Management - absolutely horrible. You can't ever make them happy, you're never good enough, & they use negative reinforcement so much it's not just demotivating, it's depressing.
They tell you to do something one way & then later the same manager gets on to you for doing it the way they taught you. Or they tell you to stop what you're doing to take care of something else, then chastise you for not getting your original task completed.
There are double standards all over the place & you get in trouble for doing what you're told. It's really hard to understand what they want from you.
Individual Standards - the standards are admirable, but unattainable. You have to be superhuman to meet their expectations for speed, which is the biggest factor to accomplishing your tasks every day.
Time - As with any job, you're expected to finish all of your tasks before you leave for the day. The problem with this is that they put such an emphasis on speed that doesn't take the changing day to day customer demands into account. You can't tell a customer to "hold on" while you go clean a table or take out the trash. When you have them trickling in one after another with only 30 seconds (as the managers like to say is enough time for everything) to grab your towel, wring it out, & wipe down a table, or anything else, it's just not possible to get all your jobs done on time. That means you're there as long as it takes to finish, & don't expect to have it done right the first time. There's always something for the managers to nitpick & make you redo.
Upper management - they claim that they want you to be "empowered" & feel comfortable coming to your bosses if you have concerns. My bosses treated me like a problem when I did this. I went to upper management several times about my concerns, & nothing ever changed. these were not unreasonable requests: letting me out on time to pick up my son or go to my second job, giving positive reinforcement instead of negative, addressing the bad attitude & work ethics of one manager that later ended up robbing the store at gunpoint.
