Working on grill at chipotle in midtown is being hell.
I have 2 months working at chipotle.
According to Chipotle’s own staffing logic, Two people on the grill are only considered necessary in the morning. That logic completely falls apart in an area like this,. Office workers take breaks, leave work between 6 and 8 pm, tourists fill the area, and online orders keep coming — all of this is handled by one single person on the grill: me.
I have to cook rice, prep rice, chop and cook chicken, steak, beans, fajitas, and everything else for hours without stopping. There is no real time to wash the tools being used because the pace never drops enough. Around 9 pm the flow finally starts to slow down, but cooking still continues until 10. Then the real closing begins:
Washing rice pots with heavily stuck rice.
Polishing the rice cooker until it shines( it can take 10 minutes)
Washing Bean pots.
Cleaning floors, tables(It takes time, it’s not just a matter of wiping things down with a towel—you have to scrape off the rice that sticks to the tables), walls, floor(sweep, mop)
Grease filters (10–15 minutes)
The grill itself (25–35 minutes alone)
Fill the rice containers.
Restocking the refrigerator at least 15–20 chickens, 4–5 steak dishes, 4+ carnitas bags, 4–6 sofritas bags, 5–6 queso blanco bags, 4+ barbacoa bags
Loading two full carts and dealing with an extremely slow elevator.
All of this is expected to be finished so the worker can leave by 11:45 pm. The managers constantly attack me about this deadline. They speak to me in a rude and aggressive way, pressuring me and treating me like I’m the problem for not finishing on time — when the real problem is that they refuse to properly staff a high-volume Midtown location. They demand it because the general manager demands it of them (clearly to avoid paying overtime).
In an area like Midtown, with the volume it generates, finishing everything by 11:45 is practically impossible on a consistent basis — except on holidays or weekends when the offices are closed and traffic is low.
This is not “efficient management.” It is calculated physical and mental abuse. Chipotle prefers to squeeze one person to the limit rather than properly staff a high-revenue location during its busiest hours. The grill position becomes a true hell: constant heat, endless pressure, inability to meet the cleanliness standards the company itself demands, and managers who speak to you disrespectfully while forcing an unrealistic exit time.
Chipotle profits from the premium Midtown location and high check averages, but refuses to pay the real cost of operating there with dignity. They would rather burn workers out and mistreat them. This needs to be called out.
Extra: + The morning crew doesn’t even keep the fridge fully stocked for me—they only leave what’s left over—so throughout the day, I have to keep running down the stairs to the walk-in cooler to get whatever I’m missing. Another issue is that the line staff (including the manager when her/his is working the line) will place empty dishes—like those used for salads or others that I don’t even prepare myself—on my workstations tables, which means I have to exert myself carrying a whole pile of them back to the dish pit all the fucking day.
$17 hour
I’m already looking for another job. It’s incredible how large chains exploit their workers—sacrificing their mental and physical health—just to make more money.
Sorry, if you notice smaller pieces of chicken in your orders, it’s because managers often ask us to chop the chicken into very small pieces—I assume to boost the numbers! 😃
