Darden reviews

3.8

68% would recommend to a friend

(2,844 total reviews)

Rick Cardenas

72% approve of CEO

68% positive business outlook

Darden has an employee rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 2,844 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Darden employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Restaurants & Food Service industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
2.0
Feb 19, 2015

Only Talks the Talk.....

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Offers access to executive level management and networking; generally nice people work there; good benefits; potential to be a great company

Cons

Career growth can easily become stagnant and no career pathing is available; company culture does not live up to its campaign; departments can enforce overall company policy and values differently so some employees enjoy different work privileges that all could at some point enjoy, i.e. company training or events, gym, work/life balance flexibility

3.0
Aug 22, 2014

Trying to survive

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Only big company left in Orlando. Still big scale so you usually work on big stuff. Good compensation and life work balance

Cons

People are just trying to survive now. Too much politics. Still not determined to buy a fast casual concept.

1.0
Apr 14, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The only good reason to work at Olive Garden (Darden) as a server is basically the same as for any typical restaurant... the hours. If you are a student, a parent or have another reason for needing flexible-ish hours, then it is a decent place to work because they usually have a large server staff that can provide flexibility if you need to change your schedule sometimes

Cons

It is a very oppressive work environment dictated by the corporation and their ever evolving and progressively constricting standards. I began working there in 2007 and the work environment conditions got consistently worse over the years. To this day, I keep hearing from my former fellow employees how much more oppressive it continually gets. For the amount of money you make, the company demands too much of you. Your job is constantly in jeopardy and management does not let you forget it. It is not only the serving staff that is micromanaged, it is the entire store staff. The company has no problem firing anyone for any small reason, management as well. 3 general managers, 4 managers and countless other staff were fired for mostly inconsequential things during the 4-1/2 years I worked there; while others got away with everything. There was no rhyme or reason to job security, you never knew who was going to be axed from one day to the next. I was stressed out every shift, afraid I would be fired next until I finally found another job and was able to quit. The company takes "the customer is always right" to a ridiculous level and the customer, regardless of how out of hand they are, holds your job and your dignity in their hands. I have personally witnessed many situations of outright fraud on a customers behalf that was rewarded by the corporation. Even those situations that were documented to corporate by store managers. To come into work every night and be lectured on how awful your performance is (as a whole - this is the speech you get as a collective before every shift) and threats of losing your job before every shift does not make it a nice place to work. The clientele has gotten progressively worse as they have learned how much they can get away with. It is NOT a good work environment and definitely not worth the stress and small amount of money you make.

Viewing 16 - 18 of 2,844 Reviews

Glassdoor has 2,907 Darden reviews submitted anonymously by Darden employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Darden is right for you.