I love it! The old biblical saying is you reap what you sow. Now matter what slogan change or corporate makeover you get, the corruption is doing you in!!! Check out your balance sheet and stock prices right now! My time as a server with Darden in Evansville, IN was the worst time in my life. I was a college grad yet treated like an idiot. Have fun, fascists!

I started working at Olive Garden in 2001 and it was a great place to work and Darden was a great company to work for. Now this could be no farther from the truth. One of their principles is to "treat everyone as family and friends" - including their employees. Corporate does no such thing. They treat their employees like we are a dime a dozen. All they are concerned about is the money going into their pockets and usually get more by taking money out of our pockets. I used to be able to make good money while working there, now I can't afford to live. One of the biggest disappointments with this company is their "benefits". Their insurance used to be great, affordable and worthwhile. Now, I wish I never enrolled because it costs me more than it's worth. I have a bad back (from carrying trays at work) and can't even afford to go to the chiropractor because the insurance covers almost nothing (even though when I called I was told all of it would be covered). We used to get vacation pay no matter how many hours we worked - basically a bonus check once a year. Now, you have to average at least 30 hours a week. Which would be fine if they didn't cut back our hours. Now with Obamacare lurking, corporate is enacting a rule (in the next month or so) that most all their employees will not be scheduled more than 28 hours per week. Corporate has also enacted an automatic tip share. As a server we have always been expected to tip the bussers and bartenders at the end of each shift. However it was always our decision as to how much. Now, it is automatically taken out based on sales. If a table does not tip me it now costs me money to serve them because of this tip share. Cutting our hours, giving away more and more free stuff (through coupons and different promotions which equates to lower checks = smaller tips) and enacting a mandatory tip share: all of these are just taking more and more money out of our pockets, making it almost impossible to live off this job alone.

The last time I ate at red Lobster I ordered crab legs. They served 3 snow crab legs and two claws and behold, no meat inside the leg shells. They must have over cooked the legs so the meat shrunk to nothing. When I told the waiter, he acted like I was nuts. Last time I ever go there.

My family ate at Long Horn in Florida. 5 of us ordered the exact same steak. each steak was different size and shape with lots of fat and connecting tissue. Lat time for this place! The waitress acted like she was a member of our family. Lots of talk and short of work.

Servers don't make the restaurant. It takes everyone working together to make the restaurant a success. Servers need to get over themselves and stop acting like if they were not there the restaurant would not operate.
Management needs to treat all employees equally and stop allowing servers to run the restaurant. Severs could not mop up a spilled drink on the dining room floor let alone clean a bathroom.
The entire back of the house needs to call in sick all at once for a day or two and let the servers handle the back of the house. Then they will come off of their high horse and appreciate the back of the house.
All contests for employees should be split. One prize for the front of the house. A second identical prize for the back of the house. All employees like to be rewarded for their dedication, not just servers.

I'm not sure why it got to # 97 best company to work for Forbes ranking, but I'm thinking they must have paid to enter there... because working at Darden sucks big time...worse company I've ever worked for...and I'm a professional at the headquarters...