restaurant staff

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restaurant manager

Whataburger

This all depends on the place you work at and doesn’t generalize all WBs. For my overall experience, I did not like working there due to management and a few uncommunicative, unreliable, and disrespectful coworkers.

The management is terrible. I’ve spent 16 hours on videos and they’ve only placed me on 2 positions for a few months. It’s as if they indirectly tell me that I suck and should only focus on one task. But, cant lie the fact the those 2 positions are the easiest compared to others. It’s the principle of the fact. In addition, hours were severely due to “high labor.” This is very inconsistent because why would they continue to hire more people. To add on, there are complaints about the low amount of workers during the time leading to call-ins. This is infuriating and annoying especially when help is needed when there’s apparently “too much labor.” Lastly, a friend had the same amount of consistent hours - realizing that there was favoritism and treated us like replaceable people.

The coworkers can be annoying but finding someone who knows what their doing and one as a friend to relax makes the day go much less stressful. During my time at fry station, it was annoying as they expected me to do 3 different tasks - Dropping, scooping, and bagging - when it should be a 2-man job but so much for high labor. Another reason was communication. It was a rush and was difficult to do 3 tasks already. This lead to me being unable to check the chicken supply and resulting in holding times. Some MUT people “only” notified me about the supply when it ran out and not low. So, a superior got annoyed and told me that I should be checking the supply when all it takes is a simple communication. Another time was the fridge supply not being restocked. A good rush came through and supplies were low. The person before me was told to go home and didnt bother to restock, and thus, I had four tasks - dropping, scooping, bagging, and restocking while being rushed by coworkers. On top of that, the said person was a superior. This infuriated me - so much for communication and reliability. The second reason is unreliable superiors - team leader/manager. There was once where the fries were getting stale and brown and the superior decided to complain instead of resolving the issue until I - someone who hardly started - suggested a solution, and it worked out. Lastly, disrespectful coworkers. I constantly get rushed to do this and that when I have my hands full when the person said person could get the fries themself. I was in the middle of something - as can be seen from my hands - and chicken was needed. I notified the person it was ready and was soon to be stocked. The person replied by saying,” hurry up “ in a moody quiet tone. Mind you there wasn’t a rush and the person wasn’t anything. Another reason were fake people. Apparently, Ive heard from a friend where a group of females sometimes group up and gossip about someone. When the said person came over, the group’s personality changed to an angel’s.

Through all these bad experiences, there were only a few things that motivated me to stay - friendly, fun people and good - surprisingly there were - benefits. However, these people quit shortly after my hiring and was sad to see them go as they were the only good, few people. There were still a few others but I hardly saw them.

As stated earlier, it depends on the place and was my personal experience. If you wish to work at one, I suggest going to one 2-3 times a week and try to peak in the kitchen to see if there are new faces or same faces on a good consistency. New faces - people quit due to negative reasons. Same faces - people hardly quit due to positive reasons.

** I would like to respectfully note this review was based at my small window of working experience at around early 2020  and MAY NOT accurately reflect to PRESENT TIME however I wish to still share my experiences for any future potential applicants looking to apply to this location and other fellow newbies venturing the workforce as I know food industry is usually a common first foot in door for work **

Management struggling to keep in order a disconnected team where there were ones only interested in the easiest tasks. 2910 W Thunderbird Rd was apparently worse performing store despite the amount of patrons and was only told such after being brought on the team. Would have been nice to be warned before hand to know what was going on and be more mentally prepared! 

Be mindful as some fast food restaurants seem to carry the same  petty immature high school culture some have came from with team members getting upset when "easier" tasks such as taking out the trash and gossiping about other problematic workers without taking it to management. And waiting around pretending to be busy until their shift ended. It was only about the pay check and not even the work behind it. 

I admittedly didn't either bring these issues to management, however I was being overwhelmed with being encouraged to train new hires as a new hire myself?! This was my first time a part of a large corporate brand as my past first experience was with a wonderful local mom and pop shop restaurant which had much better mindfulness with employees with only two mangers and a smaller staff with less patrons complaining! 

