sous chef

server

host/hostess

event manager

server assistant

Punch Bowl Social

i worked here part time as an activities host. i intended to work starting as a host, leading up the ladder to become a bar back and hopefully get to a bartender. manager who hired me agreed and told me that with the turnover rate (red flag….strike 1…...), it would be possible to move up to bar back within a few months. i was excited and eager to learn of freaking course in this economy. i worked maybe 2 training shifts with one other person who also barely had the hang of things, and then was closing by myself (strike 2….). everyone i interacted with was extremely negative about where they worked and how much they took on for their pay (strike 3….) nobody in other roles around the restaurant was ever respectful in the fact that i was new and sometimes needed assistance, or that my station needed support from another role because they had been lacking in their role. once i was working alone for a couple shifts, i was getting paid to be an activities host, but was also helping the servers deliver food and many other things that were outside of my pay (strike 4!!!!!!!). if i were to have literally politely denied because i didn’t know how and it wasn’t my job, i would be ignored and talked behind my back! managers never communicated (strike…..5…..) the one time i had requested time off a month or two in advance, i had contacted my primary manager that i needed time off and it was accepted on my and everyone else’s schedule. dates verified, fully approved. a week into my break, i was getting phone calls and voice mails from another manager that i didn’t know, that i was actually SUPPOSED TO be working :) i was appearently scheduled same day, and the next two days :) i was across the country for family :) and when i told them blank manager had approved it and i have emails and texts to prove it, the manager who i didn’t know, lectured me on how i needed to contact every manager so everyone was in the loop :) when my primary manager had told me i had done everything i could, they would communicate, i didn’t need to do anything more :)! so for my approved time off, i was fired :) over the phone :) across the country :) because of their poor communication :) and then my primary manager ghosted me when i asked what happened :) worst three months of my life 

I trained for six days and what a waste of time, on my sixth day I went to my manager and asked why I wasn't on the schedule for the following week and she told me my trainers don't think I am ready, I was a nightclub bartender serving over a thousand guests before those "trainers" were even born but I was not ready because I was not familiar with the brands of liqueur they use, I know what goes into every drink but I didn't know the brands because they use brands local to the Colorado location, also the trainers don't let you do anything anyway even when I did my daily exams they would tell me the answers before I could choose my own answer and then have the nerve to say I am not ready, they are supposed to be training you but jump in front of you to serve the customers (Not all trainers but certain ones) this company Is very pretentious and has a hipster vibe and if you don't fit in the hipster group you will not be accepted into this click, also they claim to support local businesses but yet the amount of food this company wastes should be illegal, I mean unbelievable, this food could be given to homeless or local farms to feed animals or even spread out for employees but instead is thrown in the trash. Communication within the company is one of the biggest issues because it seems no two people are on the same page or know what the heck is going on so If you want straight answers good luck, if you like to be lost, confused and in the dark this is probably the place for you but if you are like me and like to be in the know, don't waste your time.  Oh and one last thing, if you do take this job be prepared for "the honeymoon phase" they will feed you everything on the menu for five days of training and after that you don't get anything for free but they will make you throw out thousands of dollars of food and drink but you will pay for anything you eat from here on out while making a little over four dollars an hour, what a joke, the food is decent and they have the right idea but they have a long way to go as far as organization and how to treat valued employees and how to delegate authority, they are a young company growing too fast for there own good and destined to crash and burn..

Let me be the first to say I know everyone has their own experiences places but with Punch Bowl Social I wish I would have taken the advice of these reviews before me. I've been working in this industry for around 8+ years now and this is by far the worst experience I've ever had with a company.

This is a horrible place to work and I was miserable every time I had to think about coming in. There's extreme favoritism, management does not care about their staff whatsoever, they don't give breaks, They don't staff right (probably due to the fact that they can't keep anyone), they don't do accurate cuts, they make you work 10+ hour shifts without even being a double, the dynamic and flow of the place is so flawed. You'll work 10x harder here to make no money (at least for the amount of work you're doing the money is nowhere near worth it). When I first started, 2 people out of all the staff were nice to me and welcoming, the rest of the staff were rude, condescending, and made it a very toxic work environment. Every person that trained me was so rude and felt so entitled to conspire with the managers about who they like and don't like (and if they didn't like you for whatever reason you were automatically screwed from the get go). They do pooled tips here but there's so much toxicity that no one helps each other out and has nothing but a you vs. me mentality which screws everyone over in the end because then no one is making money because guests aren't properly cared for.

