Pros
I worked for GG for fifteen years, from the transition of Dobbs International to the Swissair-owned Gate Gourmet, then the Texas Pacific Group era and more recently the current Zurich/Reston-based organization. The company culture dramatically changed throughout all these periods, due not only to survival necessity but also several decisions made by its CEOs (e.g. relocation from Memphis to Reston which cost in the process the jobs of many dedicated long-term employees). I will go over the negative aspects of this evolution on the section below; the main positive points lie in the fact that many old-time managers are still managing GG units, and do their best to meet their financial goals without the brutality now personified by the executives and its HR dept. It is also a company easy to get in (corporate office jobs don’t pay well while the cost of living in Reston is one of the highest in the country), so for a recent grad it can be seen as an option to work there a couple of years to build job experience then move on to a company with better growth opportunities.
Cons
Anybody who earned raises through promotions and relocations throughout his/her career at Gate Gourmet at some point becomes a target because they are only looked at in terms of salary, not their past and potential future contributions. I personally got many outstanding reviews over the years, can honestly say I made a positive difference in any job I have held (I met and worked with most of the executives and unit General managers over the years, and consistently earned everybody’s respect- yet I got brutally and quite viciously terminated, with absolutely no explanation, no “thank you” for my many years of service, just a lame excuse of job elimination. At the same time other positions for which I would have qualified were not presented to me, and I was treated by HR in a way I wouldn’t wish my worst enemy to be treated. And this type of treatment has now become the standard at Gate Gourmet. Turnover is very high, because nobody looks at their career at GG as long term anymore (if you are adventurous enough to look at this company long term, you expose yourself to the quasi-certainty of being terminated down the road because you now earn more than a recent grad). When the corporate office relocated from Memphis to Reston about ten years ago, only a handful employees relocated, and staff got fully rotated several times since the move. There is an absolute disconnect between the field, where many old-timer are still employed at all levels, and the corporate office where there is little understanding for what is done at the units, and where the vast majority of the employees don’t work more than a couple of years.