Shrimp scampi and a fixed or variable interest rate?
Red Lobster and many other companies offer various forms of "tuition assistance." What does this mean?
Debt.com sent someone (Jess Miller) into Red Lobster to find out what exactly their student loan program consisted of. Her account is laughable if it wasn't so wrong.
The employees I’d talked to hadn’t heard of it. Two of the managers I asked about it gave me vague instructions to go online to the My Total Rewards department, where employees can sign up for other benefits like medical and dental coverage.
I found a link called “Apply for a student loan” — but when I clicked on it for more information, I got an error that said “You’re not authorized to access this component. (40,20).” I called HR, and they directed me to the My Total Rewards department, which gives out information on other benefits Red Lobster offers its employees, like dental and medical coverage.
She finally found a webpage on Red Lobster's site that directed her to
Wells Fargo's Collegiate Loan. Were Red Lobster employees getting
some kind of company deal? If by "some kind" you mean "no kind", then yes!
Two different Wells Fargo reps told me I could sign up for a loan and make no payments while in school, enjoy a six-month grace period, and choose from a variable or fixed interest rate. But when I asked about special deals for Red Lobster employees?
“We don’t have any specific loans for Red Lobster.”
It's unfortunate since you would think that a company like Red Lobster would want to actually try to come through on this kind of a project. There isn't much lost financially for Red Lobster in helping get college loans for its employees and they may even attract more motivated employees who will work harder and potentially not leave the first time they're given a day after night shift. Of course, Red Lobster is owned by Darden—not known for being interested AT ALL in its workforce.
Maybe you remember when it was leaked that they planned on cutting workers' hours below 30 a week in order to get around paying for healthcare under the ACA?
Because Darden continues to see public outrage over its initial plan to cut workers below 30 hours a week to avoid providing health insurance as a reason for its earnings drop, company executives continue to put the word out that they won't be following through with that plan. But since 75 percent of Darden's hourly workers already don't get 30 hours a week of work, and Darden has been aggressively cutting labor costs through both pay and staffing cuts, it's not like this backtracking makes it anything but an exploitative, race-to-the-bottom kind of business.
I guess, in the end, it isn't much of a surprise. Just a continuing disappointment in a company.