restaurant manager

restaurant general manager

cashier

host/hostess

prep cook

Mendocino Farms

A day in the life ? 
Normally it’s a rush to prep all that is needed for the day. No music is allowed to be played and managers will check up on you every few minutes or so. Then it’s about handling the rush, no major hiccups other than how you may be asked to do more due to understaffing. With the minimum wage increase , low sales, and their raising of their own prices (>$3 over 6 months across the menu lol) there is a labor management problem. Minimal staff is maintained and all others get unsustainable hours(2-4 hours shifts 1-3 times a week)
Management and the relationship you keep with them can affect your hours and overall treatment. Your personality will play into your treatment there, and the motto of we sell happy is forcibly ingrained. I saw a review who described it as cult like and it makes sense,  the company mindset is ingrained by mottos, talking points, and opening chants that are required. 
Workplace culture is affected by the stringent hours and the how the face of the company doesn’t reflect how it feels to work for them. Friction exists between team members due to the low hours, it creates an animosity between who’s more favored/who isn’t and merit will not always be the deciding factor. Majority of the the staff who are there and have no plans on leaving are the older, more ingrained to their careers choices type.
The hardest part of the job is the expectations set upon you, with hours being stringent it is heavily implied that hours are will be given to those who take that load with a smile. The pay was forced to be 20(minimum wage increase)and the good tips of the location is leveraged to be seen as a positive for the company when it’s only due to the generosity/ wealth of our customers. Something they cannot control 
The most enjoyable part of working there is leaving home and looking for other work. I am genuinely concerned for my manager seeing this and retaliating against me in invisible ways yet I’m cooked here no matter what. the story might be different for other locations but I haven’t been so lucky. 

Teams are great, pay is okay, benefits are decent, but the workload is way more than it should be. 

Cons: Company values are there but their expectations are overwhelming and unreasonable at times. Many managers find themselves burnt out because of unreasonable demands, especially in regards to labor management. Makes it seem like you’re getting more money because they pay meal premiums so managers don’t have actual breaks. At certain locations, managers are making the same as their TMs if not less. Managers are expected to know how to operate the kitchen line and execute orders, which is perfectly reasonable except for when  managers are the only ones working the line because they’re not allowed to allot more hours for team members. They want to constantly hire but not give out any hours to team members. In turn this creates tension between management and team members and is impacting the culture in store. Some managers end up working upwards of 60 hrs/ week which is pretty unreasonable for a fast casual concept with other managerial support roles. Work life balance is not highly regarded. Have seen managers work 16 hour days. High turnover in both managerial and team member roles.

Pros: Some company leaders are very active and present which is very pleasant and creates a sense of unity. Others need to touch grass but that is typical of anywhere. Very celebratory culture with instilled traditions and routines that make the environment fun and engaging. Very guest oriented and culinary quality is highly regarded. Management training is very engaging and thorough. Communication is a constant and there’s a constant feedback loop (although they can be hypocritical at times). The teams are hired based on personality and it creates for a very family-like culture.

What is the best part of working at the company?
At the time they gave us free lunch but i heard they don’t do that anymore 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
They asked me to leave my other job and in return offered me more hours, but then later they cut my hours. They were given to employees that would often call out. They asked me to do a 2-3 person job with the same pay & same hours of one person job. The GM at the moment often made me do her job for the minimum pay rate (at the time was 15/hr).

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It sas very stressful for the unrealistic ideas they had of running a busy shift. It felt like they forcefully wanted to creat a “happy” environment, yet the employees there were unhappy, mistreated, and unappreciated.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I would go in at 8 rush to prep for the morning rush. Then my expo 2 would call out and i would rush to prep her side work. Carring heavy trays filled with dressings and containers ended up hurting my knees down the line. I would sometimes go to break late or cut my break short because the lunch rush started. I would hold my bathroom break till after the rush. There’s soo much pressure bagging the to-go’s and setting up/sending the food for dine in at the same time. It gets hot when you have 5 employees next to you and behind you.

Being a new store in a new community it is always busy and while the pace of the store has barley slowed down.  The amount of hours available and team members on shift has dropped significantly.

The management can never get the orders correct so that we are always missing or running out of something.  The general manager does not know how to handle stress and will leave backhanded compliments and be rude during busy times.  As well as leaving behind issues for the managers to deal with that then trickle down to the team members.  Many people have said and felt that the entire store runs more smoothly when the GM is not there.  I believe is comes down to poor training.  I also feel that Mendo wants us to act as if we are robots in the way that they want us to act.  Manny of the issues that come about in my store are due poor management.

As well as this many hours have been cut down by a large amount and the managers state that it is based off of performance yet many people who are good workers have fallen down to low or no hours.  

