shift leader

team member

cook

shift manager

assistant manager

Popeyes Restaurants

While I was employed at this location, it was okay at first. There is a lot of work required for each person to do, because they were short staffed almost every single shift. There is a lot expected of the crew, but the pay is minimal for what is expected. You were held to a stringent standard and time guidelines, but would not have the staff present to allow it, whether it was because their terrible staffing matrix, or because of the high call out/turn around rate. There were literally multiple times when it was JUST the manager and myself for several hours. He would have to cook the chicken, run the drive through, pack drive through orders, make sandwiches, and fulfill management duties and I would run the counter, pack FOH orders, run orders out, make sides and biscuits, butter biscuits, stock food boxes, etc, make drinks/sandwiches and keep the lobby presentable- and we were still expected to uphold the strict standards, even without proper support staff to allow for it. The team I worked with worked well together; we were like a family, one customer said like a “well oiled machine”- despite always being short staffed. The only thing that was enjoyable was my crew and some of the customer interactions. I learned that upper management could not be counted on for anything. Our manager reached out to upper management repeatedly for advice and further training on tasks he was required to do but never received training for, but nobody would ever respond to his requests. He would also work at other locations occasionally and there wouldn’t be any chicken on hand AT ALL. This was at the request of the district manager, who said she’d handle this location; but then he’d get in trouble a couple days or weeks after, for things that happened when the DM was “handling” this location.  You are literally just a number here, upper management doesn’t care about staff AT ALL. The GM was supposed to have a day off (which never happened because the terrible staffing) in exchange for working at the other location for the DM the week before, but he realized the DM would be opening alone with no cook or anything, so he went to help out (on his own). She allowed him to set up the entire kitchen area, and start to cook the chicken m, which took a couple of hours, and as soon as he got done HELPING HER, she fired him! GM is a salaried position, so he literally gained nothing from going to help, he was just being kind, so she wouldn’t be struggling to open by herself. When the manager was fired, every single crew member and shift manager quit before the week was over, except 2. Since then business seems to have declined dramatically. I returned once to pick up a delivery order, and the new staff was ghetto and unprofessional, and didn’t seem to have any idea what they were doing. And- of course- they were under staffed. I’d stay away if I were you!! 

Some managers can be very rude and call you on your days off and get upset if you turn them down. I managed to see some favoritism in the place but it was stressful to deal with customers who would be rude and treat you poorly. Management has alot to improve and jobs should be divided equally among the people running the establishments. I don't know about many popeyes but I know the one I worked for it was complicated. I highly advice to own a vehicle...you might always leave at midnight or 2 am depending on where you are located and working long shifts while barely ever having a break and alot of customers whom take their angers from things that you aren't aware of on you isn't nice. Popeyes is for the toughest of people... fast food in general isn't for the weak. The job itself isn't the hardest part... is the customers whom act always entitled over 30$ or more or sometimes even less than that and just because they paid their orders or even they are in front of you they act poorly towards you and have no shame, they will indeed be rude and not expect you to defend yourself or anything and if you do? It would result into a worse situation... some clients would be violent over small things.. you must be prepared to always receive rudeness from managers and from customers, to be treated poorly while you are there working long hours and minimum wage. Some customers are nice and respectful, you will cherish them a bit more while having a hard day, same thing with great managers.Having a life of your own? Careful.. some managers don't respect that on your day off. If this would help any cashier... I tell them.. "the customer is always right in matter of taste" meaning that the customer has the right to buy something even if it is unappealing.... not right as of treating you bad. No matter what... the customer isn't right to treat employees bad... their only right is to purchase food in the fast food and or to complain over the food but not to treat you less than respectfully. Don't believe the short version of the quote that says the customer is always right... it is very misleading unless you read the full quote that indeed makes sense. Some managers are nice to work with. Honestly I'm not saying popeyes is the worst place to work for... I strongly believe that every fastfood has its own mayor challenges, and I know that working in a fastfood isn't easy but if every fastfood chain could simply be alittle more kinder to its employees, I think every fastfood chain would improve.

