Complaint Review: Olive Garden

Since when is being expected to adequately perform your job duties, follow company policies, be scheduled according to the needs of the company, etc. considered "unfair labor practices"?

It sounds like you think a job should allow you to do whatever you want, whenever you want. You are sadly mistaken. May I suggest a major attitudinal adjustment before seeking your next employment opportunity.

Since when is being expected to adequately perform your job duties, follow company policies, be scheduled according to the needs of the company, etc. considered "unfair labor practices"?

It sounds like you think a job should allow you to do whatever you want, whenever you want. You are sadly mistaken. May I suggest a major attitudinal adjustment before seeking your next employment opportunity.

Since when is being expected to adequately perform your job duties, follow company policies, be scheduled according to the needs of the company, etc. considered "unfair labor practices"?

It sounds like you think a job should allow you to do whatever you want, whenever you want. You are sadly mistaken. May I suggest a major attitudinal adjustment before seeking your next employment opportunity.

Since when is being expected to adequately perform your job duties, follow company policies, be scheduled according to the needs of the company, etc. considered "unfair labor practices"?

It sounds like you think a job should allow you to do whatever you want, whenever you want. You are sadly mistaken. May I suggest a major attitudinal adjustment before seeking your next employment opportunity.

This is the worst complaint I have yet to read. your going to complain about the socks you have to wear? At most places you are required to purchase and return the uniform after leaving, this is for different reason, one is PR. No restuarant wants some idiot who no longer works for their resturant to be caught on video or seen out in public making a d**n fool of themselves, wearing their companies uniform. I worked for hooters for just about 3 years , and i returned almost 100 uniforms from over the years, because the company doesn't need some girl showing up on girls gone wild wearing a hooters shirt, its the same thing for oive garden. Next, restarants don't follow the same break rules as standard jobs, usually this is in the hand book you get when you are hired, if you don't like it don't work at restaurants. As an employee you are required to know you menu, you are supposed to suggestively sale, this incluldes alcohol. I work at applebees currently and have worked there for about two year, we are supposed to upsell alcohol also, we are also supposed to raise our check averages through suggestively selling, this makes the company more profit, and raises you check average, so if you are a half way decent server this also means more money for you. At restuarants such as hooters or Joes crab shack, you are also asked to push merchandise, why. BECAUSE ITS YOU JOB! Get over it! Another way to make sure you get better tips and make sure you guests are happy is to make sure they get what they ordered, and it looks presentable. If you are the last person to touch the plate before it goes to the table, then you should make sure everything is right before you take it out. People decide if they are going to like things even before they eat it, if it looks like crap and i have just paid 15 dollars for a meal, heck yea im sending it back, and its the servers fault not the kitchens! If for any reason you can't come in, including sickness, it is your scheduled shift and you are in charge of finding someone to work for you, this doesn't mean try and call people at 330 when you are scheduled at 400, if you are sick enough to not got to work at 300 you were probably sick at 1000 am. you should have thought about it. If you are sick, many companies also require doctors note, why> because alot of employees abuse abuse this situation and call in sick because they are a little tired or drank to much last night. Im sure if you are truly sick and restuarant will send you home. Next, schedule REQUESTS! This should simple, when hired you give your availabitly, and the store decides if you availabitiy fits there needs. If it does they may hire you, also based on other criteria. Just because it is christmas and you don't want to work doesn't mean you automatically get the day off. Many places use seniority to decide who get there request off days, if there are shortages or conflicts, my guess you didn't work there very long. As with any job if you can no longer fit there job requirement including scheduling, then you are useless. Every restaurant i have worked at has bent over backwards to make my schedule as pleasant as possible. I know olive garden is no different, my roomate works two nights a week, different nights a week depending on sorority events, these are significant events, but yet they still work around them. And while we are talking about schedules, most restuarants use the same methods as olive garden on keeping staff. You come in at you scheduled time, then after the rush dies down they cut down the number of workers, they may cut a second time before having only the closing servers and cooks left. This isn't any set time, just when the business dies out, in a college town working at applebees you can never guess when that will be. So no not every restaurant to you know when you come in and when you will leave. This is how restuarants adjust there labor to the amount of business. And then while you are there and you are taking these break, give me a break. what do you want a 5 star hotel to go back to, no this is a break not a vacation. munch on something, regain you sanity and get back out there. personally im a server, and i hate taking breaks, a server doesn't get minumum wage in missouri, we get 3 dollars an hour, so while im at work im taking tables and making money! Then you complaing about running food, well the food isn't going to run itself, many costumers tip their server on how wel they did, when a server brings the food out and makes sure that every thing is perfect before walking away it is just one more way at raising you tip average, and thats what pays the bills. Unless you complaint is about maybe helpin some one esle out, which by the sound of your complaint this is very possible! God forbid you run food to someone elses tables. grrrr!! And last but not least, my biggest pet peeves smoke breaks. you get a 15 minute break, if yo wanna smoke do it then, if you managers give you a smoke break, then that should be your break. Honestly if you can't make if through your shift with out smoking you have a problem, and its not your work place. I guess smokers feel that they have some unwritten privilege to take extra breaks because they are smokers, oh my god im going to die if i don't get a cigarette this hour, what? No wonder you didn't put your names. i would be embarressed to if i wrote somethings so stupid! And honestly i bet you did eat the gum from under the table, because youre acting like a 5 year old!

I would like to make the following comment or suggestion to the original poster.