I was embarrassed for the team and management as I was trying to work while I had employees who were employed longer than me as a new hire bickering to me about the work, certain regulars, and being disrespected under their breaths about whatever patrons ordered. I personally never had any time to get fully accustomed to any station as I kept being bounced around almost every day. I will admit I personally failed to speak up as well thus I mention that as a tip for any future newbie into the work force employee to advocate for themselves and speak up! Closed mouths don't get fed I learned. 

Very immature and overwhelming that I just didn't show up and no-showed due to the disconnect nature of the whole team as I had little experience then. Very "clique" culture is what was going on in this particular location at the time. I didn't know there was a work chat and there was a better way to be in touch with the team until I overheard someone mention it. The manager had a wonderful laid back attitude however it seemed as if unfortunately the team members took advantage of that whenever they could. 

I wish and hope for the best for that store in particular as I know Whataburger is a respectable and wonderful brand and hiccups like these don't represent the company culture as a whole. 

Again this is from my personal experiences and observations. Trying to not let this experience bring my view on the whole company down. Poor brand representation at the time.

Be mindful of this location in particular. 

I give this place a better than average rating. There is flexible scheduling, an easy path to promote, opportunity for financial growth, personal development, opportunity to obtain benefits like insurance and PTO, and always 50% off food. I have worked at some units where bosses instill fear to reach success, and I've worked at others who had a leader who didn't care enough; regardless, those attitudes always reflected how the store performed and the team's morale. I will say I appreciated how well Whataburger paid, and the opportunities for advancement. But, like anything else, it has room for improvement.

It is important to remember that there really is not an over-arching company culture. It varies on which location you're at. Corporate's  "motto" is quickly thrown out the window, for better or for worse. Some stores will ask too much of their underpaid employees, like making only team leaders run overnight shifts without any other manager on the shift with them to assist with the work load (keep in mind, TLs do not get bonuses, despite benefits, and get paid maybe $2.50 more than Team Members while managers get paid $22-$26 AND a monthly bonus) Other stores have their managers take turns running the overnight shift, since it can be the hardest one to do based on minimal staffing and a litany of cleaning tasks all while serving guests. I'd consider how management at your particular unit works together, and if you don't like it, there is always an opportunity to transfer to a different one since there are so many Whataburgers in Texas.

HR mostly works to protect the brand at all costs. It's actually a known thing that is talked about. A person will only be dealt with if this individual is not in management's good graces outside of whatever issue they've caused. I've seen some individuals be dismissed quickly, and I've seen others stick around for a while after whatever claim was made against them because their manager friends fought for them. Always make sure to be aware of what is going on and potential issues. 

Some Operating Partners are wonderful, work hard, and are willing to fight for their employees; others aren't around too much because they take advantage of the salary and don't come in, don't appreciate their people, or are simply unrealistic. It ultimately depends on what you personally want out of the job, and what it's worth to you.

You will work hard at this job, but I personally found it to be worth it overall. I made good money and enjoyed lots of perks because of my work ethic.

Overall, a good place to work at with good benefits if you are selective and pick a location based off of what you are comfortable with. I think it could really be great if some issues are re-assessed by the company.

Negatives:

- Some managers are decent, however the majority of them constantly micromanage you.

- There was (and still is) a standard set to below the bare minimum for training. Upon being hired, the went around in 10ish minutes to show me around the kitchen and point out the locations of different condiment and various things. They didn’t even show us how to read the tickets, bag orders, take out orders, or use the register, but they would throw a fuss at you if you messed one of those things up.

- For the lack of training and guidance provided, they are extremely strict on their employees. For what could easily be made into a learning moment, is instead turned into a “if you keep this up you’re fired” type of conversation. I’ve worked here for 3 months, and I’ve had to learn a lot by trial and error because the training I had was pretty much non-existent and all I could do was frequently ask questions. 

- Managers are REALLY quick to find someone to point the finger at when something goes wrong. I have been (on several occasions) blamed by my managers for giving people the wrong orders, however I always verify the names before I give them out. 

- It’s constantly busy, and is usually stressful for the people being forced to multitask. My unit is understaffed, and underpaying their workers for what we do. I’m usually handling curbside & front, and when curbside orders start to stack on each other because those orders are still being made by kitchen, and you can really only do one order at a time, then the managers start to get irritated at you for not being ‘fast enough’ (it’s usually only one or two people doing curbside at once, with oftentimes 6-8 curbside customers already arrived at once).

