restaurant manager

event coordinator

party host

facilities maintenance technician

attendant

Main Event

The turn over rate in this place is so high because of the lack of management in the building. The buildings are so big you cannot properly manage every employee effectively.

While some employees do their job without question, most do not, and it causes a huge swing on the workload because now the veteran team members are having to work three times as hard.

I'll start with Team Service:  If you are lucky enough to have team service when your working, good luck motivating these 16,17, and 18-year-old kids that do not want to work. They hide in the break room, bathrooms, laser tag, and avoid doing their work all the time.  The servers are always complaining that they need help and these KIDS just like to distract staff and screw around 80% of their shift.  Most of the time, team Service is sent home, or they cut labor so bad you only have 1 team service, so the one person who is working is now getting very mad because it's only just him. They don't understand the functionality of their radio, they never hear their name being called.  Most times their twirling their headsets in their hand like their bored when there is plenty of work to be done.

Most of this falls on the management, doing a terrible job of hiring, firing, and MANAGING this department.

Okay Next department: Kitchen

Hopefully, you got help today. Hopefully your sales department doesn't overbook party street and lanes with banquets and parties and HOPEFULLY, they tell you well in advance.  In our store, they are consistently overbooking events and causing us to have unrealistic time frames with the staff they have.

For example, they will schedule 2 cooks, expect one to prep and cook food, and the other had to prepare all the banquets.  Now the dish pit is filling up with dishes, we are getting busy...  Cook 1 is stuck on the line cooking food that is coming in faster than he can dish out, and the other cook is in the back getting mad because he just found out he's got 2 more banquets that he has to get done, because management failed to schedule another person at 3 pm to help him AND you have 2 hours to get it done.  WHAT THE heck is wrong with this... why are you stressing your employees so much!

The cooks are always mad, in a sour mood, and its because they are overworked so much.  I have seen this time and time again, where cooks have just walked out because management places some unrealistic expectation on them like their gods in the kitchen who can wash dishes, get all food out in under 7 minutes AND prep the banquets and incoming party food at the same time with ONE guy.

This leads to banquets getting mad, birthday parties food always comes out late, which throws off our laser tag schedule, the bowling schedule for the lanes, the party host cant do their simple job either, they just drop food off at the tables and then run away to the break room to sit on their phones.

It's completely insane how the GM says no phones in the building, and yet all the staff are constantly going into the back room and checking their phones, tweeting, Facebooking, watching videos, texting, making phone calls.. I feel like management has just given up at this point. Please help this store.

Games department is a whole other beast.  Im doing multiple positions as a shift supervisor as a games attendant pay. While 2 other employees are promoted to some new position called "brand ambassador" which puts them into a shift supervisor uniform standing at the front door and wondering the building to do "split checks and swipes" for servers who cant get a manager fast enough.  Im doing inventory as a games guy, which is always fun, because i do that alone. I have never counted inventory alone, its always been WITH a manager.  LOL not at our store!  I would not encourage anyone to work in this place. they are trying to run a huge business with skeleton crew staffing.  

So many of our staff are quitting because we are running multiple departments at the same time.  

Why does a games guy have to run winners choice AND THEN RUN over to laser tag to get a game going on... OH and then when the game is going and I'm supposed to be their safety guard and Referee,   I have to hope no one gets hurt, while I run RABBIDS and help these people put on a VR mask because they can't manage it alone.  HIRE MORE STAFF... TAKE CARE OF YOUR STAFF. PUT YOUR EMPLOYEES FIRST AND YOUR GUESTS WILL BE TAKEN CARE OF.  

Main Event Entertainment is a horrible place to work.  Too many young adults in the workforce who don't understand HOW to work, and management just doesn't do their job with accountability, it's too big of a building for just 3 managers, that's the issue. The company doesn't want to spend money on quality workers and management, they would rather cut labor, run on minimum staff and always perform below the standards.

