route sales representative

route driver

retail merchandiser

production associate

retail sales associate

Flowers Foods

Workplace Communication and Training:
Communication within the company often felt inefficient, especially during training sessions. New employees were often left to navigate unclear instructions without adequate language support. This created an environment of confusion and frustration. I believe implementing consistent bilingual support or better training materials would significantly improve the onboarding process.

HR Practices and Employee Support:
The HR department is unorganized and unempathetic in addressing employee concerns. Schedule changes were sometimes announced with minimal notice, creating challenges for those with pre-existing commitments. Additionally, some HR communications came across as unprofessional, which could negatively impact employee morale. A more structured and employee-centered approach would likely enhance overall satisfaction and trust in HR.

Fairness and Workplace Culture:
The company struggled with fairness in break times and workload distribution. Favoritism was perceived in some situations, which can demotivate team members. A more transparent and equitable approach to task assignments and scheduling could foster a stronger sense of fairness.

Safety and Resources:
The availability of safety equipment and essential tools was inconsistent. For example, some safety measures, like the proper use of lock-out tag-out protocols, were not always enforced uniformly. Addressing these gaps would help create a safer work environment. Additionally, summer heat management could be better addressed through functional cooling systems and reliable solutions.

Leadership and Training Quality:
Leadership appeared to focus more on temporary fixes than addressing long-term challenges. Training could be more thorough and tailored to accommodate diverse employee needs, including language barriers. Clearer policies and stronger management accountability would greatly benefit the workplace culture.

Conclusion:
Flowers Baking Company has potential, but it requires significant improvements in communication, fairness, and resource management. While the company may work for those seeking immediate employment, long-term satisfaction would depend on addressing these systemic issues.


Flowers is an alright job. It's extremely hot to work in the summer, especially if you work afternoon shifts. Depending on the production schedule, whichever of the two production lines you work in, and whichever position you hold, you'll either be short on your hours or work a lot of overtime. Machinery could be much better as there's a few too many moments where production is stopped for a significant period of time, whether it's in makeup or wrap. If you pay attention to what you're doing and learn how the machines work, the job is easy. It's only hard if you make it more complicated than it seems. Same with other departments. 

The pay is good and the benefits are really good with Flowers. As far as the people, I'd say it's a mixed bag. Some people are really kind and help you feel good about working there, some are more introverted than others but there are some who are just plain rude and impatient. Most of the supervisors in the whole plant are at least approachable and nice, save for the few who are just unpleasant to be around or talk to. Turnover is really high. I've seen so many people come and go with the biggest reasons being the schedules and/or people. Some areas has people working six days every week or at least two 12-hour shifts every week. This rarely happens but if you're working in an area that's already short people and one person calls off or goes on vacation, that's almost a whole week working 12s. Most trainers are patient and clear when it comes to showing new people how to work but some workers like to make it difficult for the new people and lose their cool if they don't nail the whole thing down in two days. Or even worse, some would try to get the new people to quit within a week just to blame whoever's training. If you stick with Flowers, I'd say the people would be the biggest obstacle to overcome, especially if you work with the most stubborn workers or the most gossipy. There's a ONE Team lunch every month so that's something good for us and every six months a department goes without an accident is a steak dinner so that's fun.

Flowers is one of the best paying companies in the area, however that does not come without consequences.  The work/life balance is terrible. Typical work hours for the production floor are 12 hours and they are not on a typical 2-2-3 or 4 on 4 off schedule. If you are someone who has a lot of plans on the weekends and like to have them off, this is not the job for you. You will work a lot of weekends and most times when it is your weekend off, they will still call you to come in and work. It is not a climate controlled environment, so it will get HOT in the summer and cold in the winter. The jobs itself are not hard. If you have common sense and are a quick learner and self starter, you'll do fine. It is a very fast paced workplace. You are in a bakery making bread so you could be assigned to any job from scaling the ingredients to mixing the dough to baking the bread to bagging the bread.  Management has been changing recently and with new management comes new ideas/concepts, some of which are bringing this place down and HR is unable to hire enough people to keep up with all the employees that are leaving. It used to be a great workplace but they are in this new mindset of "Bakery of the Future" but you cannot be a bakery of the future operating 10-12 year old machines and equipment. Management needs to ask for more input from production employees who are on the floor every day. However, recently they have gotten better about employee appreciation such as buying employees lunch (we usually have a food truck once a month), perfect attendance drawings, and other incentives. So like I said, it's great pay but you'll be at work so much you'll barely get to see your family or spend your money. You will have good days where everything runs smooth and extremely bad days where there is bread all over the floor. 

