store manager

multi-unit manager

fast food manager

human resources assistant

gérant

Real Fruit Bubble Tea

Summary: Due to limited vertical growth, high turnover, and challenging leadership dynamics it's strongly suggested to continue your job search while employed. This workplace places a strong emphasis on following orders without question, often involving uncomfortable tasks. Communication skills in Mandarin and Cantonese are advantageous, but English is acceptable. Despite a hierarchical structure, colleagues are generally supportive. However, leadership's authoritarian style and a culture of bending rules make for a demanding work environment. Consider this role as a stepping stone for gaining a year or so of experience before moving on. 

Leadership and Culture:
    • Hierarchy is prominent, and orders from head leadership are expected to be followed without question.
    • Leadership is known for a direct communication style, occasionally involving very raised voices.
    • A prevailing "bend the rules" and "do it until caught" culture exists, leading to instances of non-compliance with permits and certifications. (i.e working in the US without proper work permits, fire hazard installations etc.)
    • Leadership tends to limit the potential of good ideas, and change is typically only initiated by leadership or external consultants.

Training:
    • Training primarily involves reading manuals, watching videos, online learning systems, and in-store learning.
    • Storefront operations vary by location, requiring adaptation to different work environments.

Scheduling and compensation
    • Weekly schedules are subject to changes day of, with flexibility expected.
    • Working one day of the weekend is expected.
    • Tips are distributed quarterly by corporate with the current cycle being heavily delayed. Tips are low and inconsistent and should not be considered as part of reliable compensation.
    • Hours and tips should be self-tracked due to previous issues with the system.

Travel and Accommodations:
    • Long-distance trips  (US or Quebec) may be required. Workers are expected to drive themselves. Mileage is provided at 25%-50% of the standard rate.
    • Corporate housing with varying space is provided. From shared bedrooms to a crammed shared basement with divisors. Usually a mattress on the floor. House is shared from 5-20+ people dependent on season. 

Colleague Dynamics:
    • Colleagues are generally friendly and helpful.
    • Mandarin or Cantonese language skills are an asset, but English is acceptable for communication.
    • Many are aware of poor leadership conditions but comply with orders to avoid conflict.

Career advancement
    • Climbing the corporate ladder is challenging, with promotions being rare and performance assessments being nonexistent.
    • Churn is high, with workers occasionally terminated before completing their probation period.
    • Raise eligibility happens after probation period . Try to negotiate for a shorter probation term.
    • More of a transitional job due to limited vertical growth, high turnover and poor management.


An incredibly lonely, stressful, depressing experience. Unwelcoming environment, awful customers, horrible management. If you have a history of mental illness of some sort, apply with extreme caution, as it can tend to flare up.

The wages you are given are way too low for the amount of work you're expected to do: scrub the washroom clean. Clean, peel, cut 4 different fruits, spend all day peeling, cutting, chopping mangoes non-stop. Tie 15 boxes, flatten them down, take the garbage, compost, recycling out. Make 7 different drinks, all varying sugar levels, in less than 5 minutes, while a customer who has never done a day of retail in their life believes that a day or two ordering at a bubble tea store is somehow equal to the amount of drilling that you've gone through for the recipe to get into your head. Watch as someone breaks the lid on their drink for the umpeenth time, spilling it everywhere on the floor and countertop from the flimsy paper straws, and smile as you insist that it's okay. You take out the mop for the second time that week. Smile all day, no breaks, your back hurts, but you have to learn to deal with it. Deal with angry customers, angry coworkers looking for an outlet, and an angry manager who's annoyed at something that one of your coworkers did, but sees you as an easy target. Don't try to explain. It's your fault now, and you take it as it is.

The hours are incredibly long, it's constantly understaffed, and the manager doesn't even bother to hire any new people, leading to back-to-back shifts that leave you completely exhausted. You can only pray on the weekends as hoards of customers roll in, complaining about the 20 minute waiting period despite the two people on shift, and the 30 previous customers crowding around the hot, sweaty store. And you can only take this with a smile on your face.

