chef

assistant manager

deputy manager

line cook

apprentice

Miller & Carter

-Managment are unhelpful and rude
-Hours cut dramatically without warning
-Sometimes breaks on special holiday days (mothers day/easter etc) are only 30 mins if at all (for 10+ hour shifts)
-Other life priorities and responsibilities ignored even though they said they could be flexable around my availability
-Any problems brought up were unresolved and dismissed without care
-Nothing in the job was good enugh (not picking up extra shifts/covering/staying late/doing jobs above my pay grade) were all considered not done to a high enough standard and not appreciated, not even a thank you.
-The managers would have people doing ridiculously pointless jobs that were not stated in the job description (running to the petrol station for her cigs, running to the shop for food they'd run out of/ sweeping the car park/ bleaching bins)
-Unhealthy working conditions. Whilst i wokred there the heating broke a multipule of times and the restaurant reached levels were guests were sat in their coats yet the restaurant did not close. Another incident was a minor flood ankle deep in the cellar of the restaurant contaminating all drinks, yet staff were forced to work and use the cellar normally while wearing wellies.
-Management consider employees below guests, and employees are specifically told not to enter through the front of the building.
-Management are unhygienic as one of the managements dogs are free to roam the team room and office.
-Managment refuse to allow staff memembers free stock (pepsi/cordial/juice) and although I completely understand this rule, I think it is unfair they are so strict on this when they help themselves to alcoholic beverages on shift.
-Staff are bullied and tormented, treat like children, descriminated against their looks (hair colour/ fake tan/ peircings).
-The bar team especially are pushed to the back of the que, always forgotten about and left to fend for themselves. It is not thought twice when someone calls in sick or cannot make it, yet it is just left to struggle short handed whereas when kitchen or floor team are short, someone is taken from the bar to make up numbers. I feel like this is important to point out as we were always compained to about drinks sales/speed yet there is little to be done when there is not a full team or the team is forgotten.

You would clock into shift, grab a buzzer and handset to take orders. You would then check which section you are serving and greet your customers logging the table on your device. Present your steak speech, give them a menu and take orders. You would then go to the bar bring the customer their drinks. You may have another table at the same time so you will greet and take their orders also. When your buzzers goes off you will then have to collect their food and bring it to them with sauces/ cutlery if needed. You will then go back and check on your other tables and clean and dress your free tables. You will then get rid of finished meals. When asked for the bill you log it on your device and bring over a card machine. If the payment is cash and there is change you have a float (your own money) which you carry to give out change. During your day you may have to assist your co-workers with their tables. At the end of shift you will clean and dress your tables and then be given an end of shift job. You then clock out and give in £5 of your earnings and keep the rest.

During my time here I learned after training finishes you are on your own and need to know what you are doing as you don't get much help. You need to memorise table numbers and be very alert. The management team where I worked was awful. If I had a problem most of the time I would have to problem solve myself. I felt as staff they would try to blame their mistakes on us now and then I have never worked for a company where I have felt so unapreciated. 
Workplace culture was bad but I don't think it matches their values when I first applied. During my first month the manager under-paid everyone and we all have to work out ourselves what we were owed. The culture was very careless, some of my co-workers were lovely and made my time their less stressful and easier. The hardest part of my job was doing mostly everything on my own and worrying when I made a mistake and not getting the value or help I needed. The most enjoyable part if fairly limited.. I would have to say meeting the customers they were lovely they were so patient and would leave me such nice reviews and leave me tips. I never had a horrible customer. 

Employed for a new site opening in 2019 - at interview I felt this would be a good job and was told there were guaranteed hours. Oh how I'd been deceived. On the day where I signed the contract the contract turned out to be a 0 hour contract worded very cleverly (x hours but these are not guaranteed). Despite this I decided to give it a try, and if I still didn't want to carry on I could leave at the end of the probationary period. They were also aware of a medical condition which meant I struggled with certain things, such as carrying multiple plates in one hand due to an injury. I had raised this multiple times, yet the managers were still unsympathetic and offered no support at all throughout my time - one manager made me open a wine bottle despite me saying I would cause further damage to my hand. This then caused further damage to my hand which resulted in ending my shift early and having problems for about a month in my studies - this manager just said they didn't care when I originally expressed my concerns, and when I became distressed due to upcoming exams and worries over my future, I was told to grow up (these exams did end up affecting my future plans). 