- My work schedule is really inconvenient. I’m currently in 12th grade about to go into the national guard, and I need to make more than $80 a week. I only work two days (Thursday & Sunday), usually with managers sending several people home 2-3 hours before their shift is supposed to end. I have brought up this issue, requesting more days to work, and they acknowledge my request but don’t do anything about it. 

- The place is always unsanitary. The floor always a mess, and it’s usually always wet/greasy.

- Some customers are extremely rude and disrespectful to employees. You don’t get paid enough to deal with it.

Positives:

- Other coworkers are usually nice & can help pass time.

- Oftentimes see friends come to order.

- Occasional curbside tips, but not often enough to count on.

The only reason I haven’t left is because I’m shipping into the army soon and I don’t want the hassle of quoting and applying for another job a few months before I ship to basic/AIT training for like 10 months. The pay is enough to get me through, but it definitely isn’t enough for college or a career job. Managers make $16ish per hour where I work.

I understand it's a fast food joint, great for a high school kid or first job or something. I've worked here for a month, and I'm already looking for a different job. When I first started, I was told that everyone they had just hired would quit or just not come back. Maybe part of the reason is because this location gets robbed a lot. Maybe it's because you can work an entire eight hour shift and not get a 30 minute break, while some people work less hours and get an hour long break. Or, maybe it's because the general manager likes to constantly degrade you when things start to get hectic. My first week here, I watched videos for being a cashier. So once I was done watching the videos, they stuck me on the grill. Didn't train me, didn't help at all. So after asking for help, the gm (general manager) got this snippy attitude towards me and told me how to do certain things, while talking to me as if I was a child. When it would get really busy,  (dinner rushes) I would fall a little behind sometimes. So the gm would yell continuously from the front counter at me, then come over to the grill and push me out of the way to take over. I understand it's frustrating to fall a little behind when you have a lot of people, but how do you expect a new employee that was not trained, to keep up with these huge rushes? And I'm sorry, but I find it very rude and immature to yell across the restaurant and humiliate you well after the rush is gone. She's just a horrid person to work with, it's like she enjoys putting employees down. I've asked to be put on different shifts, so I wouldn't be working with her and my request was ignored. I got the flu last week, and called in a day before, plenty of time to find someone to cover my shift. The gm is the one who answered the phone, and when she heard that I couldn't come in, she sighed loudly and hung up on me. I get burned a lot and was told by her that if I'm afraid of being burned, then I shouldn't be working there, to find a different job. I was told they needed me because their employees were quitting, but I'm not feeling valued at all. It's honestly gotten to the point where every day I go to work, I wonder if she'll fire me, or I'll quit. One of our customers got food poisoning from eating a hamburger that was still raw (which has resulted in a big lawsuit), so I check every party to make sure its thoroughly cooked. Some of the plates on the grill don't heat up, so you can only cook on certain spots (which really sucks when it gets busy), and their timers are really off. But she told me to stop checking the patties, because you have to cut into the middle to see. She said it makes them look ugly and if I follow the timers, they will be cooked perfectly. I've told several managers about the grill plates and the timers, but nothing has been done. I'm not going to give someone raw meat, so I get yelled at a lot for checking the patties.

I like what Wal-Mart stands for, and I appreciate there efforts to improve the world politically, but I honestly cannot tolerate the corruption behind closed doors. Be prepared to restart high-school all over again; there is lots of "he said, she said" propaganda everywhere. There's lots of the stick and plenty of the carrot--which you seemingly will never receive, as your ride will simply yank it away should you ever have the audacity to reach for it. 

It's practically impossible to "move up" the Wal-Mart social ladder. There's too much convenient "miscommunications", whether it's being transferred to another department, whether it is being promoted, whether it's changing your availability, or whether you want to work full-time. You'll get the same excuse every single time. "That currently in available. It'd be open in [X amount of months, usually within 3]." and personally, I've been in all four situations. 