(I worked at the Popeyes in Stratford CT this may not apply to all stores) Over all i felt like i was running the store my self as the manager was never to be seen and 2/3 coworkers that i had basically played on their phones all day. First thing first my id which was required to scan in so i could mark what hours i was there for i didn't get for almost a month so i was being manually signed in by the manager who i still do not believe i was getting my hours fully out in as the pay i received did not match the hours and after getting my id there was a noticeable rise in the pay (about $20-25ish per check we were payed every Friday and i was never given the regional managers number or anyone i could talk to about this i had to find that out on my own). The training was a joke i was showed one time how to use the cash register by a lady who wasn't from our store who went through the whole thing in about 30sec she started a fight with the cook attempted to fire him until regional manager told her no then left and i never met her again. I was never showed where any of the cleaning supplies were i needed to find them on my own. Even after asking my coworkers it took me a whole shift to find them as i had to help customers at the same time. I had to learn how to refill the soda machine myself it took me about 10 min just to figure out how to open it which was a digital touch pad where the  button was hidden on the screen so no one could see it or press it unless they knew where it was. The only co-worker i had really help was the cook manager never did her job except one time after getting yelled at by the regional manager. (she was also fired after i was let go) Hours were bad and spread out i had to do the work of 3 people as the cook was the only one working. (drive through would take her orders but never fill them so i had to even when i had lots of people inside the girl in back never did her job of bringing the cook the food he needed to cook or making the bread/potatoes because "the freezer was too cold") In the months i worked there i never once had a break or lunch. i would work shifts like 9-5 or 6-4 depending on if we got food shipments.(which the night crew would just stack on the floor not even inside the freezer so when i walked in the first think i had to do was move it to the freezer sometimes already thawed out and then sort it alone.

Typical days here are enjoyable; you open up, make sure inventory is accurate and shifts are in order. Always use the computer in the morning and set the registers, and when the store open, I have to be sure to give breaks at the proper time and cut hours when needed. I also have to make sure food is promptly prepared for our customers and when complaints are made I handle them swiftly and to both parties satisfaction.

I've learned many useful tools, such a management skills, how to be aware and alert of our surroundings, and how to be thorough. It also taught me that when doing a team task you're only as strong as your weakest player, it's very important to be stern when needed but speak in professional manner when dealing with employees. I've also learned that processes make a huge difference when running a shift; who's going to be where, what are their strengths what are their weaknesses, and how we can, as a team, make up for them. 

My initial manager was amazing, she taught me processes, how to order, and how putting to the bottom line is important. Higher levels of management was iffy, and some other stores that you could get transferred don't necessarily instill the same sort of processes that I've worked with. Other managers and supervisors seems to care more about them selves than the business; so I wasn't into going anywhere else then the store I was initially assigned too.

The workplace is as fun as you make it; for me, I try to keep the mood light , it makes the day fly by. Customers will be more friendly, and workers will have a stronger morale. As long you offer rewards every now and then, and don't be such a stick in the mud, then the culture comes natural. 

The hardest part about the job, I can't really say. When the process is there, then shifts run smooth as butter. Even someone were to call out, it's not too hard to cover the missing spot by yourself; and even if we struggle a bit, the labor percentage goes down so I always get a positive out of it. The hardest thing might being covering a shift and pulling a double back to back; that can take a toll on a body. The most enjoyable thing is when you give your food to a customer and they're truly satisfied with a smile on their face.

This is definitely a good first job, even a job where individuals may be excited to gain working experience with food, and maybe even management experience as well.

Wanted a job to make some money on the side during college, so I thought I would give this a try. Starting pay was $8.50/hr so not too bad for my first job. 



When I became a more established employee, I rotated between duties every other shift, from taking drive thru orders to front lobby, and making drive-thru orders to front lobby orders. Basically, you kind of had to learn how to do everything. Can become quite stressful on busy days. Also the basic jobs that every employee has to do, like cleaning the service line, lobby, bathrooms, taking out the trash, helping with opening/closing.

The GM at the time of my hiring was very friendly and welcoming, almost made me believe that this particular fast-food job was decent. That was somewhat true, until the old GM had to move for reasons I am not aware of.



Then the new GM came along, and that's when the job became WORSE than it already is. He was bearable initially but then I started to realize his true nature. He is such a rude and manipulative P.O.S. and I am pretty sure EVERYONE there hated him, even the other assistant managers. My schedule was changed without my permission and the GM refused to change it from 5 days/week to 4 days/week. This is one of the main reasons why I quit.


