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Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery

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Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery Reviews

3.5

48% would recommend to a friend

(22 total reviews)

51% positive business outlook

Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 22 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there.

Reviews by job title

22 reviews
1.0
5 Apr 2024

Overshadow this with a fake 5 star review from upper management

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The staff you work beside, they are some of the best people around.

Cons

I have a very strong work ethic and am fine working in fast paced and stressful environments. This is different, this is a toxic and unsafe work environment. Breaks are paid but you only get 15 min for an 8 hour shift. They cut benefits this year and added in benefits nobody was wanting or asking for. Management are all mostly untrained in their fields and their lack of training and experience shows. They gaslight everyone into thinking they are wonderful at their jobs and encourage others to gaslight anyone who can see behind their facade. If you stand up for yourself there you’re seen as having a negative mindset and from then on are pushed out. Management critiques you for months behind your back with journals (which they can orchestrate and fabricate) and then use them as actual evidence against you to demote or fire you. They get their management to then write positive reviews online to offset the ones that actually matter. Because the only thing they’re qualified for is talking. Especially if that’s talking about something they’re untrained for. The people in charge are the least creative in the building and they do not want to hear your ideas. It’s noticed very early on by actual creative individuals. Instead of using the ideas as building blocks to a better and more true vision they take them as personal digs because they’re jealous they couldn’t come up with something better than an improperly made waffle cone in a ran down trailer behind a shed. Their products, ideas, and plans appear to be thoughtful but really are just get rich quick schemes. They go with the cheapest, fastest, and normally the most mundane ideas. They crush the creativity and the passion from their employees. They’re so big on “we are willing to buy the best and the most organic or healthy for our customers even if it takes more time and money, we will do it” (Swamp 101 quote) yet won’t even keep that mentality for their own in house products. They encourage you to speed up or cut corners on your work even if they lose a little of bit of the quality to cut down on the cost of labor. Which is very triggering and toxic. If you normally have your cooks or bakes done perfectly they gaslight you into thinking that’s a bad thing. They use the excuse of Swamp having a rustic vibe but really it’s just becoming a sloppy vibe. Because even rustic bakeries and kitchens can achieve consistency and high quality. They raise the prices of their products and shrink the size/quality because “our customers will pay whatever we charge.” They have one value, money. And if you think there’s any other value that matters there, you haven’t worked there long enough. There are unsafe and gross food handling practices. They won’t purchase enough hand towels for all the kitchen staff to use. They don’t purchase enough gloves either, you run out of both all of the time. They try pinching pennies in the wrong departments (HR would be a good start, there’s some funds going towards that department that are definitely wasted). Cross contamination is big there too. If you’re actually vegan or celiac please don’t eat anything in house made there. Thank goodness I mentioned that to you guys and you actually listened and changed your stickers. (To be fair you only listened because y’all were one big lawsuit away from getting shut down from that). They film, record, and exploit you. They have cameras around the building and management will sit upstairs watching you like Big Brother. It is very disturbing and triggering. Workplace injuries and accidents. They will twist however you got injured or hurt and make you the problem. After you are injured there the help you get from HR is minimal at best and often times holds you back because they don’t complete their paperwork on time or even have it filled out properly. Their HR (and some other upper management) discriminates against race, gender, and people going through pregnancy. They are crazy enough to admit it right to you because they are so untrained they don’t even know what they should or shouldn’t be saying to their own employees. Instead of discussing these issues with you, they find an excuse to fire you in hopes that the issue is then dealt with. They used to have values and morals but with their growth those have clearly went out the window. They have staff there that are clearly using them for their own benefit and because they’ve worked there for so long they are biased and will trust everything they do or say. Unfortunately they are some of the ones closest to the owners, people who they believe to have their best interest at heart. Really they are bringing the company and the company’s values and morals way down. If you have a strong work ethic, a passion for food and a love for your community, it will be destroyed after working there for a few months. Because although they act like those values still matter to them, the only real value they have is money. They will work their best and most experienced and talented people down. If you are a good worker they will overwork you and still tell you that you’re not doing enough. Whereas slow paced workers are praised by HR for just waking up and coming into work that day. They donate their products to people who can afford it and won’t give out scraps or free to staff stuff to the homeless community right outside their own doors. These cons have all been mentioned to you guys before I left, so they could have been dealt with while I was there. But you didn’t care at all about what I had to say, so don’t offer that in the feedback. I could go on and on but nothing will change and Swamp will continue to manipulate their customers and their employees for a few more years.

avatar
Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery Response
1y
Thank you for taking the time to submit your thoughts, there's a lot to reflect on here. We're sorry that you did not enjoy working with us but appreciate your contributions and hard work while you were on the team. We can assure you that Swamp's efforts are aligned with our mission, and we think deeply about how to improve the overall experience of working at Swamp. We know that we are not for everyone but are proud and grateful to have so many team members work with us for years on end. We'd love a chance to talk further about some of your specific concerns, please reach out!
2.0
28 Feb 2024

It’s terrible

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Free food and coffee; Also some of the people you can work with are wonderful.

Cons

No room for growth, and zero regard for their employees wellbeing. Also Mary (co-owner) will go around taking pictures and videos of people without consent.

avatar
Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery Response
2y
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We agree that our staff is incredibly passionate about our mission and we consider ourselves very lucky to have such a dedicated team. HR, Jac and Mary are present in the building daily and welcome feedback as often as our staff are willing to provide it. We cannot work to better things that we aren't aware of, and we wish we would've had the chance to talk with you one on one about your concerns. We love to highlight our staff and work hard to highlight and acknowledge the awesome work they do, but we also give every staff member the ability to formally opt out of photographs via our Handbook and respect the boundaries that our staff communicate to us. Our compensation structure did change slightly in 2024 based on staff feedback and our desire to more equitably distribute benefits, including increased PTO, $2/hr extra pay on Sundays, bi-weekly contributions to employee HSA's, and our 1 month paid sabbatical program. It's difficult to roll out new benefits and we understand that changes may not land well with everyone, but hope you can trust that 2024 marked a significantly higher investment in our benefits and was done with the best of intentions for our staff. We hope that your time spent at Swamp was a net positive for you overall. Please feel free to provide additional feedback in your exit interview as we take all feedback to heart and truly hate to hear how unhappy you were here, but hope that your feedback will help us ensure a better experience for future employees.
2.0
8 Jul 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I love my coworkers so much, I love the customers, too! Great location and very bike-able.

Cons

Experience isn’t valued; gaslighting is constant; incredible employees are worn down and silenced, your ideas aren’t actually wanted; reactive and thoughtless decisions made by “leadership” are implemented on the fly with very little explanation but buy-in is expected; growth at swamp is a myth, it’s a carrot to dangle at the “yes” people. (Also don’t ask any questions, just be quiet and do what you were told to do, ok, otherwise it’s pushback and they don’t like pushback.)

Viewing 1 - 3 of 22 Reviews

Glassdoor has 22 Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery reviews submitted anonymously by Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery is right for you.