general manager

shift leader

assistant manager

restaurant staff

team member

Qdoba

This was, essentially, the perfect first job for me. I met many now-good friends here, who share similar hobbies, and I learned many things from this job that have transferred to other real-world tasks outside of the job. The people I worked with gave me plenty of time to get better and better at the job, and I can't thank them enough for that. This job taught me both how to deal with customers & how to work together on a team, as well as dealing with priorities first and foremost. The managers I had at the start were fantastic, especially the general manager. I would absolutely have recommended this job. However, due to certain circumstances, we got a new general manager. The new general manager is the reason I do not recommend the job. They have worked hard, but I do not believe they understand what it takes to effectively run a business. They changed the way we did many aspects of the job, and not for the better. I won't get into detail, but it was widely agreed upon by the core crew that these were not good changes. They just made the job harder to do as effectively as we had been doing it for months. To be fair, the managers working under the general manager did their best to alleviate these new changes & still make things easier, fun, and enjoyable for us at work, and they did a darned good job. I haven't thanked them enough for that. Still, the general manager was the boss, and they couldn't change that. Our old general manager made us feel like family, and they were very open and flexible with their schedules. They really cared about us and our well-being. While I am sure the new general manager did as well, it was much more subtle and unnoticed, at least by me. The new GM was less flexible with their schedules, changing the 1-week request off time to 2 weeks, she scheduled unfair hours for certain workers (one in particular, I distinctly remember, was only getting 3 hours a week- and they were one of the better ones at the job), and they treated some of their best workers like they didn't know what they were doing, despite being there for months (and in some cases, for over a year). Quite a few workers left, and I can't imagine myself ever wanting to work in this location again. It was very fun while it lasted, and I made lasting friends while I was there. I can't recommend working in my location, but I will highly recommend it if you are looking for a first job. The skills you can learn are mind-blowing for a fast food restaurant.

A typical day here, at least as a line server, involves shuffling between customers on the line, refilling things on the line, rotating products under the line & cleaning the line. This cycle rinses and repeats throughout the lunch rush. Then, once the rush dies down, the main focus becomes cleaning the tables, restocking utensils & napkins, taking out garbages & restocking the soda machine, all while watching for customers coming in in the meantime. You also have to clean trays & baskets that people are done using. This goes on till dinner rush, where your primary focus is back on the customers coming in, till the line dies down again. Rinse and repeat until closing time. Closing time for servers involved cleaning the tables, the line, under the line, sweeping the floor by the line & cleaning any remaining baskets & trays. You would also turn off and clean quesadilla presses, chip bins, & by the register. Openings for line servers involved making sure all products were rotated, getting foods back onto the line, both cold & hot, restocking any unstocked utensils/napkins, & unlocking the doors. I learned a lot of cool skills here, including product rotation, which has transferred to my other jobs. Management in this area was fantastic, bar the newest general manager. For the most part, they did their best to help us first and foremost, and it really showed. They all put their workers above themselves. I'd say the hardest part of the job, to me, was working the line when the store was really busy. It could be really hectic when you are going from customer to customer to customer, but thanks to some great teamwork from fellow co-workers, it never felt completely overwhelming. We got through many-a busy line by understanding what each other needed, and through some of the best teamwork I've ever had the pleasure of partaking in. Coincidentally, this was also my favorite part of the job, because it really made me feel like a valuable part of the team and I really enjoyed the teamwork between me, fellow coworkers and managers all working together towards a common goal. I will never forget this job, or the camaraderie achieved here, but I cannot recommend working at our location.

