cashier

cook

team member

restaurant staff

restaurant manager

Portillos

What is the best part of working at the company?
One of my favorite things was interacting with the team and help them be successful in what they do. I was fortunate to develop great relationships and also learn so much from a few key people from leadership.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
It was hard to know what set of standards you were walking into from day-to-day. Especially after a leadership change, there was no clear expectations laid out consistently, expectations fluctuated from being laxed one day and a iron hand the next. 

This was in part due to poor choice of a new General Manager who didn't understand all the moving parts to Portillo's and it was very obvious in scheduling, onboarding, training, and maintaining Portillo's standards. 

This unease also added to a more tense work environment as their stressed showed daily and unfortunately was directed towards the team. It was hard to keep seeing key players walk away due to the deterioration of management and lack of accountability.

It became a tipping point for me when due to poor decisions made from executives in Chicago, kept failing to adapt to their outer markets. Though they kept building more stores and oversaturating DFW, leading to low sales and unrealistic labor margins. Which led to restructuring to leadership team sizes and refusal to allow me to transfer to a store closer to where I live unless I take a demotion, regardless of my tenure and consistently meeting or exceeding expectations. I already opened up my availability more even though I am pursuing a degree, that I was hoping to poor back into Portillos, to be threatened with demotion regardless. Although poor performing Team Lead Trainers and Manager's face zero accountability, and if they do, the accountability bus moves at a snails pace. 

Incredibly frustrating, especially when your all-stars see that and leave or your poor performers know there isn't any consequences which gives you very little opportunity or impact to coach.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
In the beginning it was very supportive of growth and development. Towards the end it was chaotic, grasping to save $$ due to poor upper leadership decisions, and no longer viewing their teams as people to invest and develop- just as replaceable numbers.

They try to change their culture but it has to come from the top.  When a member of your family has a medical issue family should be there to help.  This company only is a family when you can do something for them.  Work an extra day, help out at another store etc then they make you feel guilty if you can’t but when something happenes to you and you need your company family to be family they fail.  They over work you, they belittle you, they have unrealistic expectations.  They make managers work until 1:30 am then drive 45 min home then come back to work at 10 am.  They don’t care about their employees or managers one bit.  If they cared a little I would still be there but they don’t.  Durning Christmas which is the biggest time of the year the stupid company decided to cut all overtime which caused service to suffer and the customer service score to fall very low but they wanted to hold managers accountable for the scores going down.  Duh...  Also the company is very understaffed company wide.  No one wants to work there.  With that being said they decided to cap the hiring rate at $11:50 an hour.  We were not allowed to hire any higher then that.  What kind of employees can you get for $11.50 an hour????? Kids right?  But kids can’t work until 1 am.  So managers had to run the store late night as there were never enough employees but yet the company kept making cuts and service keeps getting killed and they get made at store managers and fired so many people because of there own stupid decisions.  Also we could not get more employees because no one wants to work in a crazy busy environment for $11.50 an hour so they blame the store for them being understaffed.  The fact is that the managers hands were tied.  If you are an experienced manager Like I am you will not put up with that like I didn’t.  The only managers that work there now are managers who can’t get a job anywhere else.  All the managers feel the same way as I do but are afraid to speak up because of being fired.  Not a good environment at all.  If you get a job here you will regret it.  Trust me.  I worked there for 8 loyal years and they did not care about me one bit and my medical issue I had.  

The caring, close, fun, and family-like atmosphere of Portillo's and all the employees and managers is something I will never take for granted. There was always room for flexibility in my work schedule around school, family, and my own health. Co-workers were always willing to help each other out and everyone who showed respect, received it. 

Although there are many aspects I can praise about this company, after 6+ years of employment, I can honestly say there is much room for improvement. Everyone that regularly worked at one location was helpful to one another, but as a company there was no room for advancement. After seriously and diligently expressing my interest in seeking job advancement, I was repetitively met with "maybe", "we'll see", "Let's see how you do.", and eventually "We don't have any room for advancement within the company." With my knowledge of the company and willingness to learn even more to better our company, I felt my skills were being extremely underutilized. 

