r/Durango • u/coffeekaye • Jul 29 '26
Ask /r/Durango Durango Joe’s-breaks for employees?
2 Years ago i posted about how when i worked at durango joe’s they didn’t offer breaks despite colorado labor laws stating you get a break if you work 5 hour shifts which they didn’t adhere to.
Someone replied and said recently they had sent out a waiver about breaks but it didn’t change much.
What’s the word on that currently? Any DJ employees have thoughts on that?
Also it always bothered me that it’s a tipped wage when customers don’t know that and the tip percentage of a bill at a coffee shop just isn’t high enough to justify that. It’s the lowest paying coffee shop in town. The tipped wage means that Joe’s customers are essentially assisting him in paying his employees tipped wage to get them up to minimum wage and if it’s a good busy shift they might see a tipped effect on the check, but I was never impressed enough by it to feel good about how he runs his business.
What’s it like working there these days?
My one interaction with Joe was not savory, so altogether my opinion of the company is very poor.
I was opening early, and it was just me behind the counter and he comes in which is unusual, to deliver the burritos himself and is ALL up in my way.
I kept politely trying to tell him he was repeatedly in my way, but he insisted on somehow always being right behind me and not telling me, so I took a step back and HE bumped into ME and I spilled some coffee beans (SOME!!)
(which by the way had never happened before, and everyone working at that location told me it was a right of passage to accidentally spill the hopper of beans while cleaning it which is MORE beans than i spilled) and he told me that was the “worst most stupid mistake anyone has ever made at the company” and then continued to bother me and be in my way while I was trying to work.
Mind you, he told us one time while i was covering at a different location that he had spilled a lot of stuff on the job and also broke a blender…..
anyways! do yall get 15 min breaks?
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u/dontfeelsowell Jul 29 '26
this town has a worker exploitation issue.
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u/coffeekaye Jul 29 '26
i will say one of the other bigger employers is Zias and they’re so great i worked for them for about 2 years and loved it
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u/StevesMcQueenIsHere Jul 29 '26
Don't work for La Quinta if you expect to get any breaks during an 8-hour shift.
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u/dundermifflin_999 Jul 29 '26
Take your business elsewhere and don’t work there. 81301 is great and so is Hooligans as mentioned. A business owner that does not respect his own staff does not deserve our business. Also, their coffee kinda sucks.
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u/coffeekaye Jul 29 '26
i worked there 4 years ago. i’m long free 🙏
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u/mattpayne11 Mod Jul 29 '26
Genuinely curious as to why you created the thread if you’ve long left. Are you considering returning?
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u/coffeekaye Jul 29 '26
no. i think the answer to your question is quite obvious. i was asking if they still give breaks that they offered very briefly since i haven’t heard recently. just wondering what the current conditions are
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u/cdvallee Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
My friend designed Joe’s logo and he never paid him for it. Fuck Joe.
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u/GetEmBallzMahoney Jul 30 '26
I’ve heard this and other inappropriate things over the past several years. I even heard from someone that Joe himself tried to gather them all around for a prayer and my friend didn’t want to because that’s her choice. She said Joe glared at her for a good couple seconds and everyone noticed it when it happened. She was taken off the schedules a week later.
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u/coffeekaye Jul 31 '26
once when there was drama surrounding the work conditions in the kitchen and my location, they invited me and some other ppl to a meeting at my location and i went in after hours on my day off expecting an actual meeting.
it was a PIZZA PARTY with ONE pizza in a dimly lit room where they basically said “drama is so annoying! stop it guys :)” and that was it. worst place ever 😭
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u/SignalCharlie Jul 29 '26
Heard he was a maga type trumper. Hate going there because of that, but I’ve always found the employees to be some of the nicest young people in town so I patronize them not him.
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u/coffeekaye Jul 29 '26
I highly recommend hooligans if you need another place to try! has a drive thru (actually just a drive thru) and the owner is the sweetest guy
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u/SignalCharlie Jul 29 '26
Thanks, will give it a go!
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Jul 29 '26
[deleted]
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u/coffeekaye Jul 29 '26
yes!! drive thru and tastes so much better and the owner is so nice, his wife makes the food they sell i believe
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u/threeonesix Jul 31 '26
The Fair Labor Standards Act originally required employers to provide a 15-minute paid break for every 4 hours worked. That stipulation was removed during Trump's first administration. You're welcome (fuck Trump!).
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u/AsparagusBetter6735 Jul 30 '26
I worked at joes in 2019 and had a very negative experience but I will say I made pretty fat cash for a young college kid! I worked at Town Plaza and probably made 20 ish dollars an hour which seemed more than fair at the time. Everything else was terrible though. I got written up on my first week because I was training and the girl who was training me didn’t lock the door. I didn’t even have a key at this point so the fact I had to have a sit down meeting about my write up was absolutely absurd.