I started working for Qdoba in 2015, at the time there was plenty of exciting room for growth within the company. But after being promoted to being a General Manager the job changed drastically. There is no work life balance. As a GM, you are expected to be able to answer your phone from 7am til the store closes every single day. Upper management does not care about when your days off are, you are still required to answer your phone. This job is fine for those who do not desire a life outside of their job, however if you do have a life then it is extremely difficult. I could not leave for appointments, or even go and watch a movie in the theater without my phone constantly blowing up. It affected myself mentally for years. 
Then our districted moved into being a Franchise and the new owners micromanaged us on a daily. If the store was not providing the information that was desired on my day off, then I would receive a phone call to fix the situation. Then they also wanted us to have a "franchise" mindset, so if there was something broken in the store is was now our expectation to fix it ourselves. I was expected to repaint the interior, fix plumbing issues, and even electrical issues. The roof in the BOH constantly was leaking water onto employees and sometimes the food and the new owners refused to fix these issues. 
When we moved from being Corporate ran to Franchise, employees started missing paychecks, myself included. I was expected to keep employees happy but how could I when they were missing their paychecks and I had no idea where my own was as well? 
Then we were promised a newly uncapped bonus structure and promised X amount for beating sales, and having good surveys. I bonuses per their structure every month since September and did not receive a dollar of the bonus after 8 months. 
I ended up leaving in February because I could not handle this job anymore as it was genuinely controlling every aspect of my daily life. Upper management did not care to fight for me not to leave or even seem to care. 8 years of my professional career wasted on a company that did not even care about me. 
Qdoba also does not offer incentives for staying with the company. I worked for them for 8 years and was the most tenured employee out of 7 locations and I did not get paid more for it or have more PTO because of it. I made the same amount as a brand new GM. 

When things were good, the store was a great place to work. But when things got bad, it was really bad. 

Staffing was a big issue. It was difficult getting good people in when they would hire anybody and everybody, and problem employees weren't fired, which led people to slack off since they knew they wouldn't be fired. During my last few months there, I rarely felt that we were properly staffed.

This had led to several times where the morning/prep crew to not get nearly enough prep done before opening, which caused us to run out of important thing during our dinner rush such as Pico or guac, and send someone from our already short staffed to prep it. 

People werent cross trained enough as well. When I worked there, there was only a few dedicated cooks (who were solely scheduled to worked the grill and other such tasks). That meant when one of them called out (or walked out for the nth time) it meant a lot of scrambling to try and fill the shift(s) since less than half a dozen people where trained on cook (and half of them were managers).

The store I worked at was majority college kids, so they would call out at a drop of a hat and not really try to find coverage so if you wanted hours, you could get them.

I had worked there for +2 years and had only received one 10 cent raise. From other employees I had talked to, it took weeks to months before they got the raises they were promised. The GM would also take away the cash tip jar when things weren't up to par with vague explanations of what was needed to be done to get it back. 

The management company for my store was also garbage. They were based several away from us and would visit all the stores in the state once or twice a year and the district manager only visited like once a month. They had reasonable health insurance but switched it at the beginning of the year to some garbage i had never heard of and they no longer covered my specialty medication.  

There were also a surprising number of just nasty customers to deal with. Granted, the majority of people were fine or even great to see, but there were a few regulars who were just so rude to the staff or who wouldnt view us as people. 

Also the pickup times for online and doordash orders werent staggered for when we got busy so when we got +10 orders that came it at once, they would also have the "ready in 10 min" so we would frequently a large group of people waiting for orders, despite frequently being behind during our rushes.

My typical day at work usually consists of me either going straight to work from home or after taking all of my college classes before my shift. When I clock in, my managers tells me what station I would be working. Most of the time, I would be placed at the register but I sometimes go on other stations such as being a cutter, preparing cold foods for the next day, bagging online orders, handling the drink station, or assembling the food up front. As a cashier, my job was to bag food, make drinks, and talk to the customer. During closing time, me and my co-workers had a great routine where we usually finished at the same time before we leave. My job consisted of cleaning the register, drink machine, and the front of the store while occasionally taking out the trash and helping my other peers with their cleaning.

One thing that I learned about working here is how important the workplace environment is on my mental health because I was less stressed out working here compared to my previous stressful job. I was working with a lot of caring managers and colleagues that I was able to connect to easily on a social, academic, and work level. I never worried about overworking myself and management handled scheduling extremely well. 

My managers were amazing and easy to connect with. On a personal level, some of the managers adored me while others consistently complimented me on my work and wished that I worked more hours. Scheduling is great as well especially since this is a fast food job on a college campus with a lot of college workers.

Workplace culture here was amazing compared to my previous fast food job because of the reasons I stated before. 

The hardest part of the job is learning new things here on your first couple days since there are so much things you need to cover. For example, I had to learn how to prepare food in the morning, handle the drink stations and register, talk to customers, assemble food, cut food, and so much more. It was sort of overwhelming at first but my trainers encourage me to take my time.