In my experience working with him, he can be rude and really petty to customers. He also is clearly biased towards (and against) certain customers.


After four months, I already wanted to quit, so I talked to the GM and he hit me with the "Aw come on, why you wanna quit?" and "Come on, I need you to stay here" to try to get me to feel bad for leaving. Since I'm such a nice guy, this almost worked, but after talking to the assistant managers and co-workers, I made up my mind to quit. 


Now you may be asking, if the job was that bad, why not give it a one-star? The only reason I gave my experience a 2-star review is because of the people there. Besides the GM, everyone there was very nice, chill, and they eventually became easy to talk to. This is quite the accomplishment considering I am introverted. The assistant managers seemed initially strict but I realized they genuinely cared about their job and their employees. They were great people overall.

If you have a family or friends that you care about or care about you, love weekends and weekdays off, hate working too much or too hard, no integrity or energy, unable to handle work stress, hate being called to go in on your days off, hate staying overtime or till closing time, failure or refusing to listen to your managers, anti-social with your coworkers, education as a #1 priority, and become envious of your favorited coworkers by your managers, then working at Popeyes is NOT for you. 

A regular day at work would be to make sure customers are happy and welcomed during and after. If it's not busy or if it's during rush hour, we usually keep the lobby and restrooms clean. When it's closing time, everyone works as a team to get the restaurant clean and to make sure everything is properly stocked in the lobby. I learned a lot when working here such as hard work feels rewarding and that these skills will help with future opportunities at other restaurants and other positions. Coworkers cheer me up with their jokes and encourage to keep you going throughout the days.
The hardest parts of the job was being very busy during rush hours because you have to constantly serve customers their orders without any error otherwise it would hold the up line and to keep the lobby as clean as possible especially with cooking during rush hour. If there were angry customers, we would happily replace their meals and avoid confrontation with them even if they were using profanity and being verbally abusive.

Now the most enjoyable part of the job is being challenged although the challenge loses it's charisma in the next 2-3 months working at Popeyes. Other enjoyable parts of the job were discounted meals during 30-minute lunch breaks.

Even though there is no benefits for part-time, no raises or promotions after 6 months, overtime, working on your days off, and poor management, this would be a great place to start at because in the end the experience will pay off. You do get raises and promotions, but after 1 year or more working at Popeyes.

I can't claim that this entire corporation is terrible, but the location I was at was pretty bad.
 Other than my experience working there, I had recently gone there to eat with a friend and witnessed the manager (not the same manager who was there when I was employed there) speaking to a customer -who appeared to be elderly- in a very unprofessional and rude manner (yelling and being condescending) whilst holding a package of cigarettes (I'm not saying an adult shouldn't be allowed to smoke, but she should at least try to show some class). Later on, I asked one of the workers a simple question- and it wasn't an annoying or pretentious question- and she had answered it in a very condescending and intense way. A way that made me feel regretful about asking her a question.

To summarize the short time I worked there: 
- I was kept there 4 or 5 hours after my shift was supposed to end and during those hours, I was doing tasks that weren't even part of my job.
- I was thrown into doing things I wasn't at all trained for on the spot and during a rush: My first day working there they had me on the cash register all by myself and I knew nothing about the menu or how the register functioned. 
-The managers promoted smoking to their underage employees by giving them cigarettes, allowing them smoke breaks, and smoking with them.
-They did not give me any breaks during my 9 hour shifts except a 5 minute one for smoking (I was a minor and didn't even smoke), when I was supposed to have a 15 minute lunch break. 
- My co-workers  would constantly use offensive slurs in front of customers (like 'r*t*rd'), and they would all-around just not care about behaving professionally.
- I was never told how much I was making, and neither was anyone else that I talked to.
- Sometimes there was literally only 3 people scheduled, other than the manager. What we were required to accomplish in one day was way too much for us to do.
- Some of the employees were relatively unhygienic. I noticed one of the boys who battered the chicken had really long and dirty fingernails.

If anybody from this location sees this, I'm not sorry. You need to make that place less trashy or find a better job.

