baker

retail sales associate

general manager

cake decorator

industrial mechanic

Carlos Bakery

Working at Carlo's Bakery is enjoyable but could always be better. To obtain many hours is very difficult, i have been there almost a year now, and my hours still fluctuate from week to week. My payroll has never been consistent even when i have asked. Hours seem to boost immensely during the seasons/holidays but never last very long. The best part about working there, is definitely the staff, and environment. Our staff is relatively young, so everyone pretty much gets along. Managers are young and nice, never disrespectful, and very understanding. Coworkers are fun to work with, again because they are all young such as myself, but we all act very professional, its hard to believe sometimes that some are still in Highschool. Customers from all over the world come in, and that is always a blast. Just to meet people from the UK, or Brazil, and even Pakistan is an eye opener because, you do not really see that variety of people around all the time. What i have learned from this job, mostly is patience. Many customers are really picky about their food, and they have a right to be. Sometimes a customer will angrily ask me for an item, a question about one, or why an item is priced the way it is, and from working here i can say I have gained a great amount of patience that i have not been able to acquire at my previous jobs, mainly because the amount of customers is such a high rate at times and they really want to have an exquisite time/event for their loved ones, and that is very understandable.

What I have experienced working with them is not worth any amount of money. Lack of training was a huge problem starting from day one. This company seems to care only about the money they are making and over working employees rather than focusing on employee appreciation or improving the quality of their products. When corporate did work with us, it was a hostile work environment with very unprofessional methods of communication. They have a lot to learn about how to treat employees with dignity. Not very much was enjoyable about this job due to the amount of miscommunication, high amount of hours expected and the very poor company culture. If you have a family and want to spend time with them, good luck with getting time off on the weekends ever. HR and corporate are very distant and out of touch with what really goes on when they're gone from the bakery. You go into work not being able to trust anyone as it was a very "gossipy" and "she said , he said" type of work environment with many conversations taken place behind closed doors with one of the managers. The judgement from corporate and HR was unjust and directions given were very contradictional. I did however, enjoy getting to know the employees by working alongside them and trying to create a positive work environment for them.

Everything was super fast-paced. I had difficulty memorizing prices of items initially, but eventually got the hang of it. Was repededly chastized for not going fast enough, despite breaking a sweat and drinking 4 espressos before my shift. I wasn't suited for the super fast pace, but the worst part was management. There was a problem with customers coming in the wrong door, but my manager demanded the ropes be setup the same way every day. One morning shift while she was out I made a sharp "curve'" in the rope leaving one door, clearly indicating that it was the exit. That day there were only 2-3 customers who came in the wrong way. My manager was mad at me when she found out, but the boss came down and commended me for my solution, at which point my manager's opinion quickly changed. This might be specific to the one manager, but everything felt robotic and scripted, no real autonomy, no ability to improve, just stick to the script and keep a glued smile while frank sinatra keeps playing and you bend down to get the 300'th cannoli of the day. The worst part by far is that we were required to say "Hi! Welcome to Carlos!" in the most syrupy fake, robotic way, everytime a customer walked in. We would have customers in the line who were visibly annoyed hearing us say "Hi Welcome to Carlos!" the same way again and again and again while they waited for their food. It was kind of insane, but that was the "Script" so the manager stuck to it.

I will set up the decorating classwork for classes. There are usually 2-3 classes a day. I will set up turntables, toolbox, edible decorating items such as fondant and sugar flowers. I will tour the classes before being them into the classroom. The teacher and I will tell them about the Carlo's Bakery company and our popular items. We will then proceed to start class and give a demonstration on how to cover and decorate a cake. I will then pass the participants their cakes and help them with any issues or questions about cake decorating or the company itself. I will also sell merchandise such as mugs, T-shirts and cake decorating tools. The class usually last about two hours. I enjoy seeing people have fun decorating their cakes and just relaxing. I also enjoy meeting new people who travel far distances such as England, Mexico, and even New Zealand just to take a class with us. The hardest part might be the clean up afterwards but I can manage and get it done. My coworkers are the best people to work with, we have fun but we also work hard and get things do the right way. We make sure that our customers are happy and always satisfied. Management is great at Carlo's, my manager works one on one with all of us and always listens to any issues we have. I learned that a smile can go a long way and just being positive can make the whole environment that you are in a better place to be.