● Work-life balance
You LITERALLY have no life whole owning a bread route. You are controlled by power hungry sales managers and threatened with escalations by stores. You have to focus on the route 24/7 and drop what you are doing if you get escalated or have an empty spot on a grocery store shelf. 👎

● Pay & benefits
its commission so you need steady, large account to make the most money. Holidays sucks because your accounts are closed. Snow and natural disasters are when you make the most money unfortunately.

● Job security and advancement
there is no job security. If you lose an account because another bread company undercuts you, there goes your money and equity towards your route. Flowers can take your route from you if this happens to many times. No advancement in that Industry. You would have to sell your route if you wanted to become a sales manager and nobody in their right mind would want to work directly for that company.

● Management
sales managers are puppets just like the independent operators. They only care about their bonus and making themselves looks good so if your accounts are not where they want them then you will get threats of escalations and $150 charges

● Culture
it is terrible.  You are forced to do as each account wants and what the sales manager sees fit.

● Overall
Not enough space to write what really goes on when you own a bread route through flowers.
- work every day of your life
- every expense is on you
-  no vacation
- no sick days
- holidays hurt your pay 
- accounts are not locked in
-  warehouse not secure( trucks broken into multiple times)
- escalation =drop what you are doing and find the product
- order 2 weeks out like we can predict the freakin future
- you have pay the have a day off
- have to find someone and pay for vacation( company can't help run it for you)
- bakery will send the wrong product/damaged product or not send it at all, leaving account low then it becomes your problem to deal with.
- just don't do it

I was hired to be an operations supervisor and help promote best practices. My responsibilities also included assisting in office operations and riding with sales associates. A typical day included showing up early in the morning between 1 AM and 5 AM to help break down the load and load up the truck. After I would check messages and faxes to see changes for the day and print off reports from the previous day. after this I would ride with a sales associate helping in any way possible and coaching on sales and looking for new business to expand the routes. The most enjoyable part of my job was the people that I worked with many of them were older than me but I was able to earn their respect by helping them in any way possible when on route. I have found in order to be a good manager/supervisor you need to have the respect of the people that you are working with. The hardest part of my job was when one of our spare associates injured their back which made my job much more difficult. Any time their was more than one person on vacation I ended up running a route (this happened alot). The office said that my position only required 40 to 50 hours a week. I was also told that I would not have to work on my two days off. I had to run errands for our customers at least every other week due to product shortages. The last 2 months I was employed with Lepage I was working 75-80 hours some weeks which meant I was going home sleeping and heading right back to work.No vacation pay for the first year with one week after the first year. After I broke it down I found the last two months I was working for 4 dollars per hour! I brought up my concerns with the office and I was told: (this job is not for everyone).

I was called at the last minute for an interview for the following morning with no flexibility. The caller from HR informed me that a manager had recently left the company and that they were sharing her duties. As to her excuse for scheduling a late appointment. I arrived the following morning after making an emergency rescheduling to my day, had a wonderful interview, mostly because I exceeded the minimum qualifications for the position and had a diverse background in the food industry. My interviewers were impressed. About 2 hours later to my surprise I received an email stating that my background did not meet the necessary skills of the job. I called HR to inquire, a woman informed me that it was a clerical error and they have yet to make any final decisions. This didnt sound like accurate so I emailed the director of human resources to inquire futher. She never responded..... I called a week later to inquire again, the same woman informed me that they have made all hiring decisions and I should receive an email stating that didn't get the job, which I did the first time....... I explained to her again why i was calling and asked why I was not hired since it's false that I did not meet the qualifications for the position. Her answer was short. She said she didn't know. She didn't conduct my interview. Clearly the enployees that interviewed me weren't apart of hiring process since my excellent interview and qualifications didn't translate over to the actual hiring offical. Well needless to say HR needs some work. The individuals that I spoke to on the phone lacked professionalism and experience.  The method in which they hire is falsely advertised. Do not waste your time applying.

