Pros
I worked at 2 locations and it was VERY different at each location. Some places you get a free meal and others maybe not. Remember, this is a franchise so the owner are all different. Some are cheap and some are nice. I worked at a Wingstop in Plano TX and it was very nice, big, clean, TVs on each wall. Almost like a sports bar atmosphere. The owners were very nice, we worked hard, kept the place clean, served good food, all was good.
Cons
THEN...!! I went to work for a Wingstop in the Redbird Mall area of south Dallas. This was pure HELL. The place was a dump. The dining area had only 2 tables! The day they call me in for my first day of work it was Sunday...Football Night...Cowboy game going on and there was a line out the door and around the corner. Seriously? This is the day you start a new employee? Work..Work..Work..Work..and the tickets are still piling up. The customers are terrible. I handed a lady a bag of food, she stood there yapping with a smooove dude for 20min then turned around and said "...Oh no baby, these wings are cold...I need me some fresh wings...you gave them to me cold...and these fires are too brown...I need me some new fires too..." Oh brother.... The hot water heater is broken and the owner is too cheap to get a new one so I have to heat water up on the stove to wash dishes as the night wears on. OH guess what...we ran out of french fries!! "...Yo,...New dude...can you bust another 100lb bag of fries...HURRY!!... there's some lady saying she wants fresh new french fries before her wings get cold again.." Yes, "bust" because they use whole potatoes. We use a manual dicer to bust them, then they have to be blanched in a fryer for 2 minutes, then cooled, then deep fried again. What a hassle. Oh NO! We ran out of chicken wings!! We get more out of the freezer but they are frozen solid. So we have to thaw them out in hot water first. Wow this is really crazy and the line is getting longer. I take all the dishes out of the sink, wash the sink, then put the chicken in with the hot water I was heating for dish water. I get this going and now my co-worker, who does NOT know English, starts pulling grease traps off the overhead and puts them in another sink. Why? Despite the fact that we're in Hell and the ship is sinking, she starts cleaning grease traps because it's Sunday....And we ALWAYS clean the traps on Sunday. The customers are on the verge of rioting. The 2 cooks in the kitchen are working hard and relentlessly bang out all the orders. Hours and Hours of hard labor. I'm happy I didn't cut a finger off busting potatoes like a lunatic. During the entire shift I kept thinking, "...this is NOT a job...this is punishment...real honest punishment. This is where you send people who did something very bad and need to be punished. Seriously, if a judge sentenced anyone to a solid week of working at THIS wingstop it would be some serious punishment and would probably straighten them up." My fellow cook was a great guy. VERY hard worker and from his tats, looks like he did some serious time in the big house. I wonder what keeps him here? This shift is over, time to clean the fryers. Oh the fryers are broken, no surprise, so the HOT oil has to be drained manually. The main cook drains the oil into a big pot then picks up the pot and skates across the slippery floor. I'm holding my breath. "Oh God, please don't let him slip". I'm suppose to go back the next day but I refuse to have anything to do with this place. I'm surprised I finished my shift....alive. They keep calling me but I tell myself that I do NOT have to go back. I have a choice. They cant' make me go back, right? Please don't make me go back. I promise I'll be good. Please don't punish me again. Every now and then I have "Vietnam Flashbacks" of this place. Can you get PTSD from working in a kitchen?