Most importantly, the training process for new employees and the cross-training programs for current employees are inconsistent and vague. Not surprisingly, as a restaurant, Portillo's has a high turnover rate. In my experience working there, this is because employees receive rushed training. People would quit due to the fast-paced work and not having the skills to keep up. Every one of the cashiers I have trained appreciated my helpful advice and constructive criticism as they were learning the complex short hand and abbreviation of the store. Often, a couple days of one hour meetings were immediately followed by throwing a new employee in a position without any one to go to when they understandably had a question, or were uncertain of how to answer a guest's question. I believe in order to satisfactorily serve the guests, the guest service employees not only need to be trained on etiquette, but be given the tools they need to succeed.

Management is a joke, They expect for their employees to be fully dedicated to their company, without having other priorities (like school, a second job, even sick days). After a year, you don't get a week for vacation, you get HOURS of vacation. After working for them an average of 35 - 45 hours a week for two years, I only received 15 hours of paid vacation. That's literally a a shift and a half. They overwork their employees, and their "benefits" and discounts are really not worth it at all. Not to mention all the stress you get put under because it's always busy. Instead of them encouraging you, they make you feel bad and treat you like a joke. there is no such thing as "you did a good job today!" The way we get used is honestly inhumane. They have us outside in the drive thru for hours, regardless of the weather conditions. This is just an awful company towards their employees who they exploit all the time. Forgot to mention, if you work here then you better start canceling all your plans and life goals because your life will literally revolve around portillo's. I never got out on time, and sometimes I got sent on break until 4 or 5pm and would make me work from 8 am to 10 pm. One last thing, I pretty much learned every single station in that restaurant from cashier, to doing salads, to "pushing" the orders, cooking the fries, cooking burgers and hot dogs, even help managers with paper work; ALL of that just to get a 32 cent raise after a year! $9.32 an hour to sweat like a pig 6 days a week, yup I felt really appreciated. Save yourselves!!! Look for something better!!!

Let's talk favoritism at this location, because its honestly disgusting. Mangers have a selected few of kids that they love to give opportunities too.Whether its promotion, training,  or obtaining certian certifications or licenses.While not even acknowledging others that work harder then those that are CONSTANTLY selected better opportunities.Not to mention how long its takes to get trained regardless of asking or signing up. Yet, the mangers make it their bussiness to make sure that their selected few are trained to perfection, which can land even more opportunities to other companies.While others are waiting months and months probably even years get trained. (especially those with disabilities are overlooked probaly because of their "capability to comprehend" in the mangers opinions).Do I have to be "favorite" in order to grow and get basic opportunities? Become the biggest suck up in order to get their attention? Probably, because majority of the managers love validation and glorification from workers. Which is werid. What's even werider is how some mangers and crew cheifs stand around and gossip about other workers, as if their postions depend on getting talking to teenagers about someone's life. Mangers and Crew Cheifs DO NOT intervene or try to stop such conversations but indulge in it. Disgusting. These were a few of the reasons why I left the company because honestly better opportunities and treatment awaits else . I wanted to let it be known to the public how this location actually is and how things were on the inside because it can be deceiving looking from outside in.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Well, with those willing, you have and make memorable moments!

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
People's assumption of validation, towards you within their "inner office politics"

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Well, naturally it was fast paced, exciting from one moment to the next and educational also entertaining as well. From an observational standpoint my perspective could be a personal view vs an opinion so this is not to be taken personal based upon my social experience as well as statistics inside and outside of this company. Something to think about for future reference.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Restocking, joking with some of the guests about Chicago dog's not supposed to be requested with ketchup, encouraging some of the guests to complete the survey to allow this company insight from their perspective.
Greeting, running orders, customer dispute resolutions, refunds, making other coworkers / managers/ managers in training, aware of a guests wait time for the preparation of their meal. Getting cursed at by some of the guests to which were upset for whatever reason some more so than others also receiving gratuity from some guests to whom were able to bless me financially and or spiritually thru sharing an example of a relative or related situation which had a moral or a pleasant joke to laugh at throughout the afternoon or week.

