restaurant manager

kitchen manager

assistant general manager

sales manager

assistant restaurant general manager

Dave & Busters

I originally had been in love with Dave and Busters. It started out as my favorite job ever. But as time went on I noticed the little things began to pile up. In my 6+ years of serving, I had NEVER had a walk out. At this place? They were countless throughout the establishment. I had one instance where I had racked over a few hundred dollar bill for my guests. They were having the time of their life, completely raving about me (trying to buy me nearly everything off the drink menu. Flattering, but not allowed, nor professional) they were nowhere near done with buying more products. When suddenly security decided to step in by blocking off the doors because we were beyond capacity due to it being a UFC fight night.

1.) We had been beyond capacity for hours.
2.) Security does NOT have the legal right or liberty to enact this. This is a fire marshal responsibility.

So besides refusing any other guests in (EXTREMELY rude in his approach I might add) the host of my table AKA the one paying for everything was refused to come back in after stepping out for a phone call. My table came to find me in a panic, telling me what was going on and I was livid. (Side note: This happened just after having just been stiffed on a large group I had forced upon me by the rudest, unprofessional manager I have ever encountered in my life. While already having nearly half of the bar area to myself filled, because trying to get as much money as you can and overbooking parties and reservations leaving the establishment short staffed I guess is more important than focusing on being able to provide the proper service to encourage reoccurring, happy, satisfied guests) 

I tried speaking with security, and arrogantly and rudely refused to let the host back in. The rest of my table's guests were astonished as was I. (The host was literally on the other side of the glass door)

My manager was speaking with another guest (their host also was being refused entry) I added too, that my issue was the same. My guests at this point (THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART): TOLD MY MANAGER TO THEIR FACE THEY WERE NOT PAYING! They had not come prepared to pay for this grand total. It had been planned and situated for the host to pay. And my manager? With a condescending, rude tone, said that there was nothing they could do and TURNED FROM MY GUESTS AND WALKED AWAY!!!! I was left literally jaw dropped, mind blown and feeling like this couldn't be happening. My guests all turned to me, apologized, reassuring me that they in no way were holding me accountable and that I was the best server they had ever had in their lives, and originally were planning on coming more often specifically for MY service. But after being treated in such a way, they would not return (I wouldnt either) they gave me a sympathetic smile and walked out the door. I tried to finish out my night, my anxiety racing in fear on what this was going to mean at the end of the night.

End of the night comes, and I am pulled into the office and SURPRISE SURPRISE! I am written up for such a large walkout (all while the responsible, neglecting and simply non caring manager who walked away was in the room) I was heartbroken and felt so deceived. I thought that was that.... boy was I wrong.

I return to work the next day, perhaps ten minutes into opening my station when I am told the GM needs to speak with me.... I meet with them (and the (ir)responsible manager from the nightmare of the night before) and am told I am being suspended. Because "it had been brought to their attention, that before the table left, they DID leave cash on the table and I pocketed it." So I was under investigation from stealing from the company..... This was the biggest slap in the face I have ever experienced in my entire work career. 

 There are cameras everywhere. Where is any reasonable proof or reasonable doubt enough to accuse me of such action?

I am then informed by a fellow coworker during my suspension that there was talk I had already been fired and that another manager was going around saying I would not be returning because I had stolen. 

An employer is NOT allowed to discuss with an outside party,  let alone place blame on the employee while an investigation is STILL ongoing. This is Defamation (False accusation) seeing as how the investigation was still going, and in the end it was found I was not guilty (Duh. I have a feeling this had been done because it would be easier to blame a server, than them take responsibility and have to report to corporate)

I was brought back for a short time after, but things had changed. One thing after another, I was being written up for the most ridiculous things, the final one was laughable (5 min late after being rescheduled, without management being in communication with each other, having a "bad attitude" 2 min into the same shift)

I am now currently being harassed by multiple employees on the local location's Facebook page. (One who brought up the walk out incident. Which I am furious about, seeing as how that is supposed to be confidential  information. Not to mention the blame is still being put on me for the walk out) 

DO NOT WORK OR EVEN SPEND MONEY WITH THIS COMPANY!!!  You will be treated horribly and harassed in and outside of work even if you dont work there anymore!

