server

cuisinier à la chaîne

busser

line cook

assistant restaurant manager

Old Spaghetti Factory

I was a dishwasher for downton Edmonton location working alone on busiest shift to closing time.  Well, your typical day would be arrive early enough so you have time to change into working clothes and be at work station by the start of shift. You get an hour of uncrazy work and beyond that it's beyond crazy overload of work for one dishwasher the entire busiest shift. A dishwasher is lowest-paid but the toughest,back-breaking job. You clean everyone's stuff and mess, customer's mess,chef's mess,server's mess (not to mention crazy co-workers who got the habit of throwing knives with other utensils in the sink just so they can get on faster with their job too and therefore put you at risk) You are expected to keep the area cleared and clean all the time no matter how busy so you slack one bit, the manager will go shouting at you while banging the dirty dishes and trays to remind you that you are a slow slave, You end work by washing the entire kitchen area and throwing huge and heavy garbage bags (and no guy at work will offer a hand to help you at the end of the day :p) On this job I learned that it feels great to give a tip especially for a dishwasher everytime you are at a restaurant because they don't get a tip with the hardest job they have. Then i also learned not to eat at the old spaghetti factory and you know why? The bread/buns they serve you on your tables come from a filthy dark spot between the kitchen and laundry/dresser room  which is a filthy floor. Yep. it lays there like garbage bags for mice, cockroach to play with at night. The kitchen set up is NOT my ideal kind of clean for a kitchen,not even close. There are crazy dishwashers too trained me to save time by shocking and disgusting methods 1. wiping down plates and other related stuff with a filthy piece of cloth if they come out still kinda filthy due to overloading the dishwasher on busiest hours. (yuck! which i never practiced and why they wonder it took me longer) 2. pouring the entire fithy mop bucket content right into the dishwashing sink area. (another major YUCK! 3. wash filthy anti-slip mats we use right on the dishwashing machine where your plates and plates and other utensils go. 

The enjoyable part of the job? When you are home just resting after a long hard work , thinking of the free meal they make you take home but of which you were too busy to get a break to eat at work and too tired to swallow them down when at home. :p  

Been through different jobs in Edmonton, and even worked at an industrial place where I was trained for other jobs which require masculine power out of me, learned to be greasy,dirty,extra heavy and splicing jobs but it was worth it! I am not going back to being dishwasher at this place at least.

The Old Spaghetti Factory (specifically the Richmond location) is a terrible work place.

They do not pay overtime, you are not allowed to clock in until you get your first table. Often this means sitting in a freezing break room for an hour, unpaid. The manager would complain when people turned on the heat in there. The restaurant is extremely dirty, dishes are NEVER clean, and kitchen staff have been seen scratching their genitals under the clothing and continue cooking. Most of the time servers have to scrape dried up, nasty food off cups and plates, or choose to hide the crust and grime in a mug by picking the dirtier looking ones to put coffee in because it hides the dried up bits of food.

Servers are frequently asked to work 11-12 hours at times, sometimes refusing to provide you with a break, or even time to scarf down a meal. Again... with no overtime pay. Auto-grat doesn't exist at OSF so if you serve a huge party, you could walk away with pocket change for your efforts. 

The restaurant seems to be run by the very young, VERY immature staff members. I witnessed multiple shouting matches among staff in the break room and nothing was done about it. MGMT just walked in, turned and walked out.

In the short few months I worked there, AT LEAST 12-13 staff members quit due to various reasons... that is JUST from the FOH. They can't keep staff for long once they realize how terrible this location is. 

I truly do not understand how this location has been open for so long with seemingly no repercussions. I believe most staff are too scared to report these things to the labour board / health department / WorkSafeBC, as I have been. 

The General Manager is insane. He yells at staff members and makes them cry. He is manipulative and controlling.

It is surprisingly common knowledge in the service industry that the Richmond Spaghetti Factory is a joke. I wish I knew this before accepting a job there. I suggest you stay as far away from this location as you can.

