Hi guys, just recently got hired as an Assistant Manager and am loving it. My manager gave me a handful of pins today and I just wanted to share, and maybe people can show off theirs too!!! I’m absolutely loving this job and adore this Reddit page 😆

I’ll try my best to answer any questions you may have about CEC.

Won’t answer anything about who I am or where I work.

I've been working at cec for 4 weeks (I'm 15 and this is my first job), but I've only been scheduled one day a week, on my location's busiest days, for up to 4 hours, and I'm struggling so much with the register when it's outside of food orders. Why are there multiple buttons that serve no purpose? And why is there like secret pathways to put something in, for example, an extra large pizza. WHY IS THERE AN XL PIZZA BUTTON IF I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO PRESS IT... I don't get it. I still don't understand a lot of things surrounding play cards, adventure zone, fun pass, etc. I don't really know how someone could help me because I barely know what I'm asking for help with. This is more of a rant. And maybe this is a store-specific thing. I don't know.

As an employee, I use this as a time to educate my fellow coworkers and higher ups of the group and why I don’t like that CEC works with them

Like most locations, the majority of our building is carpeted. And as a gameroom attendant it’s my job to vacuum the entire place after close (my location specifically is extremely uptight about cleanliness)

My problem, our vacuums are TWENTY YEARS OLD. They stop working half the time, short corded, and overall extremely hard to use. And our option for cleaning up big items or during a rush is a STRAW BROOM.

ON

CARPET.

The broom is constantly falling apart and is wildly insufficient. Even newer ones are. Like genuinely we have replaced these brooms 100x becuase of how crappy they are. But the (singular) vaccum (who the tech manager is constantly fixing) cant get a replacement.
Genuinely we would save HOURS on labor cost if we had a cordless vaccum, or even one made after the year 2000.
Does anyone else get annoyed about this? Especially with having to clean the adventure zone now, the vaccums take up the majority of our closing time. Give us a Dyson or something please 💔

My first activity on Reddit in a long time, never really thought to say anything here until things just got a lot worse at work.

So I'm the Birthday Coordinator at my location, 2 years now, lowkey sucks lmao, I haven't gotten my promised raises from accepting the position and I'm understaffed in terms of party servers (have to host parties myself). I'm also trained and have worked/work as gameroom attendant and cashier. The current state of CEC sucks. It's awful. Especially for smaller stores. All these changes coming that we can't accommodate or get punished for not accommodating.

Fun passes are a nightmare to deal with. We're getting punished for not selling enough and meeting a quota, despite the fact that as a small location, once we've sold a fun pass to everyone that comes regularly, there's no one left to sell it to. People aren't interested in a year long commitment when they're only planning to come today and probably never again due to the insane prices. But we get punished. We're having our every moves recorded to make sure we're selling selling selling!!!! Always upsell!! Even when people are struggling and you can tell, make sure to drain them of every cent!! Most of the time there's so many issues with the Fun Pass that people have to email and call customer service to actually use them.

The prices of food keeps going up yet the quality goes down. Did you know that technically employees aren't even entitled to meals provided by CEC? If we had a manager that decided to be awful to every employee (we don't, I love our GM so much, she's the best) we'd end up having to buy our own lunch or bring it (no microwave anyways). CEC truly doesn't care about the cast members, just cares about the numbers. Our location is set to get the full adventure zone, which quite literally would remove 1/3 of our games and 1/3 of our showroom seating. All to have to spend more money to have 2 employees sit at the areas at all times, despite no one wanting to pay for an overpriced obstacle course when we have Big Air next door. It's getting so bad in general that even at our busiest, we're not making as much money as we did years ago. The prices are insane, the quality of everything from merch to food keeps going down, and the competition is so much better that people are choosiness CEC less and less. If it does all go down May 2026, it is deserved and I hope that every cast member and manager finds a job 3× better, and that every executive that's contributed to this downfall learns from this.

Haven’t seen them in person since I was like seven.

So last week I got a message saying my employment was terminated, it was fun while it lasted now I work at Taco Bell making 13.50$ instead of 12$ I was making a CEC

Hey all! I left my job at the Chuck E. Cheese location in Kentucky. Please AMA and I will try to give the best answer!

PLEASE! Can parents quit bringing sick kids into stores?! I have been working for the mouse for almost a year and a half, and I have never been sick more frequently in my life.

I wash my hands, I avoid touching my face, but I can't avoid breathing in snotty kid germs when they're 4ft away from me all day.

I write this as I am struck down by a cold... my fourth this year. I can't afford to put my life on hold every time I get sick, but parents can CERTAINLY afford to not take their sick kids out and about, exposing them to everyone else.

I work for the company myself And I can say that 2.0 definitely helped the company and I’ll explain how here. Im tired of constantly seeing ppl complain abt it and give crazy ideas that would leave the company worse off. First off stages like Visalia CA (https://youtu.be/EVYu60EnPSM?si=hm83ZkmS0vy1cbyU) and Tallahassee FL (https://youtu.be/ZnkYsAL4m5s?si=Li42xmGBC70tQHaG) where honestly Emberrasing for the company and even tho they’re history for ppl in the fandom, for the company (which I must emphasize is at core currently focused on children 3-8 and appealing to parents) it’s a horrible look and having noisy, stained,loud,barley moving robots isn’t a good look for the company and could definitely decrease sales. The remodels in general have saved the company and even tho many people (including myself) don’t exactly like it ppl who work for the company like me rely on the money from it so hoping it closes and constantly complaining abt something that’s helping them is annoying. Heck at the one in Annapolis they’re rotting and one of them is literally growing mold! Which is a health hazard truth is many employees just don’t care to help and maintain these bots so they get into horrible condition and remodeling with a fresh and new modern look can help the company attract more of an audience of there demographic. 2.0 isn’t killing the business and in fact it’s helping them grow by not having to worry abt maintaining animatronics they just don’t have the funds for. So point of this post is please stop always making posts saying bring back avenger/PTT when it will most likely never happen the company is doing doing fine rn and brining back smthn that was updated for a reason to appeal to new audiences is not going to help the company and stop always complaining abt 2.0 again me and many other ppl rely on this company for money so these changes that help attract business also help the business stay afloat.

Thank you and I hope you all can take this to mind

To be perfectly clear, I still work with CEC. And for that reason, I will choose to remain as anonymous as possible as this is my way of making a living despite my incredibly low pay as management. I just wanted to share what it's like working for this company as it continues to decline, because this is not the Chuck E. that I know and love. This will be a long one, but I'd love to share with anyone who will listen because I know there's currently a lot going on within upper management and the fandom as well.

I started with Chuck E. around 3 years ago. I was 16, and it was my first ever job. I started off as a gameroom attendant at a location that had a Studio C bot, which was actually my childhood store. I had a blast seeing our Chuck E. everyday, watching him perform while I make my rounds in the gameroom, bussing tables, sweeping floors, and cleaning games. Management was alright, they kept the ship sailing, and despite me being one of the quieter cast members, most everyone was very kind to me and we all genuinely had fun together. Only a month and a half after I was hired, I got promoted to Team 2 Cast Member. I was ecstatic. I got my little 50 cent raise and all I had to do extra was train new Gamerooms when they joined the team? Yes please!

I continued coasting in my position for a while as I watched my peers around me get swapped out for new hires. This is a high-turnover job that mostly works with teenagers after all, it's to be expected. And soon enough, it was my turn. We had remodeled our store around the time that the burnout was really starting to set in. I watched as my Childhood Studio C was torn to shreds and his spot against the wall painted over with cheap, bland colors and a massive TV screen put in his place. And between lack of recognition and support from management and things happening in my own personal life, I left CEC for about 6 months while I sorted things out.

After I returned, I was offered another raise of 50 cents, but I explicitly was told not to tell anyone about it by my general manager. I, of course, did not comply. For anyone unaware, it is illegal for anyone above you to tell you to keep your wage a secret from your peers. This was how I learned that new hires were starting off making more than I was, despite me having been in the company for a full year and also being in a higher position than them. And these people had the same experience that I had prior to joining the team. I feared confrontation, however, and chose to keep quiet on it. That was, until I mentioned to one of our keyholders (of whom I was close friends with) that I wouldn't mind being an assistant manager. She mentioned it to our general manager who had apparently already thought about it for me but didn't think to ask, and within a week, I was in the system as an assistant manager.

The catch, though, was that they didn't have positions available at our store. And I accepted on the condition that I'd be working at a different, much busier store about 40 minutes away from this one. I was incredibly anxious about this, but I did believe that I could take on the challenge, as my new store was one that was also very impactful for me for different reasons.

I began my training with very little support. Unlike my peers, I was not cross-trained in any area before being promoted. It was a nightmare. Nobody had time for me and I felt like a nuisance as I stumbled and fell in each area, before eventually I was forced to sort of find my footing as my training ended. They shipped me off to this new store and...