(Insert: The same guilty manager, ignored another incident when I informed them a drunk guest threw a glass at my arm  ON PURPOSE while I was picking out the first glass they had knocked over in the trash accidentally from being so drunk.....  THEY ARE MORE CONCERNED WITH MONEY THAN THEIR EMPLOYEES SAFETY!!!!!) 

AVOID THIS PLACE! BOYCOTT IT!!! THIS IS A NIGHTMARE!

This is the worst company I have ever worked for, they DO NOT care about their employees, they care about surveys so they can get their bonuses, I helped open this store in November of 2014, it was all fun and games during training and when the store opened, but then slowly but surely the problems started, too many servers scheduled so a lot of times you would be cut without getting a single table, or they would schedule you in areas that were never busy during the days so sometimes you could go an entire 6-8 hour shift and not get a single table, and of course when you would try to talk to them about it they would say hey atleast your getting hourly!! 9.25/hr is not an hourly wage to live on unless you are 16 and live with your parents with no bills, not to mention they have a 27 hour a week cap which only a handful of favored employees actually reached. More than half of the employees average was 10-15 hours less than that. A few months into being opened things started getting worse fast, they went from having too many servers during a shift to one single server during the day to work the entire 14,000sft restaurant with 4 different seating areas, there would be no busser, no food runner and no host, If you got a 20 top in sports cocktail, 2 tables in Midway, 4 tables in VP and 5 tables in the dining room you were responsible for all of those tables, sure the bartender would sometimes help you out in VP but they never would help with any tables in Midway, Sports or Dining room. I'm sure you're thinking but all the tips are yours, well there are no tips when you are spreading yourself thin trying to take care of all of the tables. The people who came into Dave and Busters were either extremely generous or extremely cheap. They would rather sit at a table and use their ticket coupons to get free appetizers then actually order food and have to pay for it. Or they would have super complicated orders, leave the table a disgusting mess, rave about how great you made their experience and then leave you $2 on a $75 bill or something like that. Speaking of tipping servers were required to give 3% of their tips to the service support and bartenders, and it was based on your sales NOT on your tips. so if you had $1000 in sales and only managed to get $50 in tips $30 of it is automatically gone, I had no problem tipping the bartenders but it normally is based on alcoholic sales,  it was frustrating if you worked an entire shift and didn't use the bar once and you still had to tip them, but they never had to tip the servers who ran their food. If you requested a day off chances are you would still be scheduled for it. A lot of the service support would not bus tables they would only run food or walk around not doing anything, and on top of that most of service support would end up making more in tips than the servers only doing 1/4 of the work!!!!!!!! That brings us to management! Out of 6 mangers only 2 were actually extremely nice and helpful, but the other 4 could never be found when they were working and you needed help, and when you did need help they looked at you like you were stupid and were wasting their time, you could be sweating, hyperventilating and about to pass out because you were so overwhelmed and they would just walk right past you and ask if you are planning to run the food in the window,  we were offered no discounts except when we were on the clock, we were given 50% off of one meal and forget about lunch breaks, or real breaks, many employees would actually go on break, leave the premises and not tell anyone and leave the other servers who didn't smoke to watch their tables. 30% off cards were given out freely to employees of Clackamas Town Center which could be used EVERY SINGLE TIME they came to eat there. Music was constantly too loud and you would have to shout at customers and vice versa in order to be heard over the music. Many older people would constantly complain about how loud it was.  We were allotted a game card every month to play ONLY simulated games, we were not allowed to play any games that gave out tickets and we were not allowed to purchase any game cards and redeem tickets from those game cards. Paychecks would get constantly messed up and be missing hours, or training payments. Drama engulfs this place, they hire people based on their personality and don't care about their work ethic, or if they were a solid employee at their last job. First AGM was fired for STEALING tips from employees working parties and Some of the bussers would STEAL tips from servers, I had several tips go missing from friends who visited and left my money on the table and when I spoke with management they said they would investigate and it never went any further, You would get written up and forced to pay out of your own pocket if a customer walked out which was easy to do if you had a lot of tables and they went to go play games, because lets face it you didn't have enough to worry about when you are the only server and performing 4 different positions job's at once. There is only a handful of original servers left due to poor management. Several former employees who came in as paying customers were actually escorted off the premises and when they asked why they were told by the AGM that its because he said so! Their heart fund is also a complete joke, give $1 of each paycheck and if you fall on hard times you can fill out an application and get help... Except you won't get approved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  DO NOT WORK HERE YOU WILL REGRET IT!!!!

