I have graduated from University with a 2:1 Classification in Business Management with Japanese. I a...
I have graduated from University with a 2:1 Classification in Business Management with Japanese. I am now studying and working in Japan for a year to fully develop my language skills
Member since:04.09.2001
Reviews:13
Luminar plc who owns a number of clubs and bars including Chicago Rock Cafe, Jumping Jack's and the Hippodrome IO consider to be one of the worst companies in the UK.
Basically I used to work for Chicago Rock Cafe in Norwich. Now this is not a hate campaign against the company because it does provide good entertainment but as I found out ou t the way they treat their employees is very poor. Most of the staff who work at the chains are students doing part-time work to pay for their studies. This would not be a bad thing however the employees have not had the slightest bit of training and so have a very limited purpose. Serve and make money for the company!
When I joined Chicago Rock Cafe my starting wage was £3.75 per hour. Pretty poor as you can imagine with no overtime pay whats so ever. I started as a glass collector whith the intention to progress to the bar. However this did not happen although I was told it would on numerous occasions.
The entertainment in the venues consists of live DJ's playing classics from the 70's 80's and 90's. However although I say live DJ's I soon found that they were not live at all. All they do is play MP3 discs so all the music is always in the same order. I found myself being able to predict what song was to come next and would always get it right.
Not only that the prices of the drinks are through the roof. The cost price of a vodka and coke even if you buy the bottle yourself for £10 and a can of coke for £.50 comes to a total cost for a vodka and coke of £1. Ok so you have to pay for entertainment say 20p per drink and the staffs wages say another 20p plus overheads and profit of say another 50p. That makes a total of around £2 for a vodka and coke. Not in Chicago Rock cafe. That would have cost you £2.85. Incredibly expensive if you are like me and need a lot to get pissed.
I also never got the hours I wanted and the management always were messing me about saying I had to work shifts I had asked for off. Basically the management team consisted of people who had worked their way up the company. However they had no experience of how to run a real business and so did not look after their staff and hence there is such a high staff turnover rate for the company.
My advice is for anyone (especially students) looking for a bar job is to not apply for a job at Chicago Rock cafe because you would be disappointed and get mistreated completely. There are much better paid bar work out there and I would suggest going to a job centre because they will find you a job with better hours and better pay. I hope this is helpful and please take my advice!
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Sep 18th, 2001
very helpful by (100%):
