I worked at the store in Clovis, NM.
In honesty, other stores may be different, but to sum it up:
This place was a joke.
This location has struggled for the last several years, and I can see why;
1. Management has no local knowledge.
They want to blame the employees for the lack of sales, especially on second and third shift, but this is due to the fact that they have absolutely no knowledge of the local area. This is a city where ninety percent of people work first shift. so business late at night is automatically going to be slow. This store is also located on the very edge of town, a poor location for a twenty four business.
2. Management treats employees like they are incompetent.
Tying into the fact of lack of local knowledge, management refuses to acknowledge the fact that this is an extremely poor area, and many "customers" will lie to get food for free. No matter the situation, the employee is always wrong, and treated as such.
3. Management spies on employees.
They keep a camera on you at all times, which is standard now in many places, but it goes a step further- they will track what you say and do on social media.
4. Rules are never fairly enforced.
If the store manager likes you, you can show up to work late whenever you want, do a poor job, leave early, etc.
If they do not like you, you will be criticized for every single thing that you do.
If you say anything about the people they like, then you are blamed, and told to not say your mouth.
5. Rand
Many factors play into the fact that this Denny's in particular struggle in many areas. Some area's more than others. Some are out of your control, some are simply because change is hard to accept or maintain. I've learned that being in a restaurant business you must have a balance persona about it when accepting the position. As is all jobs, love what you do and the money will follow. You must love being hospitable, appreciate the people who you employ on a daily basis, care and make a difference to your customers and staff because you may never know what story each of them have when they walk into your restaurant. I can go on, but that might have to be saved for a longer page.
The hardest part of my job that i have encountered would be the system that roots to the CEO founders of the Dennys franchise. You can be boiling in quicksand and scream for their help but instead of helping, they shake their finger at you and explain how you deserved it. Their justification is short of nothing, shrugging off the small fish like bottom feeders. I've never felt so helpless being employed here and instead of possibly costing everyone's job by not proposing an investigation, I thought it best for me to leave after multiple attempts to get aid.
The best part about my job was making a difference with every customer that walked through my door. Food is love and when you share it with others it's an amazing feeling. You just feel good to know that you made a difference when you are since
ProsPersonally, it would be the pleasure of serving.
Fast-paced, room for advancement; exhausting workload & low pay
Overall the job itself isn't terrible, but with incredibly high turn-over rates (like 1 out of 20 employees might stay for a full year) and the customer base that the company caters to, the clear skew towards first shift (at the great expense of the other shifts), and the grueling workload that's expected of the staff, there are just too many factors contributing to burn-out.
I've never been afraid of hard work or a challenge, but we often tell new hires that this job will make them or break them, and frequently, people have trouble staying for even a month. Servers are expected to do too much (everything) with too little support (none, unless manager is miraculously not trapped in the kitchen), the kitchen is often expected to accomplish all cooking and prep with only one cook through the week and even weekend dinner hours (which is why managers can seldom leave BoH).
Friday & Saturday nights? Both 2nd and 3rd shift run with one cook while Sunday and Saturday /mornings/ run with up to four--and these are company standards! The workload for all is absurd.
I worked 70+ hours as a shift manager during Thanksgiving week--which is fine by itself, I understand the responsibility of management--and about 58 hours the week before. So with over 30 hours of overtime on my paycheck, I was excited. What I had not accounted for, was the company automatically pays out remaining vacation hours that same week (this is standard and I suppose I should have anticipated this bette
ProsFree manager meals (50% for staff), decent schedule flexibility, some benefits
Denny's was a stressful job, but at least it was never boring.
