assistant restaurant manager

shift manager

assistant manager

customer service representative

general manager

I started working mid-through year 12 (which by the way was the worst decision clashing with my HSC, but I never really liked the schooling system anyway) and this was the only time my dad actually encouraged me to finally have a job. We were dealing with heavy financial issues and I wanted help increase the family income. I applied for the position of Customer Service Team Member and to describe the position, at first it was very overwhelming, like to an extent that I cried after my first real shift at my store. A customer didn’t realise that a trainee was in the area and she decided to blame the inconsistency of the staff’s speed on me. Before this happened, I was put to training at a different store in the CBD area and my store within the Eastern Suburbs area. Not too sure why, as I was told by my friend who was a former employee that I could have trained at my store. Turns out my general manager was just too lazy to train me let alone have the assistant managers training me. But working in the city was way worse compared to working at my store. And by worse I mean you can barely take a minute to breathe and rest. You are constantly needed to do this, do that, and stay with the customer.
But back to my store, the longer I work here, the more I get annoyed with my RGM. He clearly is a greedy, lazy snob. When the other managers open store, they have everything already set up (potato stock, correct drinks, chips and chicken ordered, salad bar and sauces done, preheating warmers, registers, telling cooks to cook enough chicken etc.) but no this guy won’t complete any of that. He does half of everything, gets one of us who’s rostered early (normally just one person is there with him) and do the rest as we also have to deal with up and coming customers. He thinks we can multitask 10 jobs in 10mins. This guy is sick. Worst of all I went from being rostered to a minimum of 15 hrs/week to having 5hrs/week. I’m 19 now, and his logic of saving money to make up for the losses trainees make by rostering those exact trainees on is just stupid. Not all trainees are the worst but I’m not sure how some of them still have a job here. I applied to earn money so I do my job, but it’s these kids who chit chat too much in front of customers that get under my skin.
I used to like my job, but many of the staff I actually liked and have become friends with are slowing quitting. I am considering it, which is why I am writing this to teach future employees that having a job is no joke. Just do your job correctly so the older kids don’t lose theirs. I wasn’t planning to stay long but I want to give this place another try, until I find a better job that is. I like the practical work because I get bored easily so this job really gave me enough experience about food safety, personal hygiene, customer care and satisfaction. I come to every shift with great attitude. I try to lighten up the rest of my crew when it’s quiet. And I genuinely treated every customer with equal respect. I have been verbally abused a few times but I always saw it as regular people having a bad day and just wanted to eat the pain away by having fried chicken. I’ve made acquaintances with a few locals that I love to serve as I like to feel appreciated, since I obviously don’t receive it much by my RGM. The other managers though I am very fond with. I had dinner once with them and of course we talked trash about our RGM. It was great haha. All in all, it really depends who you work for and who you work with to understand the pressures of working as a CSTM at KFC. 
Cause it’s not just the customers I’ll tell you that.

Typical day: I worked in a mall, so the hours were often short and easy. Customers come in slowly but they can easily build up because there are usually only two people in the front to serve, pack and make burgers. 

What I learned: Customer service, communicating with customers (elderly who cannot hear or people who use sign language/speak another language), dealing with unhappy customers (freebees are pretty much the only thing that will make them happy).

Management: Not the best, although this may only apply to my store. Some people are getting >12 hours a week whereas others are only getting the minimum 2.5 hours a week and only one shift. I had communicated with the head manager several times that I am not getting enough shifts to work (not given any shifts for two weeks) but the issue has not been resolved and I have reason to believe there might be some favouritism involved. Luckily I get called in sometimes but that isn't viable for someone who needs more than $95 a fortnight. 

Workplace culture: Many KFC stores are easygoing. Inside shopping malls, there are a smaller number of employees so everyone knows each other. My manager is great and plays classical music while we're cleaning up after close because we both have superior taste in music. Lots of fun conversations and I always look forward to coming to work because of this.
At outside stores, it can sometimes get boring, especially when you're serving at drive through and there are no customers. It's tempting to go on your phone to pass the time but that isn't good for the brand image.