OH LAST THING:  ive never been yelled at by an employee's parent, becuase we didnt let their daughter off work in time.

You never get off work ON time, even the minors who work on school nights stay longer than their supposed to and its because the management is terrible.

LASTY, you wont eat or take breaks unless you just do it yourself.  yesterday i worked a 9 hour shift, no one break, no one relieved me to eat, nothing.  Just 9 hours of screaming kids, loud game music, inhaling hazer fumes from laser tag.

The day to day: 
I was a party host who was a part of the new center opening team. I would clock in, grab a radio, then get my contract and set up my party. As a party host, you are responsible for assisting the party parents, getting bowling lanes and shoes set up, serving drinks and food, and getting the kids to their activities on time. The party then pays out, and you have to clean up and head out for the day unless you have another party. 


The good: 
I absolutely loved my coworkers, they were always so fun to talk to and I made lots of friends quickly and easily. 

You usually get the service charge on the parties in addition to the hourly pay, however, management is allowed to waive this if the parents ask, so it is not guaranteed. Tips are also a bonus, but they are of course not required to tip. 

It's fast-paced, and I personally like being on my feet the whole time, but that isn't for everyone. 

It is a unique job, and a lot more fun than working in fast food, especially if you like kids. 


The bad: 

The hourly pay for the amount of work you are doing as a Party Host is not sufficient when you do not get any tips. You leave feeling like you worked much harder than what you are appreciated for. 

The scheduling. The center takes new parties up to two days ahead of time, so you can't make plans outside of work on the weekends because your schedule will change for the weekend only a day in advance. If you cannot come because it is such short notice, YOU are required to find cover for your shift, and if you can't you have to work it or get written up. I just don't think that is a very fair way to schedule people, especially people who work 2 jobs or are in school. 

We were constantly running out of basic supplies for parties (balloons, kids cups, napkins, plastic forks), and it would take weeks and weeks to get more. 

I did not love the management. In fact, it was one of the reasons I left. The GM is great, very friendly, and helpful, my department manager and supervisors were great as well, however when they weren't working, which happened for any parties during the week, I could hardly ever get another manager to help me with whatever I needed for my party, and half the times they did not know what to do. The other department managers are often rude and unhelpful. This then falls on to the party host who gets yelled at by the parents because their order isn't being put in fast enough, or their game cards STILL haven't been made. In addition to this, from what I have seen with me and my coworkers, party hosts are usually ignored on the radio when we ask for help. When dealing with difficult parties, which of course will happen from time to time, many members of management would ignore us, which would make the situation even worse. When the party finally got to talk to a manager, the party hosts would get in trouble for not calling them to help fast enough (what??), even after we tried getting them for help multiple times. Aside from parties, the other department managers are difficult to contact and usually rude if you weren't one of their favorites. 

Very high turnover. Especially in the team service, games, and service departments. I was constantly seeing new people and wondering what happened to old employees.


Bottom line: 
Since this is a brand new center as of July 2020, I understand that there were a lot of kinks to work out, which is why I stuck by it for so long. But now that it is early 2021, I realized nothing was really going to change. This job is good for a high school student who has a lot of time on their hands, which many do not due to their workload, sports, clubs, and free time. 








During my tenure with Main Event Entertainment, I dedicated over five years to the organization, progressing through multiple roles and ultimately relocating from the Dallas market to Memphis, TN under a one-year agreement tied to an Assistant General Manager opportunity. I honored that commitment and extended beyond it, remaining in Memphis for approximately 18 months.

Throughout my time with the company, I consistently demonstrated flexibility and commitment by supporting operations across multiple locations and stepping into higher-level responsibilities when needed. In Memphis, I played a key role in stabilizing a struggling location, contributing to moving the center off the bottom of the scorecard through improved operations, team development, and overall performance execution.

While in Memphis, I frequently operated at a General Manager level, assuming full-center leadership responsibilities including P&L oversight, labor management, and cultural rebuilding—without formal alignment in title or compensation.