Pros

Fun people, easy to make friends, there are a very few good managers, you get to see alot of new people.

Cons

Here we go. So, let me start with the Winners Circle. You get hired, roughly around $10/hr. You think, its ok money for a prize giver. Then, you start working. There is NO training. The system of products is pure chaos. They separate it by "age" instead of the amount of tickets the product cost. About a million times daily you will hear the questions, "how much is this?" "how does this work?" "how accurate is your scale?" (which isnt accurate at all) "Can I use cash to pay the difference?" "Can I recharge here?" (winners circle doesnt handle cash.) also be prepared to SCREAM. The music and games get so loud that your scream, is like a whisper. You need a manager to do EVERYTHING. You want something out of the case, let me call a manager. You didnt get your tickets from the coin machine because you didnt put your card back in to get them on your card? Let me call a manager. You arent trusted with anything. It also takes the manager 20+ minutes to get to you. So, you finally help the guest through all of that, and they pick out what they would like to purchase. Theyre 1 ticket short. Sorry, you dont have enough tickets for that, you have to put it back because my manager wont let me call them to give you one ticket, even though you spent over $50 to get a toy we buy for $2.50. In the winners circle, people will leave a power card with a few tickets. So rather than just throw them away, we kept them with us for situations like this. Until the managers found out we were doing one of the pillars, which is you got it attitude, and said if we're caught with a power card were stealing from them and will be investigated and basiclly fired. Honestly, we have kids crying 90% of the time because they cant afford the one thing they want. Its an awful feeling and management doesnt care. So to wrap up the winners circle ill talk about just before and after we close. 11 PM is 21+, so from 11:00 and on all you get is absurdly drunk people. Then when we finally close, you need to restock,organize, sweep, restock the zoo, and get walked off by a manager. Seems simple right? No. You get a shipment maybe once a month, so you have basically nothing to restock. The store is pure chaos because of all the un watched kids and drunk people. You have a broom roughly, 3ft tall that you have to sweep with. And wait 1 hr at least before yoh finish and get a walk off. You spend 90% of your time alone because everyone is always off in the zoo, midway playing a game, in the kitchen, or just trying not to work. But if you try to go get a drink they act like you abandon your job. Now about dave and busters. Your promised potential to grow, and cross train. That doesnt happen. I wanted to cross train to be a Captain, and they refused. They said you have to wait six months before its even an option. Unless your management or in the kitchen the only way to grow in this company is by changing positions. So with that off the board, your basiclly stuck. You get no breaks, and if you try to force them to give you one, you become some sort of outcast. You do all the pillars and upsell, but get no recognition for your hard work. This isnt the place for the happy, upbeat, and outgoing people the lure in with their lies.

Overall, the job itself was pretty fun since the team I worked with on the amusement side was pretty awesome! 

Management overall wasn't that great and didn't seem to really care much about their employees working their butts off on the ground floor. Even for the management that was in charge of that area spent little time actually managing that side. Most of the time management was spending their time on the restaurant/bar side of the building. 

The people I worked with for the most part were pretty awesome! Very fun and playful type of atmosphere when we're able to. Otherwise, during busy periods expect to not have any breaks, being overworked, and really understaffed for the people actually needed to effectively get the work done up to upper management standards.

At the end of the day, this is technically a retail job just dealing with prizes and tickets in terms of merchandise and currency. Lot of stocking, hauling boxes, cleaning, and customer interactions. 

They said raises would happen so long as you worked hard and did the trainings online which you can ONLY do on your shift. So, on slow days you have chances to get a block of training done. Otherwise you're SOL.

