Pros
Within my franchise, there is opportunity for growth, but you have to be creative in climbing the rungs on the ladder. Selling a finished product that is created from quality ingredients and seeing my customers satisfied is a fulfilling part of my job. Benefits are good, but only for management, and free food on the shift helps as well. Panera as a whole values employees and invests time and money into proper training to create successful team members.
Cons
From management to associate positions, the pay is not proportional to the work load that is required. I believe that I could hire higher quality associates if I could pay them more, but my franchise has caps on pay with no benefits to associates, even those that work full time or are hourly managers. Upper management within my franchise does not take recommendations from store-level management, even if the practices would increase sales and transaction growth.