kitchen assistant

horticultural manager

client advisor

department manager

trading manager

Dobbies Garden Centres

I seriously expected so much better but it's not completely terrible. If you work here and you're older than 25, this is the definitive dead-end job for you. 

My jobs usually ranged from till operations to running food to clearing tables... or being a lone kitchen porter. All of the staff are given a range of roles before finding their niches, though this never happens for some. 

I struggled to find any part of this job particularly rewarding, as the work ranged from being just fine to unbearably annoying.

Here I learned very quickly that no matter how much people insisted they had your back, chances were they didn't, and would treat your needs as an inconvenience and in some cases an annoyance. Select staff would completely blank you until they wanted something from you. I might just have one of those faces though lol.

The main restaurant manager was a treat to work under; structured, organised and engaging. Otherwise was much less so, working in the restaurant was more chaotic and harder to navigate during the weeks where the manager wasn't around as much.

The work culture was very strange and one I was eager to get away from. Staff are certainly "nice" to one another but there's always been this sense of unease and coldness amongst everyone. No one really likes each other, and no one was really interested in what you had to say unless it was work related or if your joke stuck the landing. This may have been a social issue more than a workplace one but I found it very difficult to relate to the majority of my co-workers when in conversations because they just didn't care about anything that came out of my mouth.

Again, anything relating to the kitchen was an absolute misery to work in, there was way too much going on for the pitifully small number of people who work in there daily. Jobs are always divided amongst individuals, you'll have one kitchen porter, one cook, one sandwich maker, one coffee maker, one till operator and maybe two or three runners on an average day, with the manager/supervisor floating between it all.

Food's nice enough... the odd good co-worker too... overall this place was okay but totally unremarkable and should only be treated as a stepping stone for students rather than a place where you can find a promising career.

I worked there briefly for 3 and a bit months. Dobbie's wasn't outright awful however it definitely had issues. The location of the store is not good if you cant drive. While just off a direct bus route it is accessible however its pricy I would work 5 days a week £6 per day to get to and from work costing roughly £120 per month and a bus pass was more expensive in my area as its out of the city. The payroll was awful my first month I worked from start to end to only be paid for 2 weeks work, finding out how payroll worked was hard I asked everyone and they didn't know how it worked. In addition to confusing payroll you didn't get your payslips until after you are paid , making planning or budgeting a nightmare. The pay its self was underwhelming  I made shy of £130 for my first month completely crushing my faith in the job. Furthermore a full months pay on contract 80h per month (20per week) didn't get me very far. £604 per month Gross. Despite my roll as Restaurant Customer Advisor I was in the out door area , it was nice environment all the tools where at my disposal and conveniently close. My co-workers where great they all had extensive knowledge and taught me all I needed to know, overall great people who deserved way more recognition for their skills and abilities. The weather, be appropriately prepared. during my time it was blazing hot watering plants in the sun for hours was not fun, fatigue and exhaustion. Outside area for staff really needed a water station for hot days. The hardest part of the job was tedious tasks that felt like they were unnecessary or downright pointless. In addition lots of departments were heavily under staffed notably food hall and outside area. Another upside is the costumers they are almost always polite and some come regularly and were friendly faces to see from time to time. Management felt very disconnected a clear clash of ideas leading to extra pointless work. 

Upper management were always happy to let lesser colleagues suffer and struggle during busy periods, often unwilling to even speak to customers who request a manager leaving staff to deal with the backlash. Even managers a bit lower down the food chain were often left to struggle with a lack of staff to cover departments, and even when a multitude of staff left it took almost the entire length of my time there for the upper management to bother employing new staff; they want everything done with as little cost as possible, an ethos which seems to be shared by the whole company. There’s a lack of leadership in some departments also, with colleagues being left to try and lead themselves with no guidance as the management are often sat drinking coffee instead. Training is at a bare minimum also, and the head office seem to take as long as possible to fix issues around the store - a set of large (15ft+) gates on one side of the building were damaged and incredibly difficult to close, and the issue had been reported multiple times over my tenure at the store, and nothing was ever done and nobody ever seemed bothered about both the potential security and potential health & safety implications of the damage. 

