pastry cook

guest service agent

store manager

sous chef

baker

The Salty Donut

Coming from somebody who worked management at this company I repeat do not apply for any of these jobs even if you think they’re gonna pay you well they always end up lowballing you And making it seem like this is an amazing offer because of all of our benefits (like pto after your first year) but their PTO policy is not like any other companies you get it once a year and that’s all you have for the rest of that year and bonuses (only for managers) when you rarely ever get a bonus because of all the requirements they have for the team to bonus at a store. Even though this is some type of baked goods shop they continuously hire chefs, who only have culinary experience to be the executive pastry chefs, which makes absolutely no sense. You constantly have to look over your shoulder and be careful of who you become friends with or who you talk to about and even who you talk around because certain managers and/or employees either have friends in upper management or just run back to upper management and tell on other people to make themselves look good and in the good graces. When it comes to benefits, that’s a whole  joke in itself The main benefits that I’m going to focus on are PTO, Parental Leave, In time and a half pay.  If you are applying to be a regular employee at The Salty PTO like I stated earlier is only given to you after you have made a year and it’s based off of how much you worked that year before. You get it on your anniversary and then that’s all you have for the entire rest of the year. This company also has the weirdest time and a half pay that any of the staff has experienced. At normal stores when say you get paid $10 for time 1/2 you would be getting paid $15. This company does it completely different to where they can save money and not pay you what they should be paying you. Their are PTO and time and a half half benefit policy is continuously changing throughout the years that I’ve worked here and throughout the year that my coworkers have worked here as they have explained to me. Moving onto parental leave barely anybody ever comes back, actually correction I have never seen one employee at my store that has gone on parental leave that has come back. It’s like as soon as you get pregnant here they find somebody to replace you just from what I’ve seen .  The turnover rate at this company is insane. Most people don’t make it past a few weeks because it’s pretty bad here. I’ve seen multiple crews leave within my time here and we really just hired unqualified people who have never worked in a bakery didn’t train them on any type of hygiene or food safety matter fact as a decorator who is the main person touching and making the food for these customers, I can guarantee Majority of them do not have a serve safe certificate or any type of food handling experience when it comes to the proper hygiene of how you’re supposed to prevent food borne illness the kitchen disgusting there’s always gunk on the floors overflowing drains pipes falling off ceilings leaking AC is not working dust & mold on the walls. flies + fruit flies , and even roaches and the stewards don’t clean anything properly The containers and tops and knives and cutting boards that we use are always greasy or have leftover stuff in them and we’ve even found roaches crawling in the tops. There’s absolutely no Training here They really just show you how to do your specific job and that’s it and you will be asked to do things that are outside of your job title and if you don’t want to do them, you will be shamed/ guilted or told that you’re not a team player or even have your hours cut honestly, the worst kitchen I have ever worked in when it comes to every aspect they don’t even have people who worked in kitchens set up their kitchen. The last time I heard it was someone who was involved in founding the company which is why most of the kitchens are too small to function properly and to save more money they just open storefronts  that have their donuts shipped from another location therefore putting more demand on the underpaid employees that make the donuts. FoH Usually has the most sassy  attitudes really hard to get along with some of them are just downright mean. Hopefully, I covered everything that is wrong with this so-called business and I can save somebody the headache of getting a job here.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Producing good looking donuts and learning sufficient pastry kitchen skills from an entry level.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Utter lack of leadership and infrastructure in the kitchen creates chronic pressure and unsustainable production demands for employees. Additionally, there is no sincere tone of caring about employees from higher ups. The mindset seems to be to grow and sell as much as possible and as fast as possible even if it means exploiting workers. No wonder the turn over rate is so high.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Stressful during weekends and holiday specials, pretty laid back during the week. However, frequent insufficient communication and passive aggressive comments from management creates unspoken tension. 

Honestly, I feel like the culture is becoming less authentic, and more commercialized to meet capitalist demands. Still most components are made from scratch which is good. Just unfortunate that the company has not held themselves accountable to make changes that would genuinely show that they care about their employees. It feels like the company puts profitability above all else, definitely before employees.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day is routinely tiring. I enjoy the work I do and I have been able to gain proficiency in most decorating skills. I just do not enjoy the conditions of that workplace. There is a constant state of fight or flight.

Location is amazing, lots of opportunities to network. 

Concept of the salty is nice, including the set up. 

Unpredictable but predictable work place. 

Favoritism is definitely shown. 
I was really sick one day, throwing up, could barely stand or breathe. The whole day I tried so hard to keep myself from passing out. No compensation was given to me unfortunately. I wasn’t allowed to call someone to take over my shift ( as we are told we are allowed to do, and has been done by others.)  I never called off the whole year I worked there.  I had never switched shifts with anyone. I was very reliable, but they take advantage of that.

 No one ever wants to do their job. They want free money, including managers, and the people that actually do love their job somehow get treated unfairly. It’s backwards. 

Inappropriate work group chats. 

Overworked with repetitive work assignments Communication sucks, everything is last minute.
 
There’s no actual improvement since the day i started working there. 

Poor management skills, no real training. They’ll tell you everything is self explanatory, and I’ll agree that some things are but other things are a bit more complicated at first glance, or until you get the hang of it. 

Impatience and a major lack of empathy. 

This job would be a nice, healthy, and fun work environment if higher up’s were replaced with professions. 

