delivery driver

shift leader

baker

campus representative

district manager

Insomnia Cookies

I worked with the company for 4 years, the first half through the COVID-19 shutdown, and had a great time other than stress of the increase in business. The second half got no so great when new products with little training guides or help from upper management came out quicker than we could go through the last product. The company has training videos from the 2012 on policies that no longer apply. They also tell new employees they have to watch the videos off the clock (with no compensation) or while at the store (where there is no time, no place, and no way to disconnect the audio from the store speakers as there is only one computer to run the store). I saw the company rebrand maybe 3 times and still currently have no idea what they are doing as they are phasing out things that would big sellers. The work culture can be great when there enough team members to cover all the stations during a incredibly busy night. Unfortunately with the abrupt changes in 2024 with hours, it left a majority of stores struggling to met the high expectations of the company and many employees having to seek additional employment or leave all together as it is not a liveable wage in my state to be paid 15$ but only get 10hrs a week. This as well left those who remain in a mental crisis as there seems to be no way to met expectations on busy weekend nights. If you are true to an open availability and don't care to be called in every night to work, this is a great place- but beware of how it can turn on you.  Management will cut hours if you disagree with them and will try to force you to quit with minimum to no hours. Policy continues to change every week it seemed and there is little to no communication ever between morning shift and night shift. There is no mid/evening shifts and entry positions never get to work mornings unless a blackout holiday. The benefits the company provides says it's open to all after a year but you need to maintain 30hrs consistently through the year, where it is impossible with the hour shortage in the company. They do not have a way to cover drivers getting into accidents on the clock with the new delivery driver insurance policy that was made, so most of the delivery drivers are out of luck if something happens as they are not advised to get it. Breaks and lunches are in the handbook but never get opportunities to be used due to the amount of busy and what needs to be done prior to being able to take a break- especially if you're a supervisor alone for several hours where you're not allowed to take one until someone else arrives. This job can take a mental toll on you and store will not close for hardly any circumstance. This is advertised as an easy job for college students and yet as a college graduate I was more stressed than I was in school. I think the only enjoyable parts I can think on after leaving were the chances to try to limited time options and the few friends I made while working there. This company was a dream for me to work at and now I struggle with a work-life balance with what I went through and new found esteem issues. I truly used to love this company and job for being the best with being understanding... I'm not too sure now.

title. i legitimately loved working here at insomnia. my time was made easier by several coworkers that worked hard and had the shift run smoothly and easily. initially, the money and overall vibes of the store kept me around for a long time, but things went downhill and i couldn’t find a good reason to stay anymore

pros:

work depends on who you work with on a shift- hit or miss based on who you get. there are some fantastic people that work here and there aren’t 

good money (tips and driver surcharge) when students are back in town + drivers get paid weekly

pretty laid back environment and drivers basically get to sit all shift long. only tasked to deliver cookies and make boxes. relatively hard to get fired. easy to make friends with management and easy for them to get rid of you 

accommodation to schedule requests are taken pretty well into thought. better when it’s busy. tendency to cut hours in summer 

cons:

lack of transparency with wage breakdown— upper management doesn’t know how your pay is broken down and misleads you by saying there is a difference between “out of store and in store pay”. your hourly is $5.  further past the manager, management is unresponsive and not helpful 

gas efficiency — when slow, having to take one order at a time will eat away at your gas. making it not worth it to drive twenty minutes for nothing

parking — not so much of a big deal as a driver if you have a car topper, but at risk of getting ticketed when not parked in official parking spots. never enough toppers to support all drivers on a shift 

lazy upper management/unprofessionalism — (management above shift leaders) that sit in the back, at the computer and stay on their phones, not helping the store and/or delegating tasks for others to do. manager frequently leaves the store, on the clock, to sit in car and stay on facetime. frequent micromanaging of employees but lots of unaccountability themselves. very casual environment which leads to this kind of disfuncional way of running the store 

no breaks — no official time delegated to a break. downtime in the store is considered your “break” legally have never been given a break or seen any other bakers or drivers get breaks. may vary store to store 

time flexibility — many times you’ll stay up to 30 minutes to 1.5 hours after your shift. no real respect for your time if you have a strict schedule. more aimed towards students that will drive during the school season when insomnia reopens until 3am 

expectations as a driver — only tasked to do two things (deliver cookies and make boxes) yet drivers will be forced to go above and beyond to do other tasks asked of them. **usually not an issue, as tasks are small. but unloading the truck for deliveries? upper management delegates everyone below them to do the work they refuse to do and sit back while it happens

I'll start by saying that I first heard about Insomnia in 2018 when a local manager headhunted me from the establishment I was at at the time.  The employer he pitched and that was portrayed through the initial training period and even my first year or two was an amazing one.  A place that wanted to treat each employee like an individual to the best of their ability, with better-than-average pay and benefits, excellent hours, and a future with plenty of advancement opportunity.