The main policies of Dave & Buster's are cherry picked on which ones management actually wants to follow. 

A typical day of work ends up with you coming in no earlier than 5 minutes before you scheduled shift. You can grab a free drink(soda/water) to have while you work your shift. 
Depending on the day, if its slow, you will spend time restocking shelves, pegs, bringing things over from the warehouse and make sure the Zoo is restocked for easy access to replace any merchandise in the winner circle that is sold. 
If its busy, expect to be standing behind the counter and moving around to satisfy guest needs for certain prizes (IE: One of the large plushies or checking to see if we have X item in the zoo/warehouse). The direct people that you work with will be your lifeline! As the team will try their best to make sure people can get in their breaks. But with being super understaffed it can be difficult for everyone to be able to get their breaks during the busier shifts.

Pros:
Awesome Amusement team, Free soda/water during shifts, 1/2 off food while on shift, fun environment in terms of games.

Cons:
Management needs improvement, expected to do the work of several people due to being understaffed, Pay isn't that great, barely competitive. Unless you are superstar and ALWAYS have an amazing attitude, you will remain stagnant and no room for raises. Have to deal with a LOT of families/kids mixed in with drunken adults.

Overall, was a fun job and had a pretty good time working their with the team I had. But if you're wanting management to care, look elsewhere.





I genuinely love working here, but over time I’ve become increasingly frustrated and disappointed.

There are things I appreciate about this company, but there are also concerns that have been hard to ignore. At times, I struggle with the lack of leadership from some managers, especially when it comes to management consistency, passion for the workplace, and customer service. Employees are held to high standards, but at times it feels like leadership does not always meet those same expectations.

I was hired before COVID, and I’ve seen a lot change since then. One thing that has been especially discouraging is hearing how much the company values promoting from within and how “easy” it is to move up. In my experience, that has not been true.

There is a STAR program that was supposed to help employees grow and climb the ladder. I’ve been on Red Star for five years, consistently asking about management opportunities and trying to show initiative. Every time I ask, I’m redirected—being told to ask someone else, wait for observation, or questioned about where I am in the program. It feels like I’ve been stuck in the same place despite making the effort.

I was given the opportunity to work the floor as MIT one time, but it never happened again. Since then, I’ve watched managers come and go, while still waiting for a real opportunity to grow. It’s frustrating to see outside hires brought in when there are people already here who know the store, understand the volume, know the expectations, and are capable of handling the workload.

I’ve had multiple guests and employees tell me I would make a great manager, but I feel like leadership has not been consistent in helping me get there. I’ve also been told I may need to move to another store to become a manager, and I struggle to understand why. Why not invest in someone who already knows this location, understands the team, and knows how the GM expects things to run?

At times, I feel like I am being held back instead of developed. Key hourly employees often seem to only be utilized when management needs coverage, and they are not always treated fairly.

When I work for a company, I work to grow. I want to improve, take on more responsibility, and build a future. But lately, I’ve felt discouraged, overlooked, and disappointed. I love being here, and I even work two jobs because I believe in hard work. I would be willing to leave my first job and devote more of my time here, but it’s difficult when I feel like I’m not being given the opportunity to advance.

At this point, I’m beginning to question whether it may be time for me to walk away from a place I truly love because I no longer feel supported in my growth.


I’ve been working as a server/bartender in restaurants since 2007. I’ve worked just about every front of the house job including shift management. This was the absolute worst job I’ve worked in this industry. I was hired with the promise of a full time schedule only to be given 2-3 shifts a week. Weeks that I did work 4-5 shifts were weeks I was lucky enough to pickup shifts from co-workers. I was a top performer on the bar and reminded this regularly by management but never given the hours promised. I would always be used in times of need, however. I began feeling like a dirty dish rag just to be used and rung out. 

I was told that all employees are eligible for benefits and health insurance upon being hired. When applying for healthcare what was offered for coverage was minimal at best because I only worked part time despite asking for and being promised full time hours every week. The benefits also differed if you were full time or part time. Needless to say, they favor certain employees for full time and ensure others don’t have the opportunity. Your “better” benefits are also subjected to being taken from you if your schedule changes to part time against your will. 

