Sonic Reviews

Pros

Plenty of work if you want

Cons

Greasy and you end up smelling onions all the time

Advice to Senior Management

We all put our pants on one leg at a time

Pros

- Good food
- You can wear skates or roller blades
- Sometimes people tip you to bring out their food

Cons

- Sometimes customers are rude
- Being out in the weather (hot, cold, rainy)
- The hours can be long

Pros

I really enjoyed being able to be sociable towards all customers and seeing someone new everyday! As a carhop your always on the go, and I really liked that. The best part - The tips! Give good service, you receive great tips. (:

Cons

-Not the best hourly wages in the fast food service industry.

Advice to Senior Management

I think the management shouldn't have had favorites, it gets in the way of how the team works together.

Pros

The employees had a very good relationship with each other and helped one another when it got busy in the store.

Cons

Management was very unprofessional and immature about handling situations that dealt with orders, employee requests, ensuring underage minors get off on their breaks on time.

Advice to Senior Management

Do not have males employees pick up the slack and perform the tasks that was already assigned to the female employees just because they complain and whine because they want to go home early and see their boyfriends.

Pros

Good for young teens starting out in the job world.

Cons

Low pay
No room for raises
high expectations for low compensation

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to those below you.

Pros

Sonic, as the only large drive-in restaurant concept, continues to be an exciting brand with a unique customer value proposition. Customers that have been with the brand for a long time, in it's core markets, are committed to the brand in a way that other brands can only envy. The excitement generated by the brand's arrival in new markets is second to none. With these platforms, there's a whole lot of upside potential for growth in sales and profitability.

Cons

Sonic takes pride in being, at the corporate level, a "flat" organization. Unfortunately, this leads to a couple of problems that are almost insurmountable.

First, with so few empowered gatekeepers, it's nearly impossible to get major decisions made in a timely fashion. Secondly, with no "worker bees", senior level managers are forced to focus too much on minutia, while strategic projects are ignored.

Finally, even the executives that are "in charge" of their respective domains, must get ongoing permission for every decision from the Chairman. The Chairman, it turn, seems to relish the idea of questioning data and research unless it supports his preconceptions. The net result is that innovation is not only not embraced, it's actively discouraged. Instead, the question becomes "will this get past Cliff?"

Advice to Senior Management

Sonic is at a cross-roads between the strong regional brand it once was and the national brand it's now becoming. Unfortunately, current leadership is either unable or unwilling to address the profoundly different go to market strategies that each role demands. Instead, there's a blind faith in the idea of continuing to repeat behaviors that have brought success on the regional level in the past, in hopes that will result in success in newer markets where conditions are very, very different.

Although management's skills at bringing the brand this far should be noted, it's well past time for them to be replaced by leaders that understand the needs of a more slowly growing, mature brand.

I believe that it Sonic continues on its current path, it will see either its "core markets" suffer from a marketing plan that's too broad or its so called "emerging markets" die from a lack of initiatives relevant to consumers in those markets.

Pros

people, friendly co-workers, tips, near home

Cons

sometimes frustrating people, co-workers, and tips

Pros

Fun atmosphere, great people, great food product, great tips

Cons

Slow during the winter, management changes frequently

Pros

Good pay for cooks compared to other fast food industries if you are a quick learner and able to teach yourself. Also, getting into management is pretty simple. Also, decent amount of hours for those willing to work them.

Cons

Poor training methods and unfair treatment between the general manager and his assisstant managers. No consistant schedule yet required to plan around our schedules/.

Pros

Management was usually understanding and helpful. Other workers were reliable, which is often not the case in the food service industry in my experience.

Cons

You have to tuck your shirt in which looks kind of strange. Not that it can be helped, but it's not much fun having to deliver to cars when the weather's bad outside. The smokers all take one giant break together so if you don't smoke you're kind of on your own for a bit.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't let everyone take a smoking break together. It would also be nice if the guys had to take the trash out to the dumpsters at night because it doesn't always feel safe to do so as a female.