Olive Garden
Olive Garden Employee Reviews
Found 90 reviews matching the search See all 8,311 reviews
Sort by: Helpfulness | Rating | Date
Busy workplace
Hostess (Current Employee) – Winnipeg, MB – 24 February 2019
A typical day at work is greeting guests, seating guests and using strategy with seating. Most employees are kind and friendly.the hardest part of the job would be uncertain hours and endtimes.
Pros
Discount on food
Cons
Uncertain endtimes, uncertain hours
Great employees, awful management.
Server (Former Employee) – Edmonton, AB – 25 February 2019
I loved everyone I worked with but management was awful. Almost all of the employees disapproved of the management so it wasn't just my experience. Shifts are short. Expect to work 6-7 days a week with no overtime pay because it's almost impossible to hit 40hrs. I averaged 25-35hrs a week working 6 days. They actually don't allow over time (more than 8hrs per day). If you hit overtime you get into trouble from management. There has been times when I actually worked off the clock (not getting paid hourly) so I could keep my tips. Management are bullies, expect to be yelled at or pulled into the office if you don't meet your sales goals. You're trained to be very pushy with sales and you can actually notice that most guests are annoyed with you because of it. Expect to work split shifts which can be a waste of your day. For example, you come in for a lunch shift at 11am, work 1-2 hours, then you are expected to come back for 5pm only to work another 1-2 hours because servers that work split shifts are always the first to go home for fear that they will hit over time. You've now spent your whole day essentially being at work, but you only ended up working 4 hours total. They are always hiring and the turnover is very high.
Pros
Made a lot of friends, they do offer entry level training for all positions.
Cons
Awful management, short shifts, expect to work 6 days a week with only 30 hours to show for it.
Decent
Salad Alley (Former Employee) – Langley, BC – 27 January 2019
It's hard work to work in the kitchen, but it's very hard to move up once you do a good job at the job you already have. The coworkers are amazing, the management is ok
Pros
$1 soup, salad and bread. Good wage
Cons
Not alot of advancement opportunities
positive environment though management left something to be desired
Waitress (Former Employee) – Edmonton, AB – 26 January 2019
While I genuinely enjoyed my co-workers and the customers I served, the management at the OG is undoubtedly corporate focused. They care more about their paychecks and bonuses than their own employees.
Pros
great coworkers
Cons
barely any hours and unfortunate management
Restaurant life.
Sales Manager & Culinary Manager (Former Employee) – Edmonton, AB – 10 January 2019
The Olive Garden is as good of restaurant to work at as any other. Managing in these environments is challenging as personal relationships at work are frowned upon and you are expected to spend a lot of time there. Swinging shifts can make personal and home lives difficult. Good Employer but not a recommended vocation.
Pros
decent salery and bonuses
Cons
poor work life balance
very busy and fast-paced environment
SERVER (Former Employee) – Calgary, AB – 30 December 2018
It's a very busy place especially on dinner and weekend. Excellent tips and very friendly co-works and CEO. I like working there despite the fact that i don't get enough hours.
Pros
Excellent tips and the atmosphere is fantastic.
Cons
lack of management, no hours.
Productivity
Production cook (Current Employee) – Winnipeg, MB – 6 December 2018
Overall, it is really productive job. you get to learn a lot of things if you show your best.
A person can learn a variety of things like serving,bar tending, cooking.
One thing i did not liked was lack of appreciation.
A person can learn a variety of things like serving,bar tending, cooking.
One thing i did not liked was lack of appreciation.
Pros
2 dollar standard salad as a meal.
Cons
no
Great place to work but, does need some tweaks in certain areas.
Busser/Dishwasher (Former Employee) – Edmonton, AB – 5 December 2018
The only thing that would need tweaking is management and the reliability of co-workers to show up for shifts and complete their shifts. All in all, olive garden is not an overly bad place to work, but would be better with these tweaks.
Pros
$1.05 for unlimited soup and bread sticks
Cons
Long hours
Always busy workplace with a lot of returning customers
Service professional (Current Employee) – Calgary, AB – 16 November 2018
Extremely busy work environment with lots of opportunities to grow and develop new skills. Friendly and helpful staff. Lots of loyal and returning customers which helps built long term business. As a service professional I have learned new tools how to improve overall operations of the restaurant. The hardest part to overcome being food waste, employee turnover and motivation. However, the workplace culture is definitely there it just needs to be improved by management involvement.
Pros
Cross training opportunities
Cons
Lack of employee recognition
Faced paced work environment with friendly coworkers
Server (Former Employee) – Calgary, AB – 10 November 2018
Very busy and fast-paced environment.
Excellent tips, especially in the summer time.
Coworkers and Managers are friendly and caring.
Nice benefits and flexible schedule.
Excellent tips, especially in the summer time.
Coworkers and Managers are friendly and caring.
Nice benefits and flexible schedule.
Great staff, great benefits,long hours, Cliquey middle management (D.O, G.M's and Managers)
Culinary Manager (Former Employee) – Edmonton, AB – 4 October 2018
In my experience with the Olive Garden, The parent Company has a well laid out system for success. If followed to a T the system is almost flawless. However, I encountered many times an attitude of "this is not how we do things in Canada". This is sad as there are over 600 restaurants in the US but only 6 here in Canada.The restaurant I was posted at had 12 different managers who either quit or were fired in a 2 year period. I quit as I was overworked (up to 70 hrs per week) and I was part of a 2 manager team which was supposed to have 5 managers in total.
Pros
Weekly pay, free meals and good benefits
Cons
60-70 hour work weeks
Good atmosphere
HOST, COOK, TRAINER (Current Employee) – Winnipeg, MB – 19 September 2018
" when youre here youre family" our saying is very accurate when employed here. All employees are friends, most get along very well. The managers are very sarcastic and love to joke around. Cross training is a big yes here! You could go from host to server, dishwasher to line cook etc. The hours are typical restaurant hours, one day you work 3 hours, the next 1.5, the next 8, it all depends on how busy it is and how many people are working that day. Overall a great place to work especially while your in school as the managers are usually pretty flexible.
Great opportunity for upward mobility and skills
Server/Bartender (Former Employee) – Langley, BC – 14 September 2018
Great managers and run business. Tight knit team of bartenders that got along great while working effectively, efficiently and professionally. Training opportunities are well done.
yes
Server and Hostess (Former Employee) – Edmonton, AB – 7 July 2018
I just like the food here, it was too long ago for me to really rate how it was to work here. but I can remember working here was enjoyable and I made lots of friends. I also enjoyed working with the public.
Great company to work for if you are an individual with ambition.
General Manager (Former Employee) – Calgary – 15 June 2018
It was a great company to work for during my 17 years there. The reason I quitted was because of myself and my new immediate supervisor did not have the same vision on how the restaurant should run.
way too many refills
Food prep (Former Employee) – Edmonton, AB – 11 June 2018
As a server, most of your time was spent getting refills. half the clientele were horrible, and because of all the refills, you had very small sections, which meant hardly any tips made on a nightly basis
Best Job Ever
Line Cook/Utility (Former Employee) – Winnipeg, MB – 31 May 2018
When i was working there I was working as a line cook and when they needed someone for the dish pit I went and helped out and was fast at it and my employers really liked me and eventually one guy that's been there since the place open, he took me under his wing and taught me some good skills.
Super busy and stressful and little room to advance
HOSTESS (Former Employee) – Langley, BC – 3 May 2018
Worked there for three years, pay was decent but management definitely needed some work. Hosts get cut after 2 hours or less if you have worked there for less than 6 months.