I've been working at this store for two years and I've watched good people be treated like dog poo, extreme favoritism, bad mouthing others is also condoned and celebrated here. When I was first hired this was an Amazing place to work with great atmosphere, amazing, tallented people, structured managment including team meetings and holiday fun events, the company values were upheld and exceeded! As soon as the company changed hands things started to be cut back including pay, which is now a HUGE problem. Morale also cut way back.. its extremely hard to get adults in the door to stay because of how understaffed and unreliable the people here now are. This is a very fast paced, extremely TEAM ORIENTED work place and it needs good solid workers and team involvement DAILY to succeed. That environment has dissolved over the past year and I am very sad to go. Portillos gave me a second home and great friends but as far as the company and standards have degraded now I am on the way out the door. This place cannot run effectively working people into the group with back to back doubles for teenagers and very little trained leadership inside. Also no consequence for no call no show, stealing, intimidation, harrassment. People and some management just choose to look the other way these days. Afraid of loosing bodies inside. Corporate needs to take a hard look at the new policies and make some major adjustments or this will not change. 

During my time with Portillos I made countless friends including some members of the management team. What I found was that people who were friends with the managers and assistant managers would often be allowed to get away with doing more annoying tasks such as sweeping, trash runs, or food-running as well as being allowed to take longer breaks than policy, go on their phones during work hours, and receiving free food. As for the newer employees specifically on the food production side of the job (a member responsible for cooking and assembling orders) it's often hard to work through the elitist mentality that plauges the store. New hires are often less likely to be included in conversations, as well as being shunned by team members and management when they under perform. The management team will purposely put pressure on specific employees that they find annoying in order to cause them to either quit or be fired for reasons that would otherwise receive a "slap on the wrist" if not a lack of punishment all together if committed by a more favorable team member. All together Portillos is a good place to work if you are willing to put the time into becoming proficient on your station, because if you can't you'll have a miserable time dealing with extra pressure from management and endless customers addicted to the overpriced food.

Learned a lot during my time here that I still actively utilize in my new job roles. Their training and development program is truly world-class, but the compensation for having to sell your soul is laughable in comparison to what other companies offer. Yes they're competitive in the industry but the difference is, you're managing $10,000,000-15,000,000 units as opposed to the competitor down the street making a fraction of that while offering close to the same pay and benefits. 

I met lots of great people while working here, but work politics run rampant here and tend to get draining.  

I would get called and texted on my day-off and expected to answer, and sometimes show up to work despite already working 55+ hrs. I managed a roster of 100+ staff, in order to do a truly "great" job, you have to be on-call and foresee days, weeks, months into the future. 

Overall, I got a lot of knowledge, skills, experience, to fatten up my resume, and I can take-on any job in QSR thanks to it, but a long-lasting career at the company is next to exploitation. Company won't budge when it comes to raises and uses a set formula. There is no reason to work harder when the reward is set at 1-4% percentage bump. Being average already gets you to 3%, but being GREAT gets you the extra 1% in base pay. 

Only bonused once which was nice. But the bonus was often determined on factor's you couldn't control. You just had to get lucky as they were very unrealistic. 

A typical day at work is swiping in my card so they can see how many hours I have worked. After that I would count my drawer and make sure the requiered amount was in there. Afterward get a Manager to log me in and there the busy day at Portillos started. Handling many people with different reactions depending on how hungry they where or stressed from work.There were around seven Managers including the General Manager. They were all very well organized and always on the hurry since Portillos requieres accuracy and speed.The General Manager was a very considerate Person who understood his employees and for that I apretiate him very much. My co-workers were all very friendly to me and would help me when I was in training. The hardest part of the day was taking in the Orders, At the same time writting them down, Remmembering all the abreviations (which after a week became easy actually) and logging them into the cash register efficiently yet fast...this was not hard when we had slow days but around twelve PM and five PM and as a begginer. The most enjoyable part was when customers would come and greet me. Making someone's day a little better by not bieng rude to them as you hand them there food and the gift of a smile that they give back to you.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Cashier 260 salaries reported	$15.43 per hour
Cook 245 salaries reported	$15.44 per hour
Team member 254 salaries reported	$15.48 per hour
Restaurant staff 42 salaries reported	$15.20 per hour
Restaurant manager 143 salaries reported	$57,500 per year

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