The worst part about this place is the management, they have solid favorites and if you're not their favorite they will jump on literally any excuse to fire you. I had been working there for 4-6 months and I had never called out, was never late, friendly and always willing to help people. I called out one time and they fired me, needless to say they did me the biggest favor. Trust me when I say I'm trying to now do you the biggest favor by not wasting your time with this place.

Punch Bowl Social has a very fun festive environment and provides good discounts for employees which can make it a fun place to work.  Front line staff have the most fun, but can have very slow days or very fast paced days.  There is not a lot of  in between.  It can be very hectic and overwhelming when it is busy and quite boring when it is slow.  Additionally, there is a lot of favoritism, so half the team has a great schedule and is quite happy.  The other half have a pretty inconsistent schedule and eventually end up leaving as they cannot survive working day shifts.

As a manager, you are not very well supported by upper management and do not have very much autonomy.  Corporate calls the shots but are not in the operation very often, so there is quite a disconnect.  Upper management runs out of Denver and they try to treat the Portland market like it is running out of Denver, so their message is not consistent and they are losing some of their market value.  Additionally, they waste a lot of money on futile marketing efforts and do not put very much money back into the operation.  There is a lot of time spent trying to fix things yourselves or the cheapest way possible only to have it break again.  Additionally, they have been running a 32,000 sq. ft. operations with only 3 salaried managers for years.  This creates a lot of management turnover (over 30 managers came and went over the 3 years I worked there) and burn out.  There is also almost no work life balance, so the job feels quite stressful most of the time.

BOH is always understaffed and the Chef has a very turse attitude.  BOH is underpaid and they are consistently yelled at during volume by the Chef who has quite a temper and is very rough around the edges.  That said, he is a good chef and typically puts out a good and consistent product even when understaffed.

They "sell you" hard on their concept and want you to entice other new or potential employees to, "buy-in to the Punch Bowl concept" as they call it. However, the server position was hyped-up with a "fun" atmosphere, a "be-yourself" dress code to match their slogan's--
"Here's to going out right" and "winning at adulting". But the slogans at cool atmosphere do not live up to the hype. 

They insist the the "tip-pooling" and "zone-service" works and that everyone is happy and makes more money, but it was THE worst money I've seen as a server hands down. Some days I lost money after parking and gas--especially during brunch shifts (no one wants to venture all the way to the Golden 1 center concrete jungle for brunch at 9:00 a.m...

Long shifts, late nights, and they probably won't cut you if it's slow. Unless they are being pressured to cut labor $$--which in that case never works in the employees favor anyway.

After 10 PM it is 21 and up only, and it basically turns into a nightclub, which they did not tell us upon opening the restaurant. When you start training for any FOH position, you will have 5 days of rigorous training and tests to follow each day, but little of the information is applicable or relevant in real situations you encounter at the Sacramento Location. The cheapest parking downstairs in the DOCO lot is about to increase from $15 to $28. 

All in all it was quite a long hiring process--2+ interviews and then 5+ days of training with no tips, for little to no money or "growth opportunity" like they pushed since day one. 

Extremely fast-growing corporate business, privately traded. The last I heard they are building a Punch Bowl Social Hotel and Casino in Vegas, along with 5+ soon-to-be locations, but they won't acknowledge the blatant issues at their current locations.

I've been with the company for 7 months now and we've had 2 GM's and been down two managers almost from my day one. 

They pay you weekly so you've never actually ahead with anything and all your tips go on a card. This worked out for me because the location is in downtown Sac and I'm in the burbs, but it's still mildly annoying to not have cash in hand. 

Breaker is broken so the AC doesn't come on. It was 105 today. The  glycol unit has been down for over a month now and beer won't pour in the busiest bar so you have to walk all the way across the restaurant to pour anything. One of our distributors hasn't delivered in over a month so we've been out of stock of some of our top sellers. 
 
We pay for our own parking so we're constantly moving our cars to try and save a bit of money with our 2 hour validation.

Management is burnt out, or too busy flirting with the young girls to give a fig about anything that you need.  

Over staffed CONSTANTLY and yet you can never get your requested time off.

All bars tip pool. Sometimes it works in for favor, but more often than not you should make twice as much as you walk with.