The store branch that I worked in was near my location and they allowed me to be flexible with my time availability. The tasks assigned in the store were pieces of cake and I was glad to have learned them immediately. After a few months of entering in the workplace and gaining experience, I never knew that a lot of things were about to unfold. I learned a lot from my interactions with different people and customers. It was a meaningful experience that opened my eyes to the reality of the world. There were good, patient customers and there were also rude and bad people. 

What really turned me off as a worker was when I realized that there was poor management in our area and the superiors seemed to be having conflicts with one another.  Two of my well-respected managers left the workplace because they were not able to negotiate for better pay and working environment. There was not even a vacation leave pay for them that the managers were burned out to death, covering shifts for the whole week. The managers in our store then were quite aging and they still needed to support their families. They felt that they were being mistreated by the superiors because they could not keep up with their demands. The management is also complaining about the high food costs and work pay. I was even perplexed that they valued profits more than their workers' well-being and health. These were not the only problems but I could not elaborate more.

As a result, I was more influenced by the stressful environment and the number of employees leaving in our store. I felt that I was only coming for my shift to fill the void of someone working there . I missed them because I felt much comfortable with them.  Nowadays, it has become weirder because the higher-ups are trying to solve the problem by sending people in our store to fill the gaps in shifts. New people came and I was not vibing with them. Unfortunately, the general manager is left to fend for the lack of workers and managers. I am still working there but I am taking fewer days of work in order to focus on enhancing skills for college. 



I love working for Popeye's Chicken. I jumped ship from KFC to join the Popeye's team because the work culture at KFC was greatly suffering. The KFC I worked for was part of a franchise company, and once the Popeye's starting opening in the Indianapolis market, KFC started losing a lot of business. I understand that when the company starts to lose money, certain cutbacks will have to be made,  but the amount of hours and time that KFC required me to work as a salaried manager, running two stores simultaneously an hour apart from each other, without any sort of thank you or appreciation, became to much to handle. 

Once I joined the Popeye's team, I could see an immediate change in the work atmosphere. Popeye's has actual training procedures in place to make sure everyone is on the same page. The company treats their employees better than any company I've ever worked for. They go as far as to offer bonuses to their regular crew members as well as management. They help pay for business related schooling for anyone with the company. And they also provide (really good)insurance packages (mine are better than my mother's and she has worked for Anthem for 30 years)! After the terrible snow storm came through and we were forced to stay closed for two days, they even gave their managers snow pay to make up for the hours lost. It was clear once I started working for Popeye's that they do all they can to take care of their employees and truly believe that if they treat us right, then we will treat our guests right everyday in our restaurants, and I can see that is true no matter which store I visit.

The actual work side of the job is fairly easy. Obviously, there are procedures and policies in place that have to be followed, and I know as management that stick to those policies pretty tightly, but they do not ask too much of any of their employees. There is plenty of money so plenty of hours to be earned. We have at the slowest times, 8 crew members plus management on the clock. This is way up from the 1 person plus myself working at KFC on some days.

Management were a select few that are alright, many of the new hires quit no less than two weeks once they see things are not as easy as they expected you get hired for one position eventually you end been trained for each role & expected to cover each one if understaffed or people decide to walk out mid rush hour, overtime is literally nothing unless you were slaved away in more than you should have. Benefits are non-existent unless you persistently ask about it & ONLY if you qualified regardless of your time working at the location, if your things get stolen don't bother even reporting it most of management know who it is, but won't do much to upset the owner of the locale, prepare to be told half truths & lied a bunch to get you take more.hours than you should cause people who tend to apply treat it the less work they do the better, training gets shoved to whomever has magically lasted there the longest & of in a good mood, if too many mistakes then management shifts in.. pay rise is a joke, they hired the newcomers to whatever they raised yours only to end abandoning ship. Prepare to be screamed in front of customers by management, cooks fighting for the stupidest thing & those that do work cause they have no other options just stressing over all. One time for a Christmas gift certificate to spend within the establishment from the owner it got discounted from the own employee's checks, cute isn't it? ..just do what you must & your part,  clock in & clock out only way to survive. If you have personal emergency or medical emergency, its on you I'd they dismiss you.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Shift leader 270 salaries reported	$14.76 per hour
Team member 815 salaries reported	$11.63 per hour
Cook 667 salaries reported	$11.87 per hour
Shift manager 999 salaries reported	$14.22 per hour
Assistant manager 186 salaries reported	$17.06 per hour

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