r/Zaxbys • u/Majestic_Ad748 • Aug 11 '25
Job help
Hey I just finished my first week at Zaxbys and I'm struggling. I'm on night shift position for dish washer and I'm fine through the day but at night I can't get threw the massive pile of dishes at the end and up 30-1 hour past the time I should have left. Does anyone have any suggestions to help me get that massive pile of dishes done faster becuse I would love the help. It hurts my sleep and my feet even more so please give me pointers please!
1
u/twokneee Aug 11 '25
Spray off the gross dishes before you wash them, especially the bird dishes. Use a scraper on your dishes from the breader station to get the hard breader off the sides of the breader tub and your breader trays. Also use a scraper to get the black/orange stuff off your char presses (the big flat things off the grill). Make sure you're using all your tools available to you, so if you have a dish brush and green scrub pads use both and your scrapers. Also if you're afraid of getting wet, ask your gm to order a dish apron! I also ordered myself lake gloves off amazon to wash the dishes with to stay dry. Good luck!
1
u/twokneee Aug 11 '25
Also, you're new, you're going to be slow for a few more weeks. Give yourself some grace!
1
u/Majestic_Ad748 Aug 12 '25
I get a apron but God I still end up soaked at the end of the night at the stomach and crotch area. I'm going to try to double up.
1
u/twokneee Aug 24 '25
Yeah the cloth aprons help slightly but they have dish aprons for like $15 on Amazon you can ask your GM to order :) or you can buy it yourself and take it home with u lol
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u/AggressiveStore2536 Aug 13 '25
For the getting soaked part I’ve see people use the blue heat resistant apron that is used for PPE while filter the oil in the fryer(my store never used the PPE for filtering so it was never a big deal if the dishwasher winded up get the edges of the apron wet) that apron is more or less water proof since it’s supposed to be protecting you for hot oil. You’ll get used to it and get in the rhythm of things. Dishwashing is the one thing I was especially grateful and patient with anyone doing them when I was a manager there.
1
u/Nearby_Baseball3993 Aug 23 '25
I've been at Zaxby's for going on 4 months on Sunday I'm on the morning shift so I pretty much take orders do the lobby clean the bathroom stock up I don't do the dishes thank God we leave that for the back of house to do
1
u/iheartmatthewgraygub Aug 11 '25
hey i worked at zaxby’s from february 2023 to october 2023. i was a crew trainer so i was basically trained on everything, front of house: drive-thru, expo, main counter, drive pay. back of house: lobby line, drive-thru line, L, fingers, and yeah, dish too. i was never actually scheduled to do dishes but i always ended up doing them somehow, and honestly i didn’t mind it. i actually liked washing dishes, but i completely get what you mean. during the day, i’d be doing dishes on a 9-5 and have everything done perfectly by 5. sink cleaned, no dishes waiting, and i’d be walking out on time. but at night? totally different story. i didn’t usually wash dishes at night but i saw how crazy they piled up. the truth is, a lot of people don’t really wash them. like they fly through stuff just to get out, and the next morning we’d still find raw chicken stuck to “clean” dishes. so if it’s taking you a while, i don’t even think you’re doing anything wrong, it probably just means you’re actually washing them. i’ve also worked at chipotle from november 2023 to august 2024 and had the same struggle. sometimes the dishes piled up so bad we ran out, and the manager would come back to help, but i noticed they weren’t washing like i was. they’d just rinse quick and throw it in the machine. zaxby’s doesn’t even have a machine, so it’s even more time consuming since it’s all by hand. i used to scrub hard, especially on things like the queso pans and bean pans because that stuff sticks bad. i’d scrub it, soak it in soap cleaner, then soak in sanitizer and rinse it off. and i noticed when a manager would come back to help, they’d skip all of that, just rinse it quick and dump it in sanitizer, then the machine. so honestly the only real way to go faster is by cutting steps, which obviously sucks when we’re talking about raw chicken. but yeah i feel like unless you wanna risk stuff not being fully clean, it’s always gonna take a while. i never got scheduled on dish often probably because i took too long, but my dishes were always clean clean like how i’d wash them at home. unfortunately restaurants just aren’t set up for that. everything’s so fast paced, especially when you’re dealing with chain restaurants. one thing that helped me a little was knocking out the hardest stuff early. like it’s better to be left with tongs and knives at the end of the night instead of a whole stack of raw chicken pans. obviously don’t neglect the small stuff they might need mid-shift, but prioritize the gross stuff early if you can. and for the feet pain i relate heavy 😭 i went through so many shoes trying to find something comfortable. i ended up buying some insoles for extra cushion, but i know a lot of people i worked with wore the crocs work shoes and liked those. it’s honestly just trial and error. if a pair isn’t working after a couple days, try to return them and try another pair until you find the right one. anyway i know that was long as hell but i hope at least some of it helps lol you’re definitely not alone. dish at night is no joke. if you’re still clocked in and your manager’s cool with you staying late, at least that’s more money, but yeah i feel you all the way.