I have been a lowly waitress all the way up to the general manager of some well known chain restaurants. Some of what you are complaining about is just how the business "works". Olive Garden (while I have had no affiliation with this company), is a restaurant chain which happens to hold a liquor license. It would also be wise to say with that knowledge, probably a third of their reciepts at the end of the day come from liquor sales. I am also not one to sterotype, but I will say this, I am not Italian, but have an Italian brother in law, and when we eat at their home for a big dinner, yes, sometimes they will open three different bottles of wine at one meal, one to be served with appetizers, one with the main course and another with dessert.

That is not to say that all Italians are drunks and drinkers. What Olive Garden is trying to provide the patron is the authentic Italian meal, as it would be served in Italy, as well as the atmosphere.

On the other hand, as far as kitchen conditions, let me say this... If you have ever worked in the inside of a restaurant kitchen, you might come to learn several things. One of them is this. Most restaurants do not pay well. Many of those who do work in restaurants are college students, and many of those in the area attend the local culinary schools, Johnson and Wales in Rhode Island being one of them. Now, that being said, staffing is sometimes hard if not impossible, and there are and is times when a manager has to have one person both prep and wash dishes, or cook and wait tables. It is inevitable. You mention holidays and asking for the day off. How long have you been waitressing? I am asking for a reason. The reason being a "seasoned" waitress will kill to work a holiday like Easter, Mother's Day, etc. Do you know why? HIGH VOLUME OF CUSTOMERS. You are going to go home with a fortune in tips. I have worked for the New England then Breakfast 24/7 Restaurant, Bickford's, and I know there were many Saturday night late night shifts that I worked (overnight bar crowd), and stayed to work the Sunday morning church crowd. Yes I worked about 12 hours, but I went home with heavy pockets.

If the presentation of food is questionable, and say a customer complains about the way something is cooked, You, the waitress are responsible for that. The reason I am saying this is because apparently you were not taught the rule, if you yourself would not eat what is presented on a plate, DO NOT SERVE IT TO A CUSTOMER. The problem with the hard macaroni, could very well be that an order was put up by the chef, and because it was not promptly picked up, stood underheat lamps too long trying to keep it warm. In that case, the server is directly responsible for the mishap.

And I would certainly agree with a manager's call on the "unlimited" soup salad and breadsticks. If a customer is on serving #5, well he or she has eaten more than what would be expected of two people. Sometimes limits do have to be set. No company, especially a large one like this is going to operate at a loss.

All kitchens and restaurants in Massachusetts, along with Rhode Island and Connecticut are inspected several times a year by the Health inspector. All managers have to take certification in food handling and safety, and yes, kitchen staff are responsible for trash removal. That would be like saying that a surgeon who operates on a patient in a hospital would not clean up the operating room when he or she is finished. All that is required is some soap and water. Yes sometimes dishes come out of the dishwasher not looking so hot, especially when there is a high turn around and you are lacking plates and need them done quickly, but rest assured, the dishwashers, if you were to stick your hand through an entire cycle, would take your skin off the bones, the water is scaling hot and sanitizers are used each and every time.

Many facilities I have worked in required waitresses to mop dining room floors during off hours. It is the same thing as taking out the trash. There you are a server of food, who has to stick their hands in a dirty mop bucket to wring the mop. It has to be done. When you finish you are required to properly WASH YOUR HANDS.

Setting a schedule for servers is sometimes a very complicated one. Especially when I worked in one other New England based chain, Friendly's, and we had nearly our entire staff bail on us on Prom Night, since the majority of our employees were high school students. Myself, and two other employees over 25 years of age, waited all the tables, did all the cooking and clean up, and to make matters worse, at 10 pm that night, we were "slammed", every table in the place full and customers waiting for tables. We still do not know how we made it through that night ten years ago.

Waitressing is another one of those jobs where it is not mandatory for you to have to take a break. The law on it is you get one 15 minute break (and it does not have to be scheduled)for each six hour period you work. If you work more than 8 hours you are entitled to a 30 minute lunch break, and it is usually when you are told you are allowed to have such a break, heck it could be the last 30 minutes of your shift. Many places require you to clock in and out for your breaks. Buying uniforms is a given for most establishements. Dunkin Donuts, Friendly's, etc. all require you to purchase your uniforms, and many places deduct this from your pay. Some but not all, will refund your uniform purchase money when you leave a job and have turned the uniform back in, and you collect your final paycheck. Uniforms keep consistency with all staff members.

Try working in a private club where you have to change your uniforms out two or three times a day, and have one for general daytime, one for general nightime, and a full formal uniform.

OH, and the black socks deal...well I don't know about black socks in general, but the going thing that I do know of is COTTON socks. Believe it or not, our soldiers and sailors are required to wear BLACK socks with their uniforms, and even in their combat boots. They do make socks which are black on top and white on the soles on the feet.

To close my comment, let me just say luckily, you have never worked at Hooter's, where you have to fit into the one size fits everyone uniform, which you have to buy, and then after working there for a week, complain about "sexual harassment".

This report is not to be used as thread for personal attacks. It is for consumer reporting only. Thank you.

If you're so brilliant and have such intelligent 'incite' into operations of a large corporation, why is it you're not a CEO but an unemployed waitress instead?

Couldn't cut it, could you?

If you read the entire report, you will see that we have quit and reported them to the proper authorities, unfortunately that isn't always enough and we wanted to make sure that those we left behind (there are not many people left working at this particular OG)and those new potential employees are not falling into same trap. Thank you for your comments.

The great thing about living in this country is that you have the freedom to work wherever you want. Have you reported them to the state? There seems to be some health code violation in your post?

If you haven't got the nerve to report them then quit your griping because you have options. Either you are afraid or this report is bogus and for some reason you want to get back at them.