Hello everyone, I want to make this post to briefly share my experience working at the C3 dining hall in UBuffalo for a semester as a non international, US-born domestic student. I know that Campus Dining & Shops doesn't really have a good reputation, and I have heard bad things about the work environment throughout various Reddit posts across most units overall before I began working there in late January. I want to give a detailed and honest opinion about working in Campus Dining in order to hopefully reassure and more thoroughly inform people who are thinking about applying to work in Campus Dining. I cannot speak on other units because I only worked at C3, but think of this post as like a Q&A, as well as a way to hear what a worker has to say about it. This post is not sponsored by Campus Dining. It is entirely in my own opinion and only my thoughts and experiences.
I want to get this out the way. The managers throughout C3 can be hit or miss and a range in quality. Most are decent, but only a very few are noticably unpleasant and somewhat problematic to be around. In fact, I can even think of a few managers who were really nice and friendly to the student workers. In my experience, all other workers were really friendly and helpful to me, which includes the union and non student workers, but especially several of my student coworkers. I even began to become really friendly with a large handful of them.
I know that many people who worked in Campus Dining in the past have expressed criticism and large disapproval of management overall, so the concern over management is justified and it makes complete sense; however, I want to let any future potential student employees know that although you should be watchful and cautious when interacting with every manager, there are good ones out there, at least if you get the opportunity to work at C3. I don't want any applicants to be too intimidated about management because there are many ways to keep yourself busy and distance yourself from them if it gets challenging. I know that my understanding is rather limited because I am basing my judgement on only one unit, but just know that the other workers that are not managers are much more likely to be friendly and respectful, especially the student coworkers.
Compared to the majority of other units, working at C3 ranges from somewhat slow and boring, to very work intensive and active. It's a place of variance in overall work intensity, especially during peak hours compared to non peak hours. However, many new student employees who are hired often get placed into C3 because that's the unit with the highest demand of workers, but know that the amount of work is more evenly distributed more often than not, with some exceptions of course. Also, I notice that even though most new student workers begin working at the beginning of the semester, they do in fact hire more students even during the semester, which includes several months into the semester.
If I were to be honest, I have grown to like working at C3 just a little bit more as the semester went on. It's not a perfect or ideal job in any way, but in my opinion, it's really the coworkers and the people you work with that really makes the experience. The good things that I can think about mainly is from how much my coworkers have helped me and how friendly they were to me.
Let me know if you have any additional questions. I can write more, but I know it will be too much for a single post.