crew member

shift leader

general manager

assistant manager

café manager

Tropical Smoothie Cafe

The turnover rate of new employees is insane. There's a new person working there each week and they can't keep a set staff because management is so horrible and lazy. It used to be a SUPER great atmosphere the first few months they were open. I was part of the group of staff that was hired before opening and everyone all got along and business was great for about 5 months. Afterwards, they started bringing in new and different management and over the course of a year and a half, the business went down the drain. They literally threw it to the wolves. 2 or 3 people were left from the original staff and they stopped caring about everything.

It's a great job if you're in high school and need a place to earn money for a couple months to a year. But don't apply if you have a busy life or a second job because they'll penalize for you it. If you give them anything less than 12 hours of your day 3-4 days a week, they have an issue with it and schedule you less. 

Too many times have I gotten in trouble (and even fired/taken off the schedule) for mistakes that management made. I was taken off the schedule two or three times and came back twice. First time was a couple of months after the shop opened: I was a cheerleader all throughout high school and gave them my cheer schedule of games and practices so they would know when not to schedule me. Somehow, they still marked me up three times (without even telling me) for not coming into work on the days I had games/practices. When I confronted the manager at the time about it to get my job back, she said she never got my schedule from me. She conveniently forgot that when I offered to give a paper copy of my schedule, she said no and insisted she'd get it from my high school's website. To make things worse, another cheerleader on my team applied to the job with me and had no issues with her schedule. Made NO sense. 

Second time this happened, I came back for a few weeks during the summer after getting a new job and I needed another job to bring in more money. I told them this and let them know my first job was my priority and they said 'OK that's cool.". They didn't like that and tried scheduling me on days/times I would be at my first job. The third and last time this happened was when I requested a week off for an impromptu family trip. I put in the proper form to get time off and got it approved. (I never ended up going on the trip, because at the time I was struggling in my classes and my mother canceled it for my bad grades. She also grounded me. I wasn't allowed to work at either of my jobs during that week I took off.) The following weeks I was never put back on the schedule, never found out why, but I didn't go back. 

Every time I would go into the shop afterwards, it would be disgusting, nasty, food and trash on the floor, tables unclean, and smoothie blenders brown and disgusting (they stopped washing their dishes with strong enough soap and/or bleach for like 3-4 months bc they didn't want to order more dish detergent. The new teens they kept hiring each week also didn't care about the job and did less than bare minimum when cleaning). The bathrooms would be gross and I noticed they updated the smoothie prep table to one that holds smoothie cups; however, this table now had more grooves and crannies that NEVER got cleaned which resulted in black sludge and old fruit getting stuck in the crevices.

Anyways, I stopped going there and told anyone I knew to stop going there as well. The place was disgusting and I'm surprised it even passed inspections.

I was a manager at tropical smoothie for almost a year. The owners were a couple and owned two locations. They would only hire high schoolers because they were cheap labor and they knew young kids wouldn't know better. I made friends with almost all my co-workers and often organized outings to bowling and arcades together outside of work. My co-workers and the customers were the only highlight to this job in my perspective and situation. They would leisurely come into the store at time to time to make lunch for themselves and "check up" on us. The owners had cameras installed in every corner of the store and had microphones in some of them but they never made it clear as to which ones, I only knew there were microphones because the husband brought up a conversation I had with an old employee that only a microphone could pickup, unless he has some magic lip reading powers. The location i worked at was a revolving door and the owners who made the schedule knew that but did everything in their power to keep us understaffed. The schedule was sent to us via text message of a picture of their computer screen Sunday night around 10 pm. Every week was different so you had no clue weather you'd be working tomorrow, Monday morning, or not. Not to mention receiving a schedule at 10pm being in college and finding out you have to go into work to open a store at 6am is just really a healthy way of doing a schedule as a store owner. In the summer, our busiest time, they'd often bring their children in to work to continue to try and cut peoples hours. I ran that store and knew how to do every task under their roof. We had two tip jars out front that would be counted with the till twice a day. We had 1 meeting the entire time I had worked there and not a single word that came out of their mouth became true. The tips would be counted everyday but never handed out and when brought up to them they would play stupid. Extremely shady with the health inspectors and corporate. If a register was short any amount the husband would tell me it's coming out of somebody's paycheck. Refused to pay over time, like not even not pay double i mean go into my hours and cut my hours off at 40 even if i worked 60+ in a week. My "managerial" pay was $1 more than my starting which gave me a grand $10 an hour. I made their store spotless and sparkling and kept all employees happy and customers returning often asking specifically for me to make their smoothies and food. They were cheap and didn't understand mutual respect. When I informed them that I'd be leaving months prior the closer I got to my final weeks the smaller my paycheck got until they fired me a week before my notice date. I gave them nothing but my best efforts and energy and received nothing but a spit in the face.