I was part of the original crew when we opened the West Palm location in August/September of 2022 and I think we were all incredibly hopeful because of how inviting it was, we had proper training on coffee bar, register, and general customer service expectations, on top of that were opportunities to be cross trained in pastry, etc. Since then we have gone through 3 managers, 2 assistant managers, and one general keyholder along with numerous entry level employees due to the fact that hard work is not recognized and upper management works general management until they break and have to be replaced. They expect us to consistently work with a skeleton crew due to the low amount of hours we’re allotted while simultaneously opening location after location across the US like they have money to burn. People that were just hired are already trying to find new employment. Training is now nonexistent to the point I and other team members are training the managers. At this point we all just try to stick together and support each other until the current managers quit and the next batch of managers are rolled in. I’ve honestly never seen such a poorly run business in my working life. I wouldn’t recommend working for this place and no past employee you talk to would recommend it either, especially since now they’re hiring people at a dollar cheaper than before.

From the outside the company seems so friendly and they’re always harking about how we’re all family. But once you actually set foot in there to work that attitude immediately changes. You’re constantly seeing upper management not doing anything, sitting with their laptops and going off on meetings aka eating out even if they see you struggling behind the counter to keep up with the lines. You’re a literal slave there. I’ve had so many times where I was solo, handling multiple orders and they’re just sitting and watching. They make so much money every day and yet they refuse to offer more than minimum wage. You see this money being spent on their family vacations and poorly made merchandise. Overworked, short staffed and they’ll always make sure you can never reach overtime even though each shift desperately needs more hands. Please don’t keep giving this company more money, there’s better donuts out here in Miami from places that don’t treat their employees like dirt. Ive never felt so low in a job before... your complaints mean nothing as they’re all family and they cover up each others mistakes.

I felt lucky to be at the Salty at first. The general manager, assistant manager and all of the key-holders of the store were cream of the crop co-workers. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about upper management coming from the corporate office. When they weren’t at the store, things went so much more smoothly and the culture at work felt free from drama, toxicity and politics. When they are at the store, there’s a lot of rudeness, scapegoating, and micromanaging that negativity effects our ability to give great  service. Upper management seemed a lot more interested in feeling like the big man/woman on campus instead of being a part of a team. If you’re a parent of a high school kid working here, you should be aware I’ve overheard upper management pressuring a kid to skip college and instead dedicate themselves to moving up at The Salty. The general manager and several others ended up quitting and walking out after a particularly chaotic morning where upper management turned the toxicity knob all the way to 11. I regret not quitting alongside them. Better late than never. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The ability to continue working with from-scratch pastry production while operating at multi-location scale.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
A lack of clear communication and defined advancement pathways during expansion created uncertainty. Organizational changes were not always accompanied by transparent process or planning.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The culture varied by location. The second store had a stronger, more collaborative team dynamic. At the first location, while employees worked hard, morale and engagement were inconsistent. During expansion, leadership invested heavily in new organizational structures and management layers in anticipation of growth. As financial pressures emerged, several of those roles were later dissolved, creating instability and uncertainty for management-level staff.

The pay isn’t enough to make a living off of and you have to give 100% all the time even when it’s crazy busy with only three people which is exhausting. The weekends there are hectic and they won’t schedule more people cause that’s too much money. Full time isn’t close to 40 hours because they don’t want to pay overtime. You get no health benefits or sick time. The upper management does as littlework in the store as possible. You have to constantly move mountains for customers with little incentive or recognition for good work. The complaints from workers all go through the regional manager who only has loyalties to the company so your complaints are unheard. Everything is a facade while being a family there is preached only upper management is close everyone else is just a replaceable body. Upper management also consists of people with little to no management experience and it shows. Free coffee and donut a day are the only perks which pale in comparison to how overworked you are.

Once the fired the store manager that cared about their workers everything went downhill. People started to get replaced and managers show favoritism and treat you as if you’re just a body to work. They don’t communicate well either which results in your job getting affected even. HR doesn’t seem to care. The other reviews on here are just about accurate. But, I gained a lot of growth here whether it was gaining new skills or standing up for myself. I’m happy to have met the people that used to work there and I’m glad this job was just a placeholder for all of us. Hearing some of their achievements and new opportunities and finally reaching mine goes to show that these kinds of jobs and management only help us realize how we can make our upcoming career/work environments way better and healthier. 

I left because I experienced a keyholder being transphobic towards me. When I opened up to the manager (at the time) about it she said she'd talk to him about it, but didn't seem to actually care. After the so called "talk" all he got out of it was to watch his filter around certain people. This keyholder was also the type of person to disappear off the floor for quite a while, even if we were busy. 
I also didn't receive any proper training and especially for the barista position. The management definitely had a lack of communication between each other. They also have an insane amount of waste at the end of the night which is very sad to see. There was one night where we threw out over 600 bakery items (donuts, pop tarts, whatever else we had at the time). The pay was very much nonliveable in an expensive city like Austin. 
All in all, this job is best used as a filler job if you can't find anything else, but I wouldn't waste too much of your time here. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Pastry cook 21 salaries reported	$58,690 per year
Guest service agent 5 salaries reported	$14.85 per hour
Store manager 25 salaries reported	$58,097 per year
Sous chef 19 salaries reported	$51,974 per year
Baker 5 salaries reported	$16.60 per hour

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