baker

cafe team member

production manager

Grand Central Bakery

Pros

-Pays comparatively for a bread baker in Portland and the health insurance provided is really good.
-In bread production, I had some of the kindest and hardest working coworkers I have ever had in my life.

Cons

-The good pay and benefits are Grand Central's way of maintaining their equipment. And that's how they look at their bakers, as equipment that makes their bread. They maintain the equipment until it breaks - then will do anything possible to not be held responsible for the physical damage the job causes the bakers. There are constant injuries on the floor and many people have permanent damage from the extreme daily requirements of the job.
-The atmosphere is extremely negative - management VS employees.
Grand Central makes money off the facade that they are such a positive company for the employees and neighborhood, and community, but that is not the case in the production facility. As a baker all I saw was a big corporation trying to cut corners and cut hours to save an extra buck. The social media profile and public image Grand Central Bakery is selling everyone isn't real. It's all about making that money.
-Grand Central leaders have handled the recent union efforts horribly (also while publicly coming out as being supportive of their employees right to unionize). There is a lot of hostility towards the bakers from upper management for unionizing.
-If the right managers like you, you will move up and have a good place in the company. If they don't like you, it doesn't matter how hard of a worker or an asset to the team you are, they will find a way to push you out (or make your life miserable).
-I worked with some amazingly talented bakers who are passionate about making great products and doing a good job regardless of the physical and mental struggles they face daily. It is such a shame the managers don't appreciate the large pool of talent and years of experience that they have at their fingertips. There is no chance for creativity or input from the bakers on anything. From management's point of view, the only real baker is the head baker (who does not take suggestions or criticism well AT ALL).

Short staffed & busy. Often while working we were understaffed we would have to stay longer past the end of our official shifts to do  closing tasks. 

While being routinely short staffed we would have to take lunch orders over the phone, tablets and our neighborhood regulars. This caused work to be more stressful and take longer since the cafe was usually very overwhelmed. The Bakers often had to cut their prep shifts short in order to help retail team members to finish barista or samwich bar rushes. 

Managers would purposely take long to approve vacation time even if you submitted it a month in advance because staffing was so inconsistent. 

I worked there for about ten months and initially I felt really Lucky because the culture of management is to shower newcomers in the positives of the job and after a month or so I began to see some of the more glaring issues within the real work culture. Management routinely neglected their duties like money closing, cataloging donation bread in the Square system and also barista closing. Also the manager I worked under was terrible about communicating about scheduling. 

Some cool people worked there with me but that ultimately didn't save me from becoming very run down and sad while I was at work. Also the prices are embarrassingly high. 

GCB has very good benefits package for a retail/cafe, paid vacation, matched 401k, healthcare and very generous company paid HSA. The overall purpose and mission of the company is clear and focused on creating sustainable and equitable practices within the food industry and our society. The upper management has good intentions and work towards guidance and training programs for staff. Retail managers are supportive and hardworking, yet are often over worked but do not complain. Some cafes have a better community than others, some individuals who would like to move on to something else but stay because the benefits are so good, but the good ones are really wonderful and are like family! The pay scale and hierarchy of the retail store staff has changed often unfortunately this continues to lower the moral of long time employees, some who have felt their skills are gone unappreciated and who feel that they cannot grow within the company even though management encourages growth. The company made for higher pay scale before the minimum wage boost was approved in Portland, and the tips can add up to be very generous.  As a former employee I only left to follow other personal interests.

My job as a maintenance tech had easy days and hard days. Some of the team has been there a very long time so there is a definite social grace period, you need to earn your stripes and show that you can be counted on but there is a strong mutual respect within the team. Getting PTO was relatively simple as long as you gave ample notice. You spend a lot of the day working alone so you need to be trusted to complete your tasks, if you fail to self motivate you'll definitely fall behind schedule and end up staying late. It's the blessing and the curse of the job, there's a set amount of work that needs to be done each day. If you get after it, you can go home early, if you procrastinate you'll end up wasting everyone's time and keeping your co-workers there late. 

While working in the cafe I had an enjoyable time until we lost our manager because she was completely over worked. I soon started to feel tired and when I asked people about if this was common I was informed more than common, and that Grand Central Bakery had a long history of exploiting employees, especially bakers and janitorial staff. They have been involved in multiple labor disputes, and despite community pressure laid off an entire Cafe and closed it to expand the company. All they are interested in is money. Not being local, not creating a family community in the work force, just making expensive bread for the bourgeois to enjoy at whole foods.

I got along well with my coworkers, there was a sense of teamwork which I feel is pretty common in food service environments. They have everyone share front-of-house and back-of-house duties, which I enjoyed the variety of. Managers vary by location, mine was kind of hands-off but very kind. The customers can be entitled sometimes, and you’re told to just grin and bear it unless they literally start screaming, that was the only con of this job. I was promoted to a shift lead after a couple years there.

We would arrive at 6:30 and begin work. Each person would have a station for the day and a list of the required product that needed to be produced. There were five different stations. Yeasted doughs, benchwork, un-yeasted doughs, sheeter, and scaler. After each station had fulfilled their quota we would break for lunch. After lunch everyone as a group would work together to form the croissants, this usually took 1 to 2 hours.

Everyone there was friendly and willing to help if any problems or questions arose. The management was approachable and friendly.

I have enjoyed working at Grand Central Bakery since September of 2013. I enjoy working for the company because of its team-oriented work ethic and how consider all of my fellow co-workers have been so far. 
I also appreciate the companies passion for serving quality ingredients and recycling and composting almost everything within the bakery as well as donating the leftover bread and pastries at the end of the night.
Although the job entails a lot of cleaning and repetition, overall its a good job with plenty of benefits to offer.

A typical day involves helping customers with pastry orders, making sandwiches, doing dishes, and making coffee beverages. The management is excellent: thoughtful, responsive, and makes you feel like a real human being. The location I worked at had a strong culture of pride. The hardest part of the job is being customer facing for hours on end, the most enjoyable part is the camaraderie between employees and the joy of your customers.

Racist management, retaliated over a minor issue, was taken off the schedule with no contact during layoffs, no response from gm or store manager, got the letter after emailing hr, manager sent inappropriate calls and texts during and following employment, told gm that m insulted customer to their face and was accused of "starting beef" by the manager, training was laid back "because of holidays", CEO released email explaining that she believes the company is too progressive and "Artisanal"  for unions and third party involvement for workers' rights

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Baker 3 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Cafe team member 8 salaries reported	$17.05 per hour
Production manager 1 salary reported	$31.46 per hour

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