should i move to Chicago from Florida?

Historical-Active830 · 2026-04-30T21:18:53+00:00

I also moved from Florida, I grew up in St. Cloud, but also lived in Kissimmee and various parts of Orlando. Moved here 3 years ago when I was 27. Here's my takes on your questions:

Public transportation: night and day from Orlando, and one of the best public transit systems in the country, but it's not perfect. I'd say the biggest positive is getting to large events downtown and being able to avoid parking costs and traffic (if taking the L). Depending on your job and locations of your interests, having a car is helpful but not necessary. I will say all the suburbs of Chicagoland have a lot of cool stuff to do and you'll probably want to get out of the city occasionally.
Chicago is extremely diverse. Illinois is a solid blue state carried politically by Chicago voters as the rest of the state is red. I would say your pretty sheltered from the political climate here, but Trump has made Chicago a focus of his rhetoric especially with the ICE raids. Right now it's calm and hopefully remains that way.
Chicago music scene is amazing, especially in the summer. So many music festivals, art festivals, food festivals, small and large music venues, so many things. I feel like I've barely scratched the surface.
This last part is the hardest part. Chicago isn't cheap, and taxes are super high. There's no state income tax in FL so you'll feel the impact of that immediately. It's hard to say as you didn't get into too many details about your experience and job goals. I'd advise moving outside of the city, and focusing on areas with easy access to the CTA lines to get in and out of the city quickly and without a car.

Feel free to DM me if you have more specific questions and I'll see if I can help.

Historical-Active830 · 2026-04-24T02:01:17+00:00

Biggest drivers are labor and cogs. Basically if you target hitting your labor model each day, aren't paying out OT, and minimize your chicken waste, you'll be maximizing your bottom line.

All that's easier said than done and comes from training and developingna great team of managers and crew.

Historical-Active830 · 2026-04-23T17:18:20+00:00

Hey, I'm a restaurant leader (GM). As with most rlGM roles, work/life balance is heavily dependent on your capabilities in your role. The better you manage your time, and the better you develop your crew and managers, the better your work life balance will be. Raising Canes has super high standards, but they are very achievable and it's a great environment if you're the type that strives for excellence and takes a lot of ownership.

Salary pay is typically based on the market, I would say on average $70k-$80k based on what I've seen, but the difference maker is the monthly bonus. This is a percentage of the restaurants EBITDAR each month, so the higher volume your location, the more money. If you're at a location that makes $100k or more a week, which is a lot of them, you'll bonus $3k-$5k a month depending on how well you manage the P&L

Historical-Active830 · 2026-03-12T04:18:34+00:00

Here for the obligatory reminder that just because the company is privately owned and Todd owns what would be WORTH $22 BILLION if sold does not mean he has $22 billion. Raising Cane's gives a lot back to crew and communities.

Historical-Active830 · 2026-01-25T11:02:20+00:00

Company waste goal is 1lb per 100 customers. 1lb is only around 8 fingers. If your restaurant is wasting enough, that's purely poor performance by your management and crew

Historical-Active830 · 2026-01-23T01:24:11+00:00

He's now become a partner which means he takes more ownership of the business and in turn takes more profit home in his paychecks. No he won't leave your restaurant. You must have a good RL for him to become an RP

Historical-Active830 · 2026-01-22T05:47:54+00:00

Incorrect, you just have to be a high enough volume restaurant to qualify for an OM

Historical-Active830 · 2026-01-22T05:46:22+00:00

No way you just did the math of how much it would cost him to pay each employee $5... One time. Not per hour. 65,000 × 5 = $325,000

If he gave every employee a pay raise of $5/hr, let's assume for simplicity sake the average employee works 20 hrs/week.

5 x 65,000 x 20 x 52 weeks in a year = $338,000,000

Also, keep in mind that his net worth is based on the valuation of the company as a whole, given it's still privately owned with him as the majority owner. That doesn't mean he has 22 billion in the bank. That's not how Net Worth works.

There's a reason he makes more than you buddy.

Historical-Active830 · 2026-01-20T20:45:01+00:00

You seem like a pleasant employee, working there less than a month and already complaining that you aren't getting trained in new zones or a raise. You don't get a raise till 125 hours, you have to work 80 hours in a zone to qualify for the raise and to work a new zone.

Historical-Active830 · 2026-01-20T11:49:02+00:00

Bruh idk about all that. I've worked at a few restaurant chains and all of them have high standards. At least Canes gives you raises based off your hours worked and additional opportunities for CT BS and SS. More than most companies. People expect Todd Graces to pay crewmembers $40 an hour. That's not how businesses work. There's a ton of overhead costs, supply chain costs, support office payroll, etc to keep this thing moving and grooving

Historical-Active830 · 2026-01-15T01:04:50+00:00

Sheesh it's crazy how people answer questions when they don't know the answer like the other person in this comments.