The workplace culture here is a serious problem. Arguably the worst issue in the store. From the management to the staff there is no hiding it. Managers would gossip about employees and each other openly in front of staff. One manager in particular always had something negative to say about staff. They would even discuss personal affairs of employees in front of others. 

Expect to be overworked on the days that you actually are scheduled. I would work an 8-12 hour shift with extremely high customer volume and no break. Not to mention, employees would constantly call out leaving the remaining staff to cover everything. This would happen so frequently those who are reliable would start to dread even going in due to the uncertainty of what we’d be facing. 

The serving and kitchen staff was a constant revolving door with regular walkouts. It felt like every week I was meeting someone new that they desperately needed to fill a position. It felt very much like I was disposable even despite my years of experience in the craft. Management treats you like a number that is easily replaced no matter how hard you work, how many favors you do for them or what skills you possess.

All in all if a friend asked me if they should take a job here I would beg them not to. I would tell them to stay as far away as possible. I’d say you’re better off broke than having your labor exploited by that busted company. Forget about Dave and Busters…

Cons:
-Management does NOT care about their team. 
-Most of the managers are incompetent in all aspects of the job. They lack people skills, they do not know how to handle stress, no problem solving skills, and  lack common sense.
-Each manager devises their own standards of how they want things done. 
-Doing something right one day, does not mean it will also be right the next day.
-Managers do not care about the guests. They will comp items left and right, but  refuse to check up on guests or try to resolve conflict.
-Managers choose favorites and allow them to  get away with actions that hurt the entire team.(actions overlooked: not rolling silverware, not doing side work, not cleaning section, not running food, fighting and getting an attitude with guests)
-I’ve seen a sweaty manager grab French fries with his bare hands and place them on plates that people have to eat. 
-Speak up about something that is being done wrong, and they will listen, but take no action to correct.
-Most Servers do not care and will only help themselves.
-Servers yell into managers faces and threaten them and still allowed to finish their shift and come back the next day.
-Servers ignore customers that ask for help to go out back and smoke or to socialize.
-Servers will act nice with their guests until the guest is unhappy and point out a food mistake or some type of flaw and the server will get an attitude with them and sometimes even try to fight the guest.( they won’t be fired either) 
-They will overwork you and not cut you all day, no matter how slow the business day is.(Imagine working 8 hours, having two tables, only making $12 in tips, and being forced to stay and  run other server’s food and drinks)
-Most servers don’t run food, and don’t care when and how it gets to their tables.
-If you have a strong work ethic, you will be highly taken advantage of until they exhaust you. And once you start to reciprocate the effort that everyone else puts in, they’ll crucify you and you’ll probably be fired because “you stopped being amazing”
-Managers hide out in their office and eat pizza 90% of the shift, leaving servers to deal with their management responsibilities and unable to cash out guests because they need to have items comp’d, voids, or coupons authorized.
-GUEST SATISFACTION DOES NOT MATTER to this company and neither do their employees. They only want your money or for you to make them money.

Pros: 
-Made decent tips and met some cool people, But still wasn’t worth the torment.

Dave & Buster's can be a place of fun but at the same time, a place of high stress and tension as seen in any food and beverage company. With the addition to entertainment in many forms of gaming from redemption prizes, to bowling and billiards, you can expect an average day at Dave & Buster's to be busy. A normal day consist of many things; party planning, multiple parties at the same time, the sound of conversations overlapped by the falling of pins to the million dollar midway (our arcade room) sounds of our many many games.

I've learned many things at Dave & Buster's which extends my knowledge in the food and beverage industry as well as hospitality. Learning all aspects of each department from Front of the House to Back of the House operations but not limited to just one area. Working on the arcade games, redemption prize area, bowling as well as the front desk. Answering phone calls while assisting customer services to the highest satisfaction whether it's for party planning to loss of items and inquiries about jobs.

The management team takes all employees into consideration when it comes to distress and help. A big part of that is what we do. Everyone looks out for each other, to help them grow and advance further to accomplish their goals. Every manager can be seen working alongside the employees and are always available to make sure guest needs are met while maintaining constant work flow.

