restaurant manager

cook

line cook

server

scheduler

Millers Ale House

When I started at Millers the restaurant was less than a year old and new to the area so it was very busy with many people excited about a new sports bar. After a while the excitement wore off for the most part after people realized the food is sub par and the liquor portions are very small. Now the restaurant stayed busy because the food is so cheap, beer prices are good, and there are over fifty televisions to watch sporting events.  The problem is that it will attract the kinds of customers who are usually rather cheap. Also never work on the night of a big sporting event because you will have tables that will sit for three hours and might order just an appetizer and a main course. Another problem is after a few months of working there the food portion sizes went down and some of the few decent regulars noticed that. Another thing regulars noticed was the company started to put the higher ABV beers in smaller glasses. 
Management can be okay when they aren't playing favorites, but they are under heavy pressure because of the parent company that owns Millers. About every 2-3 weeks the parent company sends in secret shoppers to inspect everything with the restaurant. Also management is terrified if someone either writes a complaint to corporate or even fills out a bad survey.  
A positive is that because the restaurant is so big management is very open with your schedule and availability so I can somewhat recommend Millers if you are in school or want it as a secondary job.
In the end you can make decent money for a casual corporate serving job because it does get busy and you will flip tables on non big sport nights, however you will deal with a ton of headaches from both guests and management. Also a lot of late nights because they are open so late.

Working at millers was nothing more than working at an over-hyped IHOP. There is plenty of chances to make decent money but its all dependent on volume. Your section will make you or break you, patio makes a killing 200+( closing), miles you can make 100+ (cut at 10-11 pm), and high tops you can make 140-200 (closing). it all depends on the clientele and when you get cut, if you don't close you don't make good money. Expect to work 5-3 am and sacrifice your sleep for the good tips. You will get stiffed while providing attentive and satisfactory service multiple times a day. Besides the bad tippers, Monday- Thursday When 10 pm happy hour starts your tables will be camped and your check averages will be rough, up-selling will not work on budget eaters. Walk outs are not uncommon here, If a table is generous enough to dine and dash you will get written up, the policy is an insurance against theft but you will be held accountable just as if you did steal. Very hard to get good sections, based on favoritism instead of skill. Lets not get into the kitchen, trust the zingers and nothing else unless you want to eat hotpocket grade food. Some cooks are great some will refuse to make your order when they are weeded, angry, or when you need a remake. Managers have napoleon complex and are very hard to communicate with turning simple situations into hostile altercations due to their defensiveness. Management was often miserable, unreasonable and didn't seem to know basic leadership. Overall, I never have been paid that good to be tormented, if you like to be humored, underappreciated, and neglected, this might be the perfect place for you. Working at millers i learned to never work there again, as far as the most enjoyable part id have to say it was the drive home at 3am.

Managers are indifferent. The GM Omar usually didn't do much other than hang out in the back and talk. He would work the kitchen from time to time but usually during our slower hours. The guy almost never closed and was usually the first of the managers to go home. Support staff manager was something like 22 years old, brand new, and incompetent. Complaints about her writing the schedules were rampant. She lacked store knowledge, dragged her feet when she was needed, and would stand at QA and insist she was busy even if the restaurant was slow and we already had an Expeditor at the window doing his job. In fact, it wasn't uncommon to spot two managers at the window with an expeditor already present and doing his job. I cannot overstate how annoyed the managers get when asked to do....anything. 

One of our bussers died in a car accident and the first thing a key did was make a joke about it the day of in a team meeting. The kitchen manager has been on for months and still has to have his team show him how to do his job. When our GM started making inconsequential changes to the restaurant he felt slighted that nobody seemed to care or tell him what a "great job" he was doing. In an act of pettiness that benefited nobody or anything except his ego he brought it up in a team meeting and stated that he could make life working there worse if he wanted to and that we should be grateful he wasn't doing that. 

Most managers can be caught from time to time out back on their phone. That's fine, we all did it but the GM wouldn't even step out he would just hang out on the line in full view of the customers texting or browsing something completely unrelated to work.

Not recommend. Basically the staff here can be extremely toxic which includes some managers. They just do not care at all about you and will let you go at the drop of a hat. This location has a revolving door of managers who are in training and some of them are really just awful.

THE BAD: managers will shortchange you on your hours, they will not fix mistakes made unless you hound them. You must bother customers to leave you a review else they remove you from the schedule. Favoritism is off the charts. Hostile to newcomers unnecessarily driving them away. Fire people at the drop of a hat. Will schedule you for 5 shifts on one week and then 2 shifts on the next. Expo person is the most toxic coworker I've ever seen in any job... will attempt to get person fired or make them quit which costs many labor hours when new replacement needs to be trained from scratch


THE GOOD: Working to go shifts you can make decent tips. Although some managers and employees are toxic and hostile, especially to newcomers it's unlike anything I've ever experienced, there are others who are definitely cool down to earth and very personable.

SUMMARY: I would steer you away from this place unless you are a teenager who is looking to host or something... the toxicity and favoritism here is in my opinion really detrimental to the business and some managers need to reevaluate the way that they operate. If I was a general manager I would review all decisions regarding hiring and firing if I wanted this business to proceed smoother. Too many hours are wasted training to let people go over nothing.

I would walk in and write a floor plan and look at my labor card an see if any adjustments were needed based on staffing/volume.

Perform a Pre-Shift meeting to iron out any issues we may have had/products we may be low on. Run the actual shift which may involve cooking on the line, bar tending, or expo-ing. I make sure that whatever area in the restaurant that needs my help the most gets my attention to ensure that the customer experience is not affected by any issues that be going on "behind the scenes".

