restaurant manager

kitchen manager

assistant manager

assistant restaurant general manager

surveillant du service alimentaire

White Spot

Working at Whitespot was a very bipolar experience. Every time something upset me, another thing happened that would please me.  My location had a pretty big staff room with 2 locker rooms (most of which were hogged by people that would take a locker and leave there stuff there forever), a bathroom, and some decent chairs and tables. You also get 60% off your meal (if you're ordering a main dish you'll spend about $6). As is standard with most kitchens, they ask you to be on the line 5 minutes early. You also get all of your uniform (shirt, pants, apron, and hat). Most of the food is prepped (cut and portioned into bags with most of the ingredients for that dish), so it's pretty much the same as playing those cellphone games where you mix and match ingredients. Might be a decent stepping stone into learning the basics of kitchen (since harder concepts and techniques aren't used), but if you're beyond complete beginner in the kitchen, you definitely wont learn much. The scheduling is fair if you're in school, they tend to respect your availability, although it can be very bad if you have a pretty open schedule, as they'll try to put you on "doubles" (2 shifts in a day, sometimes without a break, sometimes with a 2 hour break, which is just as bad). Shifts can range from 3 hours to 8 hours as head, but on average if you move up the slightest, you'll have an average of 4.5 hours/shift. You'll also very rarely have breaks on 5 hour shifts, if you have one and it's somewhat busy, you run the risk of getting talked to by the head chef  or even getting held back by an hour or more on your clean up. Although the FOH always gets breaks even if it's only 4 hour shift. For the cleanups, in the kitchen, most stations have at least 1 heavy job. Some stations require you to lift big buckets of extremely hot oil (with gloves obviously), others require you to lift bins of ice (to throw away or fill). You can do the latter in smaller amounts of ice, but that's more work. Finally, what ticked me off was how oblivious the workers were to time worked. One head left it very clear what time he marked you off, but others wouldn't really say or do anything and that lead me to being marked as "off" 15 minutes before I actually left (because they work in increments of 15 minutes for some reason). It's a really archaic system that's not trustworthy and could easily be replaced by computers. It's just 15 minutes, but if it happens 4x in a week, that's an hour. Again, it really depends on who's your superior that day. The coworkers were definitely my favorite part of working there, you obviously wont mesh well with everyone, but most of the staff (in the BOH) is very relaxed and fun to be around, definitely made the experience 10x better. The management on the other hand can definitely be a hit or miss. They're all very nice and chill at their best, but depending on the time of day you'll get the "silent treatment" from one, another one can just be described at ignorant at times, and the other one is a completely amazing person to work with/for but doesn't have as much power as the others. All the managers help in the kitchen when needed. Wages are what I expect working in a kitchen, but could be higher (normally minimum +  3% tips which normally is $1/hr), especially seeing as starting servers make >$20/hr (wage + tips) on busy days and at least $15/hr on slower days, whereas kitchen stays around $13/hr and $14/hr on really good days (the type of day they make >$30/hr) assuming your wage is $12/hr. All in all, it's a somewhat decent place to work in.

White spot is an amazing place to work if you want to learn how to become a server. They are really good at taking someone who is completely new to serving and training them how to give great service and handle sections that are very large. They are very strict on making sure that everyone is doing their side duties. A little too strict at times, there is definitely the feeling of being micromanaged. But the place is run like a tight ship and because of this, the FOH and BOH are always extremely clean, organized and prepared. White Spot did this aspect better than any other restaurant I've ever worked in. So be prepared to work extremely hard and be able to pay attention to detail, and be okay with the fact that all of the supervisors and managers are watching what you do at all times. 

One of the things I appreciate most is that you are always given a break. If you work a full 8 hour shift, you can expect one half hour break and a possible extra ten minute break. This is very rare in the restaurant industry. As well, they were doing staff meals for $6, which would come off your paycheck and was such a nice perk. We even had a break room with a TV. Again, this can be very rare in restaurants. 

One thing I did not appreciate was that it felt like working somewhere very corporate. The managers would constantly be giving us orders from the higher ups in the company on how we needed to be selling more, as well as constant feedback from these unknown corporate people. They would even print out reports on how much each server was selling and post them on a board so that we could all compare ourselves and see who was hitting the mark. This encouragement of competition was fun for some people but felt uncomfortable at times. 

