restaurant manager

kitchen team member

cashier

entry level manager

line cook

PDQ - People Dedicated to Quality

They lure you in with talk about growth potential, bonuses, and emphasis on “people.” By the time you’re out of MIT you realize this is all a lie. 
Starting salary is 35k for all incoming MITs. They’ll make up some “target bonus” number to get you interested. Usually between 40-48k but they fail to mention that if your store is not meeting specific sales, labor, profit, etc. goals, your checks will always reflect closer to the 35k while the work load remains the same. 
Managers are expected to close 3 nights a week. This is almost always a 12p-11:30p deal and it gets very draining after a while especially if you have a family or any aspect of a social life. I’ve worked places where managers are supposed to be available for up to 55-60 hours a week, but never one where you’re actually scheduled for it. As a PDQ manager you WILL be scheduled a minimum of 55 hours a week. If there are any meetings or directionals on your days off, you will also be expected to attend those. 
Vacation time (two weeks a year) sounds nice, but good luck getting them to approve the time off. They are stretched thin across my area for managers and finding coverage is near impossible. Either you end up losing your vacation (hours do NOT roll over) or screwing over your fellow management team who will have to work 7-10 days straight until you get back. 
Your operating director (the equivalent of a GM) will probably be a male in their mid 20s that’s been working for the company pretty much since they opened. Kind of a grab bag with how your OD will be. The ones I’ve met have ranged from hardworking and dedicated to lazy and downright rude. Your ODs attitude and management style will make or break the store you’re at. My store, unfortunately, has not had a strong operating director and the restaurant has suffered for it. 

Honestly, if you’re looking to get into fast food management (they hire pretty much anyone with basic management experience) it is not the worst job in the industry. Hours are long, expectations are high, and pay is low for what you will be doing but it’s a steady gig where the IS room for growth if you really want to go out of your way to make that happen. For me, I didn’t think it was worth the effort and I will be moving on as soon as I find something else.

I don't know if it was my specific location or the company itself, but every day working here felt worst than the last. I wish I could explain everything wrong. Staff care about sanitation abt 50% of the time. Would sometimes get mad at me for cleaning properly. Use BLEACH to clean the grill tops. Food turned mostly packaged since the restaurant's inception, all sauces are not made in house anymore, there's a dusty unused fry cutter in the back. From the open kitchen you could see a sign that says "no microwaves ever," and from the same position see two microwaves under the counter, but are called "steamers" so customers don't know chef mike is making their "steamed" broccoli and heating up their corn. Frozen corn, canned beans, frozen fries and tots, sauces and lettuce come precut or premade, in bags. At LEAST 30 lbs of chicken or food waste that is thrown away daily. Steam tables always nasty. You're lucky to get a fresh made anything, most food made in advance and hot held for way longer than should be. Watched a kitchen manager take almost 3 hrs to take a ServeSafe exam with both the staff and the manager of the restaurant's help, and a packet of answers, it's not a hard test if you know what you're doing in the kitchen. Was told I could come back after I get out of school or I need to decide if "work or school activities is more important." The school activities  they referred to was my advance notice of not being able to work upwards or 30 hrs a week (in high school, which was 30 mins away, without a car yet) when I had marching band and academic team bc of practices and competitions. Wish I had quit before that "firing" (which I never got severance pay or really anything saying I didn't work there anymore, just a 3 minute sit down "meeting" w the manager) bc the kitchen I work in now makes me realize how bad it was here. Good first job to get out of as fast as possible but still have something to write on your resume.

I started working FOH when I was 16 over the summer, and it started off fine. However, the management purposefully understaffs, so while you’re scheduled to work a 6 hour shift as a cashier, you’re actually staying 7 hours and working 3 shifts at once. While on shift, I had to be a cashier, busboy, and handle drive-thru, only earning minimum wage. Management expects your part time job to be a priority over family, school, and yourself. A few of my classmates would skip school simply because they got scheduled to work and if you call off, you’re asking to get fired. I also not ONCE received a paystub, even though I asked repeatedly. I would work 29 hour work weeks and I got paid biweekly, yet my paychecks never exceeded $300 (58 x $8.25 = $478.5). I’m aware taxes get taken out, but almost 40% worth every paycheck? Some employees who are minors are instructed to skip their breaks aswell, and then management goes back in and enters a 30 minute “break” on your time card, meaning you aren’t even getting paid for the extra work. Overall it’s a very sketchy place to work. You’re expected to work 3 jobs at once, and don’t even make minimum wage. Just find another job!!!

Easy, easy, job that is made into high school by the people. Incompetence in management, no one listens to each other, and would rather gossip.

Management also does not promote from within without setting unattainable standards. 