However, several significant concerns ultimately impacted my career trajectory:
	•	Workplace Environment & Safety: During my time in Memphis, I was exposed to multiple traumatic incidents, including nearby shootings, which raised serious concerns regarding personal safety and workplace conditions.
	•	Role Misalignment & Compensation: Despite performing at a higher leadership level and delivering measurable results, my role and compensation did not reflect the scope of my contributions.
	•	Relocation Handling & Financial Impact: After fulfilling and exceeding my relocation commitment, the support provided to transition back to Dallas fell significantly short of actual costs. Combined with a reduction in role and pay, this created severe financial hardship. Despite years of service and proven performance, this ultimately resulted in housing instability.
	•	Career Progression & Outcome: After investing significant time, effort, and leadership into improving operations across multiple locations—including turning around a low-performing center—I did not experience the level of career advancement, stability, or support that would reasonably align with those contributions.
	•	Leadership & Support Gaps: Key decisions and communication from leadership lacked alignment with my development and, at times, undermined my professional standing.

In summary, despite my long-term commitment, willingness to relocate, and proven ability to drive results in challenging environments, the overall outcome reflected a significant imbalance between my contributions and the support, compensation, and career progression provided. This ultimately led me to reassess my future with the organization.


This is a job that could have been an amazing place to start a career. The environment and coworkers all seem fun and welcoming, and the work itself is largely enjoyable. It’s a place with a lot to do and see, where new workers can learn a lot of skills that can help them grow, and although the benefits are minimal, they’re a lot for the type of positions in the center. Customers tip rather well most of the time.

The issues come in scheduling, especially if you have a need for certain amounts of hours. People were getting cuts and others were being overworked to the point of having to beg for days off. There were times they scheduled 11 hours a week to people asking for 40, and days where people have to come in for only a couple hours in a day, or stay late from closing and open the next day again and again. There is hardly time to sleep, and some people have to work graveyard shifts for special events. Managers try to juggle all this, but any conflict in interest takes forever to resolve and it seems that no one communicates between each other effectively. Some people also get away with breaking rules (that aren’t in writing and change depending on the managers there) while others don’t, and most things will be found out when someone yells at you and makes a scene instead of professionally by informing people what’s to be done.

Understaffing is also a huge issue. It makes people forced to cover multiple positions without training, and customers are often getting angry or leaving because of it. Also people have a difficult time taking breaks (which are not usually fitted into the day) and many people, such as servers, may not get time to eat. Any accommodations must either be agreed upon on the day of hire (in writing) or you will need to suffer for weeks to get them considered.

Some of the staff will belittle you with sarcasm and unprofessional comments, despite most being friendly and understanding, and it’s overall a stressful environment that values money over humans. The only good thing is the leniency given to refunds for customers, as most guests are provided reasons to return. The same cannot be said for the consideration given to employees. There are definitely good days, and it would be better with the staffing to cover for when employees need rest… but the fact that the money is prioritized over the people is a reason to get far, far away.

