server

administrative assistant

dishwasher

kitchen team member

busser

Haidilao Hot Pot

Honestly the pay here was one of the best I’ve found in San Diego. However it was brought to my attention that tips were being put towards sales and the tip pool was often deceiving and unclear despite the tip pool sheet they made us sign with roles that had tips going towards it but no employee to fill it. Management would tell you that one upper was mad at you but if you ever confronted that person who was “mad” they would say that they never had an issue with you causing unnecessary anxiety during your shifts and many of my coworkers had small breakdowns and dreaded coming into work. Opportunities to move up were given but when responded to, employees were ghosted and basically just used (they were asked to do extra tasks believing they would be promoted). Management between FOH and BOH is always feuding leaving servers and hosts in the crossfire and to tend to angry customers as a result. GM stays in office even when help is needed (there are 50+ tables in the restaurant) and it is rush hour. The only times they come out is for employee meal or to give unhelpful comments such as “there is trash on the floor”. Management has openly stated they are targeting certain employees and wanting to fire them or just reduce their shifts to the point of them being forced to quit because they need to pay their bills. I could keep going but I think enough has been said. If you have a strong mental or can speak Chinese/ happen to be their type physically then the cash can somewhat justify the job. If not then I would honestly look elsewhere while management stays the way it is currently.

ALL long term employees are quitting now. The money was good back in 2022 before all of the specials came. Avg person spends is $30, with even 20% tips we only get $4 tip as the share is 50%. They do play favortism, giving good section for the people they bias. Every weekends come up wiith new added ending jobs. You need to force your customers to sign up for their memberships which can affect your tips. As for as I know, the ex-employees would rather to work somewhere else which pays a bit less, rather than working here. The managers dont know what they are doing. They don't know how to schedule people. Often forget someone's day off and schedule them. The schedule used to be on every thursday but now it's every fridays, and the new ones always start on saturdays. The restaurant is closed at 11pm last call at 10.30 but if someone walks in at 10.45pm you still need to serve. All managers will legit leave and let the servers alone to serve one last customers. Oh and if a table takes too long and there is a waitlist, instead of coming and deal with the customers, the managers force the servers to kick the customers out. This heavily affects the tips and they dont offer anything to help. Usually the managers would come and inform customers about this and hope for their understanding, but not this place. They dont care if the customers get mad at you because of them, as long as it is not them. Good luck having new workers every 1 month

This place is number one in China, I chose to work here so I can learn something about Chinese culture and how they do business. One of the thing that I want to learn, why customers still come here even though it is overpriced and food quality is average. Founder of the HaiDiLao, he believed that giving the best customer service will bring customer back to their restaurant. Most customers are from China. Management did not know what they were doing when they were on the floor. I am not pleased about management's performance. Fellow team members (co-workers), they are fairly nice but they will judge you if you do not speak Chinese. It was very difficult for me because I speak Korean and English. The hardest part of the job is communication with the customers and team members. I always need someone to translate but translator do not translate properly will create problem. Most customers are from China and they do not speak English, this is the hardest part of this job. The most enjoyable part of the jobs is, this is the only Chinese restaurant that you can keep your own tips and given you own table to serve customers. Not knowing Chinese language is the hardest part of this job and I cannot move up to higher position because I do not speak Chinese.

This is the most toxic work environment that I've worked in. Some of the employees are nice  but a majority of the "work veterans" pretty much have you helping them and never helping you but the trainers pretty much have you working more and put you in a terrible position while they are the ones getting tips and trainees get nothing. I was constantly getting yelled at my management and shift leads when I was doing what they had told me to do. I was not even sure what the correct "way" to do my job was because each manager and shift leader told me to do the job a different way and the others would yell at me for doing it "wrong". Expect to have swollen feet and keep walking, even if you're standing talking to a customer - it's considered "not doing anything." They are not flexible with the hours. Listing states that they are hiring part time but mainly they are looking for full time employees. I pretty much failed my classes while working here thinking that I would have part time hours which is what I agreed with the managers but they end up scheduling you shifts barely under full time. By the way, I ended up doing EVERYTHING not just what I got hired for so expect to be working multiple shifts a day as different positions. 