If you're looking for your first job with your buddies in high school, this will be the perfect place for you. Until you decide that it's below you, because asking people what they want to eat and ringing it in just seems like it's really past youngers these days. I can see why, but if it's a stepping stone, why make it so difficult?

Overall, I have enjoyed my time with PDQ. They are a newer company and therefore are still trying to figure out there place in the market and how best to run the stores, so things have changed often. In my opinion, the staff is over-managed where unnecessary, but more importantly, under-managed where it counts. 
The staff of most high schoolers and young adults have far  too many opportunities to slack off and be lazy, and not contribute to the overall success of the store. This places the burden heavily upon those who are actually willing to work, which an individual tends to tire of over time. 
That being said, however, they do attempt to keep a generally upbeat and happy environment going on. One can often have fun at work, and management does try their best to help situations in any way they can. 
The fact of the matter is just that there seems a growing immaturity and lackadaisicalness among the young staff which, to me, makes it difficult to work there for very long if one wishes to see the store succeed.

Management is a disgrace. Shift leaders are the only thing that works in that place. The current operating director and managers are selfish, imprudent, and negligent. That place is always understaffed or in need of actual GOOD workers because management always fire the good ones OR because they hire terrible workers and finally realize their mistake. Favoritism is a major problem at Hickory PDQ. Once you suck up to management, you can pretty much do WHATEVER you want. Management will threaten to fire you, constantly change your schedule after it being posted for the week, under-appreciate you, and find any little thing to complain to you. Nobody is your friend there, there is too much drama once management gets involved. Current workers there will not admit it but it is true. Until that place gets a better Operating Director and managers, I wouldn't waste my time working with a bunch of pathetic people. Do yourselves a favor and find a job that appreciates your work ethic and that gives you raises for that and make sure that they actually give you a raise unlike this place.

PDQ  was a fun environment when you first start. Team members were easy  to work with at times. I felt like I was working in THE REAL WORLD (found out what happens when people stop being poilte and start getting real). Management didn't allow breaks, not even a 15 min break, yet managers found the time to make sure they all took a break and ate, wait you got a 2 min break to hydrate. Managers would often encourage you to push pass your physical braking point, this is phyiscally impossible to do if you dont hydrate and refuel the body. The owners only cared about sales and making money.  Management was always right, and would often blame employees for varies things. Managers had no respect for employees and backed each other up if they are wrong or right. Once the managers became frustrated the whole environment would change. They way they spoke to employees with such disrepect, and tried to justify it by blaming the employees for mistakes, this made me sick to my stomach. Commuincation was a serious issue also.

When structure and training are done right, the day is always fun and predictable. The people often times work here because of the team building and fun environment. The employees are often treated with respect and dignity. I learned valuable lessons in team building and structured days. The hardest part of working here is that you don't get time for yourself let alone your family. Forget making connections with people who you don't work with daily. The enjoyable part of this job is that it is an entry level job and you can help to build someone up to be a good employee or even a leader in future positions. Many of the bad qualities of this job is that manager's are expected to always be on call for their job and that includes time off. There is almost no vacation time, no PTO days, and no sick days. In a job handling food this is an oversight. Many employees work paycheck to paycheck and a loss of even one day can put great strain on them.

Getting a job there was pretty easy so the coworkers were very interesting and came and went pretty fast. We did not have a lot of people working in the kitchen so we all got a decent about of hours but if someone got sick or had an emergency everything is thrown off and it's not fair. They are always calling you in or if you hit overtime they send you home no matter what and deal with being understaffed. We were always understaffed and it was awful and not fair at all. Management did not have a problem with it because they assume that who ever they would call in would come and fix it but that's unnecessary stress and a work environment should not make you have to come in when you werent scheduled in the first place. Just very unorganized and management is always changing so no one knows what's going on. They also ask you to do a lot for the little amount of pay you get. Other than that it was alright.

The management used favoritism a lot and didn't offer raises or do reviews on a regular basis.  If you were a hard worker, they took advantage of that.  They had you do your job and others while the managers sat down watching.  The atmosphere became unbearable under the most recent manager that was assigned to the store I worked at.  They had managers that were in relationships with other employees with is against their policies.  This included one who was dating a minor.  So those in the "clique" got to get away with not actually working hard or doing all of their tasks.  It would get passed on to someone else who worked hard, while they talked and played on their phones.  I would not recommend working here at all.  In the beginning it seems so great but once you have been there for a month or so, they start showing who they really are, how you will be treated, etc.  It is really sad, actually.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Restaurant manager 34 salaries reported	$19.64 per hour
Kitchen team member 31 salaries reported	$15.45 per hour
Cashier 1 salary reported	$11.00 per hour
Entry level manager 2 salaries reported	$19.75 per hour
Line cook 29 salaries reported	$15.45 per hour

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