I was with this company for almost a year. This is the true definition of a dead end job. No chance for promotions, no pay raises, and no benefits for non managerial positions. There two types of employees: managers and everyone else. There are no team leaders or shift leaders, etc so there is nothing to be promoted to. I personally knew people who had been there over a year with no pay raise. 
Lately there has been a corporate wide structural shift at all Main Events. They are cutting hours by scheduling fewer people than is necessary in order to effectively run any department. For instance, it takes 4 to close the kitchen but they will schedule 2 people and demand/expect they do double the work! PAY ATTENTION! THEY EXPECT AND DEMAND THAT ONE DOES DOUBLE THE WORK FOR NO EXTRA PAY! 
The kitchen manager was ok but received no respect from the other managers who constantly talked down to him and had no regard for his kitchen policies. 
The other managers were terrible hypocrites! Always demanding that employees live up to high expectations regarding service, etc but we’re always undermining each other, standing around looking at Facebook, or coming on the kitchen line three times a shift to snatch up food to stuff in their faces which they never rung up. THAT’S RIGHT! They would just take food! That’s stealing! 
They would constantly act unprofessionally. Cursing, berating employees, telling employees they were worthless, and ignoring the feelings/concerns of their employees. I would go to them with issues and get told they were “working on it.” I would follow up with them and wouldn’t remember what I was talking about or they would say that they haven’t gotten to it yet. 2 week’s later this is still the case. For instance, I didn’t know my hourly rate for the first 2 weeks I worked there despite my constant inquires. In addition, THEY ARE DISHONEST ABOUT PAY RATES. I was promised one rate when I was hired and found out that it was $.50 less when I got my first check which was why they wouldn’t tell me what I was making in the first place. 
There is no accountability. If there is a poor employee in another department and you report it, no one cares. They do nothing. 
On top of that, no breaks for kitchen employees. It’s over a hundred degrees in the kitchen with little ventilation!!! They don’t care if you are dehydrated or light headed.
They don’t believe you when you call in sick. 
I digress...
NEVER WORK AT MAIN EVENT.

Honestly, I would love to work for the company again but even with different management I doubt it would be worthwhile.

Memphis is home, and I love our city.
However, with corporate trying to enforce regulations that are impossible to implement  with customers and employees, the work environment is just completely draining and unfulfilling at the end of the day.

Management expect everything to go perfectly while not taking employee radio calls, focusing on survey numbers for corporate, and not setting the employees up for success or acknowledging their hard work
And it is HARK WORK. You will be taken advantage of and just beat down from the non stop chaos and lack of direction.
There’s a super high turnover rate for a reason because as a shift supervisor, and my personal experience, management just is not concerned about your well-being, you will not get breaks, be asked to do outrageous tasks you were not hired for and when they don’t set their zones or give direction and it all falls apart it’ll be your fault because they can do no wrong. 

You will have to work weekends and won’t get out until 3:00-3:45am if you close the store because if any zone in the store isn’t done appropriately, you will have to stay and clean it yourself, even if it’s not for your job role.

They hire a lot of younger adults and teens that really don’t care, because they don’t need the job. And the employees you get to know are just beaten down and you can see they’ve surrendered to the mentality of “damned if I do,damned if I don’t”
When everyone stops caring it shows.
It’s hard for regular game attendants and bowl attendants to do their job, not just shift supervisors.
It’s hard when they’ve called for help on the radio 30 minutes ago and out of five managers there, no one has come. Then when the customer freaks out, it’s the employees fault.
It’s hard explaining why there is only two servers in the entire building to take orders.
It’s hard to fix every single bowl lane at least five times a night while you have a 6 hour waitlist 
It’s hard cleaning customers puke and fecal matter up 
It’s hard explaining why someone hasn’t received their order in over an hour and when they do it’s wrong because there’s no expeditor in the kitchen

I parted ways with them because I was tired of coming home exhausted  and waking up feeling the same way. It’s defeating, disheartening, and chaotic.



In a management role you work a minimum of 50 hour work weeks. All issues are expected to be addressed with urgency meaning pending tasks rarely slow. This is a company that is open until 12am, 1am, and 2am meaning as a manager you will need to regularly think about your center even during your personal life. The company constantly changes looking for improvement, which is good for personal growth as it keeps you learning something new. The major downsides is work life balance. Most managers will state off the record that Main Event consumes there life. Most management position schedules are random every week so work/life balance suffers. Main Event is a competitive company that takes care of employees only on the surface. Health insurance is expensive considering the revenue this company generates. Managers usually do the "ground level labor" as Main Event has staffing issues due to a lack of a competitive team member compensation package. I'd personally recommended Main Event as an opportunity to gain a lot of knowledge in management, technology, and systems improvement. Long term I do not believe Main Event is your answer if you aren't competitive, want to do a lot outside of work, or need consistency. Main Event is a continuous improvement culture. Where they lack is understanding the importance of investing in employees as we regularly get asked to do more with less. (Time off, respecting our time outside of work, budget constraints, low labor, uninterrupted management planning, etc.) Main Event isn't a bad company but their ambition blinds them at times from what should be most important, the people.

