car wash attendant

site manager

assistant manager

sales associate

shift leader

Driven Brands

There are so many things wrong with this company, it's hard to know where to start. Work space is a sardine can - there's at least 200+ people crammed onto one tiny floor of the office building. You have absolutely no physical barriers in between you or the rest of the people in the room - creating a hugely distracting, loud and unprofessional work space. Management is all over the place, with no idea how to activate or actually complete any of the tasks or initiatives they demand from their subordinates. The executives are all buddies that hired one another from Burger King - which they still refuse to recognize is a much different industry than the car business. Their decisions tank every single brand they touch. The accounting department is easily 90+ days out from paying any given vendor at any given time. Mid-level managers are willing to step on whoever it takes and literally ruin careers if it means they get two seconds of attention from their superiors (who can, and have, fired people at will for no reason). Parking isn't covered, so you'll easily pay $200+ each month JUST TO COME TO WORK. The work hours aren't clearly defined in your employment contract - even for those who are hourly - so they overwork you to the max because they know you need the job. Work/life balance is non-existent. Forget trying to go to the gym or having dinner at a reasonable hour - you'll be lucky to take a lunch break without eating at your desk! And last, but not least, the compensation is a joke. Most of the sub-mid-management positions are easily 20-25% below Charlotte market value for the same job with the same experience. Moral of the story: stay far, far away from this place at all costs.

A typical day at work as an auditor is Monday-Friday 8-4:30pm. As an auditor you have your select stores assigned to you and you audit the prior days closing paperwork, inventory, work orders and give customer service. Basically you make sure the stores are doing their job correctly. I learned a lot about the glass industry and how it works. I also learned the other end of working in retail to working on the corporate side. Management was by far the worse. Unprofessional, messy, and at times be very rude and disrespectful toward employees. Workplace culture is toxic and hard to deal with. Even when you just try to focus on your work, the stores your over are blatantly ignoring your requests for their paperwork, the actual HR manager was the most awful person I’ve ever met. This company doesn’t respect your privacy and they definitely will have you questioning your sanity. The hardest part of the job working in the Oakland Corporate Office was having to be around the office manager who was very unprofessional and had no empathy at all. Communication was terrible, no real room for growth, they tell you what you want to hear to get you to do whatever it is they want. Just horrible. The most enjoyable part of the job was a few of the stores I was over, a few of my coworkers, and the hiring process was fast and easy.

I worked for Car Wash Express for almost 9 years, most of it as a site General Manager. I loved various aspects of the job, but the upper management was the worst that I have ever had the displeasure of working for. They would promise the sun, the moon, and the stars, to get anyone to work hard for then, but when it came time to pay up, there was always an excuse or a tall tale as to why the compensation was less than originally agreed upon. 

Many of the other employees just swallowed it and made snide comments in private. Unfortunately for me, I did not have that ability to keep quiet when millionaire owners take food off my family's plate and was forced out as a result. The morale there was very low as a direct consequence of upper management's constant game playing and dishonesty. Maybe it's changed since I left, but I seriously doubt it. A lot of the same players are still there even through several buyouts. 

Moreover, the car wash industry in general and as a whole is not very employee friendly (many lawsuits), and is currently going through a major power consolidation with many of the small mom and pop locations being swallowed up by international conglomerates like IWCG. 

Don't waste nine years of your life like I did following the snake oil sales pitches of con men posing as holier than thou executives. You can make a lot more money doing some else. Plus washing your car is absolutely terrible for the environment.

The company is in a unique place and has some great and truly dedicated employees. However, its a stepping stone at best and not a long-term option for your career. I'd say the average tenure at the office is one year or so and in a lot of cases quite less. 

Things are very volatile and there is no clear direction or trajectory in what we are doing. You're managing a huge work load and the expectations are very high. Another weird aspect is the fact that every project gets jammed through in some capacity. Even when every analysis ran says otherwise or the costs are unrealistic its pushed through usually for worse for the field employees (Car Wash, Oil, or other franchise). Its a very unique place and I think its due to the lack of experience by leadership and in reality they're all day to day and can be cut at a moments notice and seem to operate in a constant scared state. 

Get in and out quick. Turnover is high and you can be working on something one day and then that person is gone the next day. Its definitely a Driven issue and impacts productivity and performance.  

