team member

shift leader

baker

general manager

assistant manager

Brueggers Bagels

My shifts started at 4:30 a.m. and I would come in and bake the bagels for the day. It was a very fast paced, hot, labor intensive job to do at 4:30 in the morning but it was actually very enjoyable. It taught me what hard work was all about. After about two to three hours later when the open bake was done, I would come out onto the floor and start on prep for the day. Building to certain pars to ensure smooth operations for the day of and the following morning. In the morning before the open bake it was necessary for me to check the catering website for any new orders that day and to act accordingly. If any catering calls came in throughout the day it was solely my responsibility to take care of the customer completely. I would take the call, make the order, deliver if necessary, and take payments online and over the phone as well as in person. Later in the day I would follow up with the catering customer to ensure complete satisfaction with the food and service and I would thank them personally for their business. While this is happening one other shift supervisor and myself were responsible for the smooth operations in the front of the house. Customer satisfaction is always first and it was our job to guarantee it. My co-workers were wonderful people. A little misguided at times but proper management always made the days run smoothly. The hardest part of my job was leaving during rushes. If you start your shift at 4:30 a.m. then your shift ends at 1:00 p.m. Fortunately the location that I managed at had very busy lunch rushes that usually started around 12:00 p.m. and lasted until 1:00-1:30 p.m. The only bad part of the lunch rush is that my shift would be over and they were busy and needed help but my GM would force me to clock out because he wouldn't allow overtime. This caused me to work a lot of hours off the clock because I can't walk out on my team in a rush. They need leaders and strong managers to carry them through. That is not the example that I want to set for my co-workers. Besides that I loved my job. It was difficult adjusting to the hours at first but after a week or two I had no complaints. The customers were great, the food was great, my co-workers were great, and I fully enjoyed working for the company and would do so again at some point. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
In the restaurant industry it's rare to have a position that gives you nights off, but this one does.  That, along with NO GREASE make for some great reasons.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
There has been a major shift from allowing regional managers to have legitimate input and decision making to instead running on a strict matrix and being data gatherers and messengers.  All of the individuality has been removed and replaced with 2 expectations only - you will make your labor budget AND you will score high on the customer review form which they use.  

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is now extreme pressure without understanding or flexibility. Successful and experienced managers will not enjoy this environment since it does not all them to manage group controls or to have any sense of ownership over their territories.  The culture points to a company that is likely up for sale and making sure the numbers represent the greatest "for sale" view, which will not last for long without causing competent personnel to exit and be replaced with a "churn and burn" labor plan. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
The most recent were to review yesterdays labor and ratings and review each with the respective General Managers to ensure that the budgets are being met.  No longer is any concern exhibited to individual needs or events. It's equal to one leader of a market stating that "no bakery has closed for one hour early while I've been here". This mentality should cause any qualified General Manager to head to any other concept since the statement guarantees that under no circumstances would an individuals story or safety come above a simple statistical bragging point - "no snow, sleet, blizzard, tornado, or event will impede the surety that hours are kept".

A typical day at work can start as early as 5am, when the opening supervisor and baker come in for the day. The store opens at 5:30 when all preparation for the day must be done and bagels are in the basket. From the time of open til close it is time to greet customers and help them. At closing, all registers are audited for the day and the deposits are made. The store must also be cleaned and have all bake items ready for the next day.

The biggest thing that I have learned from this job is the importance of time management and prioritizing. You have to be able to juggle several different orders correctly and get them done withing a certain time frame. It really does take great concentration and focus to always get orders done correctly.

I have also learned the art of multi tasking. Many days the drive through order taker not only takes the order, but cooks and cashes out the customer. This takes great skill and you also learn to not get frustrated really easily.

The store management always tries their best. They are constantly bombarded with new structures and rules from corporate (a new company has taken over and that causes friction from time to time). Sometimes there is a lack of communication it seems, but, this is not malicious just human error.

My co-workers are wonderful. We are a very small store (only 6 people there working) and all of us have different strengths, which compliment each other very well. We do get tired and grumpy, but that's because of the long hours we spend working so hard.

The hardest part of my job is standing on my feet for really long hours without any kind of shock absorption gel mat. The minimum wage starting pay.

