-Low rate of pay
-Scheduled shifts are not honored. This isn't a job you can rely on to pay bills.
Employees are cut or sent to extended breaks (or sent to extended breaks then cut) sometimes just minutes after they arrived for work, due to slow business. Management is constantly harangued by the owners to keep the labor below 26% (they shoot for 23%) which is far below Culver's corporate guidelines of over 30%. This results in there either being "too many" staff with the owner's pressing management to cut labor or not enough staff to make it through meal rushes smoothly. Usually, this is because the reasonable number of staff needed, which were scheduled initially, have already been cut or were called and informed not to come in. This results in long wait times and mistakes, which creates dissatisfied, sometimes angry, customers.
-Stressed out management
The labor percentage in the paragraph above is one one of the plethora of examples of what the owners do and say to create toxicity and tension in the workplace. As much as the everyday staff suffers, management is exposed to this even more and they get treated with an even lower degree of respect. As an employee you might be yelled at by an owner but as a manager you will be yelled with the addition of foul language and threats to your job. Due to the limited staff, management is often forced to take these demeaning calls while working on the line for everyone to hear. I've personally witnessed several employees and one mid level member of management reduced to tears by this type of treatment.
Summary:
Overall toxic work environment. If the owners were employees they would be fired or reprimanded. Because they are the owners and even the upper management is the victim of their tirades and tantrums, as an employee you have no recourse when you are the victim of their inappropriate behavior. You either take it or fire back and put your job at risk.
Note:
This location doesn't seem to embody Culver's corporate values. Unfortunately, Culver's corporate seems to be either blissfully unaware or the terms of the franchise leave them no recourse. I've talked to other Culver's employees from around the country and every single one is appalled. The situation at this franchise does NOT seem to be typical. One thing that I don't understand and I absolutely DO blame corporate for is that Culver's offers franchises without having a clause requiring the franchisees to keep labor within certain corporate guided boundaries. Having a reasonable target labor percentage at this location would offer significant relief. Dealing with the unusual characters who own the location would be much more tolerable if this one point of stress and resulting problems that occur were negated.