The company financials aren't very great and its not sinking but its not looking great. The stock is at an all time low and Id imagine 2024 will be worse for the business. 

Was a decent place to earn easy money with promises of commission based on sales of passes but they took that away quick for everyone and only pay minimum wage. If you're looking for a place to work for little pay this is it. Management constantly changing procedures and rules just to put blame on you for following what they previously said before the change. No communication whatsoever and they all work behind your back trying to get you to quit unless your their pet. Everyone in management I've seen so far have no idea what's going on, constantly cutting hours and still saying need to hire more people. Get no types of bonuses nor raises unless you're buddy buddy with the manager. Basically any other car wash place around you would be better than this one they all pay more and give better benefits. This place doesn't care for their employees and cares less for the customers since they often take extra money out of customers accounts more than the monthly payments they agreed upon because trust me I have to hear and see the statements from the customers who are getting robbed, we're the told we can't refund said customers without fear of getting fired.

This company has too many out of touch upper managers and not enough people  who actually know what the issues are that need addressing at the sites and with the customers. The atmosphere is terrible and you are given very unrealistic standards to try to meet. We are expected to close 6 tickets an hour no matter the extenuating circumstances of sites in your region being down for over a month while members are still being charged for their monthly memberships. I saved many customers from cancelling their memberships, which takes time and the reason I quit was my review did not take this fact into account. Because I did not hit my 6 tickets closed per hour goal, my raise was an absolute joke and I had dozens of rescues and I also did the weekly site list for the entire team every week, which took time to do as well. This affected my ticket solved rate as well. These things were not taken into account and I was offered a terrible raise. I could no longer work where I was unappreciated and thus ended an over 6 year work relationship at that point. I’ll never go back. 

This was the worst experience that I could even have conceived of. The turnover was unjustified and excessive. The EVP is also the attorney , who is also involved in HR, which results in a conflict of interests. I sat in on meetings that focused on how to circumvent law to get out of agreements. I witnessed senior leadership yelling at and berating employees. I was asked to write a positive review, however I did not stay long enough. The motto is to promote young talent. underpay the, overwork them, and hope they lack the knowledge to realize that the company is blatantly violating employment law. Every skilled professional they have had eventually is "laid off'. They are looking for yes-men , blind eye. There was no time for my children, I was discouraged from using time off, and I witnessed blatant discrimination. Workplace bullying is rampant. The only reason to work here is sheer desperation.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The job will provide a weekly pay check.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Working for a company that is alright with treating the employee as they are less than. Hinst the high turnover rate.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The atmosphere is not pleasant, there is hostility in the air, because the employees are unhappy, overworked and under paid. The culture is unbalanced, starting from the top.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Coming to work in an open square plan, log into your system, check your email and calendar for potential meetings. Immediately working to clear up any issues and get the workload on track. Greet , socialize with the coworkers and help each other on different projects.  Stay positive, do your best until you can do better!

From the top down, Driven Brands suffers from a lack of alignment. Most support center departments are disorganized and labeled as "Shared Services," another term for "We don't want to spend money on supporting each brand with their own services, so HR/Finance/Product, etc. will each support EVERY brand." What this turns into is each department creating the new shiny best thing that each brand's Ops & Training teams then need to roll out. Then there's leadership. My boss has no idea what I do or how my team brings value to the table. We haven't talked in over a month. My peers are only concerned with their own career trajectory - not being a team. Serious culture overhaul needed here.

I was here for about two months as chat support. Training was 3 weeks long which may have been okay. However no knowledge base existed and help was sparse at best. The one person that was supposed to be helping always came off as angry and unwilling to help sitting at their desk with headphones on ignoring any questions.. When I suggested to her a knowledge base she just huffed at me. The manager over her was more suited to sell cars no technical knowledge whatsoever and was more concerned with the CEO coming down on him then actually taking care of his people. I was actually told that I was "too friendly" at a one on one. He always had an excuse on the ready for everything.  You could have 8 chats and he would still be hammering you to take another. He was actually clowned on when he was gone for his lack of Leadership. I regret wasting those weeks of my life here.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Car wash attendant 3 salaries reported	$11.75 per hour
Site manager 1 salary reported	$42,500 per year
Assistant manager 6 salaries reported	$15.98 per hour
Sales associate 11 salaries reported	$11.02 per hour
Shift leader 6 salaries reported	$12.71 per hour

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