And at first, as mentioned, it was shaping up to be that company.  It was great.  Policy was clearly written and readily available, we had a responsive and experienced manager, corporate had a dedicated in-house call center for handling customer and employee concerns...  Seriously, it was fantastic.

And then things went weird.  Our region's manager vanished under mysterious circumstances, with our whole market literally receiving a two-AM email saying they were gone and wouldn't be coming back.  The digital handbook was withdrawn with promises of a re-write that never materialized, so policy was impossible to look up, review, or train on.  The company's original stated values were replaced with cookie cutter nonsense definitely developed for a different company.

Over the next three years, everything unique about the company was sanded flat and vigorously polished into invisibility.  The focus seemed to have become to make Insomnia Cookies as much of a faceless entity as possible, at a storefront level.  Employee hours were reduced as much as possible, with additional staff being brought on to prevent hourly workers from being eligible for benefits, and the 'better than average' pay was reduced to exactly minimum wage.

Ultimately, all these issues still feel more like growing pains.  Like some day, the company will weave a chrysallis around itself and emerge a brilliant, functional butterfly.  I like to believe that's still possible.  I like to believe that the company will eventually become whatever it's trying to be and it will be amazing.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The pay is okay, not great for all the extra work they ask of you but not terrible either

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The people.. This is a job that should be so easy but the people make it hard & almost intolerable, people come in & complain all day, they push their jobs onto others, they are quick to throw you under the bus to the management & the management themselves are corrupt/biased, they break rules openly that they expect YOU to follow, the HR department cosigns it too the HR department is as unprofessional as I have ever witnessed, you won't get a fair shake from them. Your work or efforts wont be valued here so come into this job WITHOUT  a strong will to work or enjoy being taken advantage of and treated like garbage.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Not great at all in my experience, people always calling out & coming in late, people always complaining and trying to put their job onto you, a lot of two faced behaviour. The management openly breaks rules to no penalty that YOU would get fired for if you tried it even once. The customers can be a challenge, the stores are usually understaffed and overall it's a very unfair place to work imo.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
As a delivery guy I was supposed to do deliveries and on my down time make boxes, however in MY experience I was always used to doing the job of 3 people because people always complained & called out so me as a delivery driver I would have to bake cookies, handle the register, fix the whole store by myself etc

So in a nutshell your typical day there will consist of you doing more than you have to,  you are supposed to just do deliveries and in between if you have time you make boxes, restock the drinks and maybe throw out trash but it was never like that for me I always had to step up and do the most.

For example there were times I had to stop delivering completely & work in store because the in store personnel, costing me tip money. A typical day FOR ME was always me doing more than what I was required to do which is why I say don't bring a great work ethic to his company because they will just destroy it like they did mine.

I worked here during college & got promoted from baker to shift lead after i graduated. Baking here wasn't bad to make some change during college, but as soon as I was promoted everything went downhill. coworkers, the 50% discount and interacting with happy customers are what made working here a good time.The job COULD have been fun and laid back were it not for the fact that we were understaffed and the work load we all had to pick up because of that was too much. 

I found management doesn't care about the health of the workers. if you're a baker, shift lead or driver, you'll probably be treated like garbage when it comes to your schedule or your needs - I was working 10 hour shifts with no actual breaks because I was running the store by myself. I was often called in to work. This wasn't my full time job but I was typically working 30-40 hours a week, so it basically took over my life. The store I worked at was understaffed for the last year I was there, mainly because the manager was incredibly picky about who they hired. There was also far too much workplace drama going on due to the choices of different managers that were there during my tenure with the job.

During busy shifts, the manager would sit on their laptop or phone & barely help out, and everyone else in the store was supposed to pick up the slack. The manager either treated employees like they were children and talk down to them, or treated them like they were their best friend and  gossiped. They would also reprimand us for the tiniest of things. It ultimately made interacting with them uncomfortable.

You aren't paid enough for working from 6pm to 4am for an overnight shift. The sleep I lost & the shifts I worked made my life outside of work to basically be non-existent. I would come home, sleep, wake up and then go back to work. At this job, you are a few people trying to serve a whole city full of people cookies and milk and you can't be sleepy on the job.
 
Ultimately, I was so overworked, stressed out and tired from the job I ended up quitting. If you're looking for some quick change while going to college and don't care about the hours, it'll work for you - otherwise, I don't recommend working here unless you want your life to be about cleaning floors and baking cookies.

All you literally do at Insomnia Cookies as a Driver is deliver the cookies and fold boxes. The insiders handle all of the dirty work such as baking cookies, helping customers, preparing delivery orders, cleaning duties, etc. It's a very chill job. If there are enough boxes and there are no deliveries, you get to sit down and be bored.

