shift leader

team member

general manager

cashier

restaurant staff

Naf Naf Middle Eastern Grill

I started working at Naf Naf Grill as my first job in the beginning of my senior year. The interview was quick and easy. I was hired within the day, and started within the week. 

The job itself isn’t bad - it’s the typical fast food cashier gig. Take transactions, clean up here and there, take out the trash - simple stuff. I was also cross - trained on the line eventually to serve food. 

My coworkers and boss were friendly, but it’s very clear that management WILL take advantage of you if they can. I was a student balancing demanding sports schedules (6 days a week), academics, and a job all at once. Multiple times I told my boss that I could not work more than 20-22 hours, and multiple times I was scheduled for 30-31 hours in a week. 
I was supposed to leave work at 8 PM. This worked out for me so I had time to do homework and get to bed for school the next day. However, when others didn’t do their closing responsibility and would walk out, I would be left to clean up their mess. Most nights I wouldn’t get out of work until 9-9:30 PM - an entire hour after I was scheduled.
And I want to add that this is NOT a restaurant job where you got cut and didn’t have a specified time to leave. My schedule clearly said my shift would be done at 8, and I would be penalized for leaving at that time, even if all of my work was finished.

Some of the side work, also, I felt was almost a mockery or a clear display of employees taken advantage of. On multiple occasions, I was handed a bucket of warm water and a magic eraser sponge or a rag and told to scrub the floors, and was made to crawl under the stationary booths and tables, because nobody else would do it and I didn’t know how to say no. We had tools to scrub the floors with, like the poles with the brushes on the bottom. I still don’t know why we had to go on our hands and knees and crawl on the floor to clean it.
I was also given a magic eraser and told to scrub the rust off of the back door. Scrub rust off of the door. What?

There was also a case of workplace harassment between a group of girls and I and another coworker, who had since been fired for a different reason than this. This coworker had repeatedly shown predatory behavior, and caused harm to two of us outside of work. When expressing concerns about this coworker, nothing was ever said to him, and it was treated as a gossip topic afterward, completely blowing our concerns to the side. 
I remember one time after he was fired they mentioned seeing him lurking around the back allegedly, and nobody did anything to enforce any safety measures, as far as I was made aware. All we got was a “huh, that’s weird!”.

I quit this job the minute I found something else that worked with my schedule and felt safer.

A typical day of work at NafNaf Grill as a General Manager consists of 3 roles; full time line worker, Managing, and sanitation/dishwasher. 

I learned how to control labor, schedule, control inventory and how to hire/fire employees.

The staff I trained were amazing! I asked so much of them and they worked hard!

The hardest part of my job would be dealing with upper management.  Most District managers work 2-5 stores and come in regularly, which would be fine but the company preaches "relentless criticism" (to better their management?) which is never positive. Also the DM's and Corporate trainers started as hourly employees which is great! But they are not formally trained managers, MOST are verbally abusive, childish, vindictive, unprofessional and misguided in their attempts to HELP there GM's succeed. Every Corporate staff has their own way a store should be, so you can imagine how frustrating it is when you deal with 2 to 3 in a given week, all saying different polices are correct. Their have been 6 General managers in 1 year at my location, that to me says that there is a problem with corporate.  I loved my job as a General manager even when i worked 55+ hours a week and 21 days straight..yes that's right it is extremely common to work your off days every week. And don't bother calling for help, its funny because when you need it everyone is busy, and when your store is running smooth and nicely it is crawling with corporate looking hard for anything to slam you with.

The most enjoyable part of my job was building such a strong team connection with my staff, I've never before seen employees help each other so much without my asking.  

If i could do it again I wouldn't accept any promotion at this time from the company because of upper management.  That said, Most are new and have minimal skills at running multiple stores.  I see a bright future for this company, i just hope they fix their true problem with upper management instead of flipping through GM's to cover their own mistakes.

Hopefully in a couple years time they will have unified policy and procedure and proper upper management.

What is the best part of working at the company?
There is no best part or anything in that company. they have no idea how to properly structure not only the business but also their employees. Everything is a mess. No ones knows anything yet when you are asked to do something 25 other ppl get involved in what your tasks

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part was that they misled me promising me another position with a salary raise for months. They even trained me for that position and the next thing I know is that the "dissolved" the position and they left me with no job, no health insurance, no PTO, no vacation, NOTHING. I worked for them for a year and they left me with no job at 3 weeks of me going back to my country. DO NOT WORK for this company. It's awful.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
There is no culture, no nothing. The company is a mess. Don't waste your time working for these people. The "HR manager" told me how the CEO wanted to fire me way before and how he didn't want to give me a Christmas bonus of $300 and  that he wanted to give me $100 instead. Very unprofessional. Beyond unprofessional. They are very cheap and they won't do as promised. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Run away fro this company. They are a mess and it's not a profitable company so you won't ever get paid well.