Overall I believe the concept of mendo is a good thing but it will only work with good execution and the Valencia location does not have that.

Would give this place five stars if they were forthcoming about hours and didn't think so highly of themselves.

There's fun people and a good vibe at the  store, but it's rare that you're there. I was promised 12-15 hours to start and more once I stuck around long enough but that proved to not be true. They made constant excuses for why team members were having their hours cut, even though they were still hiring more people. By the time I left I couldn't even get five hours. Many people get tossed aside for this reason.

It can be very frustrating because the company tries too hard to act "happy" while ignoring the well-being of their employees. They train you in an obnoxious manner, expecting you to memorize numerous talking points and constantly interact with customers. They also micro-manage you like crazy when you start. Co-workers described working there as like "being in a cult". 

Simply put, they think they're this model company when in reality they're a rapidly growing fast-casual lunch spot that needs a labor force willing to work minimal hours, work shifts at different stores, and be on call for them in case it gets busy.

The workspace is small and compact. Not exactly ideal when working with hot items and sharp objects! If your new to the food industry, this wouldn't be a good job for you due to the training. They do not train you. It doesn't help that this location in particular, is busy most of the week. The managers give you a brief walk around the day before your actual shift. That is all they show you, and if you actually want to be shown how to do something right, prepare for the dirty looks and odd glances. That's not even starting with this location's general manager. They do not know how to show their hard-working employees decency and respect when speaking to them. If that wasn't enough, they will speak to you like a literal child and threaten you by saying they'll pull you off the line for underperforming!  I feel if management learns to be more understanding and less confrontational, it would be way less stressful and bearable. Overall, the only redeeming factors of having this job is the pay (tips included) and the employee's, excluding some management, that you work with.

I loved working at Mendocino Farms! One of few places to have a great structured training program, before you are on your own. The food is amazing which makes people happy. The priority to keep people happy keeps people coming back no matter what. If you are fresh out of college or not sure what you want to do Mendo is a great place to start and very easy to advance to management. They are in a phase of location growth and people quick quite often ( thats every restaurant ). The location I worked with was had some down low racist ( not like the call you the nword kind), just the kind that buy into the racial sterotype and treat you as such. Bend the rules for Caucasians, not for black people ect... But that was a case by case, not the culture of the whole company.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The food. You get one free meal per shift. Other than that, it's a pretty repetitive job that many employees grow tired of pretty quickly and leave. Pays decently for what it is, decent opportunities for promotion. But management has a high turnover rate as well. Not a terrible place to work, just not great. It attracts quality guests usually, so it'll be a much better experience than a fast food restaurant.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The lunch rush is unbelievably busy and stressful. Online orders and deliveries add to the already heavy workload.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The culture is actually quite good. They're good at hiring quality employees, and the product is good. But they're becoming a victim of their own success. The original owners no longer run things, so it's starting to feel more corporate like Panera.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Incredibly busy but frequently fun.

A typical day will consist of you working 2-5 positions by yourself. They cut hours on an almost weekly basis. Management is borderline incompetent, especially upper management. They tell you the store will have more hours if the reviews go up, but set you up to fail every shift by understaffing you even on days that are known to be busy. Each mendo is supposed to be run by 5 people FOH and BOH but they recently changed things to have only 3 FOH and 3 BOH. Sometimes they will only put two people in the front as well. This company genuinely does not care about its employees. Stay away if you can. I really got to know the managers we had at this location and they all seemed stressed and were not allowed to take meal breaks. I always felt bad for them. Only positives are the free/discounted meals and the coworkers. Some of the managers are nice, but we had two GMs in my few months working here and they both had no clue how to efficiently run a restaurant. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
As a manager you get whatever food you want for free.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Days are a minimum 10 hours as a manager.The salary structure for hourly non-exempt managers is calculated to include the 2 hours of overtime worked every shift AND rest break and meal break penalties. Breaks as a manager are guaranteed not to happen for at least the first 7 hours of your shift but you most likely won't get one at all. The demands are too high.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
They project happiness and people focus as much as possible. Behind the guide Mendo is still a profit driven enterprise. Labor is kept so low that many of the employees that we are told to retain through development are driven out to meet labor KPIs. We are told by corporate that it is just the cost of doing business.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
In operations it is non-stop and there is never enough time.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Restaurant manager 125 salaries reported	$72,452 per year
Restaurant general manager 35 salaries reported	$87,989 per year
Cashier 74 salaries reported	$20.34 per hour
Host/hostess 77 salaries reported	$20.46 per hour
Prep cook 61 salaries reported	$20.29 per hour

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