I previously wrote about the Chipotle Star, a retail employee in Minnesota. He was kind enough to get in touch and answer some questions that I had about Chipotle. The following is the things I’m most curious about and his answers. Really great stuff!

What initially interested you about working at Chipotle?

Well, since my first time I’ve had Chipotle, it’s been a dream to work at Chipotle. It’s funny, because it all started as a joke a few years ago, I was just a avid fan of it, and jokingly said to my friends/family that maybe I’ll someday work there; it’s now a reality.

Has that initial interest stayed true?

Oh yeah, I’m not going to lie, it’s a dream job. I haven’t had much jobs in the past, but I don’t think it can get any better than this could.

What has surprised you the most about working at Chipotle?

First off, the managers here actually WANT you to have fun! Yeah I know, it sounds crazy, but I’m serious. These people stress that having a good time while working is key. Although being serious and quick is also key.

Secondly, it’s insane how unique some people here are. Honestly, I met some great people here, and some of them haven’t even been living here in the States for more then 2 years, and they are holding 2 jobs to support their family overseas. It’s amazing how they have that mentality to just keep working day after day. I know a guy who’s a cashier at McDonald’s, he works there during the day, and then comes right to Chipotle to do his shift here. I gripe about how I get so many hours, but I honestly have no right to complain. It just gives you a different perspective of some of the workers in restaurants and the people on the “other side of the glass.”

How are the tips split up among the employees?

Well, there’s two crews a day: a day crew and a night crew. Each crew split’s their tip jar, and at the end of a shift-which means everything is cleaned and everyone is clocked out-we dump the jar, and split the tips. We each get maybe 4 bucks on a good night. 4 bucks as in 2 dollar bills and a bunch of pennies/nickels/dimes.

Is there a line job that is the “best one” or the worst one? Which is your favorite? Which is your least favorite?

Ooh, good question. I would have to say I don’t really “dislike” any of them, but the salsa’s is probably harder to maintain over anything else. I love greeting customers and taking their orders and it’s overall easy, but salsa’s is a different story. It may seem like all I need to do is just pour on some of that green tomatillo chili, but you got to remember, once all of you guys leave we need to restock and refill all the salsas, cheese, sour cream, guac, and lettuce. And trying to keep up is a pain, since there are so many components to it. Also, if you’re with some inexperienced/messy people, keeping the line clean is frustrating. You’ll clean the sour cream spoon to only have your spoon dunked into the sour cream and getting half the handle dirty. Then you clean, then it gets dirty. Very frustrating.

From an employee’s standpoint, what is the best part of working at
Chipotle?

I mean, normally someone would say something along the lines of “the pay’s great, blah blah,” but it’s more than that. I could be getting paid 8 bucks an hour somewhere else, say McDonald’s or Target, but I would just be showing up to the same place day after day getting paid to do slow, tedious things. Maybe I’m wrong, but here at Chipotle these people want you to succeed, this isn’t a one and done here. They want this to be MORE then your average temp job, your average summer job. They want you to become a manager, to become successful at life. It’s more about life lessons more then anything else.

What is the craziest thing that someone has ordered?

Oy, funny that this question is being asked right now, because today I probably had the craziest one, and I was the cashier. I was the cashier, and I decided to jump in the line and help, since there was only one guy in the line, and this guy ordered 3 sets of soft tacos. So okay, nothing out of the norm here. However, he ordered chicken on all of them then once he got down to the salsas he asked if he can have rice and beans on it. So we backtracked (which is a pain) and we put the rice and beans. So now it’s chicken, rice, and beans. Then he put just about every salsa, and then cheese, then he said that was it. So this was to-go so we started wrapping it, then he stops us and asks “can you put some Tabasco on that for me?” So we thought he asked Tabasco on the last one, which wasn’t wrapped yet. Okay, reasonable. But no, he meant on ALL 3, 2 of which are wrapped! So we unwrapped them all and Tabasco’ed all 3 of them, then he asked for 2 containers or guac, because apparently he thought getting it not on the meal itself was cheaper (not true).

A tip from a worker here at Chipotle? Order your meal in the order the items are in the line. It’s like that for a reason people, don’t order “sour cream and cheese, oh and some tomatos, oh and some lettuce, maybe some rice on that?” It’s a pain, especially when it’s busy as heck and you have to plow through other linesmen to get to the front of the line.

What do you think is the most common order?

Definitely a chicken burrito with black beans. Overall, the chicken, I guess it’s like the universal meat, since it’s not spicy like the steak, and it goes great with anything.

Is there any way that you can group customers together like “the chicken bol” people or the “different order every time” people?

There sort of is, believe it or not. The elderly, “this is my first time” kind of people usually don’t go adventuring into something wild into carnitas, and I have seen a trend in elderly people ordering a lot of tacos. Usually the teenagers order the chicken burrito, and of course the little toddlers are into the whole quesadilla thing.