Be very patient with managers. While some are more competent than others, the majority of them seem to either have no idea how to adapt or manage their own team. Some of them even convienantly "forgot" to check the schedule before hand to ensure that there would be enough coverage. If there isn't enough coverage (and trust me, there won't be), be prepared to get pulled to another department, even though you weren't trained in that department...and yes, the customers don't know Jack from an Alice; all Wal-Mart associates look exactly the same to them, so if they come to you asking for general questions regarding merchandise that you're unsure of, it'd be a good idea to check your self-conscious mask at the door, as you WILL be branded as an idiot / slacker / liar when you inform the customer that you don't work at that particular department. Oh yeah, and by the way, your duties at your own department has to be finalized regardless if you were pulled to another department or not, so if you were pulled to another department, and your associate from your own department isn't quite finished yet, be prepared to stay passed your closing time. 

You would think that if management would pull electronics associates to help out in other departments, those other departments will seemingly help out in Electronics. Conveniently enough, it never works that way and to this day, I'm still struggling to understand this puzzle of a seemingly double-standard. 

If you don't mind staying in the same position for a ludicrous amount of time, I would advocate to apply for secretary as they get paid significantly more than a Wal-Mart Associate does, but if you insist on having something a little more active than just typing on a computer and picking up the phones to entertain concerned clients, Wal-Mart may be beneficial to you.

I'll admit, I was glad to have a job during my time working there. Initially, the management was great, and despite it being an extremely stressful job for me (as I had anxiety when it came to very chaotic environments), my bosses were pretty cool and understanding, they worked with my hours and cared about my mental health, willing to listen to what I had to say and work with me. However, that slowly changed over the year and a half I was there. Management was changed around within six months of my hiring, and although my GM was decent, upper management began to become ridiculous. They were super micromanaging the store I was at, nit-picking every little thing just to try and cause an issue for my GMs (Yes: plural, as the first one I had quit due to the levels of stress that was being caused by the company, in addition to some external stress at home). They would continue to come in and find the most minuet of things to dock points off of the store's review, practically driving not only our GM, but the rest of the crew as well, completely mad, until they finally fired my GM about two weeks before I left that place. Although I was a model employee and was loved by not only my GM, but all of the upper-management, I was one of the lower payed employees, with young teenagers who were working there as their first-time job and only putting in half the work-effort I did, and being payed a significant amount more. I got no benefits, as all employees other than management is considered part-time, whether or not they work more that 30 hours a week or not. The only way employees got benefits is if they consistently got over 30 hours a week for a year straight, however, hours could not be maintained, and labor often ended up running high, causing for employee hours to drop significantly. It was rare to get breaks. Even just short "sit and eats" (that weren't even 10 minutes) were rare, and I found myself more often than not working on my feet for my entire shift -which lasted somewhere between 8-10 hours once I finally got to the point they would give me consistent hours (some time around the first year mark)-, which was extremely physically taxing. The longer these issues went, the more chaotic and stressful the work became, and the more I came to resent going to work. I would literally go home sobbing by the end of most of my shifts, as the amount of stress and physical pain I was in was too much for me to handle. The one good thing about my job that I actually liked was the customer interactions, as a majority of my customers were friendly and polite. The experience was overall terrible though, and although I was thankful to have a job at that time, I will NEVER go back to working at ANY Whataburger because of it.

A typical day at work starts when I clock in and get ready. Usually I have no problems here but I don't know what tie expect when I walk in. Sontiems my grill is clean and ready and sometimes I have to fix soneone else's mess which is frustrating because management doesnt check whether it's done or not.  Then as the shift goes on everything usally fine. There's not much communication despite asking for it. Sometimes im at grill and other times in other positions. I love to learn other positions but there isn't much guidance when cross training. When I have ti leave for my shift, it can be hard finding a manager to make sure im good to leave. Otherwise we get in trouble for clocking out when our shift ends. 
I haven't learned much personally. But seeing as a company. I've learned it's very disorganized, dosenr communicate well. And managers constantly contradict eachother so it's hard to tell what's wrong or right. Not to mention when you start youre trained my teenagers instead of management or good workers. 
Some management is good.  Team leads and assistant managers for the most part are helpful and listen to inprove. Can't say the owner is bad either but I haven't met him just yet. As far as general managers and "supervisors". They dont like to listen to problems or help solve issues. If we ask them to help solve a interpersonal issue at work they say it's our problem... which usally ends bad. They dont seem to know what's going on on the workers level and any genuine questions of contradictions turn into " im not arguing with you" and they don't let you speak or fail to understand another perspective.  Seems more like an authoritative workplace when they're present. No problem following orders, but doesnt make sense when they ask for feedback and dont let you give it to them.
Workplace culture isn't bad. I love the people I work with. Sure there are disagreements here and there but typically it's minor and we just keep working. No hate for anyone and everyone watches eachothers back. As far as orange shirts as they call it. 
Hardest part of the job is trying to figure out why you're there. You do you're job yes, but problems that weren't addressed is training dont get addressed untill months later. And the lack of proper training dosent help much either. 
The most enjoyable part of the job is leaving. Not that I don't feel welcome but it's expected to deal with some type of contradiction or hear some type of complaint. If not that then whatever interpersonal issues that management refuses to solve properly. 