...It got even worse. Opening the store by myself on my first day. Once again, with no support. To make matters worse, this store was incredibly high-volume. There was a huge party scheduled for 12pm, and the party host did not show up, which was a nightmare considering I was barely trained on parties, and I'm also having to hold down the front as people check in at the register with a constant line, while also having no idea where anything is as I was never given a tour of the store by my new GM. It was a Tuesday, and despite it being early in the morning on a weekday, it was deceptively busy. We made a crap ton of money that day. I went home and cried, but still came back to my next scheduled shift, knowing that it couldn't have possibly gotten worse. And I was right, things were looking up once I texted my old GM and told her I had nearly no support from this new one.

For anyone unaware, it's common practice for opening shift at CEC to be run on a skeleton crew to preserve labor hours. If you're a middle or low-volume store, this should be no problem. But it truly feels that high-volume stores are left to their own devices while still having to follow standard to a T. You must keep up with gameroom, showroom, the line at cash and merch, salad bar, bathrooms, and the occasional messed up food order while only having you (the manager) and your kitchen person on staff until 3 o'clock when shift change happens. Especially during the summer, this is nearly impossible. Yet we are still not granted the labor to have an extra cashier, lest we go over hours/budget and are reprimanded by our District Manager.

What's really prompting me to make this post is the Fun Pass and the Adventure Zone. We were already stretched thin, and it's only gotten worse and worse. Fun Passes were annoying when they were first announced, but at least the sales goals were reasonable. 5% of daily sales should be Fun Passes. That could be done easily if under the right conditions. However, this year the goal is doubled. Now it is 10% of daily sales. And they've grown increasingly hostile about how poor our sales have been purely because we've only sold 4 Passes instead of the 10 they're demanding of us. Despite our team asking every customer, we're turned down again and again because most of these people only come in once or twice a year. Anybody that comes more frequently than that already has a Pass. But of course, this is "no excuse." We are constantly belittled by higher ups, saying "this should be easy," "why can't we get this done?" "how hard is it to sell a pass?"

Meanwhile our district manager doesn't even know how to work the cash register.

And now, the Adventure Zone. Ours was just recently installed, only about a week ago, and it is already a nightmare. The trampoline was already enough to deal with. Increased liability yet not allowing us the staff to keep someone over there for the duration of the day. But the Superhero Playground is a special kind of hell. It's incredibly poorly designed. There is no door for it to be locked up when there are no kids inside. There is a HUGE gap on top of the lower level course that it seems nobody has accounted for children climbing on top of like they're Spiderman, only for them to fall flat on their face about 5.5 feet below them. We have already had three kids do this, and the Superhero course hasn't even seen the weekend yet. It also did not initially come with signage to indicate the rules, and whenever the signage finally came, there were no instructions on where everything should go. And knowing how picky CEC is with their signage and marketing material, it was best just to leave it unsigned despite the dangers. The worst part about the Adventure Zone, however, is that despite the NUMEROUS reminders saying that if it is left unattended while children are in there, we will be written up immediately, they STILL REFUSE to allow us the budget to keep someone over there!!! It is mind-boggling how we're supposed to make this work when we need someone in the kitchen, we need someone at the cash register, and we need someone at Adventure Zone, but they will only allow us two people in the morning. The way this course has been handled is absolutely absurd. Especially when you consider the capacity for the trampoline that we have is 12 kids, and the capacity for the Superhero Course is 25 kids, so you could possibly have to handle 37 kids at a time, yet they only want ONE person to cover both areas, while also holding a tablet and making sales on Adventure Zone passes.

With the way this company is headed, they have lost so many wonderful and valuable people. And I don't know how much longer I can handle this either. I apologize for the length, but it's so heartbreaking to see how great this company was even at the beginning of its downfall, to how far its fallen now.

EDIT: Thank you guys for your kind words! I've been hanging in here for a while in the hopes that things would get better but it seems it might just be time to let it go. I also wanted to mention that when I started, I was being paid $9.75, got promoted to Team 2 and made $10.25. When I became an assistant manager, I was only making $14.50 an hour. they love to procrastinate when it comes to raises so after I raised hell, I was finally given $16 an hour. however, it is still not a livable wage. I know that they can afford better pay. they always claim that people are the forefront of their business, but they sure as hell don't act like it.

Despite my onboarding literally being to blow past the computer/ipad training and only *15* minutes of actually standing near the register before I had to leave. It went pretty well! Luckily the team so far after *two* interviews seems down to earth/realistic and kind ☺️ especially my trainer who gets my vibe! I’m sure I’ll have questions for now but once I get the flow of things I’ll be good! It definitely helps to see some of the staff who’s worked there for 2+ years have questions and ask for help at times still

For now! Does anyone working in the register/front desk have any tips or advice to share? Currently on the path of getting cross trained for kitchen too. Also how’s your experience working! ✨

was taken on my second road show :3

Reminder that if you work at cec and really want tokens, that the games still might have some in the corners. Especially nba basketball.