I enjoyed having small talk with my co-workers about school activities and drama happening at the school. Not only this, I really loved talking to my peers about academics and stressful things since it is something we can all connect to. 

I worked for Qdoba for several months last year and left my job when I moved out of state. In December 2019 I mailed a letter to HQ requesting that a change of mailing address be put in their system so that I would receive my W-2. Apparently, after contacting my supervisor and confirming that I was employed at that particular store and that I did in fact want my address changed (my supervisor contacted me to let me know that she had given them the information they needed), Qdoba apparently decided not to mail my W-2 to my new address. When I contacted the company via email I was informed that while they are aware that they should have mailed my W-2s to the correct address, they didn't actually bother to, instead mailing my W-2s to my old address.

When I attempted to follow up via telephone, the General Manager at the store I worked at was completely unavailable to give me any information about who I should talk to. After several attempts to reach her, leaving messages each time, when I was actually able to speak with her she sounded very impatient with my call, said she was busy and would get back to me later and has been nearly impossible to reach ever since. I also tried contacting the District Manager via Facebook Messenger and telephone. My written communication was completely ignored and when I was finally able to reach her by phone she said there was absolutely nothing she could do about my W2 and then hung up on me. I also repeatedly tried to contact Payroll and Human Resources via email and phone regarding my W2- my emails went unanswered after the initial response I received telling me that they don’t have an obligation to mail W2s to a correct address. 

I am shocked at how unprofessional this company is. I really just can’t believe that they hire people to be this unprofessional and rude. How do they think that refusing to address issues regarding someone’s tax documents is acceptable? Unfortunately, this has not been the only issue I’ve had with this company regarding documents (the other one was an odd refusal to supply paystubs that I needed to update my address with the DMV).

I learned to work well with others made friends with customers and staff, developed speech-speaking skills greeting customers getting out of usual comfort zone. Stocking up every morning greeting staff and every so often taking turns cooking something for break. Having fun music and working. Hardest part was when we were short we would have to do double the work it was a fast passed demanding job always full and had to work on line and cashier when short.Also when we were short our break was shorter than 15 mins we would try to get them done fast and either way when everone was there we would get only 15 minute breaks they had to be before 11am and use restroom before 11am. 11am was our bussiest time till 2 non stop at times and at times it would start getting busy at 9am. I worked from 6am-2pm but ended up leaving till 3pm because it would get too busy and we had to leave everything stocked up for next crew we would mostly have to stock up everything. But over all that we had great teamwork everyone helping eachother out. My manager would let me miss days for school trip she was flexible about my schedule helped me a lot and I always help make up days or help another shift when short. Over all we all helped eachother out a lot at times some arguments or misunderstanding but learned how to deal with tempered people I fully understand customer service and well I think it was most hard for the managers with much responsibilities but I helped them train and learned to listen to my managers. When there was more than two managers given different orders I just went with what I felt was right or with what I helped in best there would be some fighting over power or who is higher among managers or drama talk but walk away or nod head and avoid any talking bad or back about managers. Over all I still had respect for them it was a bit stressful at times but I loved everyone and got along with everyone.

Constant text messages regarding insignificant issues on your time off. 
No respect from upper management when you answer their questions unless it's the answer they want to hear. 
Favoritism is obvious. 
Inconsistent and unrealistic expectations from upper management. 
Blatant insubordination from employee to store manager ignored by upper management. 
Federal and state employment and leave laws are not followed. 

I highly recommend applying else where. Don't waste your time here unless you enjoy being criticized/reprimanded for doing your job the way you were trained, and criticized/reprimanded for asking questions or not answering management's question quick enough or telling them the truth instead of just what they want to hear. 
If you don't mind being at your bosses beck and call 24/7, or being verbally scolded for not telling them your plans for your day off when they ask you to work on your day off and you say you can't, or receiving upwards of 10+ work calls/50-100+ texts from various employees/managers all day and night every day regardless if it's your day off or on Vacation Time, or out of work due to a work injury and are on L&I Workman's comp, then look no further. Your fellow coworkers, managers, and upper management will even send you 50-100 texts when you're physically at work instead of calling the store to talk to you....and then upper management will reprimand you because they received complaints from your team about you 'being on your phone too much' when you were talking to/replying to your bosses text. 

Sounds like fun huh??