The company also seem to have vast issues with customer orders, and on many occasions customers would never receive orders they’d purchased in store as a result of head office’s organisational incompetence, meaning that store members would receive the flak as a result of their poor ability to deliver on orders. You can see from looking at the company’s online social media pages that this is an ongoing issue and nothing has ever been done to rectify it, and the resulting issues have had an impact on my mental well-being and the wellbeing of colleagues as a result of the anger and negative things said by customers. 

I've worked at dobbies for a year now and it has been my first permanent job role. Although working there has given me the new skills as a young person such as making coffee, customer service, use of a till and serving food, I've found that the whole process has made me extremely stressed and unhappy. This is for many reasons:
As it was my first job I worked weekends while also being at college during the week days, however a typical week end involved an 8 hour shift on a Saturday and a 7.5 hour shift on Sunday. I had no free time to myself and long shifts on pots or tables can be extremely draining. 
The management there I found to be shocking. Of the time I spent working there, I don't recall getting a single praise for any if the work I did from my manager. My assistant manager however was extremely nice and always made sure to praise you for the good work you had done. I believe that managers should be approachable however I often felt intimidated by my main manager.
In terms of the jobs, they didn't require much skill however a lot if the time we didn't have what we needed. We usually ran out if large cups, or cutlery, or milk and this became a big problem in terms of customer complaints which I had deal with a lot. 
The good parts of working at dobbies were mainly your co-workers. Weekends at dobbies are usually filled with younger staff ages 16-19 and we all worked together well and got on very well. The whole group of staff were very friendly. However, team moral was extremely low due to the management.

Overall I think the place is run badly, and staff are not given any form of formal praise for the work they do. I don't recommend working there as you will soon stress about the job and not want to go anymore.

Lovely idea, nice products and beautiful stores. Shame they treat their loyal employees so badly!  Absolute clueless general manager and a Regional Manager with a huge ego only interested in giving jobs to all his friends and family (ignoring promoting his own loyal staff) Head office couldn't care less and allow all sorts of bullying and bad behaviour to go on. Never enough staff, budgets always being cut and NO TRAINING OR DEVELOPMENT! This is a ONE WAY STREET and for all your hard work and helping them make millions in profit you get back shockingly poor wages, ridiculous hours (all put onto management as they are salaried and so get paid no extra for it - no extra hours for hourly staff who they keep on an 8 hour contract?? ) no HR support whatsoever, no training EVER and no chance to progress ( unless your face fits or your a friend of the regional manager) Truly awful recruitment processes don't bother applying if your qualified, makes no difference as they giving the jobs to their mates anyway!! All the top bosses have ran a mile probably because they know if Tesco - who own them - get hold of what's going on in the stores they will all be sacked! The only thing that concerns them is profit, I hope more staff come clean about what it's like here. I think they open shops in areas like this because they know there's not much work around. They lure people in with all sort of lies then they get stuck and can't get out. Truly awful.

During a busy day at Dobbies, I would interact with customers helping them with any assistance they may need and making them feel welcome to the restaurant.
My duties would involve clearing away used cutlery and crockery once the customers had departed the restaurant, making sure it was clean and tidy for the next customer. Occasionally, I would serve customers a choice of hot food. At the end of the day, it was my job to ensure the restaurant was clean and tidy (tables, chairs, carpet hoovered) ready for the breakfast shift the next day. 
Throughout my time at Dobbies, I learnt the importance of working in a team, making new friends, listening to and following instructions, all in an effort to give the customers the best experience possible. 
My supervisor, was approachable and friendly and a good team leader. During the hours I worked there, there would be 5 of us, who were all very friendly and supportive of one another. 
The most difficult part of my job, would be trying to please everyone including my manager as well as customers. As time went on however, I got used to this pressure and worked through the stress. 
Throughout my short time at Dobbies, the best part of my job was the people who I worked with. From my first to my last day all the staff would have my back and I could ask them anything, if I didn't understand. I am also glad I have made friends with some people I wouldn't have met otherwise.