My  co-workers make working at Dave & Buster's an easier time. They are their for each other when someone needs help and maintain a proper relationship.

I would say the hardest part about working at Dave & Buster's also a good and bad thing, which is the high volume of people we get. At times it can be very hectic and stressful but it also means the opportunity to make money is there. With so many guest constantly coming in and out during one work day, it can feel as if they day will never end.

What I enjoy the most about Dave & Buster's is that you can come into work and feel part of a family that only wants to see you grow. The co-workers as well as the managers are friendly and honestly make you feel as if you aren't just an employee, but someone who makes their day better just because we all have a good relationship.

Honestly this company has broken my heart. I wanted to stay long term. I used to look up to management so much for how they cared about us. How understanding they were of work life balance. How open I felt to advancement and promotion. Turns out they just needed us at the time due to understaffing, and the best manager has been moved up to a position where he doesn’t have a say-so anymore. 

What was once a frenzy of overtime, double shifts, and being begged to stay, is now them finding any little reason to passive aggressively cut shifts, hours, & give you bad sections. There is no communication, no clarity, no constructive criticism. Write ups at will for anybody who crosses an angry manager on the wrong day. Three and you’re fired, just like that. As disposable as their plastic cups. Yet you’re expected to be there when they need you. One week you might have 5 days, then without warning you end up with 1-2. No stability and no consideration. 

What little empathy upper management once had is dwindling away due to corporate greed. They need to meet quotas, stay within “budgets” (cut shifts & hours), and seniority means nothing. You’re only the favorite until you’re not. Somebody new can come right in and be promoted right away just because they’re favoritized. They’re constantly hiring new people and giving them all the hours. Yet a lot of us OG’s stay anyways out of loyalty and hope for the good old days to come back. Sadly they won’t and they can’t. 

Yes, many times management has bent the rules for me, helped me out when I really needed it, and did things they didn’t need to.  However, at the end of the day, it’s a corporate business—and the extent of their kindness can only reach out so far for so long. This company drains everybody until they lose the light in their eyes. Managers who care lose hope. Employees who are loyal lose hope. Yet it doesn’t even matter because at the end of the day, all that matters is the company’s budget and ratings. 

For a stepping stone, this place is alright. I learned a lot here. I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity I had to grow as a server and to the manager who hired me. Unfortunately as the headline insinuated, I rammed into the glass ceiling really hard. However it’s a life lesson on how the real world works. 

As a busser at Dave n Busters. This is not your typical busser role. You are taught one thing during training, and expected of 1 million other things. As a typical busser slash "server support" as they call it to get away with having you do whatever is needed, the role of busing tables is just a minor one. I was seen as a leader in the early days of my location opening. Problem was, this of course provided no financial incentive, and for what i could provide moral support towards, people felt no encouragement because the only way we could improve of tips was completely beyond our reach. Even if we did help the servers in the best way we could, they were not obligated to tip us beyond a very bare minimum if it all (1% of what they made that night.). Often resulting in busy friday/saturday/sunday nights while there were 1000+ people in the building busting 12 hour shifts ending up with 15-18 $ tips. Some essential responsibilities being, Expediter, Food Runner, Busser, Dish washer,  maintenance etc. These work conditions and expectations for various roles are MUCH MUCH higher then the industry standard. The amount of responsibility that was put on on the bussers or once again, they call the "server support" , are extreme and overbearing. Being verbally berated for not participating as the expediter was common place while also playing the role of runner, busser, and dish washer (they implemented a policy at one point where no dish washers were to show up until past 6pm. Forcing on us yet another role in order to keep the back of the house moving.)  I highly suggest not applying for anything lower then a server/bartender/bar back position because the BOH employees were treated terribly and overburdened in order for us to quit and lessen the employee wages required. Unless the incompetent management is replaced somewhat soon. I don't expect the future of the location and its employees to last very long. Best of luck to whoever works here, i enjoyed it while i stayed, but it didn't take long to see the flaws in basic working standards and wages. Best of luck to you all.

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