Awful Experience - Concessionist Cinemark Employee Review

1.0
Sep 1, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Nice Coworkers You get free movie tickets on your off days.

Cons

I applied to be an usher, hired to be an usher, and at orientation was instead, without warning or my consent and much to my dismay, was placed into the position of concessionist. I was not informed of this until I had already been hired and I was to start work the following day (I find this all to be both incredibly interesting and confusing because a girl that I attended orientation with applied for the concessionist role and was assigned as an usher instead). That same day, while filling out the availability sheet I explicitly wrote down that I was not available on Tuesdays, this was completely ignored and I was handed a schedule with a Tuesday shift on it a few minutes later. Cinemark does not give their employees training days. You don’t get time to learn the ropes. You show up for your first day and are immediately “thrown into the ring” and expected to know how to do everything and operate every machine in the concession stand within a 6 hour shift. As someone who deals with anxiety this was a complete and utter nightmare, as I was simultaneously forced to attempt to navigate the ordering system, figure out how to make and serve literally almost every food item available, and deal with hordes of impatient customers during the opening weekend of an insanely popular Marvel film. All of this for a job that I was not even hired to do. By the end of the night I felt completely frazzled, defeated and dejected. To make matters worse, when I returned home that night I noticed that $10 was missing from my wallet, but I guess that’s beside the point. Needless to say, I informed a very dismissive and unbothered manager the next day that I would not be returning (I didn’t bother mentioning that I had been stolen from) and I have not one single ounce of regret in that decision. To make matters worse, I was not given login info to clock in for the day that I worked and was not payed for my time on the day I was supposed to. This prompted in multiple phone calls to management and ultimately being forced to message corporate which finally prompted a proper response and payment. Maybe my experience with this company is few and far between and possibly only unique to my specific location or even just to me. It is quite possible that many have had relatively positive experiences that are quite the opposite of mine but I feel that my experience is worth sharing in the hopes that this company can improve how it treats its employees and the methods in which they hire and train them.

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5.0
Mar 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Super chill job to work at

Cons

The hours can fluctuate heavily

1.0
Jun 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Most of my coworkers and assistant managers were great. I connected with a lot of them and some of my shifts were more pleasant because I got to talk with them.

Cons

Higher management and other assistant managers will punish you for the smallest or no reason at all. You can be a hard worker, greet everyone with a smile, have other assistant managers who actually work with you try to vouch for you, and they will still give you a written warning for something silly. I also got to my shifts on time in the morning, and I would clock in late because management would keep all points of entry locked with very little barrier to communicate to them the doors need to be unlocked. The one time I asked them to alter my timecard I was told it is timecard fraud for them to manipulate it on their end, which is ridiculous. They will give you a PCR if you are standing around on a quiet day for 2 minutes while your station is clean but not fix the fact they are committing wage theft, which is illegal. I recently filled out the Voice of Cinemark survey which is filled out on company time and is supposed to be anonymous, but an assistant manager was in the room the whole time I was filling it out. There are a lot of issues with the Cinemark in Walnut Creek. There are plenty of great, hard-working people I had with me on my shifts. However, I quit because the issues I stated have been longstanding ever since I started working there and have never been resolved, even though I offered solutions for certain problems. Other people, including assistant managers, told me they are sick of this treatment as well and are leaving. Practically everyone I knew at this job had issues that frustrated them constantly, so please do not work here.

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