In the beginning, it's good. You're assigned to cashier duty, and your fellow coworkers tend to be kind in nature. But then you begin your duty as a barista- you're always doing it wrong. You put one too many ice cubes. You overestimated how much liquid you need to pour. You haven't scrutinized the exact nanometer where your drink should be. 500 mL, down three. 700 mL, up one. 1000 mL, down two. You're directly in the manager's line of fire, and God forbid you mess up in front of them, you get chewed out in front of both customers and coworkers alike. You begin to stress out about work. You can't stand to come in. Your anxiety spikes as you think about whether or not you'll be yelled at again that day. And it continues, on and on until your time is up or you quit.

All this. For $14 per hour.

To start off, I will say that Real Fruit is not a job for people that don't work well in high pressure and fast paced environments. You will face adversity from both customers and management (especially higher ups). Stress levels vary depending on which store location youre at (especially the GTA region).  There is basically no proper training and you are stuck on cash for a minimum of fewweeks. When you do "advance" to other stations teas, bar and juices, they expect you to know remember the recipes without looking at the recipe book. The problem is that there are too many variables when making the drinks that they don't outright teach you and show in the recipe manual.  You will learn more through your own trial and error, rather than training from someone else. Imagine you're trying to learn how cook a dish off of a recipe but you can't look at the recipe book oh and by the way you're expected to memorize it after looking at it once, thats how it feels to learn drinks .  They often cut/change hours usually on the day of your shift if the store is slow for the sake of "SPLH" (sales per labor hour). Upper management and some store managers that have power within the company expect you to work every second, every minute and every hour to the fullest at a MINIMUM WAGE "LOW ENTRY JOB!. Almost every other week they are changing systems and recipes for no apparent reason, don't fix what isn't broken. Favoritism is very apparent and is a big issue at Real Fruit. You will not get adequate hours and equal shifts if they do not like. Management is very picky with who they hire, they expect very qualified people for a "low entry" job. There is a reason why the turnover rate for Real Fruit is so high. If you look at the schedule, there is always more trainees than senior workers and managers for a reason. It's because rarely anyone stays that long to be promoted to a higher position. The Northwest region is abysmal to work in due to politics and biases I cannot recommend this company for a part time or full time job, let alone first job to anyone. This is a last resort type of job, please save your mental health and time, by avoiding this place.

Pros: 30% employee discount in any store and free drinks during your shift. There are many kinds of training offered. You may receive a "bartender training manual" PDF from the HR/hiring representative, which includes an extensive amount of information about tasks including machine operation and drink preparation. You may also get access to a Google Drive folder with videos showcasing drink preparation or cleaning duties. Recently, a LMS (learning management system) was implemented to teach and train new and current employees.

Cons: Confusing and poor management. Store managers were swapped every few months, and each manager had different recipes for drinks. Some trainers had low patience and shouted at you when you made mistakes. I was told by upper management to "be patient with them [trainers]" when sharing my experience about the particular trainer. Those training in the bartender position were expected to memorize all drinks (i.e. all teas then all blended drinks) within a short timeframe. 

Additional information: It is very busy and fast-paced during the summer, sometimes you are making drinks non-stop for 5 hours with no room to take a drink of water. Another memorable thing I learned at this job is that bad weather does not stop customers from coming to the store, even if it's outdoors.

Real fruit bubble tea has massive problems, the biggest of which being the management and culture there. Some senior staff and managers are incredibly rude and berating, on my first shift I was screamed at by my trainer and it was an incredibly tense environment the majority of the time. The training is subpar at best as there’s no official regimen, you’re thrown into shifts with random people, and you’re at the mercy of whether or not they decide to actually teach you how to make the drinks or whether you’ll be stuck on cash. I didn’t complete training in my couple of months working at Real Fruit, partially because I was receiving so few shifts that I didn’t have the opportunity (although they are very good when it comes to allowing you to choose hat days you can and cannot work, incredibly flexible from week to week) and I felt judged by managers and some senior staff when I didn’t know how to do something because I hadn’t been taught. Overall, if you have an incredibly thick skin and can handle very fast paced and tense workplaces and don’t mind getting only a few shifts a week, it isn’t bad, but I wouldn’t recommend it over something else in fast food. 