Overall, the managers were not at all supportive as they claimed to be originally, and could not care less about struggling team members, only focusing on those who got the most positive reviews. They also leave you hanging with no hours for weeks on end, and as I was about to hand in my resignation, I finally heard from them THE DAY BEFORE THEY HAD TO CLOSE DUE TO COVID - they had had opportunities to speak to me prior to this, but made excuses and placed blame on me. 

I would steer clear of this company - they will promise certain things in interview, but once you have the job, it is another thing entirely - hadn't I left, I wouldn't be in the job I currently am in, with a higher wage and in a team which supports each other a lot more. 

- Deputy managers are really friendly and easy to get on with. You can have a laugh with them and are great to be around. Manager is usually firm but fair, open to have a laugh but quite intimidating.
- Always something to do, rarely standing round doing nothing.
- Manager expects you to know all table numbers perfectly within 2 weeks, if you go wrong, they'll pull you aside and tell you why it's so important to get it right.
- Managers can be very slow adding you to social group chats and messaging you. Took a while to get me logged onto the "Teamplan" app to get your shifts. I had to get that info from a colleague who I already knew rather than a manager.
- Breaks are hard to come by
- No food provided, make sure you eat and take a drink with you else you'll probably end up fainting
- The WORST part of this company is the extortionate amount of online, unpaid training you have to do. You have to sacrifice your free time to attend online seminars and complete a large amount of courses. You'll spend several hours doing these courses, most of which are pretty useless and very temperamental. The software you do it on is outdated and slow and doesn't register your progress as it say it should. If you're late, or slow on any of the courses, you get a deputy manager nagging you to complete it - despite the amount of time it takes and this thing called a life you have outside of work.

PROS

Great pay overall. I worked full time and despite minimal wage, earned an extra £100 a month in tips gained from service charge.

Easy for bar work. Only really busy from 5PM till close which is 11PM. Cocktails are straight forward and are mostly throw in shaker and shake.

CONS

Nothing works. Beer lines cause beers to constantly foam/not work. Celler air con so its silly hot in there. Ice machine so you'll be running to other bars for ice constantly when that decides to play up. Plumbing so you'll be cleaning up ALOT of grey water constantly when it plays up. These problems persisted for my whole time here. In fairness have to mention the refurbishment which may or may not sort the issues which is coming mid 2023.

The bar itself. You have to lean over the speedrail and ice sink to reach the actual bar to pour drinks which causes your knees to hurt. It's also alot smaller than you'd think and is expected to get smaller with the refurb. 

Strange workplace culture? Everything between management on a personal level seemed "off". Strange rivalarys and side taking which created quite the hostile enviroment at times. Alot of practices seemed  "improper" on a personal level. Perfessionalism is only skin deep here.

Overall I didn't hate working here but the lack of professionalism isn't something I personally can overlook. I have had much more fun with less tension working at other bars.

Although the job itself was simple enough to pick up, the work environment is another matter. Management are useless, full of self importance and unsupportive to new employees. Unless you are a favourite you will be treated with complete disregard and talked down to. I also witnessed staff picking on each other and I felt like it was more like a school playground at times. A member of staff actually had a go at me when I refused to clear tables for her as I was doing several tickets at the bar. Breaks are few and far between unless you are a smoker, in which case you seem to get as many as you like. Many of the waiting staff will help themselves to drinks and coffee during busy periods which can slow bar service down and when you ask them to leave the bar area they will have a go. They will also demand there drinks orders for customers be done first which often leads to squabbling amongst them. Although I was often scheduled to work 6-11pm, 90% of the time I was lucky to leave at midnight as they continue serving customers even after closing time. Only 2 members of staff were friendly and helpful during my whole time. There is also no staff room to have your break apart from a small grubby office. I would avoid unless you enjoy working long hours with no breaks, no appreciation and a chaotic environment.

