cheap labor of wait staff may be exploited - Server Denny's Employee Review

1.0
Jul 17, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I was hired with no previous experience in this industry. I got to follow around a server during my training. Co-workers were friendly to me.

Cons

I'm reluctant to say that my experience is typical as this was a number of years ago, and things may have changed since I was there. Maybe it varies from location to location, too. However, I was hired to wait tables and ended up spending a lot of time doing things like filling jugs of salad dressing and folding silverware into napkins, all while being paid the tipped minimum wage, which is less than minimum wage. As a server, I'd thought I would make tips to supplement this very low amount, but every hour spent not waiting tables meant that my average earnings were decreased. I ended up making half as much as I would have if I'd been waiting tables during my scheduled hours. My training hadn't informed me as to how much time would be taken up with these activities and it seems that they were exploiting the fact that servers are paid at less than minimum wage. Again, with no experience in the industry, I don't know if this type of scheduling is to be expected, but it really turned me off to this job.

Explore other reviews about Denny's

5.0
Jun 29, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Fun place to work and learn

Cons

Very long hours no breaks

2.0
May 18, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great Managers, Excellent coworkers, Hybrid, The best office manager ever, Tuition reimbursement

Cons

Sold to private equity in Jan 2026, 3 layoffs in 2 years, 3 CMOs in 3 years, Jan 2025, after a massive layoff, the Dallas employees were told the office was closing and we would be going remote to save money. April 2025 leadership decided we would no longer be going remote and would be moving the office to Grapevine. New office was 4,000 sqft. with approximately 20+ people in office. Dennys spent a lot of money on the office even though the original reason we closed the old office was to "SAVE" money. The Grapevine office was a walk in closet compared to our previous office and most of leadership either never came to said office or visited once for about 15 minutes max. CPO, who championed the Grapevine office and lived in Dallas, was never seen in the office ever Zero money invested in culture, Franchisees run absolutely everything, HR would stop by the Grapevine office randomly for about 5 minutes to do a head count on who was there and then leave, I heard they're moving to 4 days in office rather than 3, Merit increases were a joke, Got rid of the gym membership benefits without communication At the end of the day, Denny's sells extremely overpriced breakfast food and is operating in an oversaturated, declining market. Leadership is under the illusion that Denny's is on the same level as First Watch when in reality, Denny's is comparable to Waffle House/IHOP Quote from current ceo: "First Watch only exists because we let them."

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