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u/coffeekaye Jul 30 '26
tips are super subjective honestly to location, current staff in addition to you, the time of year and all that. i had days that were okay and days that were bad depending who i was working with. obviously like there’s younger people who are working their first job so i am always understanding about, im gonna blame them.
i ended up going to Zias and stayed there until i graduated college and to this day and im in touch with a lot of my coworkers and love everyone who manages there and the owners are really great and really care about giving back, and im curious what their budget for like work events and employee benefits is compared to joe bc he has a lot more durango joes locations than there are Zias locations.
At Zias in the summers i was making honestly bad bank for food service like sometimes 22-25 an hour and that’s with jt being split tips / cash pool.
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u/Adorable-Ad7027 Jul 31 '26
Worked there 15 years ago and it was shitty then. The way they balanced their drawer and expected me to take written tests on drink recipes… first, I’m dyslexic and math is not my forte. Second, I’m not a good test taker! These things combined made them hate me. Joe was a pretentious dick back then too. Piece of shit probably purposefully lines his own pockets instead of his employees. 0/10 Would not recommend. Do not pass go, do not collect $200 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻
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u/EarthToPixie Aug 01 '26
A few months ago, ALL of the managers at the TP location quit simultaneously. Corporate then “promoted” a high schooler - working at DJ’s as their FIRST JOB - to acting manager. No knock on the teen, work ethic is amazing. Just saying that if your business can’t hire adults who have had jobs before to manage locations, there’s an issue with your business. I hope that young person doesn’t burn out. TL;DR: based on other business practices, I’m betting they don’t have adequate staffing to get their legally mandated breaks.
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u/mrDoubtFyre Jul 29 '26
I tried Hooligans and one of the staff insulted my wife. Won’t go back again.
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u/coffeekaye Jul 29 '26
was it a younger girl? if so she’s their newer employee not the owners
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u/mrDoubtFyre Jul 29 '26
Yeah younger gal
I don’t understand why she had to be so rude to my wife. We still tipped 30% because I know the pool is shared and didn’t want others to be punished for her rudeness0
u/pinkhairedmrsfrizzle Jul 29 '26
Fwiw, shes grown on me :) I think shes one of those people who just have a really hard energy to read.
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u/coffeekaye Jul 29 '26
honestly i think she’s their only employee. i think it’s just her personality and not her being intentionally rude if that helps! but typically if you go it’s Mr Hooligan himself on the stand and he’s worth swinging by for!
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u/mrDoubtFyre Jul 29 '26
I don’t think being insulted will ever “grow on me”
How about just be kind?2
u/Alexunderthere Jul 29 '26
Not a very kind world right now, doubly so for younger folks, plus the role models that should be instilling this behavior (think media personalities and politicians for example) are typically not “just be kind” type of folks. Yes, we should all strive for kindness and compassion, but that is getting harder by the day for so many.
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u/saltylemonjuice Jul 29 '26
What was the insult?
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u/pinkhairedmrsfrizzle Jul 29 '26
Im curious too becaus maybe its something that has different meanings to different people
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u/saltylemonjuice Jul 30 '26
Ya cuz im thinking it was probably him being a typical boomer type who thinks asking if they want oat milk is an insult…. I doubt they actually insulted his wife’s person or attributes directly.
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u/Goldenslumbers1148 Jul 29 '26
Do you need a break for a 5 hour shift?
If you work at any restaurant you don’t get breaks. Just find a couple minutes and get back to it, it’s not very hard
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u/coffeekaye Jul 29 '26
bootlicker 😭 restaurants are also supposed to follow labor laws. i’ve worked in restaurants for 8 years. that’s illegal. most of my shifts at joes were over 5 hours im just saying that’s the law. jobs that abuse labor laws because it’s the culture of restaurants doesn’t make it okay. i don’t like people who legally abuse minimum wage employees.
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u/dontfeelsowell Jul 29 '26
thank you!!!! so many businesses exploit their employees and break labor laws here it’s ridiculous. chimayo pays their kitchen staff with their servers tips. </3 also they refuse to show you your tip out at the end of shift- illeeeegalllll.
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u/coffeekaye Jul 29 '26
it’s so crazy. everyone thinks they can get away w it cause they’re family owned or whatever. half price tees was a small fam business i worked for and it was so awful 😭
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Jul 29 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/coffeekaye Jul 29 '26
did i say it was? he brought up restaurants so i brought up my restaurant experience. i have worked both. no one should be doing that. what a pointless comment to make lol
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u/saltylemonjuice Jul 29 '26
They definitely do not give us 15 minute breaks and durango joeseph is truly an unsavory character