One of the things I liked most about working at Naf Naf grill was the broadness of tasks there were to get done everyday. Employees were encouraged to have a sense of 'full responsibility' for the store, no matter if the employee was a manager or a dishwasher. This empowered me to be feel fully accountable for the store, its infrastructure, and its customers. A typical day at Naf Naf Grill would include preparing food for the service line, cleaning the store, restocking food, condiments, and drinks, preparing food-to-order for customers, assessing inventory, and providing the highest quality customer service. All of our crew were accountable, hard workers which really helped in showing the integrity of the store. Everyone was proud to work there. The managers were very involved in the daily tasks of the store which contributed to the family atmosphere of the employees. However, one of the managers was very new and inexperienced and would often make mistakes such as forgetting to give me my paycheck, and not filling the schedule correctly so that we were often short-staffed during the busiest times. This was probably the most difficult aspect of my employment.

Working at Naf-Naf was a delightful experience due to several key reasons that made it a nice and easy place for me. Firstly, the work environment fostered a strong sense of teamwork and camaraderie among colleagues. The management was supportive and approachable, always open to feedback and suggestions, which made communication smooth and effective.

Moreover, Naf-Naf emphasized work-life balance, offering flexible scheduling options that suited my personal needs. This flexibility allowed me to manage my time efficiently and maintain a healthy equilibrium between work and personal life. The company also provided comprehensive training and development opportunities, which enabled me to grow professionally and enhance my skills continuously.

Additionally, the organizational culture at Naf-Naf was inclusive and diverse, creating a welcoming atmosphere where everyone felt valued and respected. The positive energy and enthusiasm among coworkers made each day enjoyable and fulfilling.

Overall, Naf-Naf's commitment to employee well-being, supportive management, and a positive workplace culture made it not just a place to work, but a place where I could thrive and contribute meaningfully.

I was lucky enough to work with an incredible group of people. That would be the one saving grace about this place. Upper management is absolutely awful. You will be micromanaged to death. They don’t trust that employees know how to clean, so they demand you send pictures of floors, toilets, you name it. It is extremely degrading to not only the staff but the management as well. Whenever you reach out to upper management for any form of help expect to receive no help. They are extremely lazy and you’ll still get the blame when things go wrong. If you ever wanted to know what it’s like to work hard and make a corporation the big bucks while you make just enough to scrape by then this is the job for you. Naf Naf claims to be family friendly but you’ll be working every holiday (they actually closed Christmas tho)  they are also very sexist. I am not a disgruntled employee, i enjoyed my job, and my coworkers were the absolute bomb. I am just warning all you innocent people before you decide to work at this place that the upper management will take this ok job and turn it into a horrible nightmare.

Naf is a place that started on an idealistic framework when it came to Philadelphia. The owners were overthrown by other chairs and the culture and liveliness was overthrown as well. It’s very cutthroat, a lot is expected out of you but the pay does not reflect that. A lot of instability in the company that is reflected in the stores as well. I was moved to a different store when I made it clear 3 times to the former DM and GM that I didn’t want to go without some sort of incentive especially when there were others in the same position willing to take it. A lot of bias during promotions. Hours here are crazy during unstable times you can find yourself working 15 hour shifts for days if you find yourself low staffed or vital staff quit. It demands a lot. It’s not a healthy work environment and I wouldn’t suggest it for anyone. $13 for a job of this much rigor is an insult.

Fast paced during lunch rush and on Fridays and weekends. Typically spend my day cleaning / maintaining a clean work environment and welcoming guests.

 One thing is i applied with a lower then average salary and asked for a pay raise after seeing they're hiring for more and they gave me the higher rate. 

I first started doing Frontline. Then I asked to learn more backline which was a fun experience and i could be more reliable for the team. Then they taught me bakery as well (i didn't ask but i don't mind learning more skills) 

Overall a great location , great staff we all respect another, and management is understanding and respectful. 

The hardest part of the job is accuracy for online orders, and prioritizing tasks during rush. 

The whole time I was working here, there were issues between managers, petty arguments translated through third parties, tension during work hours, and lack of discipline and consistency for team members as a result. The place was severely understaffed the entire time I worked there so you always had a dozen roles to play every shift and nearly every shift felt like it was going to be a disaster. They gave employees free food though, which was really nice because it could basically be your lunch and dinner free 5 days a week.

Management is very rude and disrespectful. Constantly belittling you for asking questions. They only give you 1 day of training and expect you to know everything about the restaurant top to bottom. They have HORRIBLE communication skills, management will get angry at you for asking simple clarification questions on how to complete a task. Clique behavior, if they don't like you they will single you out and constantly harass you to and try and get you fired. Honestly the job isn't that hard it's the terrible managers that make it unbearable.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Shift leader 24 salaries reported	$16.91 per hour
Team member 13 salaries reported	$14.25 per hour
General manager 2 salaries reported	$55,500 per year
Cashier 2 salaries reported	$14.00 per hour
Restaurant staff 14 salaries reported	$15.58 per hour

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