White Spot has an extensive menu, and you will need to pass a menu test before they will move you into serving. There are a lot of opportunities to move up in this company. If you are a good server and stick around for more than 6 months there is great potential to become a bartender and/or a supervisor.

The money here was okay. You will deal with quite a few horribly rude customers here (expect at least one per day), as well as a lot of seniors who are penny pinchers who only want to order one slice of toast and don't want to tip much. So you will have to work quite hard for your tips. You can make decent money but only working full time 8 hour shifts. Expect to be exhausted.

Most of the managers are extremely helpful and will step up in FOH or BOH whenever help is needed. Whether that's serving a couple tables, flipping burgers or getting in the dish pit. I really respect their work ethic. 

Overall, it was fun to work here and the people were super fun and down to earth, except for the one horrible manager (the other four were awesome). She was an absolute tyrant, and if you couldn't get on her good side she would make your life a living h*ll. She would often gossip about other servers behind their backs and in front of other servers. Extremely unprofessional and volatile. She would lose her temper often and scream at workers. I even witnessed her be physical with one of the hosts. So many people quit because of her when I worked here, and she ultimately was the reason I left. 

If you're a server, you have 3 training days & no orientation.
On your training days, you just follow someone around & hope they show you everything you need to know. Well, on my 3 training days I got sent home super early because it was "slow". I really wish they took the time to properly train me because I feel like they set me up for failure. I didn't know how to make any drinks, I didn't know we had chores (side duties) nevermind even knowing how to do them. The location I was at, had very poor "crew leaders". I remember my first week by myself, we got really busy & I needed help to make a drink because nobody taught me while I was training, WELL i waited 15 mins before someone finally helped me & after they did they told me they don't have time to be doing this. Multiple times we had crew leaders to tell us to stop asking them for things. If you missed up, you better tuck your tail & beg for forgiveness because they will make it a big deal. This isn't the place for you, if you wanna make friends. We couldn't even talk with our co-workers for 3 minutes without getting yelled at saying we are doing nothing & get sent home or get sent wiping walls. They will belittle you, right in front of your co-workers. Also they will talk bad about you behind your back to each other & management does nothing about it because they do it too! I went home crying on several occasions & the worst part is I wasn't the only one. Once you resign from them, be prepared because they will tell EVERYONE how you quit & why you quit then they will talk bad about you in the restaurant & not feel welcomed back as a guest. This is only the things I can remember from the top of my head. 
I worked at many places throughout my life & this is by far the most toxic & poorly managed. 

Got this as a second job, scheduling was good. Had a pleasant first couple days but it went down hill fast due to a lack of training for the position/ what you are being asked of. Had 2 training shifts and hours of not paid online training that never gave a good understanding of hostessing and the duties. I was already familiar with take out and customer service from previous experience. Every one has their own way of doing things so you have a lot of different opinions flying at you at once, while management may say otherwise. Management has extremely high expectations for the lack of training and vague explanations. Most of the time the fellow employees where great, servers do sometimes take advantage of the host for bussing tables so they don't have to.
 I got yelled at, and felt as though I hadn't been given the correct tools to succeed in the position. If a customer tells management you said "no" to them (although a server asked you to notify people to wait at their tables to pay, which was the case with me as I hadn't had the training to accept payment other than take out) you get yelled at. 
Far too many people running the show instead of one way of doing things for front of house. It all makes for an extremely confusing, and stressful work place (and not because of the customers). There is definitely room for improvement from management to make the restaurant work as one not chopped into different areas, understanding, and lots of room to improve in their training so employees can succeed. Salary is min wage plus tips so that's nice but management definitely asks for a lot with the tools given to hosts.

A typical shift at white spot was very hectic and stressful. The duties were simple but the pace you had to do everything at was painfully fast. Tasks are often also stacked on top of each other and we are expected to do two or three all at once. When being a beginner, it was especially hard. I learned how to use seating sections, the appropriate attitude to use towards the guests and also, I learned basic skills needed to work in a restaurant setting. Management had very high expectations for the newer workers and didn't seem to offer much motivation. They also didn't seem to be very professional to my understanding. My co-workers (fellow hostesses) were very warm and welcoming. The servers and managers weren't as much. The hardest part of the job was working all by myself in very stressful situations that I was not generally prepared for. The most enjoyable part of the job was helping guests and being around families. I have a sharp passion for helping people have a good time and being a part of that happy environment.

