Darden reviews

3.8

68% would recommend to a friend

(2,847 total reviews)

Rick Cardenas

75% approve of CEO

68% positive business outlook

Darden has an employee rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 2,847 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
3.0
May 2, 2012

Eh

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Depending on who the managers are, they actually care about the employees in a personal manner, but professionally it's a chain restaurant, run by people far, far away, and it shows. However, they do offer a decent insurance plan, which is kind of nice and at one point had paid vacations, which they have since done away with. They also used to pay their bussers and bartenders a decent salary, which has now been bumped down to $5 with a mandatory tip out based on sales in place of a voluntary tip out

Cons

Managers are spread very thin--each works something like 50-60 hours a week, and are extremely stressed out. District managers are unapproachable and out of touch. Sometimes trying to get anything done around there can be like pulling teeth because everyone is constantly busy.

4.0
Apr 10, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good money when you work good shifts at night and on weekends, servers can make 500-700 for a 40 hour week, bartenders 600-800 a week or more depending on resturant/shifts. Benefits are good but are in the process of being downgraded.

Cons

Company is shifting to exclusively part-time except for management, rolling out a program where no one will be allowed to move into full-time and only will hire for part-time positions. Obviously to limit the amount the company spends on health benefits, so really the only way to make this into a career would be to join the management team. Pay was cut as well to all bartenders and bussers in 2011 from at least minimum wage to $5 an hour across the board despite how long the individuals had been with the company, and the wage has been supplemented by making servers tip out mandatory instead of voluntary. This was done the same year the CEO of the company received a 10% pay increase for his own salary.

1.0
Feb 11, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They'll give anyone a job.

Cons

It is stressful. You work with lazy people.

Viewing 199 - 201 of 2,847 Reviews

Glassdoor has 2,910 Darden reviews submitted anonymously by Darden employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Darden is right for you.