Carlson Restaurants Reviews

Pros

A great working atmosphere in the corporate office. A fun company culture that emphasized employee interaction. Pay (at least for our group) was competitive with other restaurant companies . Many of the employees in the corporate office do a lot to make it a great place to work and inject their personalities into the culture. Many of the employees will go above & beyond to service the stores. A very good place to pick up skills and enjoy working for a company that seems to truly care about creating a great atmosphere to work in. It was great to be able to take part in sampling new menu items in the test kitchen. They even have vending machines that dispense free cans of beer after 5pm.

Cons

Tough industry post 9/11. Corporate parent interferes a lot in normal operations. Lots of layoffs in corporate office after a failed attempt at outsourcing many internal functions through IBM has left a lot of scars. Still fairly short-handed in several of the corporate departments. A lot of stress due to unrealistic expectations for the restaurant arm of the company from the corporate parent has led to many of the senior management to leave the company. Many times you will be left banging your head against the wall in frustration. There seems to be a lot of lost opportunities over the years to speed past competitors, many of the operations group seemed to be spinning in place due to lack of a clear vision.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to put effort into keeping the corporate culture fun and exciting for the employees. Keep the funky decor in the corporate office, and the access to the test kitchen. After the nightmarish disaster of the IBM outsourcing debacle, the corporate culture is what kept many people around. Also, stand up to the folks at Carlson and fight for yourselves.

Pros

Tips are usually pretty decent.

Cons

Being a server is hard work.

Pros

Great co-workers, who help create a fun work atmosphere

Cons

Management does not take input from employees and its either their way or the highway. Instead of cutting their own bonuses, they rather let people go to reduce costs.

Pros

fast money, tips were great working at fridays, quick table turnover, uniforms were decent, not a bad place to serve at

Cons

very very corporate, benefits are hard to get, managers were shady as most in the Rest. biz are so beware

Advice to Senior Management

change up your style, drug test more, do not allow whoever is most popular with management to move up to bartender

Pros

Benefits and vacation options are great

Cons

Quality of life can suffer at times, work all holidays

Advice to Senior Management

Quality of life could improve

Pros

great people, fast money, work around your availability with other jobs and with school. if you can work full time they have benefits.

Cons

clientele are very bad, the restaurant caters around the guests and despite the fact that the customer is always right they will still bend over backwards for the guest even if they are wrong, rude or flat out lying to get free food.

Advice to Senior Management

more support and backing of the servers in certain customer disputes when the customer is threading the server or being extremely rude.

Pros

High recognition of brand, fun appearance of corporate headquarters, private company

Cons

Management, even the "new" management, is not willing to take big chances to make big changes which are necessary to revive this dying brand. Waaaaay stuck in the way things used to be and how to make it great again by reminding people of how great it was? They try really hard to make it a fun place to work but it just isn't.

Advice to Senior Management

Scrap plans, start over, stop trying to get everyone to remember what a great brand it is(was) and just rebrand the whole thing. It should be a bar with great bar food, music, and tv. Not a family restaurant (unless you want to compete with Applebees forever)

Pros

Family- pretty consistent with having great people at all it's locations, which leads to many longterm employees. It is definitely a family atmosphere. I usually have a great time working with my employees, even though this is a highly stressful job and especially in the current economy. I would definitely say that the fellowship between employees is what has kept me in this job moreso than the need for income.
Job training and Intensity/ Pace- I will have to say that with my chain in particular, if you can make it in this restaurant, you can make it at any other chain. I know that in some chains a manager may only be over FOH or in the kitchen pretty exclusively. Mine cross- trains in all areas from dishwasher to broil cook to accountant, so I never usually feel underprepared for any situation that comes up.

Cons

As far as management (in general) goes, it's about the most thankless job I have ever had, but that's just the nature of the job. For less youthful people, introverts, or people that want a 9-5 job, look elsewhere.