Hardest parts: Sometimes we are understaffed. I was once given an early morning shift (starting at 10am) and I was the only person in the front serving and packing at the same time. Many customers were waiting for up to half an hour and they were complaining even though they knew I was the only one there to make their food... and I was still barely a trainee!!! It still gets quite stressful when customers start building up (I feel my adrenaline pumping), but it becomes manageable if you don't panic and keep a smile to your face. 
Also if you work at an outside store, delivery orders are the most stressful thing ever. You have to constantly check when they are going to be arriving to pick up and the entire time their order will be up on the screen just... staring at you. 

Most enjoyable parts: Making customers happy makes me happy. If they are nice, I like to give them extra... or if we are just about to close I just give them freebees. It always makes my heart warm to make a customer happy, and especially when those customers are nice to me.

I worked at KFC back in High School and it was a horrible experience. At first it started out alright but after a while it became horrible. 

While working there it felt like the business was on the brink of collapsing, with how poor the management was. There was heavy understaffing and terrible rostering, outdated equipment, as well as no proper training given to new workers. Rostering was so bad that some workers would only get one shift a month if they were lucky. In some of my shifts I only worked with 2 or 3 other people, in the whole store.

This poor rostering system and lack of training caused workers to be inefficient with tasks such as cashier and packing orders, which is probably why orders get messed up a lot at KFC.

With the workplace environment people didn't treat others with respect. It was a biased environment. Some people only worked at KFC for a few months due to the biased environment. However others had it easier and found it comfortable to work there for 3 years. This bias also resulted in inconsistent rostering within the store.

People were inconsiderate if you messed up with something or didn't know what to do even if you were a new worker. Yes fast food can be stressful at times but the environment I was in did not know how to manage the existing pressure of fast food environments and made it much worse.

Being a fast food joint the pay was terrible as well. If you're 14 you'd only be getting $10/hr, while at other places at the age of 14 you can get paid $12 or $13 an hour. 

I only got a few good things out of working at KFC. For one it helped me deal with internal stress from other causes in order to keep me sane. It also helped me with learning the ropes of future hospitality jobs quicker, as in those jobs I had to perform similar tasks to that of KFC.

When applying to jobs consider KFC as your dead last option. If you do get the job here treat it as a temporary first job for experience and low pay at the very most.

Compared to KFC Maccas and HJ would be better options as they have better discount rates to be honest. It might've just been my store that was problematic, but I can assure you that other KFCs would have poor management systems too.

A typical day at work would be very productive, as there is always something to do. The customers that come through are usually always friendly and there are never any dull moments. Working with the very friendly staff is a massive bonus in making the job more fun. 

What I learned at KFC and still am learning throughout my job experience is customer service, working efficiently on very busy days, working with the cash registers, preparing the salads, burger making, dealing with hot fryers, high experience in the drive through system, working with very hot oil and products and especially safety procedures. 

The management at KFC are very high quality workers. They are highly motivated and makes all the team members the same too. They are all about customer satisfaction and wanting every customer to have an amazing experience which is the case every time. The general manager is very easy to get a long with, they are very flexible and are reasonable with every staff that come a long and working with them is always memorable. 

The hardest part of the job would be closing at the end of the night, as I would clean all the trays, benches, hot warmers and the floors etc. Time management was not the problem in this, it was attempting to make everything in the kitchen spectacular which happened every night I would close the kitchen area especially drive through. Overall, it is all worth it as the manager that works the next morning would come in to a nice sparkly kitchen area.

The most enjoyable part of the job would be coming into work to start your shift and seeing all the smiling faces of the team members, and witnessing how welcoming they are and that really makes the environment very production as everyone is getting a long. A further enjoyable part of work is seeing certain customers coming in to order, witnessing their smiling faces really brightens up your days and when they are very understanding of your job and how hard it can be at times, is very comforting.

I *personally* didn't have the best experience here, not naming names, but my boss was quite verbally abusive to her employee's, including myself. Aside from that, during my time here I have gained some knowledge and experience. 

