sous chef

chef

assistant manager

assistant general manager

server

Bills Restaurants

The on-site staff are great, most GM’s AGM’s are fun to work with too (on most sites I’ve found this)

Something that is very misleading is the service charge, I was with the company for 18 months. Received 0 service charge and maybe 17 tables in 20 paid 100% of this. Don’t get it twisted they say that you get a percent of service charge but you don’t, they use it to pay your wages as “tronc.” Not great for someone who is hoping to get extra dollar from tips. You do however get to keep cash tips. It got to the point if customers asked if we received the tip, we would be truthful and tell them no.

However, more senior management and head office are where it goes south for me. CONSTANT cut of labour costs with complete disregard for management when we eventually speak up. They tell you to “get on with it like everyone else is” They cut and cut, expect you to work with bare minimal staff. This results in slower service, complaints, lack of managing the shift from managers because you are busy serving tables, breaks being put on the back burner because it’s busy and potential mistakes with food orders by the waiter because they’re tired, overworked, and their rushing because they’ve got too many tables to handle. YET expect you to score 100% on mystery diners? And if you don’t.. less than 80% you get sacked yes you heard right.. sacked. Ive seen it happen 3 times in the space of 3 months(prior to furlough). They put pure fear in staff members and who wants to go to work wondering if they’ll still have the job by the end of their shift?? Waiters are stretched to the limit with more tables than they can manage with NO fault of their own. 

There is a constant battle between FOH staff (again with no fault of their own) due to their hours being cut to below par. Bill’s only give out 16 or 8 hour contracts so they can enforce this at any time, and I guess it’s their right too if waitress’s have agreed to this level of work but a shame as most if not all have been promised 30+ hours. Would be good I guess if you were a student, not needing a lot of hours. But definitely not somewhere to work if you’re relying on 30+ hours as they can and they will CUT it whenever it suits them.

Upper management sit from their ivory tower whilst they’re sat in the restaurant, you can be short staffed (at their expense) rushing around and they will sit on their tables, hide behind their laptops and have the cheek to pull you over and ask why you’re rushing. I have known Ops managers to REFUSE to talk to staff when they bring up their concerns, on two separate occasions they have refused to talk to 2 members of female staff with no other than “talk to your GM he is your line manager” how can you expect to work in sync with these kinds of people who hide from their staff they rely so heavily on to tick over the business? 

FOH relationships with kitchen staff are hit and miss, on two occasions I have brought up to my GM (I’ve had 2 and brought it up to both) this particular kitchen member is Incredibly verbally abusive, and used heavily threatening body language. I was met once with the response “oh, well he doesn’t do it to me”..

This company is by far the worst I have ever worked for. Ops managers bully staff, force them to hand in their notice or they will take it down the ‘formal route’. Absolutely unbelievable scenes, and your are right, I will let my feelings to be heard to anyone who is thinking of working here. 

In my experience, working at Bills’s was extremely fun and friendly to begin with and our GM was absolutely incredible. I loved it. I couldn’t think of a better place of work. Eventually, that GM left and that’s when everything started to go down hill and whilst I was there, it never got better. 

Although the management was amazing to begin with, there was always bullying going on, mainly towards me from one of the managers and eventually, this ended up affecting other members of staff too. Nothing and nobody ever seemed to do anything about this, we just got told to stop gossiping and that our friends aren’t really our friends. Wrong. They definitely were and still are... 

The hours are very, very long sometimes, especially at weekends, bank holidays and over Christmas. Recently, shifts have ranged from 4.5 hours to 14 hours. You get an hour’s break if you’re working 10 hours or over and a half an hour break if you’re working 6 hours or over. You are also allowed food before or after your shift as long as you’ve worked 5 hours. There isn’t a lot to choose from seeing as you pick from a set, staff menu, but it’s something. 

There are A LOT of service steps to learn and to put into practice, and there is always pressure to remember them all due to our mystery diners who come in on occasion and judge everything we do. Just remember though, when you’re being forced to pour people water as they sit down, we aren’t a fine dining restaurant. If we were, it would be a much nicer place to work and we certainly wouldn’t be called ‘Bill’s’. 

Sometimes each staff member will have one section each, sometimes two and sometimes three, and let me tell you, more than one section to yourself is HARD. It’s very difficult, it’s stressful and it’s completely unfair. With support and help from the nice, helpful managers there, it was made a bit easier. However, without them,  you are just expected to get on with it and magically grow 8 arms and 3 heads out of nowhere. 

There is also a little something Bill’s like to call ‘sampling’. This is where a member of staff either stands outside with free drink or food samples on a tray or they walk around the surrounding areas with it, offering it to people. This is done in all weathers. There could be a deadly tornado outside, doing WAY more than just tipping cows and YOU’D be pushed out the door with a tray of jelly babies people can just purchase from Tesco. 