They hire a lot of people without experience and move  people up quite a bit, but if you were hired as a bartender you're already tapped out. Its great if you'e never worked in the industry before, but be aware that the rest of us are really frustrated with your lack of training and constant questions on a busy Friday night.

They also love to schedule you until 1 am and then again at 8 am, but you can't give it up because you only got 3 days that week.

only a 25% discount unless you're a trainer.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The only good part of working at this company was the few co-workers I enjoyed working with. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part of working here was the corporate style pressure to not only fit the impossible image the company expects but also taking on big office parties that quickly become hectic as patrons become more enebriated.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is a mix of impossible expectation as well as pretentious bartenders who are over educated for a dive bar. The other employees, managers and culture will judge you for how progressive you are, and put employees who match their percieved image ahead of you regardless of their performance. The vision and cultivated culture here is incredibly toxic, and every position within the company is a revolving door of employees who simply want to work, but end up judged by managers and fellow employees. This place is a shark tank of hipster types looking to attack anyone who doesn't fit their social and political views. A playground where most of the staff are bullies.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
stressful, expectations are higher than one can achieve, the competition to sell and be perfect on every order or party is high, and every word and action is closely watched by management not only during work hours, but also your social media is watched when you leave work and you are fired based on anything you may post that doesn't align with their directive.

If you have no experience in the service industry, Punch Bowl Social makes a half-way decent first job to learn some skills since there are a lot of tasks to do & it's also a high volume restaurant. Just have an exit plan after a few months because it will eventually take a toll on your mental health. 

It's a large & odd establishment that takes up an entire floor of a shopping mall (the floor layout is shaped like a "C"). No second floor or anything. It can be quite chaotic on busy days since there are frequent staff shortages, which leaves servers & bartenders more stressed out than they should. 

Private events can be lucrative, but the tips are not very good due to them being pooled. For the amount of work you have to do there, it should be 2-3 times higher. 

PBS's corporate seems to have no idea what they're looking for and sets standards that are not realistic. The training is so bad there. What do they expect? Secret shops are ubiquitous and a less-than-perfect score can get a reliable employee written up or let go. 

The GM, who resembles a bearded cenobite from the "Hellraiser" films, is a serious piece of work whose temperament turns on the dime. Awful interpersonal & leadership skills. He is a very unhappy little man that creates a hostile workplace environment. The entire staff despises him & the turnover rate is astronomical because of his poor treatment towards the employees. In conjunction with the tip pooling, he is another reason why the money is not enough. 


My coworker were like my family here, we all understood each other, the struggles we went through with the clientele and management, and really had respect for each other. What gives Punch Bowl a one star is truly the management, both in our Portland location and the headquarters. Employees are fired left and right for the most minescule, simple things that would not normally get you fired. The shoppers we had came in multiple times a week and managers would scare you every night about them, knowing you can get fired for missing a step in the very precise and extensive steps of service we had to follow, regardless of how busy it was. I started when Punch Bowl was not super corporate like, a little more relaxed and the managers had a professional, yet calm relationship with the staff. Through the year it got extremely strict and management got incredibly disgusting with their attitude towards the staff, disregarding us as human beings. I’ve witnessed my GM scream and cuss at my coworker for not remembering a step, in front of tables. She quit that night. Please save yourself the stress and worry about being called out at preshift in front of everyone, or being fired for undeserved actions.

The work environment is good but management is where the problem lies, they are cool individuals. However, they penalize you for their mistakes. I am currently in school, and have a full-time job elsewhere. This information was provided to them in my interview and I was still hired. Management was informed before the schedule was posted that I could not work due to me having an upcoming final and needing to be off. They did not put that information in the system and scheduled me anyway. As soon as the schedule was put out I notified them immediately, I was constantly reassured that they would take care of it but never did and when the date and time of my shift came I did not come in due to the information provided. They stated that I did a " No call, No show" even after they were informed, which resulted in me not being placed on the schedule for weeks. I had a conversation with them to inform them that the "no call, no show" was not the case and explained to them what happened and offered proof. The situation was resolved (or so I thought) and I was informed that I would be placed back on the upcoming schedule and never was. It was such a hassle to get in contact with someone about the situation that I just said forget it and left it alone. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sous chef 16 salaries reported	$68,219 per year
Server 12 salaries reported	$15.57 per hour
Host/hostess 38 salaries reported	$17.67 per hour
Event manager 7 salaries reported	$89,286 per year
Server assistant 21 salaries reported	$15.70 per hour

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