Experience at Olive Garden was just OK, but I wouldn't recommend it to potential employees.
Pros
There is a decent benefits package, but as it as at many other employers, you have to meet a certain amount of hours per week. So if you're like most of us who are enrolled in school, you can't meet the hours. There's a progam called "Darden Dimes," where employees can donate a dime or more out of each check to be placed in a donation fund. This fund can aid employees during times of need. A few coworkers once experienced a house fire, and the Darden Dimes fund helped them get back on their feet. The management offers reviews every six months, and that helps you stay updated on your performance. If you work REALLY hard, you can advance in the company easily. Like many other serving jobs, the schedule is very flexible and the hours are easy to work with.
Cons
I'm about to leave Olive Garden after working there for three years. I worked at two different locations because my husband is in the military and I transferred. At both locations, the money was extremely unsteady. Many of the items are unlimited, which forces servers to do a lot of running back and forth for a very minimal tip. Olive Garden started something called "Service Evolution" a couple of years ago, where servers and bartenders had to almost completely change up the previous service standards. The training for the change in standards was very informal and clearly did not carry out well. Servers have "service partners" where the partner's guests are essentially your guests, too. I'm all about team work, but if your partner is weak server, you're required to help them more than how much they can help you. This means that you are not being compensated enough for your work, as there is no tip sharing. If you're a good worker, management will usually ask you to become a certified trainer. Once becoming a trainer, you're required to have "new server follows" where you have to teach the new server as they follow you. This can be very draining, and unfortunately, you're not paid more than the standard hourly server wage. You're doing more work for the same amount of money. Olive Garden is all about large parties, as it's a large amount of their business. At both locations, guests were not held accountable when they showed up late or didn't show up at all for their reservation. There were countless times that a party of over 20 people was held for an extended amount of time; thus putting the servers out of money and forcing the other guests to wait longer for a table. Overall, the workers are requried to do a lot of work for very minimal pay. Darden cut many of its benefits to their employees right before I became an employee such as paid vacations, pay raises, etc.