I started working at Tropical Smoothie at the beginning of April with one manager and a team that was mostly on the edge of quitting. During my 5 month period working for Tropical Smoothie Cafe, I remained a minimum wage employee, had my tips (as well as upwards of $300 from the whole staff there) stolen by the franchise owners and the district manager, and was given 0 hours for a 4 week period after coming back from a vacation that I had requested time off of over 2 months beforehand.

An opening shift played out like this on a normal day: open up the restaurant, clock in, knock out the prep list, fulfill orders in a timely manner, clean up your mess, do some dishes, leave. Some days this took more time some days this took less.

From this job I learned 2 things, always listen to what other people are saying, even if it's not to you, and always count your own tips when you have the chance. I learned the first one because I had heard my manager complain about me to multiple people, although he only ever approached me directly twice to tell me what I needed to improve on. The second I learned because the district manager and the franchise owners stole around $300 in tips. I didn't learn of this until after I had returned from a 2 week vacation, during which our store manager informed the shift leaders that the district manager and franchise owners had been stealing tips from our store. When the higher ups were complained to, they promised to compensate us, which they took out of our managers last paycheck. I myself was never personally compensated, nor were some of the other crew members and shift leaders that left because of how management treated us.

My manager seemed to love to complain, but never directly to the person he was complaining about. He had only come to me directly twice, one of which was just a backhand comment about being on my phone during a downtime. However, I had heard from multiple employees about him complaining about me.

The hardest part of my job was dealing with the constant phone calls from the franchise owners when they would complain about labor being to high and watching us work in a Big Brother style when the sales were low.

The best part of my job was the staff. They made the job tolerable for the five months I was there, and I'm still friends with most of them even months after leaving Tropical Smoothie Cafe.

This is a good place to start if you're looking for a first job and just need the experience. The pay, however, is awful whether you're a Crew Member or Shift Leader. I can't speak on behalf of how much the Assistant Manager or General Manager is paid, but at our location the Crew Members, Shift Leaders, and Assistant Manager went months without a raise and some Crew Members even still paid minimum wage after nearly a year of working. The work environment can be fun but that entirely depends on your crew. In almost 2 years of working, I went through 5 general managers most of which seemed to be allergic to raises. I would go above my job title and correctly distribute tips weekly to all other Shift Leaders and Crew Members, fix our MICROS system whenever it went down, place produce orders, fix employee time cards, and more all for $10.25/hr. Knowing how to do all of these things I had asked my General Manager for a raise twice and was told that the store wasn't making enough money to give me or any other employees a raise. Time passes by and the General Manager hires an old friend of his for $12/hr while none of us had left and the store did not start to earn more money according to Oracle. I know I'm making my General Manager sound like a bad guy, but honestly, he had an amazing personality and was really fun to work with. He was probably my favorite out of the 5 but unfortunately, you couldn't trust what he said. A typical night was pretty stressful because there were only 2 employees clocked in from about 4 PM-close. We had asked our General Manager for an extra person to close with which he gave us but took away only a couple weeks later with no given reason. A typical morning, however, was very easy and the complete opposite of stressful as long as you could handle the lunch rushes which was very easy to get the hang of as long as you memorize the ingredients to the food and smoothie items. There were also about 5+ people clocked in for morning shifts so you could get prep done very quickly and various tasks such as breaking down cardboard boxes or cleaning. I definitely don't regret my decision to work here as it was my first job and I was only 16 and needed the experience when I started, but now being 18 and about to start college, I really could've used a raise. So unfortunately, Tropical Smoothie Cafe wasn't going to be able to provide for me anymore.

