shift leader

cook

cashier

shift manager

front desk agent

Smashburger

As an empolyee I'd come do what I was told then leave. At first, even on busy days, things would run smooth. More people in the kitchen who actully knew what they were doing, "aces in there places" was the motto. Someone would say that aloud and we were all set up and ready. I loved the rush. Food was being pushed out at 6-8 mins per 4 orders. Everyone helped everyone, we had 30min breaks and everyone got free lunch. We'd all cheer when the rush was over, you could in a sense feel the pride we had in one another. It was very encouraging to do our best, and make delicious food the right way. But after we had gotten new management in 2017 ALL things change, and the turnover rate went through the roof.

  Hours were cut drasticly, fousing those with children and families out. Can't pay bills, transportation, feed your family and enjoy life with 300$ checks. We lost all our best employees by spring. It was sad. By time the summer hit, the Convention Center across the street was now built and booked for 5years, so every weekend was busier then a normal rush. With all new empolyees and no one trained properly, orders went out at 30-45min ticket times. With no one caring about their work environment cleanliness became very poor and bugs became a problem. Failing to pay attention to equipment detail due to this lack of maintenance, things started to fall apart. One thing after the other. Without warnings we'd barely pass any audit. It became hard to come to work.

  Management kept hiring more unexperienced high school kids. They paid them less and worked them more. Afterall they were unexperienced, they didn't know any difference. (So I was told) The hand full of experienced cooks we did have, did see a pay rate difference but they got less hours, some had to have two jobs just to make ends meet. And it all came down to the company saving money, and less about the quality of the food.

  By Fall 2018, we had a whole entirely new crew, I was the only one left before the choas had started. With the turnover being so high, I had seen 4 General Managers 3 Assistants & 5 Shift leaders, all quit or got fired for ridiculous reasons. I'd tell stories about how we'd use to have a kitchen full of people in every position and how everyone knew how to do prep fast and efficiently. But they'd laugh and joke about it like "..yeah right.. not here.." because the new management wouldn't train anyone past 3days. (When I first started in Jan 2017, I was on dishes for 6 weeks straight, and trained one position at a time, untill I knew everything) One day the GM at the time told me he was quiting and didn't want me to tell anyone, I was unsure why he was telling me. But the next day our District Manager came unexpectedly, set me down and asked if I wanted to be in management. He told me if I took the offer I wouldn't be trained, that I would have to go from A to Z immediately, I was afraid, but the paid offered to me, per hour, had me in disbelief, like '..can we even do that?' As a single mother, I quit my second job and took his offer. Everything went down hill after that for me. 

  I had no manageral experience. I had no idea what to do or where to start. I was by myself for 4weeks. No assistant manager to help me. No Shift leaders to help train. Someone from the other smashburger had asked me what was my position and I didn't know how to respond, then I was questioned why I wasn't at the training store in Chicago Illinois. I was lost and confused, but worse I was being used. The whole concept of 'Unexperienced High School Kids; Pay Less Work More' was being used on me. I found out I was being under paid for the things I had to endured. I was just supposed to hold the store down without training for 4weeks, meanwhile the GM and AM were in Chicago. I was working 7 days a week open to close with no help, but the pay was worth it. The day the two managers came, I was so relieved. But instead of uplefting me and motivating me, they criticized me for all the things I did wrong or didn't know at all. I was hurt. They cut my hours and I had to get a second job again. With no apprication to cleanliness, quality, time, or detail, the AM quit 2weeks after training I was foused to pick up her responsibilties. They sent someone to take her spot but she also quit right after training same as the last did. By that time I was used to people coming and going, I figured thats how things were going to be. I tried my best to be positive and motivating to everyone. Decorated every holiday, brought treats and gifts for those improving. I trained as much as I could, helped my GM as offened as needed. I'd come do my part with a smile on my face and leave.

  One day we were unusually slow, orders still came through Online, DoorDash and Call-ins, I took it my GM knew it would be this way, she only scheduled two new empolyees, I was the only one in front of house. I had to run back and forth to take orders and help in the kitchen when we did get groups of people at a time. (Check all sales for 12/31/18. Store 1580.) Four days later, I was fired for something I was unaware of, I was told  'I was being let go because the system shows the DoorDash was turned off on 12/31/18' with no proof I was told to exit the premises.

First of all, to be a Line Cook in this joint has less to do with running 1 of the 3 stations (Fry, Set, and Grill) as eventually you go from one station to running all 3 by yourself. In most kitchens, you are moved ahead in a line. You still have multiple people around you. What irked me the most was at Smashburger, you are moved up to running the kitchen entirely by yourself. Yes, in some cases a shift manager or the manager may help out but they make you feel inadequate for helping (mostly the shift managers).