A typical day at work for me was pretty non-stressful. I worked weekdays mostly. A normal day was a 5 hour day. I served customers, packed food, replenished stock, made burgers, cleaned up frequently and gave it my all. I found the task of the job pretty relaxed. When we weren't busy with people, I cleaned. When I had nothing to do, I cleaned. I loved to be tidy!

Skills gained:
.able to handle money precisely and accurately
.serve customers with confidence
.make food with care
.stock fridges in an orderly fashion, 
.work autonomously and/or with a team
.organising shelves/paper goods/stocking 

As for my co-workers, they weren't encouraging either which made it hard for me. I am the type of person who gets shot down easily. This is one reason I always felt inferior in this role. I don't want to feel like this at my next job. It isn't right or okay. That was honestly the hardest part of my job. Learning to deal with constant criticism or useless abusive comments/name-calling. 
 But fortunately, working here, I have grown a thicker skin and am a lot tougher now and can take a lot, so that's definitely a benefit. I feel stronger as a person after my experience there.

The most enjoyable part was absolutely interacting with customers. Especially regular customers. I also enjoyed the competitive side of it also. Timing yourself, testing yourself. It was all a time-limit to me. I loved the challenges it came along with.

All in all, it was a decent experience. I became a stronger person from it. I don't regret working for this company at all. I enjoyed being there, but unfortunately I just didn't have a very respectful employer. That was the only issue. Also why I resigned.

Looking to move forward again! Very positive can-do attitude here!

The work day always seemed long and was typically a high stress environment due to customer demands and overcrowding behind the counter. All other responsibilities apart from costumer service was fine, enjoyable even akin to at home chores.

I learned the importance of Presentation in retail and food services. And to maintain personal presentation of a certain standard to ensure  a healthy workplace relationship with my colleagues.

Management was hectic as they had multiple managers at a time overseeing over 100 employees whilst competing with other stores in town. I maintained a friendly relationship with my seniors so they would have 1 less employee to worry/stress about.

Most shifts I attended were during peak hours and late nights so much of the time spent was a rat race to satisfy customers and complete all the duties required. There were 3 types of workplace attitudes of significance for me, the seniors were all chill, the juniors all needed constant instruction of how to do all the jobs in store and the outliers, far and few of the, who had caused constant drama for dramas sake.

The hardest part of working at KFC for me as a high school student who lived independently from family was finding a balance that ensured housing stability, healthy working hours and maintaining educational standards

Working with my best friend and my cousin was the most rewarding part of working at KFC. I can confidently and collaboratively work with people close to me, as it had previously been made aware to me that many workers have a problem with this,  we used our close relationships to work efficiently and truly enjoyed it because we were lovingly working with each other rather than just working for work.

This was my first job, the interview process was really simple and I got the job 20 minutes after the interview. However, that's when everything went downhill. The training was really underwhelming; I had one 3 hour shift where I did some modules (that didn't even end up helping me in my job), and then someone showed me around briefly my next shift, and they put me straight onto serving. I didn't even get to play around with the cashier to try and understand where everything was, and they got mad at me when I kept getting orders wrong (because I had never eaten KFC and didn't know what anything was). I got used to it and it was alright after a while though.
For the first 7 months or so, I got around 9-10 hours a week, which was fine. However, after another manager (who I assume does not like me) took over rosters, she firstly cut out 10 hours from my shift one week (just updated the roster and took them away) so I was barely working, and then proceeded to give me maximum of 4 hours a week after that. 
There were even 3 months where I was not paid the right amount of money (Part time instead of casual pay), and if I hadn't checked then it would definitely have kept happening. 
The management was not great, and most of the good people leave. I noticed them often being on their phones instead of looking over the store. 
The people were mostly friendly, except a few who just ignored you, which was fine. 
The best thing about the job was the flexibility of work times, so you could put that you couldn't work whenever you wanted, so good for students. 
My experience was bad, but yours might not be if you have a good manager. Avoiding bad managers is an impossible task, but I can guarantee you will find most of them in fast food places.