I started at TSC for a quick gig to get some money rolling in. I barely got an interview, I was just hired on the spot. Luckily for them, I’m hard-working. First things that turned me off about the job was: 1.) They make you PAY for uniforms that THEY want you to wear (i came from taco bell, starbucks, etc. i’ve never experienced this somewhere that only pays minimum wage) 2.) They have a direct deposit slip available in your new hire paperwork YET do not offer direct deposit 3.) They don’t offer any form of incentive/benefits, you don’t even get a free smoothie after working all day. Just a measly 10% off of your meal & smoothie aka taxes. I worked at the TSC in Glen Burnie, Maryland off of Governor Ritchie Highway and the Owners there are awful to say the least. They don’t care about their workers, They talk to anyone any kind of way, They don’t even say Hi when they walk in. All of the employees at that location are likely to be within their first month or even their first week because their turn over rate is so frequent. The previously hired manager (who hired me) was on the clock, and received news that he was hired for another job. Right then in the middle of his shift, without saying a word, walked out & quit. That says a lot about the place. I was truly relieved when I told them it was my last week of work and they replied “You can just leave now”. We were discussing why I was absent the previous day (mind you, I called out well before my shift that day) & I informed them that I was waiting on my rapid COVID test results that previous day, so out of precaution I stayed home. I sent them the results.. but they didn’t care, they told me this would be my “first warning” for telling my Lead rather than telling them (which I understood was wrong) but when your leadership is rude & too unconcerned to even ask you HOW ARE YOU? or ARE YOU OK? ...It causes you to move a little differently or maybe that’s just me. Oh! let me not forget I trained about 5+ people without receiving any training pay, I was HARDLY trained myself when I was hired on, and they don’t even give you paid 10 minute breaks. I worked there just about everyday standing up for 7-8 hours because I wasn’t trying to miss out on money.  Do yourself a favor, work somewhere else.

The job itself is enjoyable, rewarding, and provides a healthy alternative for customers. My crew that I worked with is hardworking, supportive, and dedicated to creating a positive environment. However, the franchisee owner and operations director create a workplace culture that contradicts the very values the company claims to hold.

Respect:  There is clear bias in leadership, often protecting certain managers while disregarding others, leading to an unfair and unbalanced work environment. Decisions are often driven by fragile egos than merit.  Male employees are often promoted or transferred to other locations despite performance concerns, while female employees face disrespect and unfair consequences for similar or lesser issues.

Integrity: Transparency is lacking, with misleading financial information shared in meetings, creating distrust rather than clarity. They use humiliation or fear to control instead of offer solutions. 

Teamwork: Rather than fostering collaboration, leadership is controlling and dismissive, failing to acknowledge employee contributions or build morale. The operations director is resistant to new ideas and solutions, insisting on his approach even when it is ineffective or inefficient.

Enthusiasm: Instead of leading with positivity, upper management remains disconnected and unapproachable, adding unnecessary stress to the workplace. They visit the cafes for only 30 minutes every two weeks, if at all, resulting in a lack of awareness needed for effective leadership. Their communication style is more disruptive than constructive.

Despite the strong bonds I formed with my coworkers and the satisfaction of the job, the lack of proper leadership accountability remains a major concern.  Oversight is necessary, as they act without accountability and believe they can treat employees poorly without consequences. A reassessment of values, a more engaged and communicative approach from upper management would significantly improve the work environment. 

During my time working here, it was very stressful. Definitely not a place where you can work solely here and make a livable income. Most of the time, even though I was just a crew member, not a team leader, I had to act as a team leader because the actual team leaders didn't do their job.
Management should enforce team roles, as I was left doing tons of things for everyone, in order to have meals out to customers on time. People should work as a TEAM, and there should be two people staffed on each side, 2 on smoothie, and 2 on food, and 1 food runner. Sometimes I was stuck doing both food and smoothie, which is not efficient at all. It was nice connecting with other crew members, it was a good time making friends. But most of the time I cried in my car after my shift because it was so stressful. 
I was even asked to become a team leader, but declined because the pay raise was literal cents, and was not worth that little compensation for all the extra work as a team leader. 

I guess this would be an okay first job kind of situation, for a high schooler. But don't expect to be able to pay your bills. 

No hate for management or any of the workers, I love them. Just a stressful place to work. 

Typical day of work includes, (if morning shift), coming in and looking at the prep board to see what we need to stock. Lots of preparing items, such as cutting chicken, weighing it and portioning. Filling sauces, cutting vegetables, peeling bananas, filling fruit bins for the smoothie line, just making sure we have enough of everything. (Which is stressful during the day, because a lot of the time, when a persons shift ended, they are supposed to fill their line and replace low items, but a lot of the time that didn't happen, so it fell on me.) 

During the day, its making smoothies and food and there are guides to each item you follow. You will eventually memorize it, and orders are on a screen with any alterations. And then also cleaning dishes, and cleaning the bathroom, and store when closing. 

If you’re looking to work at a place where you get treated fairly, get recognized for your hard work ethic, get free food and uniforms, great management, or have employees who take their jobs seriously then you’re looking at the wrong job.