A typical day at Denny’s was by no means boring. It wasn’t uncommon that we would be frighteningly understaffed for weeks on end; the restaurant only had two managers running the place anyway. Days were challenging as a server trying to keep up with all the tables. Ordinary in restaurants servers are assigned a section of tables that they will be responsible for, however we didn’t do that much. Whenever we saw a table we would always try our best to take it, just to make sure everyone was getting waited on. Sadly, sometimes we just couldn’t keep up and there were people who never got served. It wasn’t uncommon for a server to take care of twelve tables all at once, and this can be very overwhelming. I’ve heard from severs of other restaurants that they usually take care of about four tables at once, meaning this job was a bit more stressful than other others. Servers weren’t the only ones under pressure either; the poor kitchen was full of new, inexperienced cooks and was still understaffed too. Whenever it got like this it became obvious that the food was going to come out slow. The kitchen would frequently push food out after 50 minutes to an hour and a half. There was also this rule that we weren’t allowed to have people wait unless every table was occupied. These days became so intense; however they taught me so much. They made me into a better server and taught me how to manage my time in the most effective way possible. My co-workers at Denny's became a large part of my
ProsGained a lot of experience, made a lot of great friends, got to meet new people everyday
ConsUnprofessional amount of workers
1.0
Front of House Team Member | Hanover, PA | Dec 17, 2021
Wouldn't recommend working there to anyone if im being completely honest.
At first upon getting the server position i was beyond excited and ready to hit the ground running. The Dennys that hired me was just opening in my area and was super excited to be apart of the team whom was apart of that whole process of opening a brand new restaurant. Upon opening and few months in every was okay for the most part tips were amazing business was booming life was peachy. But after being there for almost year is where i lost the love for my work and making customers smile everyday while meeting meeting new people and getting to interact with them thats what i loved most and one of the main reasons i stuck with the customer service/hospitality industry for so many years. After a year of me being there just seemed like crew morale was non existent managers barely treated employees with an ounce of respect anymore . Managers there were not experienced in a extremely fast paced business and able to handle all the ups and downs of what being a manger entailed. Some of the managers were more worried if they were friends with the.employees are not then being an actual manager and doing.all the tasks and duties good or bad that came along with their position. Extremely unprofessional when dealing with the employees aspect. Now with managers and dealing with the customers there they were amazing i give em that! So obviously with unprofessional and managers whom have no ounce of respect for the employees cane came with being short handed literally all the time and i me
ProsInteracting with new customers daily and having your regulars
ConsNo breaks, work 24/7 no life outside of work, unappreciated and mistreatment of employees by management
It was okay could of been better but don't regret the experience
A typical day at work I would come in a good 10-15 minutes before my shift put my things away whether I was hosting or serving it depended Hosting I would come in and prepare my register made sure i had 100 to begin with I would put on a smile and seat customers offer drinks if the server was running behind and was okay with it bus tables if they needed help and cash people out to here compliments about whether it was their server or the atmosphere as a host I've been offered tips out of the kindness of peoples hearts just for fun whether it was just because they said I was working too hard or prepared a to go order in its boxes. I learned how to manage money and make sure not to come up short I learned to be more patient with people you know some people just have a bad day and if there's attitude you just smile through it and in the end it was clean up my area. serving I would find out which station i'd be working in and i'd make sure my area was cleaned up nice things in it's places and once I got a customer in my area i'd go to work make conversation here and there friendly smiling all around I learned more social skills, eye contact, it was a confident booster having to face people to get the job done I learned to organize to be faster about my orders I got pretty good tips a 20$ 40$ tip here and there, I made sure they got everything needed and ordered. The hardest part of the job was the getting into it no one really trained me trained me you had to just pick it up or d
A normal day for me is going in, and washing all the dishes left from the shift before me. I had the shift that came in 2 hours after the last dish washer and during the nights there wouldn't be a dishwasher all night. The cook usually takes all the remade dishes and all ingredient containers to the sink to be washed. I wash them with the hot spray gun and I load it into the washing bin, then slide it into the dishwasher and let it wash for about ten to twenty minutes. While I wait for that to finish, I start on loading the next bin so its ready to wash. When they are done in the dishwasher I check if they're all clean and if not I run them back through the dishwasher. I they are done being cleaned, I take the plates, bowls, forks, knives and syrup cups to the front of house and all the cooking utensils to the shelf where they belong. That will usually be my work for the next 4-5 hours. When the rush cools down after lunch, I start to to clean the front of house by mopping the tile and sweeping all the excess trash. I move from the front of house to the bathroom where I take out the trash, refill the soap, toilet paper, and napkins, then I mop inside there too. I clean the mirrors and. toilets too. I continue take the trash from all the trash cans in the seating area and by the counters and coffee machines. I then see if any of the counters need to be filled with napkins , plastic cups, or took picks and condiments. After Im done with that, I move to the kitchen where I mop t
Prosfree lunch, independent work
ConsNo worker before me so my area is always full with dishes when I get in
Considering this was a part time job, it was life consuming.