The day starts off quite early for us as we need to do several checks in and out the store and simultaneously deal with cash issues. The best thing about my  work is as that one can never expect a 'perfect shift or a perfect day'. Even though there are times when everything goes according to the plan set up by the management, but sometimes team members call in sick or the delivery gets delayed or the unsolved customer issues. But this does not mean that we never have perfect days; the training and the leadership sessions provided at work are immaculate and up to mark. I was a shy and reserved sort of a person but now i can confidently carry myself and my team.

The most interesting part of the day is when we meet our colleges. There are some who have been working for a long time whilst some are trainees. Its good to work with a experienced and a trainee team member as their views and suggestions are different and intellect and helps us in making the decisions.

The hardest part of the job is to see a customer disappointed as at the end of the day, "I-am a customer myself". I do go out and eat or buy things and if i don't get value for my money. Then even i tend to get angry and disappointed. Its the same in this role, it is not hard but quite annoying to see a customer walking out angry and not wearing a smile. Thanks to the training modules, we never let this happen.

Every second, minute at KFC is enjoyable. I have learned a lot of things like how just by smiling can make the environment so conducive and healthy to work in. Not only this, i value and respect each and every individual and learned some basic ethics from my workplace

Positive values
A positive mission statement outlines the goals and demonstrative behaviour that exemplify the highest commitment to quality and service to each other, the company, customers and shareholders. The company sets out to achieve its goals in ethical, honest ways with an elevated sense of purpose in improving the planet and humanity.

2. Relaxed and productive atmosphere
People enjoy coming to work and feel appreciated, acknowledged and rewarded. Signs of fear, domination, bullying, sexual harassment, and intimidation are absent. Creativity, productivity, and thinking outside the box flourish.

3. Commitment to excellence
Employees give 200%. They strive to be the best and to deliver top-quality products and services. They take responsibility for their actions and decisions.

4. Open and honest communication
Everyone communicates in a cards-on-the-table manner, solving difficulties in a positive way. They don’t play nasty revenge games when given difficult feedback. Instead, they view feedback as an opportunity for growth.

5. Cooperation, support, and empowerment
Can-do, go-the-extra-mile and win-win attitudes are evident. Employees have a sense of camaraderie, cooperation, and empowerment. Healthy competition exists without vengeful, spiteful backstabbing.

6. Sense of humour
Employees keep things in perspective, have fun, and laugh. Laughter generates endorphins, our natural antidepressants.

The most enjoyable part of my job at KFC is having a great enthusiasm towards my team members whilst shift supervising. I give them huge encouragement and support in order to satisfy customers and being pleased with their efforts at the end of their shifts. 

Obviously, recognition is the most important part of the job and in order for team members to do their jobs well, as a team we need to encourage one another in such a fast-paced environment like KFC. 

I learn different things each time i work and so do my team members. Everyday you learn different things and you teach yourself what things you need to work on. One of our major key concept is CUSTOMERS and how we satisfy them? We also focus on Targets and Goals. This is the most important part of working at KFC and the way to make sure we reach certain targets comes from the manager's instructions and negotiations. With heaps on supports and encouragements, it thrives the team to reach their targets well and getting recognition is the best part. 

The hardest part of the job is how you maintain and adjust everything whenever you work? This is the part where managers themselves have to think and focus about. How we need to understand our peers and work colleagues? What if something goes wrong? What if someone is injured? Or having a bad day at work?  It is hard to accomplish targets everytime but you have to keep on trying. 

Management is overall a great learning bound for my life and I love to learn different things everyday. I do know that with efficient timing and effort you can always achieve almost everything.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Assistant restaurant manager 6 salaries reported	$68,437 per year
Shift manager 4 salaries reported	$30.63 per hour
Assistant manager 1 salary reported	$70,000 per year
Customer service representative 3 salaries reported	$29.00 per hour
General manager 5 salaries reported	$75,000 per year

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