Pros
-Starting pay. My starting pay was terrific, and one of the things that led me here in the first place. -No late nights. Potbelly is primarily a lunch concept, which means I'm home for dinner 5 nights/week -People in the shops are a LOT of fun to be around. They are encouraged to have fun on the shifts, which makes work more fun. -Customers love the brand.
Cons
-Favoritism is at a ridiculous level in getting promoted. I ran a 4.8/5.0 scorecard YTD for 6 month and was told I still needed to prove myself. Huh? -No ability to control my staff. They can, and will, get away with anything because HR will not let you fire them for anything. I've caught people stealing and been told I couldn't fire them. No Call/No Show? No problem! You can keep on going and working here, even though it explicitly says in the employee handbook you will be fired for it. -No development plans. Potbelly preaches about coaching, but my continuous development plan has been an utter joke. In the 7 years I've been with the company, it's merited 2 comments, total. Both of which were, "Good goals." -I've been promoted twice...neither promotion came with ANY raise. Huh? -Being forced out with little to no reason. I was told my inventory was out of control (0.51% variance is out of control?), and that I should start looking for another job because, I quote, "Improvement won't help. It's just a matter of time." Way to tell me my performance doesn't matter and you're considering termination for some political reason. Bye! -RIDICULOUS budget process. They ask us to write our own budgets, but by the time they come back they resemble absolutely nothing like what I wrote. I know I sure didn't budget myself a 15% increase in sales from last year, but that's what came back. Really? 15%?! -Benefits are rapidly disappearing. Used to get days off for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Took those away (from ops people only, Support Center works 3 day weeks for those holidays, we work 5)...prescriptive schedules for general managers...can't even write our own schedule anymore based on the needs of the shop...just what Alwyin guessed they would be for every shop that fits into one of 4 "brackets" from his ivory tower.