The most enjoyable part of the job is watching the kids eat a bagel and grin from ear to ear, seeing the customers that come in everyday and know them by name, or just cheering up someone whose had a bad day with a silly joke.

Let me first off say, no company is perfect. I've yet to work for a company that did not have challenges. Bruegger's Bagels isn't a bad place to work, but the hire ups(upper management) treat the New Haven location(the state's busiest btw) as if they want it to fail.

Training is ok, as long as it's slow. That's the only time you feel like people are patient with you enough to train you right. But since the location was so understaffed most months, the location would scare new hires away, leaving so much work and stress on the shoulders of the ones of us who stayed.

It was challenging keeping a GM who wanted to take the abuse of the those hire up, again, treating people who tried for the position as if they wanted them to fail. The stores are dependent on labor, as they don't like to pay employees if it's slow, so expect to be sent home when the labor gets too high.

But that just puts stress on those who have to stay, again, forcing all the work of several people on one person.

Having spoke with managers from other locations, New Haven was the only store as disorganized as it was. Everything was always broken, and the shift leads and GM was always stressed. It honestly wasn't a horrible place to work in the last weeks I held out, because we were staffed better but since it was so many months of chaos, a normal day felt slow.

Overall, what's the worst about the job is upper management. They behave in a toxic way that makes employees that would have other wise toughed it out, to quit. If you have a tough skin and don't mind challenging the personalities of the management, you can definitely make it work.

But if you are shy and have a hard time standing up for yourself, you may not want this job. Tips are great when it's busy. Not so great when it's not.

This job is absolutely perfect (besides the near minimum wage pay) for the high school or college student. Your typical day is you walk in the back, set your jacket/backpack/personal belongings in the employee area, clock in, wash your hands, and begin stocking. Drinks, food prep, anything that needs to be stocked, that's the first thing you do if you have good work ethic. (The longer you work there, the better idea you'll have of what needs to be stocked before the rush. There WILL be a rush.) You get your gloves on, your cutting knives washed and ready, and begin taking orders. Rushes can last anywhere from 40 minutes to 3 hours non-stop.

Hardest part of the job is dealing with breakfast and lunch rush.

Most enjoyable part of the job is that at my particular location, 90% of the customers were lawyers and business professionals, so they were always very friendly and curtious.

Management (below the regional manager might I add) ALWAYS works WITH the employees. The regional managers and above, on the extremely rare occasion they decide to show up, they don't even ask what your name is. They boss you around and tell you everything you did wrong, meanwhile they don't even lay one finger on the food or drinks, or help at all for that matter. Typical upper management in the food industry.

You work 10-12 hours a day. If someone doesn't show up, you have to do the job of two people, because you aren't allowed to pay people but just above minimum wage or take hours from someplace else. They aren't allowed to be full time, so you have a bunch of part time people working for you that's like a revolving door. Because the turnover rates are so high, productivity and customer service suffers. If you somehow manage to maintain all the EXTREMELY tight controls, you get to keep your job, If your sales aren't up, they just get rid of you, instead of trying to help solve the problem. I was a GM and saw COUNTLESS managers come and go. The salary/bonus goals are unachievable and the bonus is based off of an expected increase over last years sales. The last year I worked, no one made sales bonus because of the economy. The worst thing I remember is the labor limits. We would be extremely busy, but only ever allowed a max of 5 crew members and maybe 2 managers (if your store had 2 managers), you walk across the street to the Chipotle or McDonalds and see 12-18 crew members working. It was really ridiculous, and they wondered why the sales always seemed to be shrinking. At the end of working a horrible 10-12 hour day, you are expected to go out and do business to business cold calls to increase your sales because there was no budget for ANY type of real marketing. Although the DM's were empathetic to the realities of working here, the REGIONAL manager was a real piece of work. But, as in many companies, upper manager has no clue how to even run a store when they dictate the rules in which to work. You see it all the time on that show "Undercover Boss."

As a shift supervisor you're in charge of managing employees, along with other shift supervisors and the store manager.......is what I was told, but not at all true.

