4 Rivers Smokehouse Reviews

It took two years to get a raise; ended up only getting 75¢ raise, even when promoted to Shift Lead, which was not a previous position they had. Was taken advantage of; assumed to stay late when people called out. My depression and anxiety quickly became the worst I've ever dealt with, but they treated me like a joke. Told them I went on medication, and need a few days for my body and mind to settle with it, and they only worried about who would work the breakfast shift. Eventually walked out because my depression was spiraling out of control, BECAUSE OF THE JOB, and only John Hufferd seemed to care. Food quality went downhill, fast. Started serving frozen biscuits instead of making them fresh. Wait, they were fresh, but let's freeze them and then bake them, that makes sense. It's a money hungry company. They never seemed to care about their employees, only cared about people giving them money.

Upper-Management doesn't have a clue. When they see numbers they don't like the only thing they usually do is move people around. YOU WILL be moved constantly. The Winter Garden location has had 6 GM's in a little over 2 years and that should tell you something. Your contract says 44-hours but be prepared for 60 a week . If you have a good work ethic they will exploit you. They give raises and promotions based strictly on favoritism instead of actual merit. They hire hourly employees at minimum wage and hope that people will leave tips in a jar for everyone to split. It's fast food wages and for managers it is way below industry standard. Training (if any) is a joke. More like a "4 Rivers-Figure-it-out" training program where you will have to figure it out for yourself. It is basically Fast-Food BBQ. Meats are held at incorrect temps for FAR too long. There is a standard but if it impacts your budget the standards go out the window. They have transitioned and are further transitioning to more pre-made items from some factory that stamps things "for institutional use only".