Pros
Staff, management, and HR are generally very friendly. Saying this, I still wouldn’t recommend working here.
Cons
Some of their policies and rules are illegal and violate employment rights and laws. My personal experience (Please Read): I was off work for documented medical reasons. During this period, I offered to provide medical documentation to management multiple times but was told it wasn’t necessary. Despite this, management refused to acknowledge my absence as medical leave and considered it time off. They would promise to follow up or schedule calls and then avoid doing so repeatedly. A call was made to discuss my return to work, and I again offered a doctor’s note, but it was deemed unnecessary. A return date was set, and I was told I’d only need refresher training. Despite agreed return dates and documented medical clearance, I was scheduled before I was fit to return. Management told me I couldn’t take additional time off without consequences or being flagged by HR, even though I was on medical leave. Management tried to place me in a different FOH/BOH role, and when I declined, they pressured me to resign. Resignation was misrepresented as “taking time off and returning when ready,” requiring me to reapply with no guarantee of being rehired. When I declined again, management demanded medical documentation. They sent a recap to HR that omitted details about the requested resignation and falsely claimed I had missed shifts without notice, even though the shifts were scheduled in advance of my medical clearance date. I attempted to clarify my employment status, but my questions were avoided. I provided official medical documentation the same day and contacted HR. HR admitted they weren’t sure why management had never placed me on official medical leave, confirmed I was still an active employee, and said someone would reach out to discuss scheduling. Nobody did. I had to contact HR again to be placed on the schedule. Despite HR and management knowing my return date in advance, I wasn’t scheduled for over a month. During this period, new employees were hired and trained for my role, but I wasn’t scheduled. When I was finally scheduled, I was told I had to complete full new hire training spanning three weeks, despite there being no changes to the menu or policy. I had also completed full training previously and wasn’t off for an extended period. On several occasions, management and HR had told me I would only need a few refresher shifts. During rehire training, shifts are short (2–3 hours), you don’t earn tips, and you get only 2–3 tables per shift. This significantly impacted my ability to return to my role and earn regular income. Any retraining could have been done during the month I wasn’t scheduled, but new employees were trained instead. Unpaid online modules are also required. Management avoided answering my questions and provided vague responses. Despite approved availability, I was scheduled outside of the times I was available, forcing me to contact HR again. HR is currently investigating but continues to attempt to justify management’s behavior, even though it violates agreements, employment laws, and employee rights. HR refuses to put responses in writing and avoids questions they don’t want to answer. During my most recent conversation with HR, I was told employees are required to resign if taking time off for extenuating circumstances longer than two weeks. If employees don’t resign, they may be fired for job abandonment or have hours cut so drastically that they are forced to quit. HR used this to justify management requesting my resignation during medical leave claiming there was miscommunication on both ends. Despite my conversation with HR being pleasant, non-argumentative, and focused on discussing issues and my continued employment, management released a new schedule a few hours later and did not include me. Management was aware that I was contacting HR, and HR had stated they would call management to discuss. Given the ongoing issues, I am concerned that I may face retaliation, constructive dismissal, or even termination simply for attempting to resolve workplace problems. On top of everything, I contacted both management and HR several times about obtaining an ROE for medical leave and the month they didn’t schedule me. My questions and requests were avoided entirely. An ROE was only issued when MSCA reached out to them directly. I’ve worked in the industry for 6 years and have never experienced problems like this before. I’ve never had to contact HR, file complaints, bring up problems to management etc… This is extremely disappointing and upsetting.