Started working part time and then switched to full time after I completed my degree. Hours worked well with my school schedule and my SM was willing to work with the hours I was available. Server turnover rate was high. Bowl/laser tag, and game attendants (even party hosts/banquet attendants) were frequently high schoolers so their maturity was frequently low.


There was some tension between managers when I was there. It wasn't directly aimed or stated but you could tell when they asked something and we told them they needed to speak with such and such, they would sigh. GM was really nice, really great guy. Some supervisors acted like they were managers. There was some movement between supervisor going to be a manager and managers changing locations, a bartender also moved to be a supervisor. Some potential for growth is there, just don't expect it to be quick. Pretty much none of that can happen unless someone else leaves or gets promoted which seem to happen in windows.

Yearly raises are a thing and it's based on evaluations and percentages. If you have an open conversation with your manager, you may get a little higher. Don't expect a raise if you're part time. Guests can be very rude but some guests can light up a room. Try to focus on the good ones or the bad ones will just eat at you. A lot of people demand to speak with a manger even though you'll frequently tell them what the manager said. Guests have gone also and contacted corporate to complain, so do with that information what you will.

Customers can be the worst breed of entitled Americans imaginable so if you're a server expect to be treated by some of them like a subhuman -- just the medium between them and their cheese slathered food -- but I guess that's normal for customer service jobs. If you work in the games department, half the arcade games don't work and eat people's credits -- so expect to have to apologize and refund people very often. Don't refund people too often though because then the managers will get at you! Gravity ropes workers are also underpaid and get minimum wage when they should be getting more (they get paid more at the Tempe location LOL). Generally, prepare to tolerate bad treatment from customers and managers, and be so busy during your shift that you can't get a break (good luck getting a manager to approve it). So many of the managers are snarky and seemingly on a weird power trip, suck up to customers who have exhibited completely unacceptable behavior towards employees, run the place terribly and stuff goes wrong all the time. Horrible scheduling, we are often understaffed leaving the employees currently working overwhelmed and having to juggle too many responsibilities for how many people are working. A couple of the managers are cool though. Coworkers are the one good thing making the place fun, most are nice and everyone helps each other. Employees do get free bowling, free timed arcade cards and a discount on food for them and their party when they visit the place as well .

The company itself has a decent overall culture and many hardworking employees, but the management environment made it extremely difficult to have a positive experience. Upper management (GM and above), along with some lower‑level managers, consistently contributed to an unprofessional and unhealthy workplace.

Scheduling is a major issue across *all* departments. Shifts were often unpredictable, communication was inconsistent, and employees frequently had to adjust their personal lives around last‑minute changes. This was especially challenging for banquet attendants and party hosts, but it affected everyone.

There was also clear tension within the management team. Instead of working together, managers often displayed open animosity and competition, which created divisions between departments. I personally witnessed managers speaking negatively about one another, using inappropriate language, and interacting with hourly employees in ways that felt unprofessional. The few managers who maintained professionalism were either pushed out or treated poorly by their peers.

The most concerning part was that this behavior wasn’t just ignored—it often felt encouraged. Many employees view the GM as contributing to, condoning, or participating in the same unprofessional conduct that was causing so many issues.

Talented people work here, but the management culture at this location prevents that talent from thriving.



Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Restaurant manager 2 salaries reported	$58,000 per year
Event coordinator 5 salaries reported	$15.04 per hour
Party host 4 salaries reported	$13.25 per hour
Facilities maintenance technician 61 salaries reported	$14.33 per hour
Attendant 3 salaries reported	$21.00 per hour

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