As a part time member of staff working on the bar, I mostly worked evenings which were our busiest times of the day. This work was busy enough to keep my occupied but could be stressful. I enjoyed the fast-paced nature of this and can handle the stress. 
Throughout a shift you'll be making drinks (from beer to cocktails), completing toilet checks, dealing with complaints at the bar, cooperating with tht e reast of front of House regarding seating guests, often running drinks to the restaurant (down to waiter's laziness or business), and completing an extensive close down including restocking the fridges and cleaning up the bar area to a high standard,
Being a member of the bar team meant my tips were limited so my £6.76 an hour was much lower than that of the waiting staff who are tipped nicely.
The people you work with will be a big deciding point on whether you enjoy  a job. For me, I loved my bar team so it made my work a lot more bareable.
Overall I enjoyed my time at Miller and Carter, and I couldn't recommend it enough for someone looking for thier first job on a bar.

Miller and Carter are a great company to work for, They have a solid management structure and a very efficient training process for new staff. As a new recruit I undertook training on not only the basics such as restaurant workings but also training to add to my overall skill set that wasn't necessarily part of my job description. For example I was hired as a restaurant host, but all members off the team underwent the same training, so I was also trained in the menu, food handling, waitressing standards, and specialised cocktails. We had a lovely team where I worked who almost never had anything that interfered with the professional environment. The hardest part of my job was dealing with customer complaints as being the first and last port of the guests contact with our establishment I received most of the feedback, however this was also the most enjoyable part of my job as most guests left smiling and raving about our food. Despite my previous experience working in bars and restaurants until miller and carter I hadn't felt the satisfaction of a truly professional environment so focused on customer satisfaction.

I come into work, sign in and make my way down to the work floor where I say "hello" to my work mates and am greeted back with "how are you doing?" and many other nice questions.  I start off by making sure all tables are cleared, sanitized and ready and presentable for next customers, and then I continue to do this during the night as more tables leave and need making up again.  In between this I keep the restaurant stocked with adequate supplies (plates, glasses, cutlery and napkins.) whilst performing others duties such as help cooks, dishwashers and bartenders as requested.  The hardest part of the job is ensuring all tables are ready for use because the demand for tables is high and people are leaving at different times, so I am constantly moving around for a long period of time and this is very difficult and tiring.  How the most enjoyable part of the job is working with co-workers to ensure customers are very satisfied and that smile on their face is everything I like to work for.  I learn mostly how to communicate with customers, it helps to increase my communication skills and I learn how to deal with different scenario's every day I work which is very interesting.

The people that work there are very nice! management was poor and quite rude, they were not very approachable at all. Pay was minimum, they would make you sign a 30 hour contract but give you 15 hours if you were lucky! they would tend to give the new people the running shifts which are short so you would end up getting even less hours! Tips were also poor, they make you tip out to the kitchen and bar team which is fair and I think this should be done! but it would often end in you tipping out all the tips you have made that night, so you would end up with no tips which isn't fair at all! Also which I really don't think is fair is if you were on any shift at all they would make you pay for your food, if you were on a 10 hour shift they would give you a half hour break and make you pay for the staff food and give no rooms/areas for staff to have their breaks, I really don't think this is fair, most companies supply their staff with free staff food and I think this should always be the case, I was informed in my interview that Mitchells and butlers were a million pound company, and if they have all the money I think they should be able to treat staff better! really do not recommend working here!

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Chef 46 salaries reported	£11.36 per hour
Assistant manager 12 salaries reported	£28,335 per year
Deputy manager 7 salaries reported	£27,000 per year
Line cook 3 salaries reported	£29,833 per year
Apprentice 16 salaries reported	£11.10 per hour

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