Poor quality of life! - Anonymous employee Potbelly Sandwich Works Employee Review

I have worked for this company since it was in it infant stages with only a few stores in major cities. Back then there was a sense of pride working for a company that cared about it's employees. I would wear my uniform to work and not feel ashamed of being seen in public. About 5 years ago the company changed CEO's and it's gone down hill ever since. We used to get a bonus every month only to have it taken away and returned quarterly with only a small fraction of what we used to get. We had our salaries frozen for 3 years and when they returned they are quite frankly a slap in the face for all the hard work we put in each year. We're asked to do things that are downright embarrassing like wearing brown paper bags scribbled with crayons advertising our latest promotion. There is miscommunication at all levels of management. We're told one thing from corporate management and something completely contradictory from local management. The main focus is to bring in as many sales and as much to the bottom line as possible, all while neglecting the well being of the managers and staff. There is a void of morale in the stores because the employees are asked to do ridiculous amounts of work for very little pay and after working in these conditions for entire year they are only given a small raise, usually somewhere between 10-16 cents per hour. The salary increase for managers is just as poor. We're not given the support we need at the store level to run effective shifts and when we aren't meeting our sales per man hour budgets we're forced to cut even more labor, making the work that much harder and it ever more difficult to meet our goals. Salaried managers are spending most of their days making sandwiches and taking care of customers, only to go home and work on the administrative aspects of the job because they simply cannot get them done while they are at work. I used to have a social life, now I feel like I'm tied down to a job I've grown to detest. My life has become work and sleep and has even gotten to the point where I work while I eat lunch, if I get to eat lunch at all. I honestly don't see myself working here much longer.