line cook

server

restaurant manager

host/hostess

dishwasher

Red Robin

1. ) Your average typical day is a fun one. Everyday seems the same except for when it gets busy. That could happened at any time on any day so always be expecting the unexpected. Though, through it all it's still a very fun and happy place to be. 

2.) I never had any experience with working at RR to begin with but I learned so much within little time. Such as: learning how things work when it comes to dishwashing and a set of roles when bussing, serving, running food, expoing, what the kitchen in the back does, how to be able to print a receipt/table numbers, sections, making drinks, bartending, hosting, ECT. You'll learn a lot even though your position may not be responsible for that area. 

3.) management (depends on where your working at) is great! I love the managers. Their really respectful. Here and there they can be really playful until it becomes busy during the mid-day/night. They are really caring towards workers and really try their best when it comes to learning a hand! 

4.) workplace culture, you'll immediately see the total team RR has. There's so much helping, communication, teamwork and definitely leadership. Everyone does their part to help out others who can't help themselves most of the time. But, their are those who don't work harder than others. Meaning you'd often see them stand around or not paying attention to tables, food on the window or often forget about their tables. Overall, the issue isn't an everyday thing and happens very little. 

5.) hardest part of the job (busser wise) is keeping up with tables. As soon as you clear a few tables, there's always more the moment you turn your back. 

(Server wise) Keeping up with multiple tables  since RR requires servers to make their own drinks, run their own drinks, while also run their own food to all the tables they've greeted. But just like bussers, the moment the table is gone, another will take it's place very quickly. (Not always the case on most days). 

(Dishwasher/DMO) Probably the easiest thing there is.. unless your slow.. one thing to keep in mind is that every position requires quick and fast paced work. 

(Kitchen) Hardest position in the restaurant. I'd say the hardest part would probably be making food all day nonstop trying to pay attention to a very long list of food items needed to every table in the restaurant. 

(Hosting/ToGos) These two are very similar. Hardest part about hosting is selecting which table a group of guest would sit at without getting the servers upset, while also trying not to allow guests to fill up the whole front of the restaurant waiting to get seated. ToGos pay attention to online orders, hardest part would probably be the same as hosting. Dealing with rude customers. 
(Expoing) Hardest part is keeping up with the food screen It can be difficult to look at the ticket and set food on the window while also dealing with moody/upset kitchen workers. 

It all sounds harder or unpleasant but really it gets easier to deal with very quickly. Plus you have team members who can help especially with managers. 

6.) most enjoyable part of the job, is being around all your teammates. Everyone is so much fun, good at keeping the work environment enjoyable to work in. Everyone always finds a way to make the day go by faster by having a good time even when things seem so tuff. It was hard enough leaving my teammates when the time came. I was so attached! So, when you decide to give this job a chance. Enjoy it while you can. 

