Pros
The work schedule is extremely flexible. The only issues that I ever saw concerning this were people who just wanted to work one day. They allowed that, but often they were taken off the schedule. The pay was pretty good for restaurant work, and although you worked hard for your money, you could make over 200 in a night, and often. Another pro would be the ability to be able to take vacations and have time off. Nowhere else have I seen where their employees (servers) (bartenders are a little bit more difficult) can take weeks, or months off of their jobs and still have a job when they come back. Best Managers I have ever had. (worked at two Olive Gardens) Also, Olive Garden also offers health insurance and other benefits that can't be beat at their industry level.
Cons
At Olive Garden there is a serious lack of upwards mobility. It takes years to be hired as a manager, when in fact they have college graduates working at low levels of the totem pole. There is also a real sense of a lack of empathy for the employees, from management, as they deal with so many people on a daily basis they start treating people like crap. Although it is rare, you can be yelled or blamed for something you did not even do, but have to sit there and take it or risk losing your job. Some of the managers are so ignorant you are constantly amazed that they made it to be managers, and some are just lazy and you wonder why they are not fired for ignorance or laziness. Another con is the fact that servers are not paid minimum wage. I think this is a ridiculous policy that needs to be revoked. Servers are basically free labor for restaurants as they don't have to pay them minimum wage (or anything!) unless they make less then that. Still, as a server/bartender I never made less then minimum wage, but there were days that I would go home with 15 dollars in my pocket. One more con is the fact that Olive Garden has a slew of ridiculous policies that end up hurting the company. So many time do I see managers give away food (they comp the entire meal) to complaining customers, simply because they are complaining! Thousands of dollars worth of food a week are comped at each Olive Garden!