Pros
Very friendly/laid back atmosphere in my department (kitchen), met a LOT of new people over my two years there, subsided NVQ training, (mostly) cooperative, learned a lot
Cons
Salary - I was there two years and given increasingly demanding tasks/responsibility and was never on more than minimum wage. Worked on average an hour overtime each day (longest was three hours) and never got paid extra. Towards the end had my hours cut so I didn't even have enough time to do my day's work, and then got complained to for not having it done (???) Some staff have a superiority complex and think it's OK to watch you struggle because you're lowest on the rung. Managers do nothing to help. Never enough staff organisation on busy nights, constantly overworked. Saw multiple housekeepers/KPs who didn't speak a word of English, so communication issues abundant. Also had an issue with one of the staff stealing money from the cloakrooms which was never dealt with. Quite a hypocritical environment in the kitchen, though still prefer it to being front-of-house.