I've been at red robin for 8 months,at first I thought it would be a good job,but after a few months I started to realize what a mistake I had made by accepting their offer of employment.We are constantly understaffed.I only work weekends as a hostess & regularly see my server friends miserable & struggling every single shift,it breaks my heart because there such good people working under terrible conditions & incompetent management.A typical weekend dinner rush means insane wait times of up to 25-40 minutes,because our brilliant CEO decided to eliminate bus boys,the people who keep tables clean,& expiditers,the people who run food from kitchen to the dining room.So we the hosts,& any other staff member who has a free moment,has to pick up the slack,& not get paid extra for it.The demands of management are lunacy,dont go on a wait,seems simple enough right?Ha!Theres no way any restaurant on a weekend isnt going to have a wait list,& oh did I mention they want you to stand at the podium,take names,bus & wipe tables,sweep floors,set up high chairs,boosters,take care of to go orders,run food,run drinks for servers because they constantly get triple & quad sat since I mentioned earlier were understaffed,the servers come pleading to you with a desperate look in their eyes to take pity on them to just give them a moment to catch up,or at least have a smoke to deal with the insanity,& yet management is barking at us to seat no matter who's about to have a stroke on the floor.Ive seen so many people leave after years with the company due to excess work & horrific budget cuts.The kitchen is filthy & I've seen countless patrons & staff slide on our greasy floors due to food on the dining room floor,I dont think they ever mop.The bathroom I wont even get into.....sometimes were out of strawberries or lemons,or drink holders or once I was doing a to go & the order had drinks & we were out of lids & i had to give the guy tiny black cocktail straws since there were no regular ones to be found,how embarrasing!!I've seen great hosts get hired then see the crapshow in action & get outta dodge the following week,who can blame them.Sad because people are a companies most important asset.My managers try to help us as much as they can but you can see they too are frazzled & giving up if they havent already...how are we supposed to feel inspired if our leaders look broken & miserable?I dont blame them,I blame the corporate executives & deny post for the terrible mismanagement of the company.Ive also seen safety regulations frequently broken,such as flipping high chairs upside down to support a baby carseat since our restaurant only has 1 sling & since I've been there they havent ordered new ones.Ridiculous.Most of my co workers are some of the hardest working beautiful people I have ever met trying hard to make a living on the cheapskate server salary,& then get get cut early before they can make any real tips,which the use to live off btw.Or get shafted by the nps survey they beg customers to take,if they get a bad survey score their hours get cut,even if it's not their fault!Great place...not!!

Let's start with the "training":

Your supposed to work closely with a CLC and use a tablet to learn about things, while discussing what you're learning. I was left on my own to learn with no CLC, and when it was time to get "certified", even though I didn't know most of the things that I was supposed to know, they just skipped over it, and fast tracked me through. But expected me to be perfect with everything.

As for work load:

One person responsible for salads, wraps, appetizers, desserts and everything fried. It's constantly busy, and super overwhelming, and since most of the food is fried, you're doing a lot. It's easy to fall short of their 7 minute ticket time. 

They're constantly cutting people's hours and have a labor cost goal of 8%. It's ridiculous. Lots of times I'd show up to work, and they had cut all the cooks, and hasn't had anybody in there to cook, leaving the managers to do it. Managers that have to ask how to fry onion rings, or toast a bun. 

As for scheduling: 

They continuously scheduled me on days I specifically told them I couldn't work. So every week I was having to tell them I couldn't work, even though the workforce app was updated to my availability. They didn't seem to care, and would just cut my hours instead of scheduling me the 35 I was promised. 
 If you were closing, your scheduled to an hour after close, but then they get mad at you if you're not done in 15 minutes after close. If you work a double, they cut you early in the first shift, make you close the second shift and then have you open the next day.


As for management:

The AGM was having withdrawals so bad every day he couldn't stop shaking. None of the "supervisors" know how to do their job, and acted like helping out was doing everybody a favor. They certainly would have rather spent their time taking to the female servers than actually making sure the restaurant was going to be okay. Remember me talking about they didn't know how to fry an onion ring? They were clueless about how to work in the kitchen. We got told one busy night that "we were lucky he came back to help us". That's managements job. To set the workers up for success. They certainly didn't do that. 

As for the environment:

The cooks I worked with would happily throw you under the bus for whatever, and certainly weren't trying to be helpful. Most of the "hot side" cooks would just be standing around on their phones, meanwhile the "cold side" guy would be getting torched. No help in sight.

Plenty of red flags, and the pay isn't even that good.There's waaaay better jobs out there. I would suggest you skip this one.

I know sometimes when people read reviews like this, they think that the person is somehow "in bed" with the company or were paid for their opinion.  I can promise you this is NOT the case here.

Let me start by saying that I began working at Red Robin because of how good they were to my family during hurricane Florence.  My husband works there as a cook and we had to evacuate the area for safety.  Not only did everyone keep in touch with each other and make sure everyone was safe, we were told we could eat at any Red Robin for free while evacuated and they were able to put $200 in my husband's bank account to help us with evacuation expenses.  Before the store reopened (there was damage) they were even given opportunities to go work at another location about 45 minutes away if they wanted to.  Later on he would also be compensated all of his lost wages.