Start up Company.  We had a difficult time creating a cohesive team.  Most of the department heads were first timers.  Their communication skills were not good.  They missed the importance of it.
A typical day at work for me began by doing a walk through of the facility and making notes on GMP's, Safety, Housekeeping, Answer Questions, look for possible maintenance problems, etc.  Fill out a Corrective Action Report and send to the proper departments.  Checked email,  Attend Production Meetings and Product Grading.  Retrieve my mail.  Review previous days production documentation and mark any corrections that needed to be completed.  Sent that to the Director of Manufacturing.  Did any training that was scheduled and any unscheduled training noted from morning walk through.  Completed an Intensified Inspection of the scheduled area for that week (one time weekly).  Met with Sanitation Manager as I had oversight of that department.  When needed, worked on Document Control, Label Changes, Internal Audits, Preparation for BRC Audit, Problem solving as they came up during the day.  Helped on the lines if they got behind,  My typical day at work was very busy and required good time management.
The hardest part of the job was in the beginning.  We had to create all of the documentation documents, Write a HACCP Plan, etc. for the start up.  The company wanted me to prepare for a BRC audit within 6 months of start up.  That was all a very fun challenge but very difficult as well.
The most enjoyable part of the job was working with employees and helping them get excited about the product that we were shipping out.

The hours worked at this job were not optional. If someone in the shift before you messed up it was on you to fix everything. You could walk in thinking you are working an 8 hour shift and be forced to work a 12+ hour because of 1st shift not working as hard. Your schedule changes daily/hourly. I remember looking at my schedule 2 hours before my shift ended and having the next day off and then going to leave and it showing me having a 12 hour the next day. If you need a job with flexible hours this isn't it. You have no idea what your night or week is going to be. If you are bored and like to work constantly then this is your job. They don't do promotions anymore. My cousin was just demoted after 20 years of working there because her position was eliminated; now she makes entry-level pay. The most enjoyable part was all the friends I made working there. Without my coworkers, the job would have been unbearable. It takes about 3 weeks to get used to the back pain because you are hunched over all day trying to reach snack cakes. You get paper cuts all day on cake line so your fingers are all bloody and you have to get off the line to get band aids frequently (though the paper cuts weren't that big of a deal people just kept asking if I had a cat). It teaches you endurance at this job and I am happy to have had it. I am a tougher person because of this job. It taught me how to use my hands and fingers quickly and how to respond to my environment faster. There are really good people working there and it's just sad they will all eventually get laid off. I had to leave this job to start school because they wouldn't negotiate my hours. I hope everyone there is doing good!

You get a 15 minute break every two hours.... usually. As long as you're not forgotten or breaks don't run behind or there's enough people to even run breaks. Asking for a day off was a nightmare and if you get sick or your you need to leave for any reason regarding your children you can go, but there are reprocussions. You work 6-7 days a week and at least half of those are 12 hour shifts... (but when your shift is over you still have to stay even longer for end of shift things that can take up to an hour of longer depending on whether or not your supervisor is going to be gracious or petty....)with no regard to your families. There is no lunch. Supervision is mostly petty with the exception of some really really good ones. They do not accept women in the makeup, maintenance, or anything higher than a supervisor. I was there a long time and never saw anything higher than a woman supervisor.


The upside! 
You make really good money and as much of it as you are willing to work. The insurance is amazing for the most part as long as your a flowers employee. Some of the Supervision is astounding. They carry awards, and have appreciation dinners. Before covid they were really good. During and post covids height they ordered personal pan pizza. Pizza was awful but the thought was what counted. They donate a lot of food to disasters and other charities. Your 15 minutes every 2 hours is PAID. It will get you out of debt pretty quick as long as you do your job and actually try. It's really not hard, just fast paced.  


As with any job there is good and bad. 

On a typical day, I will arrive to work at 6:30am.  Briefly check any new business email.   Then, visit around my distribution center with my six sales representatives before they leave out on their daily routes.   I will then proceed to update the office calendar with upcoming sale promotions and analyze the previous days sales and make sure that my representatives have ordered sufficient product for the upcoming week.  Then, I will visit stores within my market with the intentions of visiting with store managers and ensuring that my company's products are suffieciently merchandised by my sales representatives.   Around mid afternoon I will return back to my distribution center and review daily activities with each of my sales representatives.   After each sales representatives has reported in for the day, I will leave work, usually around 5pm.

My past two years of management experience has taught me how to realistically operate a profitable business, while understanding the needs, wants and expectations of a diverse employee group through leadership.

The hardest part of my job is handling extensive work hours.   While trying to balance a family life with work life.

My job can be extremely personally rewarding, when I see consumers enjoying my company's products.  I am proud to tell friends and acquaintances about my company's products and the areas in which we service and explaining the logistics and processes involved in distributing our fresh baked goods.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
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Production associate 265 salaries reported	$19.52 per hour
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