I have been with the company for a very long time. I have seen Qdoba as a franchise and as a corporate run entity. Through all of this, this company has sabotaged themselves with confusing branding and absolutely no positioning. The CEO stated that they strive themselves on being separate from companies like Chipotle and Moe's yet are in the same competitive industry. This example demonstrates how Qdoba is a lost puppy with the potential to be someone's prized pet yet falters and wanders further and further away from home.

Management is in constant disarray with little to no empathy for those who work hard in the smaller positions. They make little to no effort to emphasize promote-from-within to push incentives for great work. There is no sense of accountability, specifically on the management end. Along with this, there is rule book that holds no weight in the workplace due to the arrogance of management in these store locations, corporate's delusional expectations or ability to have an eye inside the stores, and most importantly the lack of definition of roles. 

With this all being said, there are positives to Qdoba. They have great food and have made strides in the past month to further ensure they position themselves around their differentiating product, "Queso." This is due in part to the hire of new CEO Timothy Casey. Most importantly, the people who work the line, grill, and register along with a number of supervisors and store managers do more than enough work on their end to ensure a positive experience. With an adjustment to management, rebranding to further define demographic and focus in on certain products that relate to it, culture in the workplace, compensation meaning a free entree per 8 hour shift, and creating balance for these employees, the sky is the limit for this company to grow and become the leader in the industry.

There were no typical days. Some days would be just be generating prep list building up to pars and open the doors for business. Then there were the days that I would have to have 400-500 burritos delivered by 10:30 to catch a clients 11:00 lung and still have the doors open by 11:00. My days consisted of coordinating logistics to get orders delivered without sacrificing service within my unit. Hiring, firing, training, truck orders, loss prevention, local store marketing, donations, inventory, customer service, etc. I do love to boast that we actually started the catering in Qdoba with the massive orders to Wake Forest School of Medicine. Drug Representatives were  our best friends and they spent lots of money with us. I can also boast that my entire management team started at entry level position right beside me. I started as a day cook and progressed into management at an astonishing rate. I, in return, promoted my best and brightest. My unit was efficient. We opened a few stores out on the beach far from our base and I became a trouble shooter for any of them with major issues. This would pull me away from my unit for weeks and in rare occasions months. While away my, unit ran as if I was there. What I loved most about Qdoba is the fact that I was able to train and develop a management staff with no prior restaurant experience into probably the best management team I have ever worked with or for. The hardest part of the job was taking care of the massive catering orders without sacrificing service in the store. The only reason this was so hard is because my labor was based off of man hours. Catering sales did not count for some reason. Oh yes my labor percentage could be 4%, but because man hours for catering were not counted I would have to make some sacrifices.

This Qdoba (one of AAFES' many franchised restaurants) was very understaffed when I worked there. While my initial first week or so were alright, it quickly devolved into a stressful environment where I was being pulled in multiple directions because I was the one who "knew how to do it." 

I was normally on shift with one manager at a time: One who I enjoyed working with a lot (who left to work at another restaurant in the food court), and one who was nice but was just as overworked as I was. By the time I had quit, I was basically thrown into the role of manager, with none of the pay or benefits of even a part-time employee. The work is hard, and if we were fully staffed there'd be no issue with stuff not getting done, but with our limited numbers and tasks that required lots of time and effort to be put into them, it was an extremely stressful environment to try and successfully work in.

The only advantages I enjoyed were discounts on food during break. I was able to go to any given AAFES franchised restaurant, and usually pay less than 5 dollars for a full meal. I don't live on base/have active military family either, so the ability to shop at the Exchange store itself was also convenient. Other than that, I was hired as an "intermittent" employee, which gave me schedule flexibility but ended up giving me the hours of a part or even full-time employee at times with none of the benefits.

Overall though, the bones were there for a successful and fun workplace environment. I never had any severe problems with who I worked with, and they were very responsible. However, the staffing issue turned the workplace into a high-stress environment that ended up wearing me out in just a few months of working.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
General manager 1153 salaries reported	$61,556 per year
Shift leader 2384 salaries reported	$18.01 per hour
Assistant manager 739 salaries reported	$20.63 per hour
Restaurant staff 1174 salaries reported	$16.35 per hour
Team member 443 salaries reported	$15.45 per hour

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