assistant manager

associate manager

restaurant manager

general manager

assistant restaurant manager

Pollo Tropical

My managers were the sweetest people ever, but they always understaffed me on Saturdays, especially during the lunch rush. Always!!! I believe out of the 3-4 months I worked there, I can recall two times I actually had real help. When I was a server my job was to take food to the tables, clean tables, transfer dishes, keep up with the teas for the lobby AND drive thru, rotate sauces and keep dining room clean of course with occasionally cleaning the restrooms and windows. When there is no rush, these task are more than enough but manageable. You will literally be on the move from the second you clock in to the second you clock out. No problem, but when the lunch rush hits and you have customers all the way to the door, it gets frustrating when it’s only you. Too many customers complaining about tables not being cleaned as they see me struggling to get big family orders out. The worst part is when they know there are OTHER clean tables they can sit at but still choose to have an attitude. Now when cleaning you have a tiny closet to use to get rid of dishes and silverware and hopefully there’s a dishwasher on the clock or else that’s your job too!! Lol. Maybe I just got caught up with the wrong store at the wrong time but I don’t believe I got paid enough to work that hard. Especially when they have signs at the door that says not to tip us :(

The pollo tropical that i worked at was always packed with customers. And most of the time they had me working in the drive thru, which was the busiest position in the store, and it is very fast paced, im talking constant movement, and a lot of times i was asked to do more outside my job criteria, like prepare the food make sauces and handle the money all at the same time. To make matters worst i worked the evening shift, so whenever i got to my station i was always fresh out of condiments, and it gets worst later in the day past eleven, when we practically ran out of everything on half the menu. To put it simply the amount of work  was not worth the pay, especially if you got bills or tuition to pay. The real save and grace of my job was my coworkers, i got along with most of them, and they pretty much looked after me since day 1. The manager on the other hand always demanded a lot from me although she knew well that i was also a fulltime college student, i was putting in 35hours and up a week, but i didnt really complain too much. I was 19 at the time, i was working there with coworkers who were younger than me and also  in highschoolool and they seemed to handle the job pretty well. And as far as the customers go they can range from pretty respectful and understanding, to straight up stupid or extremely difficult.

This was my first job and it was your typical fast food place. 
Starting off, I did NOT like it at all. First day on the job and my managers just tossed me off to a random co-worker to train me in the middle of a lunch rush. My co-worker was less than pleased to train me and was so grumpy. 
That was most of my co-workers, grumpy and annoyed if you asked them any questions/help. I had to basically learn almost everything on my own. 
Most of the time we were understaffed, managers doing a poor job at making schedules and/or not finding replacements for people who quit the DAY OF WORK. 
Once I got the hang of it, things were smooth, settling into this regular routine of setting up the line, preparing food orders and then eventually waiting for my shift to end. 
Still new employees were left to be trained by other employees. This job had it's perks, mostly being rewarded with a free meal for a good job. Managers are considerate of your scheduling if you talk through with them, though they will ask for extra days due to being understaffed. BUT you have to be careful and look at the schedule as they tend to mess up, quite a LOT.
I would only recommend this place if you're starting off working, or need something quick. It helped me a lot and got me through college. This is not a place I personally would stick around for more than a few years or even consider moving up the corporate ladder.

The job was fairly easy at Pollo Tropical. I was a cashier, so all I had to do was make sure the orders were right, cash was given back correctly, and help out with small stuff around the restaurant. My coworkers were awesome! I loved the people that I worked with, I had no problems at all. Some of the managers (maybe 3) were cool, some weren't. The general manager was cool in the beginning because it was a brand new restautant. As time went on, she just turned bipolar for no reason at all. There were times I got yelled at, and everyone knows that I was one of the best cashiers there! I may not had a perky smile all the time, but I still treated everyone with RESPECT! If I felt like I was getting disrespected, you were going to see it. I held my tounge for the longest between customers and management. When I was about to snap on the whole restautant, I knew it was my time to go because I couldn't stand the fact of how I was being treated. Oh not to mention, I ended up failing all my fall semester classes due to this same restaurant who couldn't schedule me around my school schedule, after informing them numerous times. If I were you, DON'T work at Pollo Tropical on San Jose Blvd in Jacksonville, FL. Everyone who I worked with will tell you the same thing as well.