job is decent enough for college students however the younger workers tend to do more work than the older staff or are given jobs without the right equipment or knowledge of how to complete
Management is not the best as sometimes you could be given one job and expected to stop everything and move to another job as well as attending to customers especially having to fill in for a spare till operator 
Standard communicative equipment such as radios to talk to colleagues on are mostly broken so only a few are available to use which isn’t the most convenient if stuck with multiple customers needing something all at once , some jobs given could require more than one person but are expected to do as a singular tasks 
Rate of pay varies on age however the shift allowances with weekend work are convenient for college students who want to earn some money as well as attending college at the same time 
Some workers are amazing and help you out as much as possible, others tend to push a challenge away and make you deal with it yourself but expect a favour back still 
However new staff aren’t considered valuable team members as they are often replaced quick if they leave in a sudden time and the new starters which are typically younger workers have little to no training leaving them asking or wandering around the store for help on what to do.
All in all it’s a varied work job just depends on what you can manage really.

I joined the company seven years ago and it was a pleasure to go to work and achieve job satisfaction, sadly due to a change in the management team all that changed and over the last couple of years the store and company has drastically gone downhill. Due to the stock the store now holds and the way it is merchandised the store now resembles a cheaper discount store but with a much higher ticket price and the once inspirational garden centre it was is no more. The job became more about tasks and meeting unrealistic deadlines set by head office rather than service and selling, it was sad that there was no longer time to spend helping the customers. The store was terribly short staffed, as a salaried member of staff I worked many extra unpaid hours to help out. The company has recently gone through a restructure and it’s very clear that to the management team that makes these decisions you are just a number and your experience, loyalty and commitment to the job means absolutely nothing to them. Due to the restructure I was made redundant after a 30 day consultation period. Sadly the way HR dealt with the redundancy process from start to finish was appalling and left me feeling like I had been sacked rather than made redundant, and that was a very sad way to end employment from a job that over the years I had loved and put so much time, effort and loyalty into !!! 

It wasn't very good, quite a negative workplace, especially for your first job.
The typical day at work: started off with serving customers drinks and taking breakfast orders, occasionally i took them out to the tables (although i didn't know where i was going since i hadn't learnt the layout yet, so i was getting incredibly stressed a lot)
Then pot washing and drying and then putting the plates and cutlery in their respective places.

I think the only thing i learnt was less than a month of barista work before i left (making different coffees and teas etc)

Management for the cafe was toxic, she didn't treat me and some of the other younger workers very well, was very disrespectful towards me, had an attitude and wasn't very nice in general.

Workplace culture was almost nonexistent, didn't really learn much since i left quite quickly.

Hardest part of the job was going there. I didn't look forward to going to work like i should be and it was difficult for me to even go into the main shop without being incredibly anxious. But the hardest part of the actual job was probably the till, i didn't get much training and so i had to keep asking where things were on it.

Most enjoyable part was some of the nice customers and some of the coworkers i had at the time, they were more supportive than the manager of the cafe.

It is hard work, it is long hours and you do feel it at the end of the day especially if you are a kitchen porter like I was. If I was opening up my section, I would come in and have a shelf load of plates/kitchen equipment to clean, I would also have to get everything ready. The job is made easier with a "hot wash" machine that is like 8 feet long and can take approx 20 plates per tray through. I would need to start by putting the mats, that were washed the night before and air dried after, down; then I would need to fill a tub with hot water and put a powder that helps tea stains come off teapots for the morning run. I will do the same for the cups on the side. When the machine is finished, I send 5 trays through and then clear the otherside. On a good day I will have the lot that is there and ready done before more comes along. Generally the clocking off time is just after the closing time by either 5 mins or 30mins, depending how busy it is. The management are okay, the immediate management and restaurant staff only want to make sure everyone is having a good time! The hardest part of it is the really early get ups if you are opening up.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Kitchen assistant 2 salaries reported	£12.96 per hour
Horticultural manager 7 salaries reported	£26,171 per year
Client advisor 1 salary reported	£20.00 per hour
Department manager 1 salary reported	£25,000 per year
Trading manager 4 salaries reported	£24,914 per year

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