When I began working at Red Robin I was already pretty sold on being there, but orientation got me hooked.  The videos we watched were actually entertaining, made some jokes that legit made me laugh (especially about the old mascot haha), and learning about the culture of the company made me happy.  I inquired about how they felt about things like tattoos, piercings, colored hair, etc.  I was told that not only is it okay, they encourage people to be themselves.  Did I worry they were blowing smoke up my rear?  Sure...but I chose to believe them instead.  I learned about the Total Team model and I was pretty excited.

I now can say with confidence that I love this company even more.  I work as a server and while I'm currently averaging 14-18 hours per week, I am making almost double what I did at my last job just with my tips.  And that's working mostly lunch shifts!  I'm sure once I do more dinner shifts that would go up even more.  YES hours are based on customer surveys, but it's not all that hard to make sure that you get good surveys and avoid the bad ones.  I haven't waited tables since I was 17 years old (15 years ago!) and I am in the green, which is where you want to be for good hours.

I have seen the Total Team model working, and while it has taken some getting used to because I am used to fending for myself - it is refreshing.  I know that if my shift gets super busy and a tray of food needs to be taken out, that it will be so that my customers have their food quick and hot.  I know that if I get double or triple sat and have a table to bus, that all I have to do is ask for help and someone will do that.  And in return, I offer to help them when they need it.

I know that this kind of job isn't for everyone, but I have legitimately had an amazing experience with this company and plan to stay with them as long as possible.

When i first started working there it was a wonderful place. Everyone was happy and worked well together and communication was somewhat decent. Over a course of 6 months roughly the work environment has decreased drastically. No communication, you are lucky if you are told what menu items you run out of (Mondays that list gets to be several items long and you don't find out until the meals should be going to the guests), management lacked inconsistent requirements. There are all these changes that are occurring of which Corporate is inflicting an absolutely rediculous policy where basically your server shifts are based on what the guests order and if you can get the guests to fill out voice slips and if you happen to have a week where your guests only want waters and no appetizers then you can bet the following week you will only get 3 shifts. Not only that but they are starting another policy based on once again the guests and supposidly your "performance" on how many tables you will get which ranges from 2-4 table sections. Mind you a normal section right now is 4-6 tables sections so no matter what your "performance" is you are basically getting punished. 

Management is a whole other story. One manager will tell you to do one thing, another something else. One manager will let the bartenders take a table or two another won't so no one knows if the bartenders are suppose to be taking tables or not since managers can't agree on that. We have no 86 board so you are better off asking the cooks what you are out of since managers will have no idea. They also tend to run out of the exact same food items every single week but they never thing to order more the following week. Managers want you to come in to work early one day and fill out the check in sheet but the very next they could care less about it. Managers will tell you that no one can come in through the exit door but yet it is ok for them to do it (do as I say not as I do). They will also tell you that your schedule is based on your server scores "performance" but there are the favorite ones who that does not apply to (sorry, this will not fly in any work environment). And there is one manager who several staff members wonder if that person is coming to work drunk because the alcohol is very strong on their breath and that is not a way that a manager should be showing their staff how to behave. 

Until good changes are made here I would have to say that working here is more than likely only going to get worse. I have seen it happen before and the turnover ratio will be going out the door.

I read other people complaining about their retail job,  that job is a cake walk in comparison. Nothing much is worse than being a server at the Idaho Falls store.  Consistently give very large sections up to 14 tables per sever depending on the day and shift and yes they will be filled.  If you fall behind and get a complaint because of the large sections be prepared to be formally written up and reprimanded for not abiding by company policy and triple R service. Even if you let management know about it and asked for help.

Managers are nice for the most part but they do not communicate very well.  It was a constant battle to inform the management that you needed something because the message more often than not didn't make it to the others.  With at least 5 managers it was hard to get much done which was a very bad time for employees.