Whataburger 919, 1604 E 37 S San Antonio Texas

A normal day at Whataburger in my position usually started with the previous shift rushing to get off the clock, even though business was only getting busier. My first hour would be a combination of not only getting my team ready for the shift, but keeping track of the younger employees that were trying to leave before their tasks were done. No aid from the "management" before to accomplish this as leaving was also their goal, regardless if the store was ready or if our shift needed help. after the usual 3 hour rush period i would let my team take it easy for the next 30 minutes and re coupe from the rush. This was not a break but just a time to be doing minimal work, after witch we would get to work on cleaning, stocking, and preparing the store for the morning shift, while having business still. Sadly the only people our team came to be able to rely on was the few on our night shift, and thats not a great feeling since the management above me would always preach about team work with the whole store but was slow to help us out.

I learned from being a shift manager at Whataburger that employees will accomplish set goals when they are supported by their management completely. The happiness of the employees/staff will produce positive numbers and performance stats.

The management at this store were lazy, self-centered, and uncooperative. When given incentives such as quick money gains or even parties, they were quick to accomplish and and all goals our general manager set. But without these incentives numbers consistently fell short of goals, employees were over worked, and the store was below standards. Most of the management also worried only about when they were able to leave work, and how their shift looked in the eyes of the General Manager. Many times ignoring the needs of the staff. They also could not work together to achieve goals, even if those goals accomplished would grant them more money. The management at the store could be great and go far together if they had worked together, but their mindset holds them back and makes them poor.

My co-workers here were enjoyable and i honestly never had a problem that could not be simply talked over. I sincerely miss my crew and still consider them my family.

The hardest part of my job was the overall feeling that i couldn't rely on other managers when i needed it. That and the constant teasing by my superiors of a promotion with no results for months.

The most enjoyable part of my job was working with such great people on my shift and a General Manager that i could tell anything and rely on.

A typical day at work would differ depending on what your role for the day consisted of; personally I like being a Jack-Of-All-Trades so I would often work many different positions in one shift but most workers would end of sticking on one station or another; typically the average person would be trained in 2-3 positions and would just work one of those but anything past that is often the choice of the employee unless it’s a dire situation. I believe I learned quite a bit there at Whataburger as I eventually gained the skills to work anywhere in the building and at an effective rate; but if I had to say which position I was the best at or was my main position it was certainly a tie between Order Taker and Front Counter worker as I personally specialize in communication; however I was able to learn many skills during my time there such as cooking the burger meat and making the burger itself, working the frier, making the drinks for drive thru, working the drivethru window, working the outside “B” lane during busy hours or having to personally go outside to take the orders. I’d say for the most part the management was good and if you needed time off they would certainly work with you to see what could be done and try to get you the time off you needed; in that regard they are still one of the most flexible jobs I’ve worked with and I appreciate them for that all these years later. Workplace culture certainly varied depending on what time you worked and your personality; I’ve always been good at adjusting to the people around me so I never had very many issues but there are certainly different ways of acting depending on the shift; typically the early shift was worked by older folks ranging from I guess myself at about 18/19 to about 70 years old but typically workers older than 35, while the later shift was often worked by high school kids or young adults; and the atmosphere would certainly change depending on that. Honestly I never thought anything was too hard working there; it always felt like everything was under control for myself but the hardest thing would probably be order taker as it requires an understanding of the menu and you have to interact with customers who can sometimes be rude or mean. The most enjoyable part of the job for me was order taker; I love talking to people and I also enjoyed the “problem solving” that comes with order taking where you have to figure out exactly what each person wants and how they want each burger or order constructed.

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