In my experience the restaurant is inconsiderate of employees time. If you are scheduled to start at a certain time and it is not busy enough for another server to take tables, you sit and wait in the back to start. You do not clock in. This can be 5 minutes, this could be 45 minutes. This happens almost, if not every shift. Many weekday shifts at least one employee is sent home without starting and are not compensated for their time or travel beyond a free meal. Workload is high as their are so many complementary aspects to the meal, so balancing 4 or 5 tables is the maximum per section, which limits tips. Work is generally busy enough to have at least 3 tables during the peak of service.

Beyond this spaghetti is discounted and they tend to hire inexperienced servers and train them for the role, which is a plus for people just starting in service. I think it is an okay place to get experience, but there is a lot of very short shifts and a lot of time at work where you are not on the clock that staying more than 3 or 4 months would not be worth it.

Plus there is a very detailed spaghetti factory sever test, which entails hours of studying and over an hour to fill out, all of which is uncompensated, yet nessecary for the role. In addition, all shifts are permanent, so if you need a day off or are going on vacation, you need to find coverage for every one of your shifts you are missing, which is strange for a job which hires a lot of young people for very part time positions.

Unprofessional management that go out of their way to make staff members feel unwelcome and unappreciated, unless they are friends with a staff member outside of work. Best way I could describe this restaurant environment would be similar to a high school hierarchy. Lots of bullying going on. 

In the 6 months I worked there staff members showed up on time for their shift, only to be forced to sit downstairs unpaid until they decide it’s busy enough to start your shift. Once I waited over an hour and a half only to be sent home because it didn’t get busy enough, completely unpaid. Often they just call you after you’ve gotten ready and are heading out the door to cut your shift. I’ve even been scheduled for an opening shift and waited outside in the middle of winter because they neglected to tell me they weren’t opening that day. They didn’t apologize or offer to pay me for that. 

Because all the extra courses are included in the entree price, servers work fast and hard for no added incentive as most customers tip a percentage of the cheque. It basically makes it so that the server can’t handle the work load on their own so they need a lot of support staff- bussers, bartender, hostesses and kitchen all of which need to be tipped out. In the end, it’s not great money. 


I find the workplace environment like the other employees are usually very friendly and outgoing. The management is usually pretty encouraging and makes sure to tell you when you have done a good job etc.. Although I will say they definitely play favourites and seems if you not on good side it can be more stressful cause stuff is knit picked at a lot. I also found certain people got way more shifts and moved up in ranks more than others just because they’re more liked by main manager. It is  nice though  that you get 40% off on food when you are working and if u have a double shift/split shift u get one free meal (as long as there no meat…). 

Although, the actual work is not the best, I usually get barley any hours during sept-June (some weeks it is as low as two hours a week). I struggled to make ends met at times with bills and living expenses, as this as long with other job was my only income. There is also not much room for moving up ( I had been there for over two years and had talked with other employees as well who been there longer then me and found they don’t move people into higher positions very often ex: busier to server). I would also like to point out some of the managers and supervises are very strict on stuff like uniform, being there 15 mins early, how stuff is laid out etc.

At the Old Spaghetti Factory in New West, or as we like to call it, Spag, a typical day consists of playing some Super Smash Bros in the staff room before heading downstairs to greet my first table. 
 Depending on which section I'm in, I may have 4 to 5 tables, or 1 giant one awaiting a party of 20 kids, you never know.  Out of the 3 restaurants I have had the opportunity to work at, Spag has been by far my most favorable, for a majority of reasons.  Not only are the managers so caring about their staff, I can rely on them for anything and they're always there to help me out.  All the servers, bussers, kitchen guys, hosts, everyone's friends with everyone, on the job and after hours.  I've never worked with a more ambitious and hard working team,  putting in that 100% effort to make the restaurant run as smoothly as possible.  The job can definitely get tough sometimes, with being a server I experience all different types people throughout the shift, but at the end of the day you just gotta "kill them with kindness".  I think The Old Spaghetti Factory is an amazing place for people with or without experience, because everyone is given an equal opportunity to excel and succeed, and you'll be adopted into a second family.

