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Posted

The DC bar school received this question from a grad:

"Do you guys know of any website where servers/bartenders can leave reviews of establishments where they have worked? I find myself sometimes working jobs that promise too much in terms of volume or say they have a customer base but really want you to build one for them. If fellow service industry workers had a place to review their employers, I think it would help job searches immensely. Thanks!"

I thought it was a good and reasonable question.  I don't know of a source like that.  Does anyone?

Posted

The DC bar school received this question from a grad:

"Do you guys know of any website where servers/bartenders can leave reviews of establishments where they have worked? I find myself sometimes working jobs that promise too much in terms of volume or say they have a customer base but really want you to build one for them. If fellow service industry workers had a place to review their employers, I think it would help job searches immensely. Thanks!"

I thought it was a good and reasonable question.  I don't know of a source like that.  Does anyone?

You could start one here.

Posted

That would be very interesting. (I'm not in the restaurant business but am curious.)

If there's interest, I'll create a forum for it. Getting people to post will be difficult, but I can promise anonymity, and we are about 30% industry insiders so the core is already here.

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Posted

Don:  Were you to start this I'd encourage folks who are employers and employees to jump in and make comments.   I'm sure it would be interesting, and possibly controversial at times but probably educational.

Posted

The danger is with casual sniping, but I think the outing process you go through to register yourself on this site would mitigate most of that. It might be a nice counter to the vagaries of at-will employment.

Posted

The danger is with casual sniping, but I think the outing process you go through to register yourself on this site would mitigate most of that. It might be a nice counter to the vagaries of at-will employment.

Also, I can password-protect the forum so the general public couldn't see it - this would make employees (and ex-employees) more likely to post. If I'm convinced there's enough interest (and right now, I'm not), I can set this up in five minutes. I would also want to remind and encourage everyone that such a forum should contain positive reviews as well - I would not want to run a forum that's set up solely for angry ex-employees to trash their ex-employers. (I will take a moment here to remind everyone that I consider everyone - employers, employees, and diners - a single community, and *friends*.) I would also ask that any negative comments be *thoroughly* substantiated, and that I'll need some type of tangible proof that the person actually worked there - that's a step even beyond the rigorous registration vetting we go through now. One obvious danger is that, by definition, an *ex*-employee is more likely to have an axe to grind. Also, employers must have a chance to reply to any accusations which would mean that they know the identity of the person who posted. I do not want to run any type of Bitching Chatbox - the information, one-sided though it may be, would need to be substantive, truthful, and able to be backed up. "The manager kept grabbing my ass" is the type of post that makes my skin crawl to think about.

The thing is, though, assuming we have one thread per restaurant group, we don't have to have "reviews by ex-employees" as the only thing - factual information would be extremely useful to prospective employees: "They give you two weeks off a year, and actually follow through on their promise of five-day work weeks." That is meaningful information, and if we could foster something like *that*, then I'm all for it. Helping people not stumble into a job blind is important, and there are plenty of restaurant groups that talk a big game during the interview process, but that "extra manager we said we'd hire during your interview" is always a month away, and you end up working 75 hours a week for $45K. Could I please get some feedback from people in the industry as to whether this would be helpful, and more importantly, whether they'd be willing to contribute? I'm all for shining the light of truth on situations, *as* *long* *as* that light is indeed truthful.

Posted

When posting that email into the bartending school I was unaware of any website, forum or place that existed.  We responded to the graduate with that question stating we were unaware of such a place on the web.

Were you to develop this forum we would make our graduate base aware of this.  Currently we are in touch with about 1500-2500 grads that wish to receive job leads.   That number represents people from over a decade ago and new grads.  It fluctuates but tends to grow rather than shrink.

Of that number some might respond.   That number of people represents a wide swath including great food and beverage employees, managers and owners, and miserable employees...and employees who have extraordinary beefs....some merited and some not.

Posted

When posting that email into the bartending school I was unaware of any website, forum or place that existed.  We responded to the graduate with that question stating we were unaware of such a place on the web.

Were you to develop this forum we would make our graduate base aware of this.  Currently we are in touch with about 1500-2500 grads that wish to receive job leads.   That number represents people from over a decade ago and new grads.  It fluctuates but tends to grow rather than shrink.

Of that number some might respond.   That number of people represents a wide swath including great food and beverage employees, managers and owners, and miserable employees...and employees who have extraordinary beefs....some merited and some not.

I could make you a private forum for your graduates. It sounds like a big deal, but isn't.