•typical day here is clocking in, counting your register and doing everything that’s not in you job description and still getting paid only 8.50. 
•what I learned here was patience because LORD those customers can be so rude. that and spanish, I picked up alooot of spanish that’s probably the only thing useful. 
•management: completely horrible, they only care about money so you dropped soda cups? pick em up and give them out. dropped sauce cups? as long as the customers didn’t see you, use them. OH AND THE CHICKEN LOL. they keep the chicken breasts in a drawer at the bottom, above the floor. when the grill guy has to throw them in there and MISSES and the chicken falls on the FLOOR, they just put it back in the drawer like nothing happened.
•workplace culture: I mean the people who weren’t managers and let the “power” get to their head were pretty cool. very friendly and caring. 
•hardest part of the job: working drivethru when it’s suuuuper busy and customers are getting hella rude and in arguments and the managers complain about the time when they’re nowhere to be found when you need them for the computer that needs they’re approval for literally everything. 
•the most enjoyable part of the job: leaving.

It's not a horrible job when it comes to the actual work. The actual work is pretty easy and average for a fast food restaurant.  It's just the workload, unreliability of coworkers, rude/obnoxious customers, corporate policies that are obscure or with goals that are hard to achieve, and the irresponsibility of management that makes this job difficult. Corporate is always changing things that makes it very inconvenient for the employee. Adding menu items with unnecessary ingredients, removing menu items suddenly resulting in verbal abuse from customers, removing drink machines and condiment bars, etc. The managers are only responsible maybe half of the time. They notoriously underschedule, overwork, and underpay. 

I can't really call this on the company as a whole, I would potentially be open to coming back but my specific location was way too much to handle. The building itself was messed up and we had no AC, in the middle of June in the south so that was a root cause of everyone having bad attitudes in there. Then, we were so ridiculously understaffed it would be 2-3 people (including a manager) working a night shift and washing dishes was a nightmare bc they don't use standard restaurant dishwashers. I was complacent with my 300$ a week check because this job, for me, was just my side job I was working to help me buy a new car but I couldn't deal with that environment after a certain incident. The job itself was pretty easy, it was fun for me because I never worked on a line making food, and it could pay you a lot if you had the time and were willing to put your energy into this company, I unfortunately, was not. Also, everyone at my particular location was forever sick and I could not be around that.

I started as a front cashier/ assembly line worker. The work on the front cash register is by far the easiest since it doesn't hold as many responsibilities as the other positions, and the cleaning duties during the night shift are quite minimal. However, I got transferred to drive thru because most of the drive thru cashiers left within 2 months. I hate working in drive thru. The position is supposed to be for 2 people, and 2 people that assemble the food, but to cut cost the make one person do the drive thru cash, while the other person makes the food. Drive thru cashiers have an incredible amount of pressure, they don't get any breaks, and they have to package about hundreds of sauces by the end of their turn. This company focuses on exploitation of workers in order to make a profit. Recently the prices have gone up in most items by 10-20 cents, but our wages remained the same as if they were carved in stone. Overall, the only factor that I found pleasant was my co-workers, and how flexibly it was with my schedule.

I’ve been working as a cashier for about a month and I am constantly yelled at by my coworkers, belittled by customers and overall have had a miserable time here. They say you get 50% off a meal each shift, but that discount is only good up to $10 dollars, so the most off is $5. Unless you also speak Spanish, you will struggle being at the cash register, I constantly have to ask someone else to translate for me. I have also been working the lunch shift by myself and am expected to keep the front fridge stocked, garbage empty, sauce bar full and clean and also work the register. Every shift there is a least a 1 1/2 - 2 hour period were I do NOT leave the register at all, and then get told off for the lobby being a mess OR I attempt to clean the lobby and the line is out the door. The only bonus is the GM seems to understand my availability and has worked very well with my schedule, but I am sorry to say I won’t be working here much longer.

Working for Pollo Tropical,
On the average day i would deal with hundreds of clients, countless orders, handled cash and credit card transactions, ensured quality and accuracy of food order, and maintained a fully stocked and clean work station. 

I learned that the job isn't difficult if you apply yourself, carry a can do attitude and handle customers professionally. I also learned how to manage under a time restraint with accuracy and efficiency. 

Management can be both strict and lenient, they strive for employee synchronization. Look for leaders. 

 The hardest part would definitely be working around fellow co-workers. Working mostly nights, i dealt with not having enough food to serve to customers. This is a frequent occurrence in almost every Pollo. Specific to the grill. As drive-thru cashier i would do my best to work around it, offering what we do have or what is a short wait but it is very stressful when an upset customer drives up disappointed we dont have what they came for ready.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
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