I have worked here for almost two years now and I would say that it is an okay first job. There are a lot more cons but the only reason I say it's a decent first job is because of the people. Only reason why I still work there.

Pros: 
The people you meet are like family and really helps with getting through the shifts. Be careful with some of the kitchen staff though. 
- Decent tips
- cheap staff meals
- flexible shifts -> must get your own shift covered though if needed, managers will absolutely not help.

Cons:
-For servers, you get trained in booth sections and when you finally start working alone, you are given only big tables like parties
- Managers have favourites and some are very immature. 
- You can't clock in until you get your first table, even if it's your start time.
          - if it's slow, you most likely won't get started (especially if you're pretty new) won't be notified that you're cut until about an hour later

My least favourite thing about working at The Old Spaghetti Factory is that hey don't understand that a lot of people live far away and it is expensive/long for us to commute to work. So even if they know it is going to be slow, they won't call to give you the night off or anything until you get to work and are sitting in the staffroom waiting to be started and ending up being cut.




OSF is an awesome place to work... in the beginning. Great co-workers and some of the managers were pretty good as well. Unfortunately the owner, and older guy in his 60s or 70s and one of the managers play favourites to a level that I have never seen before and hope to never see again. It's disgraceful. If you are one of the favourites, you get away with anything (even getting high in the restroom). If you are not, he nitpicks every little thing you do to the point of driving you to tears or making a lot of people quit. 
He treats people like slaves, won't let you eat anything, even if you are working a double shift with no break.
Another thing that drives down the morale is the corporate policy of getting the customer get away with whatever they want. Because of places like OSF we have a screwed up, entitled society.
I saw the owner giving attitude to a busser because he was washing his hands 'too much'. So he doesn't care about cleanliness and safety either.
About the tips. It's very hard to make great tips even when you are crazy busy.

Managers are sly and talk to employees about others behind their back. Frequently complaining about the employee (performance and overall as a person). When performance is an issue, Management will opt to cut the employees hours rather than coach them or let them know something is wrong.

Hours are cut to the bare minimum and management will frequently try to weasel their way out of paying the lawful amounts for shifts (overtime, minimum 3 hours etc...)

Management will frequently wait until you've arrived to tell you they don't need you to work your shift as business is too slow, instead of calling ahead.

Safety is a large concern within the restaurant. Broken equipment is frequently left unfixed for long periods of time, you are expected to work with it anyway. 

BoH is expected to change at work as there are uniforms provided, however no change room, or employee break area was set aside. employees are encouraged not to take breaks and berated if they do.

Pay is decent for the job, however no raises or increases in salary are ever discussed and are frowned upon. absolutely no benefits.

The OSF really messed with my mental health while I was working there. I found there was no support from some managers, I always hesitated to ask questions as I found some of them very patronising. I was told a few times to “look at the manual” when asking how to do something, rather than being shown. If you did anything wrong or not to their standards, you were never spoken to about it individually, you would be named and shamed in front of everyone and sometimes your shifts for the rest of the week would be given away as punishment. You are barely recognised for great customer feedback, however if you have ONE negative feedback your hours are cut and you are pushed to the bottom of the schedule. One good thing is that summer is extremely busy, so you are guaranteed hours and can easily pick up shifts if you want extra money. Tips are never that great though as the price point is so low on each meal. I found the kitchen staff all very friendly. While a lot of staff have been there long term and they enjoy it, it certainly wasn’t for me!

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Server 22 salaries reported	$17.45 per hour
Cuisinier à la chaîne 17 salaries reported	$20.76 per hour
Busser 14 salaries reported	$16.99 per hour
Line cook 8 salaries reported	$18.68 per hour
Assistant restaurant manager 1 salary reported	$55,000 per year

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