else's slack, you're on your feet all the time- if you're actually one of the people who works. The supervisors there are just students who are like 21or 22 and they don't really care about anything except for their phones, texting and gossiping. A lot of promises are made as far as advancement that are never followed through unless you happen to be a student or an international student, if you aren't either one of those, no matter how much experience you have, forget about it. You're just going to be led around. Some of the head managers are more reasonable than others, some of them expect you to be able to close the place with one other person in half an hour and there's no point in arguing. You'll get throughly belittled for making honest mistakes or for something you know nothing about. A lot of the cafes are totally filthy because nobody has the motivation to clean anything ever. If you want hours and if you want any kind of supervisory role, you have to fight for it- and I mean like really fight-and put up with a lot of people saying that they're going to promote you, and then they never do. It can be very depressing. 

A Typical day at Work
- Controlled and managed thirteen dining operations in all aspects of accounting, with net revenues of $5 million per year
- Managed six A/R & A/P clerks; as well as trained and managed semester based interns to assist in process of accounting
- Prepared monthly, quarterly, semi-annualy, and annualFinancial statements for upper management and CFO of Towson University
- Annually developed budgets with a 5% to 10% inflation and provided timely, monthly explanations of variances between actual results and future forecasts
- Worked with internal and external auditors during reviews to ensure full compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley regulations
- Developed training manual for cashiers and annualy trained employees
- Recovered $1.8 million dollars in accounts receivable in the first six months of employment

What I Learned
- Excellent teamwork
- Management skills

Management
- Managed six A/R & A/P clerks; as well as trained and managed semester based interns to assist in the accountin process

My Co-Workers
- Excellent teamwork
- Learned all aspects of everyone's job in order to assist them when need with coorespondence, and helped with cash register work

My Hardest Part of The Job
- Nothing

The Most Enjoyable Part of my Job
- Everything

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Cook 16 salaries reported	$17.66 per hour
Sous chef 3 salaries reported	$18.50 per hour
Food service worker 58 salaries reported	$23.17 per hour
Executive chef 6 salaries reported	$73,333 per year
Director of dining services 3 salaries reported	$66,356 per year

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