Great Bread, Terrible place to work - Apprentice Baker Proof Bread Employee Review

Dear Former Employee, I am very sorry to hear your feedback that Proof was not a great place for you to work. I want to own the fact that I likely contributed to that in some way. To clarify, I really dislike terminating employees. It is likely the absolute worst part of the responsibilities of ownership. I am very concerned with the idea that you were made to feel that disagreeing with me came with punitive risks. We should be able to disagree openly and have dialogue. At the end of the day we still need to agree on a course and be sure to work in a way that keeps things progressing, but I believe that disagreement is healthy and can lead to positive break throughs. I also believe that employees can often see pain points more clearly than management can. In reviewing the timing of your feedback I would like to acknowledge that I definitely needed to do a lot more to connect with all of the staff while you were employed. While I don't consider myself an angry person, I could understand why I would be received that way if you primarily heard about issues I might have had indirectly, and without the necessary context. One thing is clear, I did a lot to distance myself from individual relationships at work in 2022 and 2023. The process of moving from the garage was quite traumatic for me, and in that time my daughter was diagnosed with a life shortening neurological disorder and my mom passed away. All of these events rocked my world. I had spent years working on our production line practically without ceasing and in the time you were with us I realized that I needed to rebalance my own life in order to more effectively lead. I am genuinely sorry for the disconnect that you had in your relationship with me. Fast forward to today, we are working on striking the right balance between our administrative and financial responsibilities for Proof and our relationships with our staff. Amanda and I are delegating more administrative work so that we can re-involve ourselves especially with our production staff. We acknowledge that it is not possible to achieve the culture we are seeking if we put up walls and shield ourselves from the full range of experiences with our staff. If you ever want to offer your feedback in person and reconnect, please reach out to me and I would be happy to treat you to a coffee or a meal so that I can hear directly from you and improve Proof for those who follow. Sincerely, Jon Przybyl Co-Owner