Chipotle reviews

3.4

54% would recommend to a friend

(21,630 total reviews)
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Scott Boatwright

53% approve of CEO

42% positive business outlook

Chipotle has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 21,630 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Chipotle employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Restaurants & Food Service industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

22K reviews
4.0
Mar 25, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

First, the food - you can feel great about the product you're selling, you won't have to tell your friends horror stories about how everything's REALLY made, and you'll be eating more free burritos than you can handle. Chipotle's menu is 100% solid. If you appreciate elegance and efficiency, you'll find something new to appreciate every day. Chipotle has considered every detail of their store to maximize efficiency and avoid wasted hours, and it's a pleasure to watch this finely-oiled machine work. Working in a well-designed, attractive store helps maintain a positive attitude on the job, as well.

Cons

It all depends on your manager. There's many things I could mention, but the biggest issue, which ultimately drove me away from Chipotle forever, is the draining futility of trying to move up in your restaurant unless your managers want to help you. They will repeat the mantra that it's all up to you, that you alone choose your path, but that's simply false, and should be obviously false to anyone. That mantra is a way to dodge commitment to less-favored crew members and nothing more. I switched restaurants about halfway through my 20 months with the company, and from then on I was stuck in limbo. My managers seemed content to trust my previously-learned skills absolutely when it would save them effort, but also seemed to lack faith in me when I talked to them about working towards promotion. I received little to no criticism on my work (in fact, only shallow praise) but apparently I still wasn't good enough. Nepotism can take hold very quickly in the high-stress environment of a restaurant, and unfortunately I have to conclude that's what happened to me. I saw less-qualified, less-committed crew members actively chosen (and "chosen" was a word my managers used, not me) for management development, even while I was brushed off with the patronizing idea that it was all up to me. In the end, I kept my mouth shut and just kept working for my $9/hr - an insulting wage for the hard work that crew members do.

3.0
Mar 24, 2014

REVIEW OF CHIPOTLE

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Chipotle professes to do it's best to use only meat and dairy products in their from farms that raise their animals ethically and in their natural environment, without antibiotics, hormones, etc. They also profess to do their best to use all organic, non-GMO grown vegetables in their burritos. This is an excellent reason to check them out as a possible employer, and the reason I give the restaurant 3 stars out of 5 stars, instead of just 2 stars. - Chipotle recruits it's management largely from within.

Cons

- The training is fun, but in the end, there is too much hype and not enough practical training. - Managers need more training in how to run a restaurant and, more specifically, in how to supervise. - Crew members do not receive enough training and the training amongst all employees is not evenly distributed. - While good customer service and friendliness is encouraged extensively during training, it is almost nearly discouraged in favor of speed of the line once training is over and actual work begins - Crew members can not receive a decent number of work hours. They are only allowed a maximum of 25-30 hours/week, though near full-time hours are implied in the training schedule. Work hours decrease rapidly within the first two weeks of employment, getting as low as 15-17 hours/week. - There is a "dog-eat-dog" mentality on the "line" and in general, and not enough attention is paid to who is actually doing what. Since the managers use other crew to assist them in assessing fellow crew members, this leads to evaluations that are far from even-handed and fair. This, in and of itself, is not the problem, except that too many of those crew members helping in this area are afraid of losing their own jobs or losing the already too few hours they have. This makes them less likely to give the best evaluation of their co-worker. - Quality suffers as a result of trying costs to pay employees, because they are encouraged to do too much with too few employees. - There is very little diversity, with a large percentage of employees being Hispanic/Latino. - Chipotle seems to favor younger employees to older employees. Most of the older hires, were practically gone by the time I left. - Far more attention needs to be paid to possible Department of Public Health concerns, i.e., in terms of cleanliness, how/where food is stored, how/where food trays, utensils are stored, trash disposal and, specifically, the habit of reshelving food, napkins, bowls, etc, whether packaged or unpackaged, that have fallen to the ground, back with other items to contaminate them, or storing food, food, containers, utensils, napkins, etc., too close to the ground or too close to unsanitary items, like floor mats, mops, garbage cans, etc.

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