The Truth About Five Guys

So I've been working at Five Guys for about two years now...Actually a little over two years, if I'm being precise. And in those two years, I've been treated pretty badly. I was okay with that for awhile because it's just a fast food job and it's not exactly expected going into that kind of job that you'll be treated great.

But I've never experienced a work environment as horrible as this.

In the two years that I've worked at Five Guys, I've never once gotten a raise. I'm still at the same, measly $8.00 I was when I first started, even though it was put in writing that I - along with every other employee - would be getting a fifty cent raise within the first year of working if we didn't receive any kind of write up or disciplinary action.

Further more, they've fallen through on a lot of promises that I've been made. Some of the smaller than others. For example, I've been trying to get direct deposit to my bank account for a year. Twelve months, that should be more than enough time. I've given them two voided out checks and I've even filled out all the paperwork for them so they didn't have to take the time to do it.

A year later, I'm still not getting direct deposit and all I get when I ask is "oh, it's gonna happen." Bull. It should have happened a year ago, the least they can do is stop lying.

I've also been lied to about promotions. I've been being promised that I'd get a shift lead promotion since March. I was actually given the manual that they're supposed to read, and they told me to read through it twice. I did. I took the time out of my week to read that manual and when I went back to them, all they said was "keep reading it, we'll let you know when we're ready."

That's been months ago. At one point, they kept me for a 12 hour day because I was the only one willing to do it...but they wouldn't let me stay on clock the whole time and they wouldn't give me breaks. Speaking of breaks, no one gets ten minute breaks at all. They say we're supposed to get one ten minute break per shift, and if we work over six hours, we're supposed to get a thirty minute break, too.

That almost never happens. In the two years that I've been working there, I rarely get a ten minute break. They either interrupt it and make me come back to work early, or they don't give it to me at all. And the thirty? It's a joke. They'll wait until last minute or they'll use it to cut labor. No employee is supposed to get a thirty minute break unless they're staying six hours because then it's taking money out of our paycheck that the state doesn't think is fair...A lot of times, five guys will make us take a break after two hours and we leave after four hours. Which means we're only being paid for three and a half hours of work.

How is that fair?

I'm also fed up with the lack of communication and willingness to work with each other in that place. A couple of months ago, I moved thirty miles away from my store and I asked for a transfer to a closer store. A couple of other people had gotten some transfers out, so I figured it shouldn't be a problem for me since I had been there two years, I'd never had a problem, and the store I wanted to transfer to needed employees.

Instead of letting me transfer, I was told to "suck it up" and drive the thirty miles to and from - which makes a combined total of sixty miles a day. That's two gallons of gas in my car, which is $8.00 roughly. An hour's worth of pay and when I'm only staying for about five or six hours on any given shift, it's really not paying off at all. Especially when a lot of it is spent in traffic because they schedule me at peak traffic times even though they know where I live and how hard it is to get to and from.

I'm also scheduled for a lot of close-open shifts, where I get out of work at midnight, get home by one in the morning, and then have to wake up at six in the morning so I can be back to work by eight. If the manager is a few minutes late, oh well. I'ts not a big deal, right?

If I'm even three minutes late, I get yelled at and told that I'm putting people behind and wasting time. That's what really makes me mad. What about all my time that they're wasting by making me drive such an insane amount each day?

So today, I've finally had it. I was supposed to work at eight in the morning after closing last night, and I didn't do it. I called in and told them I was having car trouble. I wasn't, but that's irrelevant. I was told that it's "not an acceptable excuse in an area where we have so much transportation available to us."

She wanted me to take the city bus. I'm all for the city bus. As in, staying in the city that bus is in. But I live in a completely separate county from where I work, and the transfer system would have taken three or four hours. Given the fact that I've never ridden a bus before in my life, it would probably have taken closer to five hours just to get there. By then, I'd have worked one hour and that would have been the end of my shift.

So I told her no. Then she told me to take a cab. That would have been $140 each way. I don't even make close to that in a day, why would I spend that much when I wouldn't even get half of it back? And I sure as heck wouldn't theoretically expect friends or family to drive to where I live, pick me up, and take me to work only to take me home again had this car trouble been a real scenario. It's not logical or feasible for most people and I'm just fed up.

I'm writing up my two week's notice tonight and I'm handing it in tomorrow. I can't handle this anymore. I always hear people say how much they love Five Guys Burgers and Fries, and so many people smile when they see the name. It's all a lie. They treat their employees so badly and the food is a lie too. I didn't even cover that.

The labels are all fake. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a manager scrub off an expired label, make a new one, and then act like it's fresh product just to cut corners and save a little bit of money. It happens on a daily basis. A lot of times, I wouldn't serve the meat we have to use to my own dog, let alone a human being.

I'm just over it. I'm so glad I'm getting out. I feel bad for anyone who gets stuck working there like I did. It's a trap and it's horrible and just...ugh.