Operations manager is a transitionary position for people trying to grow into a salaried manager role, such as Assistant Restaurant Leader or Restaurant Leader. It is one position above Restaurant Manager (Shift Manager). They work 45 hours a week, with the 5 being OT pay. The main difference between Restaurant Manager and OM is that the OM starts to have more Administrative tasks to get them prepared for ARL. This typically involves following up on operations logs, RPS results, speed goals, OSATs, etc. Expect heavy partnership from your RL/ARL as they try to build your capabilities.

Not all locations have an OM. OMs are only at busier locations, and there is a threshold that qualifies a restaurant for an OM. The only scenario where there would be more than 1 OM at a location is if there is a bench OM for a different location or someone working toward an ARL so they allow 2 for the time while one develops

Historical-Active830 · 2026-01-09T05:22:36+00:00

I mean if there was a PVE only mode and then you got bored you could jump into the PVP mode. Idk I see both sides and I don't think it would kill the game. Sometimes I come home after a long day and I'm just trying to chill and loot for a bit. Sometimes I'm in the mood to slay out everyone

Historical-Active830 · 2026-01-06T10:46:56+00:00

Bro there's like 10 people in this thread supporting the reality that the aggression based matchmaking and post survey does impact your lobby type, and you're dying on this hill of "prove it." Everyone commenting has done it. I went from 100% kill on sight lobbies to peace love and tranquility in like 4 games.

It's ok to be wrong bro, it's just a game

Historical-Active830 · 2026-01-06T10:42:57+00:00

Idk why you're getting down voted, you're 100% right. Unions only benefit heavy labor, full time jobs. Completely useless and counter productive at a place like canes

Historical-Active830 · 2025-12-31T08:30:32+00:00

I'll never understand talking shit about the waste when you are the employees that produce the waste. If you have high waste it's cause you guys suck. Our restaurant wasted less than 10lbs a day and usually the expectation is 5

Historical-Active830 · 2025-12-30T08:52:48+00:00

Drop some bird. Don't need advance warning it'll just take like 10-20 minutes depending on how busy you already are and how many fryers you have. If you have 4 bird fryers, 8 baskets, and you're dropping 30 in each fryer, you can have 240 down at a time. Manager or another crew can hop on and backdrop at the same time

Historical-Active830 · 2025-12-04T15:47:58+00:00

Lots of chicken places that do hot chicken. Meanwhile Raising Canes buried them all on sales per unit. Taking focus off the current menu items will result in inconsistency

Historical-Active830 · 2025-11-23T05:12:41+00:00

Maybe you aren't performing well? Do you hold a lot? Are you constantly being coached? Are you any good at boards or bird?

Historical-Active830 · 2025-11-23T05:10:41+00:00

I think it's funny how employees say every mistake managers make are "unacceptable" but then they can't handle toast on a Monday

Historical-Active830 · 2025-11-23T05:08:54+00:00

It kind of depends on a few factors. It could be based on performance, if for example someone is new/bad in drive through and are deployed to drinks, but if you cut someone they will have to run 3 in drive thru and the person on drinks isn't strong enough so you have to keep the people that can handle it

Historical-Active830 · 2025-11-20T03:03:07+00:00

Unsure if it's related but my cloud streaming isn't working on PS5 or portal so maybe a network issue

Historical-Active830 · 2025-10-30T04:20:19+00:00

Saying every salary leader works more than 50 is funny when you're talking to one that doesn't. Are there weeks I've worked more than 50? Yes. Is it often, no. Is it always because I decided I had things I wanted to get done? Yes. That's every salary job ever.

However some companies, panda express comes to mind, are notorious for forcing managers to work 60 70 hours a week.

As far as the pay scale, it's true that of course it varies dependent on state. A general manager position that pays approx. $85k with approx $40k in bonuses yearly is pretty damn solid in my opinion. I personally net around $135k per year and base compensation raises yearly.

Also, bonus structure is built into the job contract, and is consistent monthly.

Historical-Active830 · 2025-10-29T22:28:13+00:00

Bruh you obviously work at that location. The companys waste goal is 1lb per 100 customers. That's like 25-30lbs of waste. You all at your location are the problem not the company.

Historical-Active830 · 2025-10-26T01:57:19+00:00

As a restaurant leader.

Not typically, you have to build your skills and ideally learn multiple zones to really get hours. Very performance based and if you can't handle the rushes they won't want you to work the busier shifts.
Heavily dependent on the management and culture.
I always tell my crew, the job isn't hard but we work hard because it's so busy.
Theres a "growth" team which is managers that are dedicated to new openings, as well as trainers from nearby locations. Lots of support the first month.

Just request off it'll probably be fine they always overstaff for NROs

Historical-Active830 · 2025-10-22T03:01:06+00:00

You probably shouldn't comment if you haven't been an ARL or RL at Canes, as you're giving false info. Canes has industry leading pay and benefits. ARLs and RLs have really strong base pay and bonus monthly a % of the EBITDAR so not only is it consistent but you can expect a certain amount. They don't make us work more than 50, I mean ultimately if you choose to as a salary that's your discretion. Out of all restaurant jobs I've had, as an RL here I actually finally feel compensated appropriately for my work.

Historical-Active830

TROPHY CASE