A typical day at work would begin with walking in through the doors 15mins early, have the manager tell me to hurry and attend to a table of 15 people that they have waiting for me. Due to the previous server being slammed, I have to serve every guest that walks in through the doors so that the other server can catch up. We can only multitask so much until we begin to forget things, especially when the server you came to help, is sent on break and you are left alone to serve a hungry crowd.
Management is horrible, lack of communication, don't let it be something confidential because that spreads like wildfire, unappreciative of their employees, favoritism, indirectly threatening, intimidating, unfair, inconsiderate, your availability doesn't matter because you should appreciate that you have a job that gives you hours, and if you don't go to school or work elsewhere, you will be called to pick up shifts because "you have no life, why in the world can you not come in,".
Co-workers were the only reason why I was able to stay for so long, they were usually there to help and prevent you from getting in trouble, but then there were those that only fended for themselves and would throw you under the bus in hopes that the GM would favor them. I was usually lucky to work shifts that had workers who cared for one another because we all knew the bad treatment of management.
Hardest part about the job was knowing one manager believed I was a good worker, she would usually look out f
Conswork through breaks, never go home on time, no full time provided for servers, overtime was prohibited, school and night job there was impossible, no room for growth
Drama filled biased unprofessional bathroom stalls didn't even have doors
I had JUST moved from out of state back to Cleveland I came in started talking to the daytime manager she wanted to meet for an interview she loved my personality and my look so she wanted to put me on for early mornings.. I WAS HIRED ON called in with my new employee ID and everything asked her several times if we had covered everything possible upon leaving the restaurant she had expressed that everything is all set and would confim my new schedule in a few days... On the day of my interview the manager was being very unprofessional she even cursed in front of customers and encouraged her waitresses to disrespect and stall on the customers Instantly I'd started asking myself "is this what I really want?" I mean there wasn't even a bathroom stall door in the ladies room!! I would come there with my family to eat and waitresses would smoke by the entrance doors disregarding people with breathing and asthmatic problems food was always cold and almost never on time tables and seats were also dirty.. Yet I'm not gonna lie I was not too picky about employment I had an eagerness and willingness to work anywhere above min. Wage or Commission/bonuses or tips included. Well at that point I had a stalker/menacing bully whom took the time out of her miserable and unemployed life to personally come in Denny's once she had gotten wind from mutual friends that I was starting work there; she'd lied to management saying that I was mean and threatened her saying that I mistreat pregnant wom
It's every man for themselves but you're constantly covered in syrup!
To preface, I did not wake up one day and decide my dream was to work at Denny's. I had fallen on hard times and decided to learn how to wait tables to make quick cash, and I did just that.
My first manager was actually a competent person and was kind, adhering to employee schedule requests and actively attempting to train. Then, she was fired for being an undocumented immigrant (which was later found to be a false accusation by an employee that wanted her position.) and was replaced by a greedy thief of a manger. He regularly stole tips from waiters and sometimes even stole whole tables right out from under our noses in an attempt to "help us out during the rush" (apparently a "rush" for him was 4 tables). He allowed other employees to steal, come to work drunk, and even refused to show up to unlock the register in the morning!
Denny's has no regard for the safety of their employees. It is a 24/7 restaurant, which for some reason means they can get away without locks on the doors. There were multiple occasions where I worked the graveyard shift alone (also a common practice) and drunk/unstable/violent customers would come in threatening to hurt me or rob the building. All I could do was call the police or call the "employee hotline" which was actually just a disconnected phone line.
Since our manager stole from employees regularly, other employees decided they could too. Theft was rampant and it became a very hostile work environment with everyone on guard.
