Olive Garden ripoff! gender & racial discrimintion, unsanitary roaches in breadsticks. Bala Cynwyd Pennsylvania

I have worked at the Olive Garden for 3 years. They treat there employees great, all employees get paid vacation, flexible scheduling, good pay, 401k, and many more employee incentives!!! This is the best company I have ever worked for. Along with treating their employees well, the OG is very clean. Look up their health department inspections. We have a program called TQ (total quality) that is 10 times harder than the health department. Our health inspector comes in a few times a month since it is one of the few restaurants he will take his wife out to dinner at in our town. Anyone who has ever worked for the Olive Garden knows they are a clean, safe, and a good work environment.

I have been employed at the West Wichita, KS Olive Garden for just over a month and it has the cleanest kitchen I have EVER seen! Never have I seen any kind of pest and the smoking takes place out back maybe twice a shift. They do not tolerate harassment or racism. Also they have the arbitration rule there so if a general manager doesn't help you you can always go over his/her head.

I worked for Olive Garden for two years and the claims about the poor sanitation are not at all what I experienced.

Roaches in the bread sticks just doesn't make sense. The bread sticks are delivered regularly, I want to say every two or three days, in plastic bags. They are stacked off the floor on rollers and thrown right into the oven before being served.

The accusation that the restaurants are infested by mice and rats is just silly. I never once saw a single pest of any kind in my time there. Matter of a fact, we sprayed regularly just to be safe. I know because I not only helped prep for it at night but also talked to the fumigators and saw them come in on several occasions. If they had to put traps under the booths how would customers have not seen pests constantly?

Sure there will always be those employees who ignore sanitation rules. In my experience our GM was extremely thorough on sanitation. And as for drug dealers working in the restaurant, welcome to the restaurant business! They're all like that. That is not to say everyone who works there deals drugs, but it's not uncommon that a small percentage do. That's pretty much true for an job of this kind.

And as for calling employees stupid and cursing, I know of a GM who was fired for swearing and using "the lord's name in vain". He didn't even swear at an employee! How would anyone get away with actually swearing at employees if they can't even swear in general? In my opinion the manager deserved better than that, everyone was angry it happened.

Either you worked in a really bad branch, or you're making stuff up. Either one is not a true representative of the whole. It's was a dream job, no, but it wasn't like you describe.

I TOTALLY DISAGREE WITH THIS REPORT! I have worked in the service industry since 1997 and Darden in by far the best company I have ever worked for... both from a customer or an employee standpoint. They genuinely care about their employees... ( Day one benefits are a perfect example) and their customers are treated with the upmost respect... if an employee does not adhere to that aspect ( treatiing guests like family)... it is Dardens position to take action. Yes, they set goals for their servers, ( such as 1.50 in LBW sales... ) but that doesnt mean they only care about selling alcohol... anyway... just my two cents... I love working at the OG and am happy with the mamagement team... both local AND corporate!!!

J.V.

OG # 1162
SA TX

The EMPLOYEE restrooms are in the kitchen as well as in every other restaurant so he is not lying about that and as far as alcohol sales go it is not $1 for the entire night it's and average of $1 per guest, so if you sell one class of wine for $5 and have 5 guests the rest of whom drink non alcoholic beverage then you alcohol is $1 per guest, if you have 10 guests and sell one glass then it is $.50 per guest, just to clarify that for you but I have already written a rebuttal supporting Darden restaurants 100%

Same as my last report, but adding something

A host recently used a racial slur to a server who didn't even take offense to it and it was NOT even in a racist way and corporate immediatly responded and demanded and demanded written statement from all employee witnesses and the host will most likely be fired, as this just happened a few days ago. We were explained the zero tolerance policy on our first day, you should have listened rather than ganging up with your friends to put down a good restaurant.

Darden Olive Garden in New Jersey store 1482

yes, it is your responsibility to take a wine bottle to every table every time you go to do a table greet. Wine IS part of the italian dining experience. Selling food items and food knowledge is part of your job as a server as well as providing a pleasant authentic experience for guest. As a server, you are in a sales position. Your job is to suggestivly sell to the guest. Why should you be rewarded with more hours and better sections if you are not living up to your minimum job standards? This is just common place job code.

Some olive garden restaurants provide employee restrooms, usually in the back of the kitchen area just off of the hallway that leads to the dumpster area. This is so guest do not have to see employees using the customer bathrooms as it is considered unsightly and unappetizing to bump into your server in the bathroom during your meal. By company standard- employees are not permitted to smoke in the customers bathrooms nor in the employee bathrooms.