Also expect to have no survey completions, app order rate, beverage order rate, and royalty sales affect where you get put on the floor and affect the amount of hours you get.  Also do not expect to get more than 20 hours a week even if you are a top performer.  Too much time filling out a red RSG's will get you terminated.  Expect have managers tell you to figure something out if there are conflicts from their mistakes and expect to be formally reprimanded if you cannot figure something out.  Example being availability sheet was filled out 2 weeks prior to my wife's new employment.  Management failed to implement it. Scheduling conflict led to my shift not being covered and was told I was going to be terminated for no call no show.  No call no show, because the managers didn't relay the problem to the new GM.

Polices at RR are always changing and it's always in a way for corporate to make more money.  Other polices punish the staff citing that it could have only come from poor performance. Corporate has one program to help out employees that is any good and then that is paid for by other employees donations.  Everything else is how can you make RR more  money.  Watson the scheduling program to go the way of the do do. It consistently under staffs the store and causes servers, mixos, and bussers to be over worked for server pay.  Like I said retail store people have nothing to complain about until they get paid server wages and hope people are gracious enough to make up the rest.  Their job is easy in comparison; it really is I have done both.

The most stressful part of this job was running the Togo station during really busy shifts. When added to a lack of support and guidance, the volume of orders often overwhelmed me. Poor training further frustrated this, and I struggled to try to meet expectations without the resources or assistance necessary. Later on, one of the managers had promised me a training shift, specifically for the Togo station, but when I asked him about it, he said he forgot. This not following through further caused issues in my role.

I also dealt with some very aggravating interpersonal dynamics. Several times, customers would insist they had ordered something that they hadn't, which caused confusion and added to my stress levels. Some coworkers were hostile toward me, too-especially when the problems involved the kitchen. For instance, the bartender loudly complained about customers wanting to sit in her section, as if it was my fault; I had no control over customer's requests. 

One other example that was frustrating was when management asked me to stay for "a couple of hours," and then, without warning, this turned into a double shift. The confusion around such shift changes contributed only to undue stress.

Unprofessional behavior from some of my coworkers also degraded the work environment. I have often seen cooks, servers, and bartenders go on smoke breaks behind the building during the busiest shifts. Personally, I believe all this negatively influences the productivity of the team. Moreover, employees used their phones multiple times during shifts, which further disrupted workflows.

Other than that, there was a personal issue with another colleague who asked intrusive questions about my personal life and even went so far as to ask me who in the team I disliked the most-revealing an apparent attempt at inciting drama. This made things quite uncomfortable and was another factor that added to the incamaraderie and unprofessional atmosphere among team members.

When first starting, a dishwasher eased, "Smile, it is not that bad"; these comments were dismissive of the hardships I was facing. All of these put together created an environment that often felt disengaged, unproductive, and anxiety-ridden at times.

I couldn't stay working here knowing how horrible it was.

A typical day at Red Robin, I clock in and meet up with my managers. The brief meeting we have at the beginning of every shift is called a "Ready Set Go". They inform us of any changes, or goals that are made for the day, whether it be a certain percentage of sales we need to meet, or a new focus idea. I learned how to efficiently multitask with keeping minimal errors. Serving multiple tables, sorting dishes in the kitchen, making drinks, handling money for payments are tasks I juggle swiftly during each serving shift. At the end, I put together a certain amount of silverware sets, wipe down my tables and chairs, sweep, and complete the specific daily cleanings. Management is alright at this Red Robin location. Favorites are made obvious, and consequences for bad decisions made by coworkers rarely take place. A couple of managers are definitely trumped by some other managers, so there is an unspoken rivalry. No drug tests are ever issued, and I wish they were. It is uncomfortable to be around several coworkers who are under the influence, or who have drugs with them. Knowing that there are numbers and qualifications that have to be met in order to have a certain amount of shifts scheduled to you is the hardest part to deal with. I do appreciate this system, but I do not appreciate that the management does not follow the system to make the schedule in the first place. It is frustrating to be told that this system is how scheduling is determined, but yet it is not done that way. By far, the most enjoyable part of my job is the people I have met by serving them. I love the variety of people I have met, as well as being able to have gotten to know some of them personally because they come in frequently. The  conversations I have with my guests are so enjoyable, I cannot get enough of that type of experience. Also, I have had some really friendly coworkers who have become good friends. Ultimately, the friendships and relationships I have created with others here at Red Robin have been the best part about working here.