So in conclusion, as long as you have a decent management, a decent team, you aren’t constantly understaffed, you’re not being pushed into tornados for sampling purposes, you have help and support when needed, you get a decent break at a decent team, and you don’t get bullied for nearly 2 years by one of your managers, who doesn’t even look female and could quite possibly be of a different species altogether, you’re good. :) :) :) :)

Managers have clear favorites, makes shifts really uncomfortable. They won't hire you if you're not available every day 8am - 11pm so if you have any other fixed commitments, you won't get hired. Booking holidays and days off is very difficult. 
They often refuse to turn the air conditioning on in summer (even when customers complain that it's too hot) making it unbearable for the staff, staff are told to run their wrists under cold water instead. The reason given for not turning the air conditioning on is that they want to save money for their annual budget, this is more important to management who don't care about the repeated complaints from staff and customers that the temperature is uncomfortable. It is also worth noting that managers (those who control the air conditioning) are able to wear their own clothes so are walking around in breezy dresses etc, and also stand by the door for most of the day, while staff are running around in jeans (the uniform) in 30 degree heat.  
Some of the management are also creepy and asked me very weird questions, belittled me and made me feel like a freak. People get fired very frequently.
I've worked countless hospitality jobs and this has to be the worst, I love the industry, but hate the mindless disregard that the managers at Bill's inflicted on their staff. With so many beautiful restaurants, cafe's and bars in the city, who are doing great things, this place is a cruel embodiment of capitalism and I wouldn't wish working there on anybody. 

I worked for Bill's for a little over a year, and initially it was a really nice job, however I'm sure thats just the novelty of a new job.  Management were never good at the restaurant I worked at.  There were maybe one or two managers who I could trust and who were supportive, the rest were just horrendous.  We had such a high staff turn over, not just on front of house and bar but management too.  Whilst I was there, we had 2 GM's, 2 AGM's and countless waitresses all quit.

Hours would vary and they would expect you to either go with less than 20 hours even though you're full time, or expect you to work 6 days a week and would make you feel guilty if you didn't.   There was definitely favouritism where managers would give nicer shifts to members of staff who would just roll over and work 80 hours a week and those who would only work 45 hours a week would be subject to the early shifts, the closes and long double shifts.

The kitchen staff were lovely and some of the floor staff were too, but it was so clique-y and gossipy, it became similar to a school playground.

I also did bring this up with management several times, and a couple members of staff would even complain to our Ops Manager, but nothing got done, and it was just normal for managers to treat the floor staff terribly.

You will be forced to stand outside 'marketing' (this is standing outside the front door no matter what the weather is and either giving out free samples of food and drinks, or vouchers, I once was out for 4 hours on 23rd December).

Staff are treated poorly, its always busy and you are expected to run 2 or 3 full sections, which could be anywhere between 8 and 20 tables.

I would never go back to working for Bill's, and I will never recommend working here to anyone else either.

Working for over a year now at two different restaurants across the country, I can confidently say that working at Bill's is great. The work is fun: due to the laid back atmosphere of the restaurant you get to interact with customers in a way that is unusual for such a large chain, and this makes the work less stressful and significantly more enjoyable and. The management are great, they really listen and are there to support you if have any worries or concerns, and you are valued as part of the business. However, there is one problem that I will not be quiet about, no matter how hard Bill's try and suppress it - SERVICE CHARGE. Their policy, like many other restaurants that have been under intense media scrutiny lately, is completely immoral and unfair to the staff who work so hard. Every table gets charged a service charge, which depending on which restaurant you go to, is 10-12.5% of the total bill. Most customers will pay this, rightly thinking that it will end up in our wages, but no. We never see this service charge - it goes straight back into the business. The worst part is, we are not allowed to tell the customer this. If they ask us where the service goes, we are instructed to tell them that it is distributed amongst staff, therefore insinuating that it goes to us. This is definitely the worst aspect of the job, as you make significantly less than you would otherwise, and you feel as if you are being dishonest with the customer, at the expense of your job. I hope that they will change this in the future, but for now, be aware that there are other serving jobs in which you get to keep your tips. Bill's is not one of them.

Working in Bill's was the worst experience of my life. From the day one to the last one was just dissapoitment after dissapoitment

1st of all waiters doesn't get any tips. So even tho every bill got 12.5% service charge u will be seeing nothing of that on your wage slip. Everybody in that place is 'commissioned' which means they give u something extra I'm my case 50p per hour on top of your wages from the service charge. For example I was able to collect around £1500-2000 a month and I got out of it like £70

Cutting hours is managers favourite activity. I understand u need to save labour so u can keep up with the forecasts but if the managers cut full time staff twice a week how am I supose to cover my expenses and bills if I am barely working 30 hours a week which I was promised between 40 to 45 hours which never happened.

