Panera Bread Reviews

Pros

Great people
Great experiences
Opportunities for advancement

Cons

Not always receive constructive feedback
Management changes often

Pros

some great co-workers
flexible scheduling
good food and good discount

Cons

discrepancies in corporate policy vs. reality
low pay for hard work
opportunities for advancement are few and far between
not much opportunity for raises $$

Advice to Senior Management

Get your managers/shift leaders on the same page!! One tells me one thing, another tells me something else.
Line workers need to take more pride in preparing the food- in our store, the sandwiches are just slapped together....it's hard to take pride in serving some of the stuff.

Pros

If you can handle Panera, you can definately handle working at any other place. Benefits and health insurance are pretty good. Two days off a week, about 50 hours per week, which is not bad for a salaried manager.

Cons

At least at the one I work at, people are many times hired for the way that they look, not for the experience they may possess. Advancement opportunities are few and far between. Many times managers are not even made aware of future promotion positions until after someone else has already been chosen, many times an employee with less time with the company. Starting salary is much less with franchise stores compared to corporate owned stores.

Advice to Senior Management

Really look into your people who run your stores. They work very hard, however many will not stay for long, as there is little incentive for moving up in company or even getting a well earned raise.

Pros

the people are great. most are good hard working people.

Cons

the management can be very disrespectful to people that work there sometimes. i've even seen them disrespect each other.

Advice to Senior Management

why should people care about what you need if you treat people around you like crap to get it.

Pros

65% employee discount on food.
Lots of friendly people to work with.
Provides customer service experience.
Flexible schedules.
Fun work environment and lots of customer interaction.

Cons

Management does not appreciate hard work. They have the attitude that they could get any fool to do the job. Absolutely no room for advancement / promotion. Have worked for the company for over 4 years, they will never make me a manager. They hire managers off the street and have their associat trainers like me train them.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote your long term / experienced employees. They are the people that do the day to day work, they know the business, they should run the business.

Pros

5 day work weeks, 2 weeks vacation, salary was fair, bonuses were given every three months, holidays off, no late nights

Cons

not a lot of feedback given, people are demoted often without seeing it coming, bonuses often took months to get after issue date, managers were often brought to tears by supervisors

Advice to Senior Management

give constructive feedback in a timely manner, understand all the tasks we are in charge of and schedule meetings accordingly

Pros

Great food and mostly good coworkers

Cons

Employee training is now mainly done on a computer and has resulted in less qualified employees than a few years ago

Pros

Great discount
Food that I can be proud to serve
Very nice people
Great reputation - proud to say I work at Panera
Flexible schedule

Cons

Mixed messages from management
No continuity between stores so if you are transferred be prepared to relearn processes and rules
Poor communication between managers and employees

Advice to Senior Management

Get on the same page. Be strategic. Remember to praise your employees for a job well done.

Pros

the food is really good. they gave a decent discount

Cons

Management, they would let people take constant smoke breaks while non smokers got a 20 min lunch for an 8 hour shift

Advice to Senior Management

Get some new management

Pros

Working with other younger people
Can be fun in right environment
learning about different types of food
50% off discount up to 10 dollars, but only on days worked for more than four hours and only at store worked

Cons

Management talks down to employees
Poor work environment
Very poor execution of duties
Training is a complete joke, employees are expected to just hop right in to a very fast paced job
Pay is very low for a very intense workplace
Breaks are given depending on how managers are feeling that day, even if your working 9 to 10 hours straight
No time to rest, must keep moving at all times in a very tiring job
Bi-weekly pay and never seems to be right ( always very low hours compared to what worked )
very high employee turnover due to poor management

Advice to Senior Management

Instead of working your employees to death with no benefits or breaks, provide management with better insight on how to ensure the work environment is a safe and enjoyable one