Pros
Possible to work a good number of hours a week as they are consistently short on employees. The now hiring sign out front never went down in 5 years. Their starting pay was also higher than some other restaurants. Their brand is on the rise, opening new stores and increasing sales each year.
Cons
Panera can be a very frustrating place to work. When you point out something common sense to your manager, they will reply, "We don't want to be like fast food!". For example containers of plastic ware that are used constantly for to go orders. are located on a bottom shelf close to the floor about 10 feet from the bags and 20 feet from the bakery products. So every time an order is to go, plan on walking all around, squeezing by coworkers and bending over multiple times. After moving the plastic ware and bags next to the product and on the counter instead of the floor I was reprimanded. "that's not where those go!" and "we don't want to be like fast food!" is what I would hear every time I tried to use a common sense approach to my work. The entire store is like this, not just the bakery, and you'll be doing lots of extra work and bending over for no fathomable reason. The only thing I can think of is they want to keep employees bent over in front of customers. Sure they would never admit to that, but I think its the truth. Sadly after working there for years, my experience with Panera's workflow and process control has been that rather than to fix things and make it better, they have amazingly managed to make it worse, more time consuming, with no output improvement for the consumer. If you decide to work there, don't suggest improvements, it will certainly fall on death ears. Meanwhile, expect to get yelled at for taking a few seconds too long to get an order filled. Now that I've beaten that horse to death, a few other quick downsides to this employer. If you use the request days off book for a single day off, don't be surprised when the next two weeks you are scheduled for 4 hours a week when you were working 30. If you take a second job to better your income, expect them to only schedule you 4 hours a week. The turnover is high, you will be expected to fix it. If you made plans for your day off and won't cancel them, they will hold it against you on the next schedule. Panera is probably the most dangerous place I have ever worked. I saw a lot of people go to the emergency room for on the job injuries that could have been avoided with proper equipment. Real oven mitts for a walk-in oven is an example of equipment they could purchase. Instead, they use a cheaper pad that covers just the palm of your hand, so if something slips off the pan or you bump the oven door with the outside of your hand - you are getting a little scar at least. The Panera dining room is a very hard and demanding job. The floor layout is really terrible for getting that work done, and you are not allowed to use the bus carts to carry anything. So its constant long walk back and forth with heavy tubs of dishes and urns full of coffee. I've done the same type of busser work at other restaurants and it was much easier. The walk was far shorter and/or carts were allowed.