Calling sick is another great thing about this restaurant. Management doesn't really care about it and it feels like it was never an issue people call sick so often without any reason as I don't feel well. This usually happened on the busy shifts so working understaffed at the busy Saturdays was regular thing

Also kitchen staff is super ineffective. I regularly had to wait 25-30 minutes to serve food for the customers which meant most of people just got annoyed for horrible waiting times. 

Oh yeah I forgot they got 'motto' everyone leaves happy. I never seen people leaving home more miserable than in this place. Management doesn't really enjoy being there either which they always are quite happy to moan about. 

I really do not recommend work for this company. 

Head office demanded that staff follow a set way of interacting with guests (pretty much a script of what to say and what to do) which works on quiet days excellently. They assess this by sending ‘mystery diners’ and should you not follow the script and get a bad score, even if the guest is happy and says they wish to come back they will threaten with disciplinary action. Through discussion this I explained this and suggested that head office spend a week in a site every few months as part of the role so they can gain a feel of what they are asking from their staff, yet nothing was done and my voice fell on deaf ears.

The service charge is horrendously managed, uses a tronc system on set rates however it is obvious that not all goes to staff and goes into the company to sort out lack of sales.

The manager above me sorted the rotas for management and staff, and did it to his own benefit, putting certain staff members on his shift to make his life easier and put me on every close shift, and when I argued my case and stood my ground he said he would change the rota, out of the next 23 shifts 21 were closing shifts of various lengths. 

When I left I missed nothing

What is the best part of working at the company?
The worst place I’ve ever worked in my 30 years of life. 12 hour back to back shifts with less than 8 hours in between and a service charge that DOSE NOT go to staff. They say it goes towards staff party’s and into your pay but they cheap out on that once a year Christmas party and you get maybe an extra 20p hourly if you’re lucky ? All depends on how much management likes you because the person next to you could be earning way more for the same amount of work. Much worse I could add on from my own personal experience but I’ll keep it general.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Everything. Lack of sleep, money, horrible management and HR, everything.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Depressing,stressful , we used to go cry in the storage room

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Going in for a 8-8 shift when you didn’t ge  to chime until about 2am the night before because you closed alone only to have management to “go the bank” and come back with shopping and then have their lunch  so you missed opportunity to go on a break while it was quite and now have to wait until your shift is nearly over to eat.

At my store there was definitely a family vibe. If we had a problem with management they were friendly enough that we could say it upfront and could push without being worried about anything (obviously within our rights). We were always very honest both ways. 

It's definitely long hours like any restaurant, but you can ask for them to reduce/increase your shifts as you please. You get paid every two weeks, so it was really easy to stay overtime when thinking about payday haha. 

I'd take food downstairs from the kitchen, hang out with the chefs (who I managed to get to make me special dishes for lunch/dinner), I helped the bar with polishing glasses and the dishwasher. I restocked sauces and sometimes helped customers or reset tables. I'd garnish food as well sometimes. Basically just helping anyone who needs help. I was also the main communication between the waiters downstairs and the kitchen upstairs. 

I made a lot of friends from working here that I still meet up and go out with now, a lot of them were students or at school. 

Hardest part was the leg pain from running up and down the stairs, and the busy periods in general. Best part was the staff, and having responsibilities but not being in direct line with the customers.

I've worked for Bill's for over a year now and it's been a big experience as one of my first jobs. I had some difficulty at first as I wasn't trained probably but after a bit of self teaching and learning from my mistakes I grasped the basics of being a good waitress. 

I'd say Management wasn't at it's best when I first joined but as people it went on and management changed it got better. 

The people are the best part of this job, they're friendly and funny and certainly make that everlasting 8 hour shift go a lot faster. 

The final thing I want to highlight is the service charge, it's unclear where the service charge actually goes. I've asked every manager that I've had and each one tells me something different; it goes in your wage, it pays for your food, it goes towards bonuses and nights out for the team and none of them seem legit. I've done my research on it and it seems that Bills actually keeps the tips and I can believe that. It does take a toll on your wage as tips is a big part of it and as soon as a customer sees the service charge they tend to take back the tip. 

I say this is the only drawback, but other than that its a great place to work

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Sous chef 149 salaries reported	£44,125 per year
Chef 236 salaries reported	£14.21 per hour
Assistant manager 125 salaries reported	£39,449 per year
Assistant general manager 47 salaries reported	£45,349 per year
Server 24 salaries reported	£13.11 per hour

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