Does anybody work for wetherspoons?

[ManxMatt34]

I'm just wondering if anybody works for wetherspoons on the org.

I'm looking for some job oppurtunities in the UK and a few weeks back saw and advert for careers with them. Basically saying they're looking to take people on for the future, to go through there training programs and possibly into managmeant down the line etc...

It's something i'm very intrested in as my dad worked in the pub industry from about the age of 21 up until 5 years ago and therefore have always had a resonable understanding and interest.

The website for wetherspoons gives you lots of details but not on wheres best to start on the long term career road (rather than just a job). Just wondered if anyone could give me some more details or advice on how to get the ball rolling. Cheers Matt.

[dizzyblonde]

What do you wanna know, my brother was a manager for them for a long time, name over the door. Won't have changed much, I worked for them when my eldest was very young....I hated every minute, and I've worked behind a few bars!

[anna]

Like Dizzy I have worked for weatherspoons and hated it, being a bar person in Hammersmith on Friday and Saturday nights certainly isn’t a glamorous life that is for sure.

Most of them have a high turnover of staff and so you only have to be with them a short amount of time to be promoted through the ranks, mainly because they don’t want to lose good employees.

[kwak zzr]

Does anybody work for wetherspoons?

I buy their drinks quite regular now on a saturday night :) cant beat a cheap pub :)

[CoolGirl]

I happened to be sitting between the CEO and HR Director of Whitbreads earlier this weekm, and they said they're hiring across the country, looking for walk-up bar staff as well as managers - although not sure if they've got a trainee schem going atm. They've got over a thousand vacancies nationally.

[phil24_7]

I used to love working at Weatherspoons. I started on the bar, as I was planning on opening my own bar. When that fell through, I just kinda stayed there.

There is a high turn-over of staff as many are students, or looking for an easy job, but if you like working and partying hard, it's a good place.

Things have got a little more difficult of late, as each pub is given less hours to do the same job which basically means less staff on any given shift.

I worked there for over 6 years, 4 of them as a manager, and if I could earn the money I do now, I might consider going back, though the long hours/random shift patterns can be a chore. Weatherspoons give half decent bonuses too.

I would recommend the pub trade if you like hard work, mixed with a little socialising and a lot of in house relationships!! LOL

[phil24_7]

To answer your question though. I would recommend starting at the bottom, this way you have a better understanding of things when your a manager, you will also have earned your respect from staff and management on the way up hopefully.

It shouldn't take too long to work your way up, as long as you graft hard and show good initiative and common sense.

Regards

[dizzyblonde]

Just to add...

Wetherspoons gave my brother a very good start in his career in the trade. He has since left, but has had his own pub, which narrowly missed 'best newcomer' in the pub trade awards for our region(summat like that), due to it only being open less than 6 months, as opposed to all the others being 12 months. He now manages Yates in Hx, and he has won awards left right and centre within the company, hes turned a proper sh1te pub into one that is overflowing with business. Poached or should I say 'attracted' many members of staff from elsewher, who are desperate to work for him.
He is a kinda special pub manager, and its all down to Wetherspoons giving him a duty managers post at just 18.

[Dave20046]

To answer your question though. I would recommend starting at the bottom, this way you have a better understanding of things when your a manager, you will also have earned your respect from staff and management on the way up hopefully.

It shouldn't take too long to work your way up, as long as you graft hard and show good initiative and common sense.

Regards

This is true, a I've got a couple of mates who run bars both were managers within a year of signing up.
(afraid not with wetherspoons though - ember inns :toss: )

[andrewsmith]

Dizz

thats seriously good resume. turning bars around is a feat and doing it quickly is amazing

[Quedos]

personally - stay away from them - I joned their graduate programme straught from Uni
Moved to London - said they would offer assistance - didn't get any, Area manager would not his backside from elbow. H&S practices wwere seriously dodgy back then too.
Expect to move about at a whim and also expect pubs to be sold from under you. I went for Christams cover at another pub and came back to find my original pub keys wouldn't fit. It was sold to another company and I was being moved to a pub in central london and my shift started at 2pm that day.
leaving me to find a place to stay for my new pub, rent being paid on the old place etc etc.
their complete incompetence at the time to predict sales and listen to the staff at a local level meant that I have bascially been left totally F**** up back for the rest of my life after a keg pinned me in the cellar because they didn't make the cellar large enough to cope with the west sales as managers we saod we would achieve and they said nota hope in hell. ( they also ignored our advice on blue and green paintwork in central scotland and ended up have to refurbish two pubs after being smashed up)
Their attitude stinks - me and my team open two pubs in scotland both smashed opening predictions and are still doing well. I still continue after the accident but when i eventually wen offt with sciatica and serious pain (after working 100hrs+) they questioned my commitment to the company - I also had the best run kitchen and stock control in my London Pub and the best in area for the ones i worked in ad hoc.
My the area manager tried to discipline me for swimming one day while off becuase i was not at home when she decided to drop in unannounced. They also told me to come and visit the occuptaional health guy - in Watford. Told then I couldn't drive they said its not that far is on the same page of the map.

Yes cheap booze for a price, cheap food but you wouldn't eat if you saw the state it came in, if you got an morals leave them at the door. expect to work hard and be paid slightly better that the average industry but you are just a number. Yes TIm will come and visit you but he won't listen.

Its still the same as when i left - I've just seen someone being sacked fro a problem that I mentioned ath the very beginning of that pubs life over 10 years that still hasn't been fixed.

I maybe twisted but i wouldn't touch them with a barge pole - Go for another company.
And i spent four years specialising in the licensed trade its all I ever wanted to do from being a wee girl:(

[dizzyblonde]

Dizz

thats seriously good resume. turning bars around is a feat and doing it quickly is amazing

Indeedy, hes only 26ish now. Love my bro, but hes a complete c0ck to work for...threatened to throw him over the bar in Wetherspoons....never work with family LOL, everyone else just falls over themselves to work for him!
The current area manager has now asked him to start doing talks on how to meet targets etc, hes only been in the pub for around a year or so, and trust me it still might look a sh1tehole, but the business has gone up ten fold since he took over!


personally - stay away from them - I joned their graduate programme straught from Uni
Moved to London - said they would offer assistance - didn't get any, Area manager would not his backside from elbow. H&S practices wwere seriously dodgy back then too.
Expect to move about at a whim and also expect pubs to be sold from under you. I went for Christams cover at another pub and came back to find my original pub keys wouldn't fit. It was sold to another company and I was being moved to a pub in central london and my shift started at 2pm that day.
leaving me to find a place to stay for my new pub, rent being paid on the old place etc etc.
their complete incompetence at the time to predict sales and listen to the staff at a local level meant that I have bascially been left totally F**** up back for the rest of my life after a keg pinned me in the cellar because they didn't make the cellar large enough to cope with the west sales as managers we saod we would achieve and they said nota hope in hell. ( they also ignored our advice on blue and green paintwork in central scotland and ended up have to refurbish two pubs after being smashed up)
Their attitude stinks - me and my team open two pubs in scotland both smashed opening predictions and are still doing well. I still continue after the accident but when i eventually wen offt with sciatica and serious pain (after working 100hrs+) they questioned my commitment to the company - I also had the best run kitchen and stock control in my London Pub and the best in area for the ones i worked in ad hoc.
My the area manager tried to discipline me for swimming one day while off becuase i was not at home when she decided to drop in unannounced. They also told me to come and visit the occuptaional health guy - in Watford. Told then I couldn't drive they said its not that far is on the same page of the map.

Yes cheap booze for a price, cheap food but you wouldn't eat if you saw the state it came in, if you got an morals leave them at the door. expect to work hard and be paid slightly better that the average industry but you are just a number. Yes TIm will come and visit you but he won't listen.

Its still the same as when i left - I've just seen someone being sacked fro a problem that I mentioned ath the very beginning of that pubs life over 10 years that still hasn't been fixed.

I maybe twisted but i wouldn't touch them with a barge pole - Go for another company.
And i spent four years specialising in the licensed trade its all I ever wanted to do from being a wee girl:(

Ditto.....especially the 'ping cuisine'! I loathed their job philosophy, and hated it being understaffed at peak times of the year, due to 'cutbacks'.

[ManxMatt34]

Lots of intresting comments, think i have the answers i need. Thanks guys and girls of the org. once again :)