As a shift supervisor, you have to argue back and forth with other supervisors, who are constantly wanting things done the wrong way, and then blaming you for it. Then, because they do things the wrong way, all of the other employees do it the wrong way. That and backstabbing among management is so frequent like a high school cheerleading team.

The store manager does nothing about it either, because she doesn't care enough to do anything about it. 


The typical day looks like this:

You have one person on the register, and maybe 2 people on the line if you're lucky, while someone is in the bakery. Having only 2 people on the line is close to impossible, because you have to cook eggs, sausage, make sandwiches, clean off dishes, take orders, help on register, make coffee, restock the line, and even more. All of this while there's a line out the door, wrapped around onto the sidewalk. It's impossible to run a store like this.

Your tips are usually pretty good ($100 a week usually, more around holidays) and if youre a shift supervisor you don't really have to worry about not having hours to work, just having people to work with. 

The restaurant is in a terrible condition, and needs a lot of work, but sadly no one wants to put the funding into it, to have it run properly. That mixed with management needing to be completely replaced, it is not an amazing place to work at, in it's current state. Which sucks because this place could be really great. 

A typical day at Bruegger's involves making lots of sandwiches and fountain drinks for customers and checking people out at the cash register. Team members also clean up, which involves sweeping, mopping, taking out the trash, etc., and moving heavy boxes of dough and cleaning supplies. Team members are also responsible for slacking bagels to prepare them for the baker the following day. The management at my location is great. My managers give us a lot of leeways and are supportive, and understanding of their staff members, and they also are willing to step in and help or defend staff members when there are issues taking place. The overall work environment is pleasant. The hardest aspect of this job is staying on your feet for long periods. It's a physically demanding job that requires you to constantly be on your feet serving customers, which may be difficult for those with disabilities. Another challenging aspect may be unruly rude customers it can be challenging to stay professional and polite for some people when being faced with difficult people especially those without customer service experience and skills. Some of the most enjoyable aspects of this job include making meaningful connections with customers and other employees this job is great for building skills in customer service and food service as well as time-management and leadership.

Typically, you come in and hit the ground running. You ask the manager what needs to get done, and there's never a shortage of things that are needed to stay on top of. expect to jump from task to task as customers come in. The managers are effective at managing work priorities however. They will keep you updated on where you are needed at any given time. You will be on your feet for most of your shift, but are allowed to take short breaks whenever it gets slower.

Management is friendly and supportive, however the biggest problem me and my coworkers at the time had was scheduling. We tried to stick to the schedule as we would create weekly, however with the occasional employee emergency, you can expect a last-minute call to fill in a shift on your off-time. Also, the managers will sometimes forget not to schedule you at a certain time which you are not available.

The workplace is generally fun and friendly, however on particularly busy days the stress of customer rushes and mounting responsibilities can take a toll on everyone. That said, when things settle down, everyone takes a breath and things lighten up again.

The hardest part of the job is that you're standing for most of the day, and running around takes a lot of your energy. But here, we know how to live a little when things get done, and we have many nice customers too.

I would usually get to work at around 5am in the morning and would bake the bagels in the morning to prepare our food for the day for our customers. Also make a few different kinds of coffee before we had opened the shop at 6:00am. I also would wear a headset to take care of the drive-thru customers that would come through as well as make sandwiches and handle the customers at the front counter that would walk in. I'd cash out the customers after handling their food as well as pour them their coffees. I usually was the manager on shift at this establishment as well but every once in a while we would have myself as the assistant manager and my general manager on the weekends during the early morning time before noon as that was the busiest times of the week for our business. The hardest part of the job was the busy hours where you would get multiple customers coming into the establishment and drive through at the same time, but our team would work together and make sure that every customer got taken care of fast and efficiently while trying out best to give them good customer service. I also loved all of the regular customers I would have after working their almost every day for two years and be able to remember their orders and have their food/drinks ready by the time they came to the counter and surprise them in the drive-thru by knowing exactly what they would want.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Team member 524 salaries reported	$15.36 per hour
Shift leader 484 salaries reported	$16.21 per hour
Baker 339 salaries reported	$15.94 per hour
General manager 65 salaries reported	$64,008 per year
Assistant manager 14 salaries reported	$22.36 per hour

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