Darden Reviews

Pros

They expect what they should from their servers and bartenders and are great at communication those expectations with us.

Cons

It is still a service job; the hours are not ideal. Management underestimates employees often.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote from within

Pros

The money is pretty good for the most part

Cons

Constandly treated like a child

Advice to Senior Management

Recoginize how the staff preforms. We all do excel at our jobs, and all you do is complain about silly things, like us wanting breaks

Pros

As a manager you have good job security, and some management seems to be compensated well for their time-- however, not all people get fair pay. If you are smart and hard working you can pretty easily be promoted to a General Manager in about 2 years.

Cons

It is still an environment where you work long hours (50+ per week) and have little work/life balance. You stand on your feet 10 hours a day and most times don't have a chance to eat lunch or even sit while you're working. Most General Managers are lazy and expect the assistant managers to hold the weight of responsibility in the restaurant's operations and metrics.

Advice to Senior Management

Darden says they care a lot about all their employees, but I don't feel this is true... even in a restaurant environment I feel Darden could do a better job to appreciate their hourly employees as well as management.

Pros

- big name in the restaurant business
- okay compensation
- fair amount of benefits
- relocation opportunities
- promotional opportunities

Cons

- long hours, but that's the same with everyone else in the restaurant business
- corporation rules: often changing and gap between the "real workers" and senior management
- whining staff

Advice to Senior Management

listen to your employees who are on the front line on the daily basis: servers/SAs/cooks/assistant managers, they are the ones who hold the restaurants down, and the ones making you money

Pros

Flexible schedule, good if you are going to school. Also offer decent benefits for this type of job. Employee discounts for outside purchases.

Cons

Company forces you to lie to the guest. The company has also recently reduced there busser and bartender pay by about 50%. Seems to be confusion in the upper management about where the company is headed

Advice to Senior Management

Pick a direction and stick with it. They also need to realize that the company is where it is because of the front line people that deal with the guests.

Pros

working for Darden is a good experience to add to a resume as it is a respected company within the hospitality industry

Cons

unfortunantly it would seem the hours are very irregular, no fairness in amount of hours shared between staff, could be there for 2 hours and sent home or 12 hours without a break.

Advice to Senior Management

i think if you stopped giving shifts to those who already have another job (and have stressed over and over again that they can not work certain days and hours) and you gave shifts to the members of staff who actually want to work 40hrs a week, rather than just 16hr a week, you may retain the more committed staff, instead of them having to leave to support themselves. unfairness in hours scheduled should really be a concern for retaining your staff.

Pros

Great management, great tips, great coworkers

Cons

Usual food service industry cons, but not too bad

Advice to Senior Management

Keep it up

Pros

worked at an olive garden a few years ago. pay wasnt bad, benifits from day 1, stock options, fun

Cons

as corperate as you can get in the restaurant business

Pros

Employees, benefits, work life balance,

Cons

Not enough involvement from HR regarding open positions.

Pros

I usually make $20 or more an hour. People there are fun to work with. Company is very successful compared to competition.

Cons

Hours can be long, requesting time off can be difficult. Some double shifts are worked with little or no break in between shifts.