Panera Bread reviews

3.4

49% would recommend to a friend

(18,804 total reviews)
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Paul Carbone

40% approve of CEO

34% positive business outlook

Panera Bread has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 18,804 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Panera Bread employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Restaurants & Food Service industry (3.4 stars).

Reviews by job title

19K reviews
5.0
Feb 16, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent shifts - you either work morning, mid, or close. Great salary for managers. Good benefits for corporate stores - 401k for management, vacation time for salary & hourly employees, good health benefits also for salary & hourly employees. Regular customers are a joy. Associates are great & it's fun to watch them grow. Lots of internal growth. Lots of community involvement - food donations, fundraisers, etc. Friends in Knead helps employees through financial hardships.

Cons

Franchise stores do not offer the same benefits as corporate stores - no vacation time or health benefits for hourly employees, and 401k for salary managers in some franchises. Fluctuating schedule - it constantly changes. Early open & semi-late close - open is at 5 am and closing ends around 11-12 pm. Hourly associates pay is not as good as some competitors (mostly around $8-$9 per hour) Shift managers make around $11 an hour but are required to perform most if not all management duties

2.0
Feb 14, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great coworkers. Decent food discount. Flexible schedule. Good amount of Vacation. Company has nice values. Teaches you about new product in advance.

Cons

Manager. A good majority of the managers are two faced. They gossip about other managers, they tell employees different answers based on their favoritism. They are extremely stingy with raises. You will never have a consistent schedule. You will hardly ever get out of work on time. They overwork you and throw an occasional free meal your way. Girls typically work registers. A majority of the girls (not women) gossip about personal life. Panera customers are very particular and rude. Lastly drama, drama, drama; there is always drama.

1.0
Feb 11, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people who work here are mostly very kind and pleasant. Discounted food (although its very bad food)

Cons

Very early hours, you will always be forced to take an unpaid 30 min lunch even if you are only working a 4 h shift. The starting pay is extremely low and they won't raise you for 60 days. Its very corporate and they want you to engage with every customer who are mostly very rude and don't wish to be disturbed. They really want you to drink the bread cool aid and be passionate about all their products which besides the perhaps bread (grocery store quality) are of very low quality and grossly over priced.

Viewing 304 - 306 of 18,804 Reviews

Glassdoor has 19,101 Panera Bread reviews submitted anonymously by Panera Bread employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Panera Bread is right for you.