Worst job ever - Night Baker Panera Bread Employee Review

1.0
10 Mar 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some people you work with are great. Customers are usually pretty good too. Up until Obama care, the benifits were decent.

Cons

This company needs to get it together. Managers are overworked, and the poor bakers are seriously over worked. Do not be fooled by the pretty package, and people foreward culture they pretend to have. They don't actually treat their employees with respect. If you're in school and looking for a part time job it might not be so bad for you. The whole bake program is a joke. They let their managers treat employees very poorly. They do not even come close to paying fair wages for the amount of work that is expected. Retaliation from management is a common theam, and I've never seen a schedule come out any sooner than 3 days before it starts, in fact it's mostly 1-2 days before. It's nearly impossible to maintain any sort of work/life balance. As long as their numbers look good on paper, they don't care how people are treated. Bakers are required to clock out for breaks they have no time to take, and when these things are brought up, you will be retaliated against. As long as the numbers look good on paper, managers can treat employees however they want. Most employees are not even paid enough to afford to purchase a meal at their own company, meanwhile they have 2 CEOs that bring in well over 3 million dollars a year. Oh, and an added bonus, they plan to eliminate even more jobs by creating ordering kiosks instead of cashiers in the near future. I'm assuming this is to save even more on labor costs since minimum wage has been going up.

Explore other reviews about Panera Bread

5.0
25 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great people with good morals and values. Fun work environment. Great food fresh ingredients.

Cons

Be careful not to burn yourself while baking bread. Can gain a lot of weight eating bread 😆

3.0
18 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

GM at this location is very on top of things, because it's the busiest Panera in Queens. Consistent hours. Shifts go by very quickly, especially in the morning.

Cons

Location is extremely busy so it gets very stressful, especially in the morning when someone is out / there is no second cashier scheduled so the single cashier in the morning has to clean the coffee counter, refill coffees, make drinks, stick bagels in the oven & serve those bagels, check and bag up RPU/delivery orders, get bakery items for barista screen, and ring up customers. It can get really intense when many people come in, which is most of the time. You will be running back and forth like crazy. Customers can be impatient, rude, demeaning, and nasty when the line gets too long. Not recommended for people who are sensitive, with high anxiety. As for Panera the company, this chain keeps making bizarre and difficult changes to the menu, all of which make employees' lives harder and harder. With every change comes strange, dismaying, and borderline impossible expectations for frontline staff that cascade down through management who cannot do much to alter the hard policies. You can tell the company is struggling greatly to keep itself relevant with the younger crowd (a solid 80% of customers are old people). The CEO and everyone making company decisions at Panera is extremely out-of-touch. EXTREMELY. With every nonsensical menu & operations adjustment, you can tell these people haven't actually worked at a food service job in like 40 years.

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