Panera Bread reviews

3.4

49% would recommend to a friend

(18,762 total reviews)
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Paul Carbone

40% approve of CEO

32% positive business outlook

Panera Bread has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 18,762 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
1.0
Apr 7, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Serving the customers, making their espresso drinks

Cons

The "Culture/environment." VERY POOR rushed pos training, which is a very complex touchscreen sub-category menu with limitless modifications to each food dish that takes 3 weeks to learn & you are expected to in 2 hours, the line worker sneers at you like little devils if they have to bring you peanut butter, they rip into you to blow off their own stress for no fault of yours, they run out of breads during lunch rush & don't tell you so when you ring up an order they can yell at you again, 10 hour shifts of standing, catering coordinator always interfering with your job & snapping at you, tripping over you, bumping into you, reaching in front of & across you to grab things, no respect of personal space, the supervisor tells you to switch out coffee for them or make barista drink orders, & when you do, the gm scolds you for following instructions & tells you NEVER to leave your register for ANY reason, complete inconsistencies in communication & protocol between managers, they cut your hours to 10 a week to get rid of you, they lie to you about everything, when you call them on the phone they dodge & avoid confrontation claiming to be too busy, the managers are a nightmare straight out of hell & the few employees that they do like are mini-reproductions of them. The hectic hostility creates anxiety, which spills over onto your personal life outside of work & causes post-traumatic stress syndrome & extreme burnout.

4.0
Oct 31, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Within my franchise, there is opportunity for growth, but you have to be creative in climbing the rungs on the ladder. Selling a finished product that is created from quality ingredients and seeing my customers satisfied is a fulfilling part of my job. Benefits are good, but only for management, and free food on the shift helps as well. Panera as a whole values employees and invests time and money into proper training to create successful team members.

Cons

From management to associate positions, the pay is not proportional to the work load that is required. I believe that I could hire higher quality associates if I could pay them more, but my franchise has caps on pay with no benefits to associates, even those that work full time or are hourly managers. Upper management within my franchise does not take recommendations from store-level management, even if the practices would increase sales and transaction growth.

3.0
Oct 22, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Hours are decent and I don't smell like alcohol or french fries at the end of the shift.

Cons

Side expectations, such as labor scheduling, food cost critique and general reports invariably fall on your personal time do get it done.

Viewing 55 - 57 of 18,762 Reviews

Glassdoor has 19,059 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.