I got a phone call at 11 pm asking me to come for an interview the next day after applying a few days earlier. Went for the interview and after 5 minutes was offered the job. Started working a few days later, there was little to no training and I was just kind of thrown in and started working on cash, the people were kinda nice but most of them didn't talk to me much besides "how are you" and "go clean this". Weekends get very very busy and working becomes super fast-paced and stressful. While being trained any small mistakes you make when it gets busy are not met with constructive advice, but just a "no not like that" or a "you did this wrong". I caught on pretty quickly and was learning quickly and did not make any big mistakes or miss a shift. After working for 1 week with a lot of shifts, then the next with almost none, I woke up to an email saying I was fired, with no reason or anything they just fired me. It seems to be unless you are absolutely perfect or something, they just fire you under the probation period just to use you for a few shifts. Would highly recommend looking for a job elsewhere, this job sucks.

Horrible and very shady upper management, culture is extremely toxic the longer you work. The reason people stay in this company is the raises they dish out to people to bribe them to stay because people are constantly quitting. There is no sense of pride in making the subpar drinks and is honestly quite embarrassing promoting these ‘fresh’ fruits when everything is being frozen and added to crazy amounts of sugar. Upper management are arrogant and will always find some way to blame you regardless of no wrongdoings. Middle managers are the nicest people you will meet but they have to take the brunt of the terrible management and is ultimately a test of whether they will get promoted or quit themselves. The company is always expanding branches but are always losing workers to keep up with the workload, therefore pressuring managers to work needlessly harder, having no work-to-life balance. Do not get trapped in this company and please do not visit any of their branches. All they have going on in their drinks is sugar, nothing more.

First day on the job, they assign you as cashier. Okay, but your orientation last for 5 minutes- if you don't memorize all their menu beverages- they make you feel stupid. Oh they’ll let you know, and in front of customers too. 

Next will be making drinks, this is fun. A little harder  than cashiering since you will need to strategize to be efficient, but your seniors (not even managers/supervise) would love to do a power trip on you. All of them, no matter what store you are in.

They have flexible schedule and if you need more hours, this is a good place. But, work is too much and if they call you to fill in for someone who called in sick, they will guilt trip you as if you were the one who caused it. I remember one manager who didn’t talk to me for 2 weeks because I didn't come to help when they were short staffed. Nasty, managers here are young and immature. 

I rate this 2 stars- most toxic job I’ve ever had. I hated the drama and to be honest, they have some of the worst customers. 


This place was my first job. Keep in mind I have no prior experience so I had no idea what appropriate work culture was. I was underpaid and there was various managers that I could not stand. I'll admit the job wasn't the worst, but the prep work was terrible. Constantly cutting/peeling fruit day in and day out. Not to mention the judgement you'll receive if you don't follow a certain way of doing things (which varies for EVERY STORE). Managers find their "easier way" of doing things, and ridicule you constantly for doing something wrong. Also, don't apply here if you can't speak mandarin/chinese. I've had coworkers assume I couldn't speak it and balatantly bad mouth me in my presence. Also, no lunch breaks, and be prepared for lots of heavy lifting (without being trained to do so). I will say that the scheduling system is extremely reliable at times and they won't deny you any time off. But be weary that they may send you across the city to work if they need it.

I enjoyed the work because a fast paced job means your day flies by but certain members of management are terrible. 
The owner micro manages everything and makes the job very confusing and quite unbearable. He has created a toxic work environment where other members or management also treat “partners” terribly. You will most likely get yelled at in front of several customers at least once a week and dread going into work.
If you are any type of management you work constantly even though you aren’t on the clock. They constantly require you to run errands and the are always contacting you at all hours even on your days off. 
The schedule comes out the week of and it is normally very late. This means you are sometimes up until 10pm waiting to see if you have to open the next day. Once you get the schedule there’s almost always some type of issue with it. 

If you decide to apply for this job I would recommend you seriously reconsider.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Store manager 73 salaries reported	$20.15 per hour
Multi-unit manager 1 salary reported	$22.50 per hour
Fast food manager 3 salaries reported	$87,500 per year
Human resources assistant 19 salaries reported	$20.08 per hour
Gérant 12 salaries reported	$23.08 per hour

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