Additionally, don't fault a restaurant for having mouse traps and a regular extermination visits as they are preventing infestation for occurring or spreading. all restautants should subscribe to both of these methods as well as proper cleaning techniques.

Glass in the soup? which server never covered up the soup after it was uncovered to be ladeled? and who was the last server to break a glass in the "soup" area?

And last but not least- If you were being degregated by your manager, you should have filed a complaint with your general manager or your regional vice president. The procedure and phone numbers are in the employee handbook you were given when you were first hired. It is also posted in the restaurant as well as online. Cursing and demeaning words are against Darden policy and are grounds for immediate termination.

This is obviously the work of a disgruntled former employee...one whom I would suspect was fired or quit because of inability to do the job. If there is any validity to your complaints, I suggest you file complaints with the appropriate agencies (i.e., the Health Department, the EEOC, the Attorney General). Of course, you'll have to provide a little more specific information, so the charges you are making can be investigated. My suspicion is that you won't do this - at least without identifying yourself - because likely most of this is baloney. My other suggestion is to take a critical look at yourself: your behavior, your style of communicating with others, your attitude -- see if any of these warrant improvement.

The ladies' room is "in the kitchen"?? I have never in my life had to walk into the kitchen to find a restaurant bathroom. That is ridiculous.

Furthermore, if you cannot make $1 and change in alcohol sales per shift, I think that you are in the wrong career. Not only is the restaurant losing out, but you are also losing out when it comes to tips. It's a lose-lose situation any way you look at it.

May I suggest you find an hourly-wage position in an environment that you find more supportive of your personal style.

Kate, You live in Phoenix? Go to the OG in Surprise on Bell & Grand. Say hello to Lynn for me.
That place is the cleanest place ever. I worked there from the day it opened until I moved back to Michigan.... Now I work for them here. Ive never had a problem, never seen a roach, and the Health Department loves us.
This person is a disgruntled employee who was FIRED..
glass in the soup. please.

That location of the first one I know where it is. Olive Garden doesn't have much selection on the menu but if I'm in the area I will ask them. Its true around this area of Phila that it depends on what you have in a restaurant. If its true what you are saying that they had rats in the food and drug dealing going down then the Board of Health should have shut them down.

If I were you I'd call Board of Health and make a major complaint to them as well as to see if they shut the place down in the middle of dinner rush. That will get the customers pissed off.

It sounds like it is a common management technique of Olive Garden. I worked in a newly constructed location in New Mexico so the cleanliness was - clean. Except for the individual employee's method to keep it clean and sanitary. I did witness an employee sucking the lemon wedges and putting them back into the container and I overheard an employee complaining about another employee using a dirty mop to clean the bathroom sinks. The description of how the management treats their employees is true. You will get hounded at the end of the night about your alcohol sales and they will make it hard on you by cutting your hours or number of tables, and they may even assign you to a section that will have less head count. In my location the management called us to a meeting after huors and told us that if we did not take a bottle of wine to every table we should go ahead and quit because they will make it hard on us. That is when I left the company. It was clear to me that all the customer service training they put me through when I was hired was nothing more than a bunch of videos. It was all about the alcohol sales.

Granted, I visit OG in Phoenix, AZ. I've been to just about every location in the greater Phx area.

I have never had anything but courteous service. In fact, the only annoying part can be the INCREDIBLE wait times because the place is just so darned popular! Also, service can be slow since it is so busy and the servers are up to their eyebrows in patrons.

I agree with the former assessments by other commenters. I think that the persons who have posted the "roaches and mousetraps and hairs, oh my!" stuff are disgruntled (possibly former) employees.

Also, I don't feel the "undercover business" will go very well...especially if the first commenter is involved...the person can barely write or spell!

I am an employee of an Olive Garden in Springfield, Massachusetts. I have worked in many restaurants, and I have found the OG to be the most sanitary and pleasant working environment thus far. In fact, the OG hires an outside company to inspect every restaurent about 3 time a year (called Quality Assurance). Every employee also wears gloves, hair nets, and beard nets.
We take pride in our cleanliness.

I have never witnessed any discrimination of any kind. In fact I have seen people fired for swearing of using any racial slurs. I take offense to the letter written because I know the company's policies and they adher to them strictly. Don't let one disgruntled ex-employee ruin what could be a great Italian Dining experience!