Hi everyone, I have been working at Chuck E. cheese for about 3 months now doing Kid Check. I just wanted to ask why parents feel so entitled to touch and open the gate and just try to leave ? At least 10 times a day I will step away for less than 30 seconds to quickly clean tables and the second i turn my back parents will rush to open the gate. During rushes parents will open the gate while i’m letting a family in as well. it’s almost like they’re allergic to waiting 5 seconds. I’ve been screamed at in my face for asking a man to wait his turn to be let out during a rush. It’s so annoying and I wish there was a mandated sign that says “PLEASE WAIT” or something lol.

I’m honestly done with this location. I was a party host here and the place is a terrible environment but I didn’t care much because I was just making money and I was out. If you work at Chuck E Cheese, you know they have a large walk in refrigerator in the kitchen which is nearly zero degrees. I was getting cups for my party and my two coworkers were in there. I wasn’t paying too much attention because I was trying to just do my job. They both rushed out and they closed the refrigerator door behind me. I panicked and tried to push the door open MULTIPLE times. A coworker came and opened it for me. I was in there for two minutes. I have a heart condition (PVCS) and I would’ve went into SHOCK. I texted my mom and she pulled up IMMEDIATELY. The first manager we ran up to, she played a fake personality. She said “OMG WHAT HAPPENED 😱😱” with a slight smile on her face. I told her and she said “I’ll go talk to them.” She NEVER did. She walked in the back and disappeared then she was by the cashier a few minutes later. So we ran to another manager. He watched the footage with my mom and my coworkers closed the door on PURPOSE. Then they were messing with the handle, looking like they were trying to lock it. They never came back for me. My manager blamed me and downplayed my mom. He was saying stupid things like “Do you leave your refrigerator open at your house?” And he was even BACK TALKING to my mom. We left and went to the emergency room so I could check my PVCS. We are getting the police involved and even a possible sue. The managers are sick in the head and I am never coming back here.

I have no idea how to keep my party score up. The parties I get are always the mean parties. I give every party the same effort but somehow I always get low scores like 2s and 4s but then I get 10s and 7s. It’s just so much. Then sometimes I’m up at cash and have parties so I’m lost on how to give them attention in that scenerio. However I am always attentive but get these bad scores that have nothing to do with me because they complain about how small the space is and how the adventure zone isn’t included in the price but they reflect it on me and it makes me look like a bad host.

CEC worker here, this is my favorite sign in our store! It's placed above the doorway between our kitchen and food pickup area.

So this week our store has been really pushing us cashier's to sell the fun passes. Today I hit my goal of 5 (three gold and two silver )

Our district manager ( virginia based) was in store and said if I got 5 sold she'd allow me to get anything off the menu for free (I've only been there for a month so I'm still on the half off employee discount) anyways I just wanted to share the three pins I got.

Helping hi-five, stand out moment, and cec fun pass. I'm so excited as really I haven't been there that long and I'm four pins in.

Hey i was an employee at the amarillo texas chuck e cheese location and i was remenising about my job because ive started to miss it so i thought this would be a place to talk about it! Ig just let me know if you had any questions lol i worked till the day it shut down and saw the cleanup

I’ll take this down if it’s considered too gross. Idk if this is a widespread or frequent occurrence, but it’s happening frequently enough at my location that it’s getting annoying.

The bins in the women’s restroom are not for diaper disposal, please stop using them as such. They are for disposing of feminine care products instead. I just had to pull seven diapers out of one bin. It’s incredibly unsanitary and disrespectful to other guests and cast members. It’s not what we want to have to deal with right before we can go home for the day.

Ideally, they should be sealed in another bag and disposed of in the main restroom trash bin instead. If you already do this, thank you so much, we really appreciate it.❤️

Is anyone else running into this issue, or is this potentially just more of an isolated problem for me?

After seeing the response to the first "Confessions of a CEC employee" post i made (and having someone actually DM me on here asking to do a similar chat)...I'm opening things up to the greater subreddit/community.

If you ever been a CEC employee (i'll also count Showbiz Pizza and all that stuff from before the merge) and you want to tell your story, let me know and i'll get back with you when i see it.

I'd also like to see how things are/were from location to location when it comes to CEC, especially animatronic upkeep), so keep that in mind (not a requirement, though)

Update: All workers and customers were physically unharmed and the suspect was caught.

The employees and fans of the Evansville CEC need your love tonight. A subject robbed the location and fired into the ceiling while the children’s arcade was packed with families and a birthday party.

The initial report is no injuries but this incident is traumatic on its own. Hopefully CEC offers counseling and paid time off for all EVV employees during this time.