For some context, earlier this week I applied for a management position at a soon-to-be-opened Whataburger location. Management experience is the only thing missing from my resume, so I figured, “Why the hell not?”. Yesterday, I got what can only be described as an absolutely ICONIC text message:
“Just a heads-up for anyone considering Whataburger: please do your research first. The work environment can feel toxic, and write-ups (PDCs) are handed out too easily — even when you're showing loyalty and giving your all. It can be really discouraging.
Many employees feel like HR is disconnected from the real challenges we face, which creates tension instead of support. I’m sharing this so others know what they might be walking into and can make an informed decision.”
This was followed up earlier today by this message from a different number:
“We apologize for the message you received from an individual who no longer works with Whataburger. Please know that the information in the text does not reflect the culture and values of Whataburger. If you have any questions, please email the Office of Human Resources at <corporate HR email>.”
Not sure what’s going down at the Whataburger, but it sounds like a bit more than I want to be involved in. If by some chance whoever sent out the original message finds this post, you’re an absolute legend and icon!
Anyone who works for / has worked for Whataburger that can shed some light on this or confirm / deny validity?
by ThatsMyTEDTalk
31 Comments
Probably the same old corporate bullshit
Ehh..no experience in working there but..my gut feeling is abort..abort. f that.
Corporate overlords cracking the whip on their employees to compete with other cheeseburger establishments 😭😭 we live in hell
I mean who would you believe, an ex coworker who wrote that message without swearing or any foul language? Or the corporate talking head doing damage control?
The choice is yours
Have you ever had a Whataburger?
Says everything.
Crappy burger chain is a crappy place to work? Shocking
So immediately firing the person who sent this text will go a long way to disprove what they were trying to warn others about, right?
HR logic at its finest, right there.
Usual corporate restaurant chain shit tbh.
It’s common knowledge that employees are treated like trash at the average McDonald’s and nobody cares.
I might keep emailing HR to see how much they’ll squirm before they stop replying.
Oh wow. Man. When you fire people you gotta 86 their ability to send the mass group chat there, Captain What a Burger Man.
I kinda love this for them. Fuck all of our corporate overlords.
[INSERT ‘FIRST TIME?’ MEME HERE]
Every since they were sold a couple years ago, it has gone downhill. They went from “family owned” to being bought out by an equity firm to take them nationally, and it’s sucked ass ever since.
Didn’t they get bought by private equity recently? Prepared for them to intentionally death spiral soon.
We apologize for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible have been sacked.
you want loyalty, get a dog. your employer is not your friend
Is mark Wahlberg still involved or was that a dream I had one flu season
They opened a newly built Whataburger down the street from my house late last year. The food itself isn’t bad but the place is filthy and the employees are mostly standing around on their phones. From my perspective as a customer, there is a deficit in management. It was so gross the last time I went I even emailed corporate and received an automated “we will reach out to you in 2-3 days” but they never responded. This seems to be a pretty common thing within the chain. Best of luck to you.
The sackers of the previously employed truth teller have been sacked. Please grab a milk carton and go out back and have a smoke.
Friend of mine worked there while she was my roommate. Saw all the shit firsthand. Might have been a specific location, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it works the same way at other locations.
HR is non existent. She tried to call them numerous times to set up her login information to see the schedule and such. No response. Same with email. She asked her manager for help and was essentially written off.
She was hired to be a cook, but ended up doing all the other work with no help or pay bump. She never got to do any cooking except flipping burgers once or twice. Mostly she was the person outside taking orders, even in questionable weather.
The biggest bit of BS was the scheduling. She was promised 30 hours a week, and asked for it. Worked her ass off to get those hours. They only had her working 1 or 2 shifts a week, only 6 hours or less. Since she couldn’t access the schedule app, she had to call her manager at the location to see if she was working this week or not. Sometimes they’d tell her to call back later. This went on for months. She was fired after not coming in one day because she got the days mixed up. There was a bunch of BS going on behind the scenes. Warnings for not being fast enough on certain stations (she was training that day and had never done it before). Write ups for leaving early even though she was dismissed by the supervisor on duty.
Encouraged her to try to sue them over it, but proof is limited beyond what I saw and heard as well. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to work there, but it also may be location dependent.
HR is not your friend, they are not there to support you. They are there to protect the interests of the corporation. We gotta get people out of the mindset that HR is a support system for your grievances against the company.
I know a guy who worked an IT job at their corporate headquarters back when it was in corpus, he had some crazy-ass stories. Like because Whataburger has a deal w coke, you’re absolutely not allowed to have any Pepsi products at/around your desk at work. He would tell me at lunch he’d have to hide the fact that he was eating McDonald’s by eating it in his car or else he’d get in trouble if caught. The dude was a database administrator, absolutely batshit
The purpose of HR is to save the company money, that’s it…
I could tell it was going down hill fast. I haven’t lived in Texas for 15 years and was so excited to eat at my local Whataburger. I didn’t even get my food I order bc the staff were basically fist fighting in the back and no one cared to even take my order.
My wife who I promised whataburger who’s never had it she from Philly. Thought it was gross and had no favor. It was so sad. The next day I visited another one bc I didn’t want that to be our experience. They were out of half the stuff and the staff was playing loud music and they all went on break with the manager to smoke weed outside. Not a joke. We sat there for 20 mins waiting for them to come back in and make the order. It’s just sad what’s it’s become. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
holy fuck they killed him
I have a friend who went through their management training and worked after that for like 3 months before he said “Fuck this” and quit.
He said some of the people they hired on as management were wildly unqualified. People above him had absolutely zero restaurant or service industry experience, and expected him to basically do their job as well as his.
This is insanely wild lol I feel like the comments aren’t reacting as incredulous as you and I are OP. Iconic
i had a friend who worked 36 hour shifts at that mf. sure he had pretty long breaks but his ass belonged to them almost the entire weekend. pretty sure he was 16-17 years old.
Source: worked 13 years there.
Don’t.
An Individual Who No Longer Works With Whataburger has a cast iron sack. we should all aspire to be like this guy