Felt as if I was disposable, and when asking about inquiries politely, I was just met with a copypasted message that my coworker and I received. When I didn't give enough days for availability, I wasn't told of anything in the relative future, nor was I put on the schedule, so I was kind of left in limbo for a while. I had to message one or two schedules later on despite giving availability to see what was up because I was losing time I could've used to work there or elsewhere to pay rent. The jobs here are probably more suitable for full-time employees because it feels like as a part-time employee, they didn't favor you as much. 

Management is relatively reasonable, although I feel like they forget or don't bother often enough. The one thing I told the hiring management was that I left my previous job because that management sucked, and seeing how things unfolded, it wasn't great here as well. They don't tell you anything either, no updates about stuff, etc. You just have to figure it out on your own if something changes.

In the end, I loved working here, especially with all my ex-coworkers, and sometimes miss them. If management didn't suck, I would've loved staying and working there.

I've heard most of the other Haidilao locations are not like this, so I'm not sure why the San Diego location was so disorganized. When you get hired, you need 80 hours of kitchen training before you can progress to front-of-house training, but the "kitchen training" was typically busy work they had nobody else to do, not actual kitchen training. They also don't have real training for kitchen work, you just have to learn whatever method the person you're working with uses, which tends to lead the job to fall under different standards each time a new person does it. When finally moved up, during the time I worked they also didn't have proper trainers for front-of-house work, so every trainee was only allowed to work twice a week max until they're finished training. You also just get put with a random server and shadow them, so a lot of little details don't get taught to you. A lot of people got fired/quit due to disorganized management and improper training. I was told Haidilao Corporate called us the worst location at one point during my time there. Hopefully it gets better with time, but I'd definitely wait until then before applying under this state.

The high level managers seems like more friendly. They'll tell you how much you could make after training in a month. The fact is the store manager will only schedule you 2-4 hours shift in your first 2 weeks to delay your training process(no tips). Before you become a assistant store manager, you have to pass all of the position in the FOH. But every time when you handling the new position, you only have minimum wage without tips. And do not imagined that you can become a store manager for next new location. It's not about your professional skill or how hard working you are. It's the framework of this company. Only the apprentices of current store managers have a chance of becoming store managers . When you think about applying for this position, be prepared for the fact that they won't schedule you to work in two weeks even if you've already passed the interview and filled out the entry form. Even though you're ready to be a full-time employee, you may be about to be disappointed. Good luck to next one. 

The workplace is here is very toxic and demanding. Kitchen manager doesn’t care about staff and would rather laugh and downtalk employees if they needed help or would be struggling. They would also talk about employees personal problems to other staff so there was no confidentiality or privacy. Night Shift leads don’t care about employees and set them up for failure because they only care about making themselves look good. Kitchen staff is looked down upon by servers are treated far differently by management. Very unprofessional and constantly sneaking in drinks while working and kitchen management let’s it happen. Other than that this place has family meals which are pretty good. Some staff are nice but others try to take advantage of you. It’s also a plus if your Hispanic or Asian but if your not then you can expect to be treated poorly and be disrespected. 

Managers created a really hostile environment for all employees except for the ones they liked. Biased favoritism ran unfairly. Workload and micromanaging were ridiculous and everyone would always be blamed for something. Lots of manipulation, mental and verbal abuse. People work too hard for what they get. Managers are pretty much amateurs and don't know how to run a company let alone a business properly nor fairly.

Everyone is expendable to them as their employee turnover rate is high
And happiness level for employees are a 2/10. Sometimes they won't even give you day offs even when you're sick or have something to do. Work life balance sucks as well. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Server 36 salaries reported	$30.02 per hour
Administrative assistant 15 salaries reported	$22.03 per hour
Dishwasher 20 salaries reported	$19.62 per hour
Kitchen team member 30 salaries reported	$21.38 per hour
Busser 17 salaries reported	$22.45 per hour

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