They recently changed owners and I’m telling you they may look nice but they’re not. They're truly unprofessional and they’re manipulative. They’re the most childish company  I’ve ever worked with. If you have problems, they never get solved because that’s how much they don’t care. If you ever think about quitting, one of the managers will send you home early so they wouldn’t have to deal with you for the day. They had minors working 10 hours shift with no breaks. If you were a hard worker, they really don’t appreciate that as much. They depend on those who can take shifts that’s others couldn’t cover. Even though those co-workers didn’t do their work. Plus, if no one could cover the shift then they would have to and they don’t like that. Even though, on paper it says if you’re feeling sick, you are the responsible for finding someone to cover your shift. If you didn’t find anyone then you HAVE to work it. They would belittle you in every way, by saying you need to smile more or be lively. They automatically made me into a bad person without even trying to get to know me even though they say, “we are a family and a team”. In their mindset, they think their company is the only important thing in your life. They encouraged drama by talking with some co-workers that literally just spread it by telling lies or everything you say. I got promoted to assistant manager pretty early and I got a lot of nonsense for it from co-workers who started before me. I felt very uncomfortable working with these people because of how I was treated while everyone was treated differently. I wouldn’t wish anyone to go through what I went through with this company. I just want my truth to be told.

If you want nice customer service you will definitly get it, the people who work at the counter at least during my time were always bright and you make good personal friends while there. 

Work environment however is toxic and unhealthy for staff, do not reccomend customers who care about the treatment of the employees to eat there. Personally was electrocuted on job and was the closer that night, was not told to shut down shop and manager did not get someone to come in to finish the closing so I could seek medical attention or take the night off because of the serious side effects it could have. Regaurdless if I was asked or not if I was ok, when shocked by a kitchen oven of this power there should have been concern and someone should have came in my place. 

Training doesnt happen here. You get a brief run down but they dont take time to properly train you. Typically just thrown on a line or never taught anything, and other employees get impatient when training due to the hectic and high stress levels. 

Employees are expected to do everything from dishes, prep, register, food and smoothie line, catering, and during my personal experience you sometimes would have to beg for a break or feel like a burden for asking/taking one for a shift longer then 8 hours. 

Quality of smoothies and food depend if the person making it was actually trained or has just been essentially thrown on a line. Good customer service. Very poor employee treatment and benefits till this day. Not allowed free meal, awarded "tickets" for tropi star behavior. Management treats the employees poorly and so do the co-owners. 

Very money driven and do not expect to get a raise even with a high level of success and effort put into the job. When I was a tropical smoothie wasnt even allowed my one day off that I asked for and they preferred me to take so ot could help out the team. You must put request off far in advance or else you will be denied.

Overall, Tropical Smoothie Cafe is not a bad place to work. Starting out, my co-workers, leaders, and boss were very kind and understanding. I was fully trained after about a month or so, and the tasks are all pretty straightforward and easy to accomplish. However, there isn't much variety in the work days. When you come in to work, it's the same thing every time so it became very boring very quickly. When I was moved to a new location, I quickly realized that I worked with a lot of high school aged people. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the work ethic is just simply not there sometimes, and it could be very frustrating. For example, one day we were particularly busy because it was Flip Flop Day and we were giving out free smoothies. There were 4 employees on the smoothie line: one making, one doing ice/water, one blending, and one pouring and delivering. The two young girls in charge of blending and pouring stood with their backs to the blenders and gossiped with each other the entire time. Meanwhile, we had a line out the door of customers patiently waiting for their smoothies. Another complaint I have with this place is that I personally feel like the work load is very heavy for the pay (minimum wage). Rushes during lunch and dinner can be ridiculously stressful. I also often felt undermined by my leaders. In transitioning from one task to another, it would feel as if they were breathing down my neck and constantly reminding me of things I could be doing. My reason for leaving is mostly because of hours. One week I would work one day out of the entire week, and the next week I would work every single day. My schedule was often changed with only a days notice. The hours were just not reliable and it was very frustrating for my shifts to be cancelled for no reason. Despite my complaints, Tropical Smoothie Cafe is definitely not the worst place to work and I've made some lifelong friends while working there.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Crew member 1381 salaries reported	$12.99 per hour
Shift leader 488 salaries reported	$15.07 per hour
General manager 200 salaries reported	$51,525 per year
Assistant manager 141 salaries reported	$15.79 per hour
Café manager 62 salaries reported	$17.77 per hour

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