 Due to the recession they have cut management staff down to bare bones, which results in many more hours a week than I originally signed on for and a lot more responsibility with no added compensation. And with less positions available, there is less likelihood that a manager can get promoted in a reasonable time. In an effort to keep afloat in said economy, my chain has made some shifty to downright stupid decisions. For 2009, I have lost all 401k matchup (which I guess doesn't matter in such a bad market anyway, but it still blows), our health insurance costs almost tripled, there was no cost- of- living raise this year (and I'm not holding my breath for 2010 either) and the bonus structure they are utilizing is IMPOSSIBLE! Running consistently good numbers in a down economy and not getting praised or compensated for it because it doesn't fit in with this crazy algorithm they use is frustrating. It's like studying real hard and busting your butt to ace a test in school.... then you find out that everyone else bombed and the test is going to be graded on a curve. You did what you were supposed to, but you're certainly not going to be rewarded for that hard work.

Their marketing staff have been the bane to my my existence the last twelve months. Coupons are great, as they really drive business. Coupons are not great, however, when they are worded carelessly or have large loopholes that create situations in which a manager is forced to decide whether to tick off and lose a guest or lose a profit. After the fifth table visit in a row over coupon issues on a busy Saturday night, I want to punch the next person that has one. They are also not great when they send out no less than eight different coupons around the same time, which confuses staff and runs management ragged.

I am utterly OVER menu changes. I couldn't even tell you how many we have had this year. I just expect a new menu every three weeks automatically. This is crazy! Not only does your kitchen have to learn new items on an already beefy menu, but they take off older items that, while they don't sell in Texas or somewhere, are really popular at your store. It results in degraded food quality (because corporate is constantly sending down "recipe revisions") and consistency as well as guest dissatisfaction.

Stores are forced to spend money on pins, stickers, and assorted swag that, half the time, doesn't even make it out of the box. Now we are having to let go employees at every level because corporate cannot find the money to afford their salaries. The marketing team have proven themselves to be completely incompetent and obviously have never worked in operations long enough to think through possible ramifications at store level.

I do feel bad complaining about my job. I have a job, which is more than I can say for a lot of folks right now, but I feel like the restaurant industry takes advantage of this guilt and withholds credit or compensation where it's due even though they could disperse it.

Advice to Senior Management

It would be nice if those that are responsible for directly impacting the environment in operations actually had operations experience at store level.

Quit sending out 18 different coupons with different offers. It confuses staff and guests and leads to uncomfortable situations that could be avoided by just ONE AWESOME COUPON.

Corporate- You are losing great people and staff you have spent a good deal of money developing! Please, SINCERELY listen to lower management's suggestions and questions at council meetings, or just don't hold them at all.

Pros

good work schedule, support from management

Cons

promotions are almost imposible, management never really around

Advice to Senior Management

look to find your hard workers and promote!

Pros

50% discount on food bills helped you appreciate the job at times, but it's mainly the banter and the friendships you have with other employees that get you throught a shift. I found that the job is also fairly similar from TGI Friday stores across the UK so it was easy for me to transfer from store to store if I needed to. If you are able to plan you life 3 weeks in advance with no room for spur of the moment days off or any illness then the rota system may work out for you. Also if you really want to make a lot of money and you're a happy friendly person then the tips are fabulous and go into your pocket at the end of every night.

Cons

Managers have very little respect for their employees. They demand a lot from you even as a part time employee and forget any help or support you've given them in an instant if you do something remotely wrong or clumsy. The smell of food is a constant problem as you always feel hungry, and you end up spending half your wages on meals there. In TGI's there is a definite mindset you need to have to work there so if you are not open minded you ma find it hard to deal with the dirty minds the huge array of personalities and the cliques.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn to appreciate your employees! If you are finding it hard to cover enough shifts and you're using the same 5 people over and over again, employee more people. Then train the correctly, as there is nothing worse than having to your job as well as someone elses.