Here is how it goes. Lets say that one customer comes in and orders a Classic Burger with a side of Smash Fries. You must put down the right amount of fries, run over to toast the correct bun, then cook the meat while also building the burger. Then you can put together a burger in time for the fries to finish so you can optimally complete the order in 4-5 minutes. The customer gets a fresh grilled burger with fresh toppings and piping hot sides that just came from the fryer.

First of all, that's one of many burgers and fry orders. If they order a certain burger, you must first cook an order of onion rings. They may also prefer a lot of different things, such as no lettuce on their burgers, but also add mustard. They may also want their order to go or with tater tots (easy to fry, but your must count them out, EACH time). 

This is just one customer and one order. If it's a Tuesday afternoon and 4 engineers on lunch break step in, followed by 2 local college students and then a group of 3 just out for lunch. Now, some people can coordinate 9 orders in their head and while their settings the 4 person order, the 2 local students  order comes in while the next 3 are following shortly after. Some people stay cool and calm working these orders. Did mention that there are also computer screens measuring your time and reaction speed to each order that are monitored by corporate?

All in all, it is a wondrous fast-paced order system best run by 2 people but as a business is often run by 1 person. In spite of my experience as a line cook, working  by myself was not invited and whenever I made mistakes, the shift managers felt right to act vindictively  than support me. I was convinced that they would fire me for one reason or another and as such I instead 'threw myself upon the lance' and quit before they could fire me.

I had many problems while working here. 

1. The traning is down right awful. There is videos that are often out of date with their procedures and menus you do before hitting the floor. Then once you hit the floor it's a toss you into the fire situation where you have no guidance and have to figure it out. 

2. Unreliable and down right rude behavior from managers. When I go to a manager or leader with the global expectiation that they are meant to guide me to perform my job, expecially when I haven't learned it, I expect a receptive person that will help me grow. I was absolutely sick and tired of being shut down here when I was trying to communicate or learn.

3. The system for cashiers does not allow customers to make mistakes and does not allow any flexibility for a cashier to work independently on the most simple tasks. I should absolutely NOT have to call the manager to fix something so insignificant as taking off the avocado because the customer changed their mind before even paying. It is a major problem that prevented me from doing my job well and often I felt there was no point in me being there!

4. When searching for a job, I was introduced by Smashburger as being $16.00+ for the cashier job however that was a lie and was on $13.00. If I was not in a desperate position I would have never taken this job strictly for that alone. DO NOT TRUST SMASHBURGER ADS OR JOBPOSTING WAGES.

I will give major props on how maintained the store was. It was very cleaned and organized and I was glad to contribute to that process. 

A typical day at smashburger, i come in at 5pm for my shift and start cooking. If there is no one in line or anything to cook i begin cleaning the kitchen and preparing for the rest of the night. At around 8 i filter the fryers and start preclosing the kitchen because the rush is normally over by then. After closing i brick the grill and clean up the rest of the kitchen then finish any dishes that are left. Finally i mop the whole kitchen. I have learned a lot from smashburger, i learned better time management and how to prep food in a safe and healthy manner. The Management on a store level are normally very good, the problem is the upper management. I've had two managers that were stealing from the store, one manager that turned the store around after them. Then our District manager, he is uncaring of his employees and has made the current manager cry from the things he has said to her multiple times. The coworkers are a mix of hard working employees to lazy ones. Sadly most of the hard working employees have left do to upper managements lack of following through on there promises to employees and unwillingness to promote worthy employees. The hardest part of my job is having to run the kitchen by myself most nights because the store can not hire more staff from having such a bad reputation. The most enjoyable part of my day has to be seeing people eating the food i have made and having them tell me how good it is and complement me on it.

- typical work day- 8 am - 6 pm. Supervising all employees, fixing maintenance issues, portion control, communication of changes/updates to all employees to assure the satisfaction of all customers' is met, follow all policies and procedures of the company, scheduling, invoicing.
- I learned how to run a quick/casual restaurant concept; how to prioritize issues on a day to day basis while maintaining timely customer service; how to earn respect from fellow employees and establish positive work relationships in order to run an efficient restaurant; how to delegate tasks to employees; learned how to communicate efficiently to many different personalities.
- Management is key to running an efficient company period. No matter how small or big the task, it must be managed properly in order to yield results. You have to learn how to communicate to many different types of people/personalities effectively in order to form positive work outcomes.
- Co-workers of all ages, both genders, of all ethnicity.
- Hardest part of restaurant management is having to take care of employee issues on the fly while maintaining an efficient day of operations.
- The most enjoyable part of management is establishing long lasting relationships with customers. Also, the uncertainty of what the day brings you, and having to make the adjustments to function properly.