Most important thing I learned working for Miller's is the importance of  being the calming experienced presence when in the middle of the rush. Yelling and panicking will just make everyone else do the same or worse.

I loved working with several of my management teams. However it always seemed that other stores would have problems, and it would constantly be pulled apart.

The culture @ Millers is most certainly one of teamwork but also that of over delivering on expectations. When you run the specials we do, by delivering great service and quality, people are blow away with the value and level of service.

The hardest part of the job is most definitely the most rewarding part as well. Teaching young people to "do the right thing even when nobody is looking". Otherwise known as building Character. Secondly it'd have to be working until 3am and living that late night lifestyle while trying to raise a family.

The Most enjoyable part is that moment in the Character building process when they get it. It Clicks and you realize that you have helped someone learn something that they will take with them for the rest of their lives.

I have never worked for a company that treated their staff so poorly, unless you are one of their "girls"  You get special treatment, can wear whatever you want and pretty much do whatever you want while others are talked down to and belittled for the same thing. I was completely over it. The GM is a good guy, but the 2 older associate managers are very hard to work for. You can't talk to them, you're afraid to approach them with anything, they are consistently rude and demeaning to most employees like I said before unless you're one of their "girls" No one should have to deal with kind of stress at work from their management. You should be able to rely on them and expect that you will be treated with respect when you are spoken to. There's a way to manage and these guys need a reality check. I'm going up the corporate chain because something needs to be done about it. I've talked to many other servers at this location and it seems to be a unanimous agreement about how they feel about the management. It's toxic and worst of all it makes you feel horrible. They expect respect, but absolutely none is given. None. If you plan on working here, expect that you will be talked to like you are worthless and you will not get any support from management staff. I wonder if they realize that it's a pretty open atmosphere and many customers can hear everything being said. It's wrong in every way.

No teamwork among staff and especially the ridiculous number of managers for one establishment. Servers hours and all blame falls on the foh employees. Management speaks to staff disrespectfully. The Bradenton location is killing the reputation the "Ale House" name due to poor management.  For a brand new location it is already filthy due to management not managing staff and seeing that basic cleaning charts are followed.  Although business is slow and most servers are only getting 15 hours a week on the schedule they continue to hire new employees under false promises of hours and hires for one job but places you in another. For example I was hired as bartender and told I had to train as server for one week at first and 5 months later I had never been moved to bar and they promoted 2 employees as well as hired 2 new employees with far less experience for the position I was hired for. They don't pay anything extra to employees who train new employees and have even recently taken away the free shift meal for shift lead employees but continue to add more job duties and schedule less help to adequately give the best service possible to guests. No teamwork what so ever among all staff. 

If you've worked in any other restaurant/kitchen at this level (i.e. corporate owned chain) then you probably know what to expect. Standard recipes to follow, general organization as any other kitchen, and the usual crowd you meet in the field. 

The food is fine, if not a little boring to make, but your overall work experience and level of stress will vary from location to location based on how involved your management is. This can lead to individuals in charge who care for nothing then to look at their phone for 10 hours, clock out, and go home which leads to many issues being unresolved in general in the restaurant. How far standards and order is upheld is completely dependent on which ever random manager you have for the day as well. Further up the chain it's basically an "old boys club" so you don't often see any meaningful supervision or help from the corporate/regional level staff either. 

Overall there's a lot of room for personal growth in the company if you ask and pursue it, but they take no real risks or meaningful change with the food that can lead to complacency in the everyday and each location's overall daily stress varies wildly with who is in charge. Worked with some of the best coworkers I've had and learned a lot along the way, but in the end would say it's just okay and not really a shining company to work for, for long.

Worked here for 4 years, and this place was like high school all over again from day one. Poor management styles, would rather alienate employees then properly correct people. half the staff party, rage, and breed alcoholism, management included the other half mind their business, just dont cross the rager's...  "weaker" FOH members are walking punchlines for the first half the crew/ ragers. Gross to witness, but I was just one of those who minded their business. I didn't acclimate well there just based on the fact that management is aware of gross/abuse behavior but they were in on it too T-T  And were in fact the reason that culture is perpetuated in the first place. I stayed because it one of the best paying restaurants in town, and ignorant people weren't gonna stop my bag. I just did my best and got in where I fit in. 
Because management is petty be prepared to defend yourself and involve corporate if need be. I made it clear, after the first time they crossed me (cause they will try you if your not in the clique (ragers) that i would be recording interactions, and refused private conversations. They were careful ever since, like 2 cowboys preparing to draw, me vs them just waiting to catch the other slipping.  Definitely wasn't healthy....

personally while working here for over nine months, i would never ask for many days off and when i would ask off, the days would get approved and i would tell multiple managers about it but when the schedule would come out, i would be on the schedule on the one day i asked off for. The worst part is that asking your coworkers to cover the shift never worked because no one ever responds when you ask and then its considered YOUR fault for not getting your shift covered, even when you asked off for it in the first place. not a great work environment either, the managers either absolutely hate you and they make that clear, or they really like you and they make that clear too. also for as long as I've worked there, we've had a mask mandate which is fine and all but that also means we have to ask people to wear masks in the restaurant and if there's one thing I've learned from this job, it's that south floridians really don't like to be asked to wear a mask and they will let you know. a lot of people have gotten very confrontational about that and it makes for a very uncomfortable work environment. the only positive i can come up with right now is some of the people that work there have a positive energy but that's not really enough to say this is a good place to work at. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Restaurant manager 203 salaries reported	$67,126 per year
Cook 134 salaries reported	$18.57 per hour
Line cook 28 salaries reported	$18.08 per hour
Server 48 salaries reported	$19.92 per hour
Scheduler 5 salaries reported	$17.30 per hour

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