Gate Gourmet reviews

3.0

48% would recommend to a friend

(967 total reviews)
avatar

Christoph Schmitz

46% approve of CEO

39% positive business outlook

Gate Gourmet has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 967 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Gate Gourmet 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

967 reviews
5.0
Jul 10, 2013

Great leadership

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Leadership, Strenght in Market place

Cons

Global Impact on travel industry

2.0
May 12, 2013

Awful employee development practices

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I worked for GG for fifteen years, from the transition of Dobbs International to the Swissair-owned Gate Gourmet, then the Texas Pacific Group era and more recently the current Zurich/Reston-based organization. The company culture dramatically changed throughout all these periods, due not only to survival necessity but also several decisions made by its CEOs (e.g. relocation from Memphis to Reston which cost in the process the jobs of many dedicated long-term employees). I will go over the negative aspects of this evolution on the section below; the main positive points lie in the fact that many old-time managers are still managing GG units, and do their best to meet their financial goals without the brutality now personified by the executives and its HR dept. It is also a company easy to get in (corporate office jobs don’t pay well while the cost of living in Reston is one of the highest in the country), so for a recent grad it can be seen as an option to work there a couple of years to build job experience then move on to a company with better growth opportunities.

Cons

Anybody who earned raises through promotions and relocations throughout his/her career at Gate Gourmet at some point becomes a target because they are only looked at in terms of salary, not their past and potential future contributions. I personally got many outstanding reviews over the years, can honestly say I made a positive difference in any job I have held (I met and worked with most of the executives and unit General managers over the years, and consistently earned everybody’s respect- yet I got brutally and quite viciously terminated, with absolutely no explanation, no “thank you” for my many years of service, just a lame excuse of job elimination. At the same time other positions for which I would have qualified were not presented to me, and I was treated by HR in a way I wouldn’t wish my worst enemy to be treated. And this type of treatment has now become the standard at Gate Gourmet. Turnover is very high, because nobody looks at their career at GG as long term anymore (if you are adventurous enough to look at this company long term, you expose yourself to the quasi-certainty of being terminated down the road because you now earn more than a recent grad). When the corporate office relocated from Memphis to Reston about ten years ago, only a handful employees relocated, and staff got fully rotated several times since the move. There is an absolute disconnect between the field, where many old-timer are still employed at all levels, and the corporate office where there is little understanding for what is done at the units, and where the vast majority of the employees don’t work more than a couple of years.

1.0
Apr 26, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

you got lunch at a discount,and you meet lots of good people from around the globe.

Cons

Management ran the work place like a natzi camp,Management caters to those that they like which was their own kind,from what I saw they try to get rid of the few minorities that work there which wasn't many in the first place,basically if you didn't speak spanish you had a target on your back,thankfully I had a rastafarian friend that understood them and would translate for me,the subliminal racism was undeniable,no room at all for advancement,no raises aside from the 5 cents you received after your 90 day probationary period till after 5 years

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Glassdoor has 1,342 Gate Gourmet reviews submitted anonymously by Gate Gourmet employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Gate Gourmet is right for you.