Posted

Just came across this and unsure an employer review forum here was ever created. But, if interested, this does exist for larger corporate employers.

Vault.com was the first to do it and now glassdoor is probably the biggest. The reviews and content aren't much edited and include ratings, salary information and even intetview questions along with lots of reviews. I could totally see this being a viable business for restaurants, bars and maybe other small employers but probably more likely to scale and be valuable to job searchers and staff if they were the only audience/stakeholders.

http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/index.htm

Posted

Just came across this and unsure an employer review forum here was ever created. But, if interested, this does exist for larger corporate employers.

Vault.com was the first to do it and now glassdoor is probably the biggest. The reviews and content aren't much edited and include ratings, salary information and even intetview questions along with lots of reviews. I could totally see this being a viable business for restaurants, bars and maybe other small employers but probably more likely to scale and be valuable to job searchers and staff if they were the only audience/stakeholders.

http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/index.htm

I know for business reasons and the particular reluctance to possibly get caught in the middle I wouldn't want to be involved.  From our vantage point of providing employees to employers we've heard our share of horror stories from both the employer and employee side.

I have the feeling that if such a thread or topic got visibility and popularity it could well read like a hot gossip column.  I just wouldn't want to be involved.

I've accessed glassdoor at times.  Good gosh it has some of the qualities that we see published about the large review sites and all their pro's and cons.  I suspect it's populated by all sorts of "faked reviews" by employers and employees.

I was looking at the reviews for a company with which I'm familiar.  Current glassdoor employee rating hovers in the low 3's.   Good or bad as far as this type of thing, I wouldn't know.  I do know the company has had a lot of problems with declining revenues, terribly unhappy customers, some level of complaints that rose to government levels, customer churn, and a lot of turnover.

So with all that going on...where among the several hundred employee reviews, do the 5 star reviews come from???   "faked or not"?   I suspect faked.    I'd take the ratings from glassdoor with a grain of salt.

Posted

I know for business reasons and the particular reluctance to possibly get caught in the middle I wouldn't want to be involved.  From our vantage point of providing employees to employers we've heard our share of horror stories from both the employer and employee side.

I have the feeling that if such a thread or topic got visibility and popularity it could well read like a hot gossip column.  I just wouldn't want to be involved.

I've accessed glassdoor at times.  Good gosh it has some of the qualities that we see published about the large review sites and all their pro's and cons.  I suspect it's populated by all sorts of "faked reviews" by employers and employees.

...   I'd take the ratings from glassdoor with a grain of salt.

I don't disagree but also think the comparison of Yelp to Glassdoor only partly serves.  On one hand, yes, very likely some percentage of reviews are faked so generous helpings of salt are key.  Same as with Yelp.  But, with Yelp, there are many other ways to get insight on restaurants whether other review sites, dr.com, easily prompted word of mouth and more.  Getting real insight on employers is much tougher and here I think Glassdoor plays a valuable role.  Much more useful than the ratings are the qualitative. If you read enough of those with the right filter, it is very possible to get a decent sense of patterns and possible issues, if only to prompt better questions that can then be asked in interviews or of other people a candidate may know.  In short, salt yes but also useful I think.

For restaurants and bars, I don't think someone with a vested interest in the industry is the best person to create such a website.  But I do think it would be a site that could get real traction and potentially be a very good business if/when someone does it.

  • Like 1
Posted

I don't disagree but also think the comparison of Yelp to Glassdoor only partly serves.  On one hand, yes, very likely some percentage of reviews are faked so generous helpings of salt are key.  Same as with Yelp.  But, with Yelp, there are many other ways to get insight on restaurants whether other review sites, dr.com, easily prompted word of mouth and more.  Getting real insight on employers is much tougher and here I think Glassdoor plays a valuable role.  Much more useful than the ratings are the qualitative. If you read enough of those with the right filter, it is very possible to get a decent sense of patterns and possible issues, if only to prompt better questions that can then be asked in interviews or of other people a candidate may know.  In short, salt yes but also useful I think.

For restaurants and bars, I don't think someone with a vested interest in the industry is the best person to create such a website.  But I do think it would be a site that could get real traction and potentially be a very good business if/when someone does it.

Good points about glassdoor information and the differences between gathering information about restaurants and gathering information about possible employers with quality being more valuable than quantity.

Most of my experience w/ reading glassdoor came with regard to the business I referenced above.  I was surprised to see the review summary score at above 0.  ;)

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