I made go
When I applied, I stated I had open availability than heard it was 24 hours. I agreed to work some over night shifts but not all. What happened was they decided to put me on full time night shift only and ignored my requests to have some evening or morning shifts. That went on for a few months.
A typical day at work would be getting to work and punching in, taking temperatures and starting prep and side work. I started at 11pm and finished at 7am. The restaurant was very quiet during the night. I would be lucky if people came in. Actually I would be lucky if people came in sober. I had to deal with a lot of young drunk adults which was not very pleasant. The cooks were amazing and we got along well during the night. Actually the first night manager, the cooks and I would always have our break at the same time and sit together and talk. We were like a small family until that manager left and it went down to just myself and the cook at night.
It started off fantastic at first, I was so proud to work for Denny's but the longer I was there, the unhappier I got. Since working nights, I had no life besides work and sleep. I'm young so for me having time to myself and time to hang with friends was very important to me. The stress kept building up and most of the managers simply didn't care.
There were a few really good managers there which unfortunately got overlooked by the ones who didn't do much. One of the best ones landed up leaving and being replaced with one who w
ProsServing experience, co-workers
ConsHorrible hours, most management don't care about employees, Hard work for low wage
A typical day at work starts really early at 6.30 am, I need to be on time to check that last night staff is leaving the restaurant in decent conditions for the next shift. I am responsible of closing the day sales, ensuring all numbers and cash/debit moneys balance.
Before 7am., a walk through the restaurant has been completed immediate risk or urgent matters have been corrected, time card have been adjusted and I am ready to close the day sales and change the till money for next day operations.
I set the floor plan for the day servers with section rotation to give everyone same opportunity to rotate sections in the restaurant.
Once the cash out is done, I finish the walk through book taking and reviewing temperatures in both front of the house and kitchen, at the same time a list of additional activities by job code is delivered to them to work through the shift and have tasks done before leaving.
Now I am ready to do office work and preform the End od Day Reports, Review Room charges and balance reports, once they are done, I send the main ones to head officce and to our District Sales Manager, prepare the deposit and commit sales.
I review my Outlook and check the emails and work on them, I open our Scheduling tool and open communication with staff, review schedules for the week and perform changes and adjustments if needed and answer their questions and requests.
If a maintenance service is required I call the company involved to make the report and sc
ProsFree meals when working
ConsLong hours and rotation on shifts
Questions And Answers about Denny's
What is the best part of working at Denny's?
Asked Nov 28, 2019
The coworkers and the guests
Answered May 25, 2022
The people fun environment
Answered May 25, 2022
Are managers really allowed to cut server hours and take tables because it's slow?
Asked Jan 27, 2017
No u can’t cut a server to take tables. A manager can only take tables if let’s say nobody shows up to serve, BUT, they are not allowed to keep any of the tips, they are not claimed so technically it’s tax fraud.
Answered Nov 18, 2020
As far as the response that taking a table/getting a tip brings down your salary. Completely false.
I’m a gm with Denny’s and occasionaly have to take tables, due to call offs, or volume, I have given tips I made to the staff on duty that went above and beyond during that shift. Or put into a slush fund for restaurant oddities/expenses. Or to the server who couldn’t take table during volume but cleaned table and set up as I had to go back to my job.
Answered Oct 23, 2019
What tips or advice would you give to someone interviewing at Denny's?
Asked Sep 28, 2017
It’s a vibe
Answered Apr 15, 2022
Previous restaurant experience is a must!
Answered Feb 29, 2020
Is a drug test required to work at Denny's?
Asked Oct 11, 2016
They say they are a drug free work place but I’ve witnessed several Denny’s employees getting high out back or being high while working.
Answered Jan 4, 2020
No it's not required but it should be beacuse some of the staff shouldn't be working there beacuse they're smoking between orders & on there breaks i seen it no acceptable.
Answered Dec 7, 2019
What is the interview process like at Denny's?
Asked Jun 16, 2016
The interview for service assistant was really simple and got hired on the spot.
Answered May 15, 2021
Worked there in the 80s. Questions about work experience, education, interest in learning. Bring resume, show a little cleavage