Each day is completely different. Each time I walk into work I don't know if it's going to be a slow day or a busy day. There are days when we are moving as fast as we can for the entire shift and end up staying extra late for closing tasks. There are other days where we don't have anyone come into the store for the last thirty minutes of the shift. There are a ton of things to be done in the store all the time. There are a variety of cleaning tasks as well as taking orders, answering the phone, preparing and delivering food, and meeting the needs of our guests. You have to be able to adapt to whatever comes up.

My favorite part about working at Smashburger is the people that I get to work with, and the people that I meet. I've made some close friends with the people I work with. We also get a lot of regulars that come into our store. It's fun for me to get to know those people and know their name and order. It's much easier to make a connection with the people who come in a lot.

The majority of my coworkers are very friendly people who are easy to get along with. Sometimes tensions are created between us, but we have learned to put those things aside and get our work done. When the managers know that some of the staff aren't getting along they do a pretty good job of mitigating any problems.

On a typical day I would open the store, have to come in and turn everything on, get things going. I would start to prep of items needed to start the day. When the store opened and customers started to come in I would make there orders. I would tend to stay on line and make food more than anything else because I was the strongest employees. Once lunch was dying down I would move into cleaning and restocking our line. I would recieve a break if I were to work a double on non school days. After my break I would go back to cooking until we slowed down, then I would move into closing procedures.

The management at Smashburger had a strong core. The in-store management would be very accomidating and helpful. There was also management from the franchise that would come in. His plans were always different. The way you worked depended on who was managing at the time. It was not difficult to accomidate this just at times frustrating at the lack of consistancy. 

The job over all was not a difficult one. The hardest part of it was staying in order and not getting behind. The system they have in place is very structured and if followed will work. My hard work ethics and disipline made my part of the job smooth.

a typical day would first start off by checking emails, place food order shortly after and check the schedule for who is working for today and the night shortly after. then check to see which breaks were ran and how many other people have to take break. which after i would check sales and projected sales for the day and week and know if cuts will be necessary to make or extra breaks.after i will count the safe, deposit and start doing my line check and food and safety paper work before relieving the current manager. after words get to work and talk to customers to make sure each experience was the best and see if they would recommend or come again. get our surveys up and then at the end of the shift i would count inventory and then review everyones work as well as count the registers,deposit and safe and lock up shop. i learned how to be a good crew member, a great trainer and a even better manager. the hardest part would be talking to unsatisfied guest but the best part would be listening, then correcting the error putting a smile on their faces and making their food experience go from bad to great.

I like working here it's an easy job, but my coworkers are lazy not all but a good half or more are, they stay in the back messing around while having orders, I seen them work and I started working in the back more it's not hard and at most it should take 15 min for an order unless it's a really big order, or we have so many orders that we can't make them all quickly, which pretty much never happens but they take 20-30 min for a simple order at times, I'm the one that have to deal with the customers complaints, I'm the one that gets screamed at or scolded by the customers it's super annoying, there can be 3 of them in the back and they take longer then if it was just me, they also never clean, so when I go I have to be the one to clean and wipe everything, half of them don't prep so when it gets bust we run out of things and we have to prep things urgently, like 3 or 4 of them miss allot so I can't rely on them, a few of them get so lazy that they just close the shop early cutting my hours, there's just allot of problems that could be solved if my coworkers took their job seriously it's not hard, the management is good when they are there but they run other shops and can't be there all the time. I'm pretty sure I seen one of my coworkers smoking or vaping in the kitchen as well

all my coworkers for the most part were very kind and helpful. it’s a simple job to get the hang of definitely, and if you enjoy customer service then working front of house will probably be a good fit for you (i have no expertise working back of house for the company). the manager brought a lot of her own personal life drama into the workplace, and that was definitely maximized because her partner was the assistant manager, and the only other person in a managerial position was the partners sister. many awkward conversations to overhear in the back room. things could also feel very tense as well when a disagreement was going on at home between the family. management could hold personal grudges against some of the employees, and will in turn cut hours or give you undesirable tasks to work on while you’re there instead of having a conversation with you about something they’re upset about or want to see improvement on. it was a fairly fun job though and payed okay. really good milkshakes and they offer a free meal for your lunch. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Shift leader 263 salaries reported	$18.38 per hour
Cook 4 salaries reported	$10.50 per hour
Cashier 211 salaries reported	$16.12 per hour
Shift manager 2 salaries reported	$13.00 per hour
Front desk agent 92 salaries reported	$17.05 per hour

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