Zingerman's Reviews

Catty culture. Worse than high school (people are older so you'd expect better). Management constantly talks about staff behind their backs. If you're saying XXX about my co-worker, I wonder what you say about me?! Really unprofessional. Terrible work life balance. They will work you to the bone here. And show no respect or gratitude if you work hard work. They harass you & guilt you, if you have other commitments like work or school. Thinking for yourself or having ideas is strongly discouraged. They pretend to want ideas and feedback but they dismiss original thoughts and ideas. If you're hard working, you need not apply. Only bros and hoes. If you're a bubbly airhead, you will do awesome here. They only need people to smile and do what they're told. I agree with other reviewers, management have their "favorites" so if you're ON the list.. these people are allowed to make mistakes and do whatever they want. If you're a long time favorite, partners and senior management will put blinders on when they do your performance reviews. If you're NOT a favorite, god help you.. they will try to pin and blame all mistakes on you. Very dysfunctional, hypocritical and hostile work environment. Bad temper everywhere, a lot of cursing, yelling and screaming. They expect you to take abuse. If you don't take the abuse, they'll say you're insubordinate. What's worse is that San Street acts like it's above it's competitors. "we're Zingermans, so we're better than any other restaurant". Lies! The kitchen culture is just like any other restaurant in town. Don't let them guilt you or fool you. They spout corporate values of respect and positivity--- literally right after tearing you a new one. I've worked at several retail establishments for a long time now (some local, some national) waitressing bussing and hosting and Zingermans has been the worst. All retail jobs have the same issues but I have never experienced the arrogance of the Zingermans culture. The biggest offense is that supervisors ask you to do things that they do NOT do themselves. Hypocrites!! Supervisors show up late all the time and then yell at you if you are even a minute late. Managers are exhausted and irritable all the time but they'll yell at you if you don't smile even for a second.

Poor management, contempt for temp employees, self-congratulatory, smug culture. They treat temps as though they're of subnormal intelligence and semi-criminal. The management's like that at Target, only more pretentious. I don't care if Mario Batali loves your bacon--there's no prestige attached to be working for a buck or so above minimum wage for a bunch of hipsters, and no one's particularly lucky to be working there for a few weeks. Warehouse supervisors and management screw up minor things constantly, which results in not getting paid for inefficiencies in punch-in, last-minute shift cancellations due to poor planning. Not surprising for s a crappy, poorly paid temp job, but they're so proud of themselves and continue to reinforce how lucky you are to be working there. If you need the hours, don't volunteer for the night crew--that's where they cut back on hours or cancel shifts at the last minute if they've overestimated need for workers.