Working at white spot at the Kelowna airport was fine for a little while, but the workplace is fast paced for the low pay you are getting. They are extremely understaffed, with often just one or 2 people working in the kitchen, even during busy times. It sometimes feels like you are getting taken advantage of in these busy, understaffed moments, when you are making slightly above minimum wage. The manager wasn’t great, although I will say he was good about being flexible for time off and unavailability. Some of the coworkers were nice, some were very rude. Overall, I wouldn’t reccomended working here, due to the labour shortage, you can find yourself a much better paying job without all the stress of being in such an understaffed environment. The job might be fine for a couple months, but after that it’s pretty horrible. 
Online training is also unpaid and pretty useless. 
If you worked in the kitchen you could usually make your own food for your break, if you were lucky enough to get one that day. 

I will start out by saying your experience working at White Spot will largely depend on management. We went through multiple managers, it was sometimes like night and day depending on who you worked with. The level of support and respect we received was largely dependant on the manager and that will make or break this job for you. We had multiple incidents with managers who were racist, unhelpful, abusive, and one who sexually harassed employees.

A day starts out with coming in and finding out the specials, then serving tables. I learned a lot through working here including valuable customer service skills and how to deal with a large amount of stress. The hardest part of the job was when you had to do it all yourself as they send people home to save money. This meant sitting, grabbing drinks, taking orders, running food, and cleaning tables all by yourself if you didn't have a good manager on. 
The most enjoyable part was getting to know the nice regulars and your co-workers. We had a great relationship and I've made lifelong friendships. This is a great place to work while going to school as long as the hours are there.

The job itself is pretty easy, nothing on the menu is that hard to make, and if it's a little complicated there's detailed instructions on how to make them at the press of a button.

However, that about sums up all the good parts of the job.

The management is lackluster. One manager is new, so she's still getting the ropes, which you can't blame her for. The second manager has been there for around a year or so, having proudly boasted about how much experience he's had working in restaurants in the past, while simultaneously being bad at his job. The third manager's been there for a long time, but digs his head into the sand and doesn't listen to anything anyone says, which is a huge problem when he controls inventory.

Let's move on to the coworkers. The back of house workers are, for the most part, lazy. All the work falls to the highest common denominator because no one wants to do anything.

A typical day at work and White Spot, Squamish, BC would be greeting the day staff and being updated on the on going business in the restaurant such how busy it was, what is out of stock, what side jobs still need doing, etc. 

White Spot was one of best serving experiences in my serving career because of the commitment the management had to be apart of all aspects of the restaurant. Management did not have a problem getting their hands dirty and treated their staff fairly. They were very approachable and accommodating.

White Spot's workplace culture is very community oriented. You are more than likely working with people you would see around the community. 

The hardest part of the job of being a server at White Spot is knowing how to keep up. This restaurant is extremely busy and to be a server there you need to know your stuff.

The most enjoyable part of work there are the people you work with. The management does a great job of choosing the right people for jobs that need to be done.

Starting between the breakfast and lunch rushes made the mornings fast passed. I'd need to switch over the menus, help servers clear and set their sections all while greeting and seating guests and answering the phone to take travel orders. Management would be flitting between the front and back of house depending on where they were needed most throughout the day. The transition between lunch and dinner service was very similar but brought a younger, more lively staff, higher volume of people and more energetic work environment. 
The most enjoyable part of this job was the flow that the entire staff had with each other, the front staff and kitchen staff listened and worked together to make sure guests had the best experience possible.
The hardest part about this job would have to be knowing the difference between maintaining restaurant policy and being flexible with guests. It could get confusing when something was acceptable once but not every time and likewise when something was unacceptable or not.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Restaurant manager 23 salaries reported	$55,000 per year
Kitchen manager 13 salaries reported	$61,173 per year
Assistant manager 9 salaries reported	$45,778 per year
Assistant restaurant general manager 7 salaries reported	$61,607 per year
Surveillant du service alimentaire 3 salaries reported	$18.50 per hour

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