Typical work day consisted of endless drama & gossip from the workforce which didn't care about sanitation or customer satisfaction since the ranks of operations were rarely present. Managers & supervisors always slacked and pointed the blame at each other without accepting responsibility. Theft and unethical actions in the workplace was rampant & rarely addressed. High ranking Managers always covered up their mistakes. Cell phone use & chit chatting was always common among young workers. Hardest part was trying complete task with drama queens being dramatic over the small things like cleaning. The front of house was severely overstaffed with workers that rarely worked allowing the customer dining area to be filthy with trash everywhere resulting in the health department nearly shut down the NY locations due to poor management & operations who were dishonest. Most good workers don't last more than 6 months. Sadly I learned that gossip & drama in a corrupt atmosphere that was terribly managed and operated at the Carlos Bakery Time Square location ultimately effected customers which were neglected by the workers.

A typical day at work, depends on the day weekdays are steady and weekends are super busy, I am always on my feet. 

I've learned and developed many skills in sales and marketing as well as management over my seven years. One thing that remains the same and should stay the same is valuing the customers needs to keep them satisfied and happy with their experience and products.

I enjoy being a supervisor. It is very valuable to inherit extra skill no matter the position. I have the privilege of setting an example for my workers and making sure the business is running the way it should be. 

The hardest part of the job, balancing social life and work. Most of the time the job requires to work long hours but most jobs do.Taking in over 100 customers in one day and sometimes dealing with the long lines is the hardest especially during the summer. At times it can be an all day process considering we are a tourist attraction.

The most enjoyable part of the job is simply just being able to connect/work as a team with my employees/employers and getting the opportunity to connect with so many tourists from different parts of the world.

A typical day at work consisted with greeting customers, preparing their orders and completing their transaction. Time not spent with the customer was time in which we would change out the cases of food, clean up the storefront, clean the dishes or the kitchen. I learned a lot about the food industry as far as the importance of taking care of a customer and being able to communicate with them. I also learned a lot about food safety, preparation and cleaning. The management of the one in Ridgewood worked well as there was a lot of collaboration with the job involved. The culture and environment was great I made good friends and company with my coworkers and made it a fun but quick-paced atmosphere. The hardest part of the job was remembering the long orders of larger parties and preparing the food as requested adhering exactly to their directions. The most enjoyable was directly talking to the customers who came in and being able to suggest different items or answer their questions about the products.

I was a supervisor for a few weeks during the grand opening of Carlo's Bakery. From the moment the doors opened to the moment the last customer was served (mainly AFTER the store was supposed to be closed) it was non stop busy. The staff seemed to be hired without first considering their customer service skills and I dealt with very moody individuals who quit on a daily basis. I had to work extra long hours and the roles from opening staff to closing staff were COMPLETELY opposite. The closing staff was left with ALL the work of cleaning, restocking, and bringing back the store to opening conditions for the day staff. That was very stressful because we were always short staffed and had to stay late because there was so much to do. I was not paid enough to deal with the bad attitudes and being overworked. I had only 1 day off a week. Only enjoyable part of the job, was knowing how popular we were. Thats it.

I was not properly trained, management expects you to learn all of the prices and description quickly, (there's over 300 items in a study guide that was given to me , it's impossible to remember all of the prices within a week) getting use to the ipad sucks, most of the time I just searched the items cause some items are named differently from the menu and the ipad, I needed help making a capachino, no one wanted to teach me, I asked a coworker if she can help me she said yea, when I asked her if she can teach me, she said no, I asked the manager she said hold on and never helped. I only had one day of actual training, only thing I learn was to mess with the ipad, how to interact with customers and how to box all of the items, everything else I learned on my own. Also I barely made any hours, even with the grand opening.

If you are hired here, you (will) won't want to quit (within a week). If you have the fortitude to handle the (insane) quantity of customers and (poorly stocked and extremely small) work area, you can look forward to: A single 30 minute lunch per day, no health benefits or paid time off, clique-y managers and coworkers, basic supplies needed for the job running out on a daily basis, and many other (soul shattering) perks. Whether working alongside highschoolers or literally lying to hundreds of people's faces per day suits your professional tastes, then this is (probably not) the place for (any human with dignity or a moral compass) you!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Baker 9 salaries reported	$16.78 per hour
Retail sales associate 3 salaries reported	$16.25 per hour
General manager 1 salary reported	$57,500 per year
Cake decorator 1 salary reported	$24.00 per hour
Industrial mechanic 3 salaries reported	$26.00 per hour

Working at Carlo's Bakery: Company Overview and Reviews

Carlo's Bakery

Carlo's Bakery Ratings

Popular jobs at Carlo's Bakery

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected