Bruegger's Reviews

Pros

Pleasant working environment, fast paced

Cons

Centralized decision-making: decisions came from Virginia to our Iowa store which didn't handle anywhere near the same volume.

Advice to Senior Management

Visit your stores more often to see how they ACTUALLY work.

Pros

Brueggers was over all a fun, easy place to work. Good for high school students, but not for someone trying to support a family. Had the opportunity to form good relationships with my customers.

Cons

Like I said, good for students, not for someone trying to support a family. The pay is awful and raises? Forget it. I got one raise in two years. Management was a freakin joke, had no idea what they were doing. I worked for a franchise and our owner was terrible, he was late paying people, late paying the bills, late on pretty much everything. Constantly running out of product. No benefits at all, no room for growth or advancement. Not happy with them at all

Advice to Senior Management

Freakin get it together people, treat your people right and they will stick around. You have such a high turnover rate because your management sucks and your people get treated badly.

Pros

Closes at 8:30 weekdays 6:30 weekends- no late nights
When not super busy, can be fun
You get to know customers well
Free Bagels

Cons

Hard work for minimum wage
Very early hours
Weekend mornings=always stressful and fast pace

Bottom line it was a very stressful job for something so meaningless. Not worth it in my opinion.

Advice to Senior Management

Be careful on who you hire for manager and AM. If they aren't creating a positive and helpful environment, it shows in the lower employees and in their work.

Pros

Most of the senior management truly care about you. It's nice, but they all work very hard and some things get forgotten. I dont think it's malicious, but it is disappointing at times. Fantastic product. Seriously, just about everything made is delicious. You have a voice and are able to express yourself during meetings without backlash.

Cons

General Managers are expected to work more than 50 hours if the bakery needs it without extra pay. Very little support is granted. You need to ask for support and usually it's given, but senior management is doing so much that this creates more stress on them, so you are hesitant to ask. In my tenure as a GM I've worked 60 hours a week consistantly every week. Makes good quality of life hard to achieve. Some marketing and training decisions are very questionable and wish washy. Especially the training department. One of the worst training departments I've seen in the restaurant industry. Inconsistancy is the norm and a lot of the weight is placed on the GM for the creation of a good training system. Most GMs have no clue and forget the important things like placing orders so they have product, or dont know how to use the hiring program brueggers acquired. Until recently, every promotion that came out made it harder and slower for employees. Asst Managers in this company are aweful and it's because the way the company treats them. The company holds the GM's responsible for every aspect of the business, so the GM's dont want to give anything up to the Assistants and the Assistants end up being glorified team members.

Advice to Senior Management

Training and marketing needs to get on the same page for either to be successful. Seems like training is trying to get everyone on the same page and marketing continues to introduce more product. Asst. Managers need to be paid salary as well so it's not only the GM's that are putting in extra hours on their own time and so the Assts can have more pride in their work.

Pros

*The actual product offered to the public is high quality, fresh, and highly edible.
*The customers who frequent the business are usually friendly and often regulars.
*Nice locations mostly in safe neighborhoods.

Cons

*The pitch used to spur interest in employment is that there are "No Late Nights". That is true, but the tradeoff comes at having to start work during the pre-dawn hours.
*Terrible training...almost nonexistent. Handing a managerial candidate a large multipage manual during breaks and down periods does not constitute training.
*Some GM's were hostile to the point of going over the line of professionalism.
*Poorly vented kitchen/baking areas...100+ temps with no relief is not a good working environment.
*Very disorganized and chaotic...too high a level of crew turnover.
*Favoritism runs high.

Advice to Senior Management

*Do backround checks on your general manager candidates.
*District managers need to listen to concerns of crew and lower management...especially when the welfare of the business is at stake.
*Act in a mature and responsible manner.

Pros

If you like bagels its good. you can get out of work by 4 which is nice. Most days are 12+ hours which is not what they tell you.

Cons

Upper management has issues. To put it nicely they lie about how many hours you need to work. Expect 12-14 hours days every week. They are always hiring managers. They haven't stopped in the 3 years I worked here. People come and go. They even relocate people here. from other states or areas where they work for Brueggers. Then they leave cause it is so bad.

Advice to Senior Management

Staff and training/ These are the reasons people leave so much. Don't yell at people either

Pros

The customers that come in everyday know your name and are excited to see you. The environment and workers are fantastic and fun.

Cons

The salary was not high enough for the work completed. There was always a ton of work to do and the salary was never able to increase.

Advice to Senior Management

Shift Supervisors are managers and run the store by themselves at times, but they have no discipline abilities for those under them.

Pros

its a paycheck-- at best--

Cons

As the native americans once said :they speak with forked tongue" there is no moral backbone in this co-- they will do whatever and to whomever as long as they cut salary- cost lower cost of goods sold and generate more bottom line and they do this in the most underhanded ways

Advice to Senior Management

look at succesful rest co and learn how to give great cust service it isn't by cutting staff to 0 and then beratting them for not doing a perfect job then firing them

Pros

You get to start shifts early and end them early to free up rest of the day. Easy, straightforward. Discount/Free food.

Cons

Nothing about this job was terrible. They dont really make you do anything you wouldnt expect them to ask of you. The worst part was smelling like an everything bagel after work; but nothing a shower cant fix.

Advice to Senior Management

Find ways to make work more fun, even if its just little things like getting to know your employees a little better.

Pros

Easy restaurant management job, no late nights, no waitstaff or kitchenstaff, great corporate training, 2 paid holidays for managers

Cons

EARLY mornings, no paid time off for one year, family insurance really expensive

Advice to Senior Management

Give 3 weeks paid vacation in this industry from the start