I use to absolutely love working at Red 
Robin,for a year and a half i really built my own family with all the employees there besides the GM. My co workers were my only hesitation in leaving red robin to work somewhere else because we had become so close and leaned on each other.They launched a new system basically not allowing servers in the back and hired runners and expos,basically paid them 4.35band hr and servers all tip out 6 pecent of sales.It looks crazy to the tables that someone else is getting everything and were just trying to find things to do and give our tables some family time too instead of over bugging them.Was told it was required 1 shift a week as a sp in the back and ended up 5 shifts as sp 1 as server,not only do my sales suffer but as a sp 4.35 and hour plus maybe 100 from tip out as sp is not even a quarter of what i made as just server.I did have a terrible attitude about it and was told word for word by my GM that red Robin was moving forward with the tgx thing with or without me so im more that welcome to go find a new job and she said i dont care go ahead you more that welcome too.So thats exactly what i did that day was interviewed and hired right then and there on the spot.Also she lost atleast 6-8 employees possibly more over the last week before and durning the week that i quit,i will note i tried to give my 2 weeks and work there but was scheduled as a drink runner every shift grew tiring after about 5 days.Pointless to go to corporate because they may find favor on your side just like one girl i worked with but when they do and you go into your work the GM is a totally rude and mean person just for the fact of going to corporate.I had missed 1 half shift on a day i worked a split i was so sick and tried to call in and the gm told me no so i came in and everyone knew i was sick,finally got my break inbetween shifts and went home passed out and when i work up i was still running a fever so i called again and the host answered so i asked them to rely the message that i wouldnt be in,so i half shift i missed in a yr and a half.Good luck the restaurant would have totally different ratings if there was a different GM that actually genuinely cared and didnt force faking to care with some people

Working for this company for five years now has been a hit-and-miss experience to say the least. I have had my fair share of managers run through my store (about 7 GM's in four years just in ONE location). 

For the most part, salaried managers in this company are a mixed bag. Some are actually really good people that are trying to advance their careers and become RM's and NRO's. Others leave me wondering who thought it would be a good idea to move them up to management in the first place due to poor decision making and bad attitudes/drama.

Workplace culture has also been a bit rocky to gauge. I started working with the company during a brand change so I've never really felt like one consistent culture has ever existed as it is constantly changing (I think this is how it was designed to be but am unsure).
 
The workplace usually feels like a safe place to work, however, management is obsessed with maintaining performance metrics that are ineffective and easy to manipulate (i.e. if you don't outperform your peers, your hours are cut and you're put on shifts where you won't make money). While I wouldn't say that my work is not valued, I certainly wouldn't say that I feel like anyone cares whether or not I am there (aside from a few coworkers). Overall, this leads to stressed employees and a constant feeling of "you need to do better".

I think the hardest part of this job is pleasing our corporate overlords. Throughout the time I've worked with this company, I've gotten the sense that corporate does not care about us and is unwilling to listen to its employees. They are, however, okay with cutting positions to save a quick buck while increasing overall workload for already burdened positions. Jokes are often passed as to whether or not anyone in corporate has ever worked in a restaurant in their life.

Overall, this company is a mediocre choice for someone who is trying to pay their way through college or is just looking to make a quick buck. There are definitely better restaurants to work for that are more appreciative of their employees and I would likely not recommend this job to anyone I personally care about.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Line cook 106 salaries reported	$16.87 per hour
Server 63 salaries reported	$21.04 per hour
Restaurant manager 45 salaries reported	$55,000 per year
Host/hostess 41 salaries reported	$13.51 per hour
Dishwasher 55 salaries reported	$16.02 per hour

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