cook

assistant restaurant manager

restaurant manager

team member

team leader

Schnitz

It was ok at the start since I had a lovely manager. Everyone was nice, and workers were very helpful. The work was laborious and exhausting, but at the time I got decent hours so I made okay money (not enough for the work I was doing, but when you are a university student, any money is good). I was taught how to cook which gave me more options for shifts since most team members couldn't cook. However, there was a change of managers, and that turned everything terrible. This manager was only focused on the finances, and never considered anyone else. Many team leaders took time out of their days (not on a shift), cleaning the back and doing things for him, not being paid. They shouldn't have to have done this. He made me learn how to be a front-of-house team member, because "a woman shouldn't be back here cooking". One of the team leaders eventually became a monster to work with and made me feel very isolated. The other team members were lovely however. My intellectual disability makes me sometimes forgetful, but I thought I made it up by being extra helpful when I could be, but she yelled at me in front of customers multiple times, making me feel really useless and wrote really nasty things on the computer for the daily report, which everyone could have a look at, such as "she is a useless member, we would be better without her forgetfulness" etc. I tried to get shifts cooking, but because I wasn't doing it consistently, I wasn't as quick as other cooks. I was let go after at least 1 and 1/2 months of not getting shifts, time that I could have used finding another job. But, my manager never told me I wasn't going to get a shift, which is incredibly rude in my opinion. I was also let go because my manager sucked up to the team leader who treated me awfully, even though she was going to leave in a few months. The manager did not deal with the lack of finances well. 
However, my time working at the Broadway store was nice. Difficult work at night, but the people were much nicer, with a nicer manager who seemed to care about me getting shifts.

I worked for the franchise that owns chadstone, Southland, Eastland and South Yarra. At the time of working it was common for people to be sick but be forced to come to work anyway. It’s the kind of culture where you have to bend over backwards for them to keep getting shifts. I watched many managers pass through, some leaving very quickly, perhaps due to not being paid as managers. The pay is terrible, they will lie about their obligations and guilt you into thinking they are treating you better than other franchises and that you should be grateful. Some staff complained about how physical it is, it’s not for everybody you have to be prepared to physically work hard. There can be a toxic culture between the cooks and front of house staff. They rely heavily on overseas students which is great for a multicultural workplace but hard to ignore the students worried they were working more hours then they were supposed to. There were always problems of time off getting rejected for studying or holidays. They also make an effort to make pay a secret so staff don’t find out about differences. 

I've had my ups and downs with this place, and to think i stayed with the company for 3 years is a pretty fair effort. The job itself isn't too bad, but the constant changes in management make for a rocky road ahead! There are definitely power hungry people in this business that don't like confrontation and will put you down in front of others to get their point across (i'm talking management and higher). The team leaders are often fantastic and shifts with them are great, but as soon as pressures from management are back on, the stresses return as well. Hours are a very big rollercoaster. One week you'll be on 38 hours and then over the course of 3 weeks you'll return to 8 or less hours. I've seen many people get treated terribly at this place and forced out of a job including the accusations of stealing with no evidence. I myself have had several terrible experiences, but the general staff you work with make it so worth it. They are also very good at working around commitments such as school and sports.

I worked at Schnitz for almost 9 weeks, and every week I told myself it'll get better, it'll get easier. It never did.

Luckily for me, I got another job soon enough, so I was glad I didn't have to stay around too much longer.

It's work. It's hospitality. What can you expect. Wouldn't be the worst job but there definitely are better jobs out there so never stop looking.

Shoutout to the head managers though, they seemed to really care about their staff and their business, even if the other managers don't seem to be on the same page.

Started off okay. But no one really talked to me. people seemed to have already set friendships and weren't interested in talking to me. I felt very uncomfortable when one of the staff members made it look like he was 'into' me. Made me feel stressed coming to work. Manager was very rude and mean. She was very biased and was always getting mad at me for things i hadn't been tought yet! After working 5 sifts i was expected to know everything that needed to be done so when i went to ask for help with something i got told that i should already know how to do it. The owner was very rude and was always getting mad t me for not knowing how to do tings after working there for 3 weeks! (i only have 2-3 shifts a week) Pay was okay, but i should've been getting payed more for my age. I don't recommend working there unless you want to feel stressed and anxious when going to work!!! There was a lot of drama and seeing as the manager is biased she pick who she does and doesn't like. Heard some stories from another employee about how the manager treated her and it was horrific.

Schnitz has got many branches in melbourne, but the worst management was in chadstone, southland and in south yarra. I still do not know why these people take franchise and cannot even follow australian work culture, minimum values and ethics. All the management are rude, they crave for customer service and will never bother about their own employees. 

These managers do not have enough skills and experience how a fast food restuarant works and how to treat their employees. Some of the basic things like chopping, frying skills are hugely lacking here. 

If it is your first job, then well and good. You can do until you get good experience in australian work place and then find a better job. If you do have good experience in melbourne, take time and see if it is manageble to you or just quit and go to better work place.

Schnitz is a good first job to give you hospitality experience. Teams are generally pretty close so working with them makes the day a tad more bearable. Management can be very rocky. I had a manager that was great and understood that you had commitments outside of work and would constantly try to help every member develop their skills. I had another one that would pick at every move you’d make and would get angered by it. My current manager seems very inexperienced and doesn’t seem like they value productivity so we just stand around most of the time instead of doing small tasks while there aren’t any customers. Generally everyone working there is hired on a casual basis and is payed minimum wage according to how old you are. There’s also very little opportunity to move up in the business, some of the people I work with have worked there for over a year with relevant experience to become a team leader or assistant manager but is still working as a casual team member.

What is the best part of working at the company?
There are very few things good about working at Schnitz as a whole.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Working for bosses who care more about money than keeping their employees happy while also making them do the workload of 2 people due to constantly being understaffed.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Most employees are friends or family of the owner so most of the time they don't care enough to do the job well. Environment is highly stressful as no matter what, management will always be discouraging towards staff and sometimes customers as well.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I arrive to work stressed, I am given many tasks and stations to cover while other staff members stand around not doing much and I am made to leave on time which can force me to work harder to finish my tasks as I know they will not get done otherwise.

After working hard for so long at schnitz, we were given only 3 weeks notice that our store would be closing. Around Christmas time, there were rumours that we would be closing and I asked my manager about it and she assured me that head office had told her they weren’t closing the store and that they had LOTS (laughable) planned. Clearly, either my manager was lying or head office we’re lying to her. Rockingham had been open for a couple of years and we had not received any support, there was no advertising done to draw people in, we had received a visit from head office maybe 3 times in the time I had worked there. Complete lack of professionalism in this company. Clearly don’t know anything about business or how to run one. I’m ashamed to have even been a part of a company who would so easily give up on a store without trying at all. Sad that all our livelihoods were ruined because they wouldn’t put in any effort.

The work environment was ok at best. Team members were mostly friendly, but many of us received only minimal training before being expected to be excellent.

The owners could not care less about the workers, cutting corners wherever possible: not paying entitlements and not giving (paid) breaks. Ignored issues raised by team members.

Management was horrible and two-faced. Had unrealistic expectations with no incentive for employees. Even on understaffed days, you're expected to carry the workload of multiple people without struggling. Equipment was constantly broken and often took weeks to get repaired.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Cook 1 salary reported	$28.54 per hour
Assistant restaurant manager 1 salary reported	$52,500 per year
Restaurant manager 4 salaries reported	$75,000 per year
Team member 3 salaries reported	$29.85 per hour
Team leader 2 salaries reported	$34.45 per hour

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