If you are only after a paycheck, this is a good job for you. The money is really good if you work full-time, roughly $350 to $500 a week. You are paid weekly. But unlike many delivery places, you are not paid daily as everything goes on your weekly check (and taxed, of course). The very few cash tips that you get, you bring home that night, but it's only a small amount. Many customers pay with credit cards or school cash. However, if you are looking for more than a paycheck, such as benefits or what have you, forget about it. No paid vacations, no paid leave, no medical/dental/vision, nothing. Dead end.

You'll get tipped on 80% of your deliveries. Pretty good if you ask me. Unlike many other delivery places where it's hit and miss, depending on your timing.

Of course, there will be the usual wear and tear on your car. And what's frustrating sometimes is that you'll get a wrong number or a wrong address and have to bring the order back, only for Customer Service to acquire the correct information and you get sent back out there. Sometimes customers lie to get free cookies, which Customer Service makes you go back there.

I would recommend the job to a person that is looking for some good spending money. But many co-workers have second jobs or school, so this either pays for school or is just another source of income. This is nobody's sole source of income.

Newtown Sq. office is very divided. Administration, Finance, Marketing, HR, and Research & Development are across the hallway from the Customer Service Dept. You have no access to that side of the office. They pamper you with food and small incentives to attract you to the job but don't tell you that:

1. Your hourly pay is determined by your availability. If you change your availability (no matter how long you've been there) it will change your rate of pay.

2. The stores are out of order, especially down South. Customers call in and complain about delayed or messed up orders daily. You'll often end up speaking with a rude store team member and be put through stress. In some cases, you will not be able to reach a store and end up calling the store manager or director (you'll have access to that info) and they may be rude to you. But guess what, try to complain about a manager being rude and your supervisor will tell you there's nothing that can be done about it.

3.  You're put through stress because they under-staff their employee's purposely. Get ready to answer calls for 8+ hours straight. Over-time is only approved when they desperately need people, then you're allowed to work into overtime.

4. If you work 6 hours or less you get one 20 minute break. If you work 7-8 hours you get two 15 minute breaks which you can not combine into a 30-minute break. If you work 9+ hours you will receive two 15 minute breaks and 1-hour break unpaid.

5. There's an NYC office that the CEO and other members of the company work out of. No one in customer service works out of that office nor is there advancement opportunities to that office or another department in the Newtown Sq office.

6. The CS supervisors have a simple job. All they do is handle customer escalations and send emails. They will be on the phones the least unless it gets super backed up.

7. Paychecks are frequently messed up. Be sure to count your hours for each pay period. You may be shorted.

8. 50% off cookies at all stores.

honestly, avoid working here or at call centers in general. $11-13 is not worth it.

I started out really loving the job and the pay until we got a change in management and everything went down the drain. Almost all the original employees I worked with despised this manager and not a single higher up cared. I would contact HR about issues of any kind and they were never any help. Along with contacting his managers and they were trash at their jobs as well. As a driver i don't have to worry about much because  all we have to do is deliver but having a safe and non-violent environment  for everyone is important. He was hardly ever doing his job and ive went weeks without seeing him on any of my shifts. He told me i couldnt have access to the employee handbook unless he was present, he also tried to write me up over an app error that had nothing to do with me and had everything to do with how horrible their technology is for the driver app. He also scheduled inconsistently and always scheduled me during my class times and if i wasn't available on the days that didn't work for me he just would schedule me at all.  Eventually he had hired new people and was giving them the 30+ hours a week i was asking for . for months only to turn around and schedule me once a week. I was there for 1 year and some weeks while these other employees haven't even been working there 6 months yet. I eventually just let that job go because the point was to get me to quit .  What was i supposed to do with 1 day a week and thats my only job? 

other notes about this manager :
- made us . use discord (a gaming app) to communicate in
- never helped out in the store  
- would clock in and leave and not clock out 
- would go weeks without giving . us our bonuses 


Overall . i think it depends on the management you receive which can be a hit or miss if they care about their job because i think they ultimately make the job.  Anyone else in the higher up positions can be just as trash and not really care. Their are no pay . increases at all and no open means of communication such as monthly . meetings or check ins.

I loved my job when I started. And there are parts of it I still really like. We have an overall very relaxed work culture and my coworkers are truly wonderful people. Management, however, is a nightmare. We can't keep people on because we aren't appreciated or respected, especially drivers. We're regularly expected to take up to three times the max number of deliveries we're supposed to take per company policy and to stay well past the end of our shifts to finish deliveries because not enough drivers are scheduled. We're told to call our manager for help if it gets too busy, but getting her on the phone is nearly impossible and getting her to come in to help actually is impossible. I have personally witnessed other employees breaking down due to the high volume of customers and delivery orders with no one to help manage either. I have stayed up to an hour past the end of my shift multiple times in just the last month. 
Moreover, drivers are paid largely in tips and, this being a college town, tips are far from guaranteed. $0.50 tips are not uncommon. No tip at all is not uncommon. When tips are good, we can make decent money, but it's always a gamble. I've gone home with less than $10 in tips and upwards of $100 in tips, but neither is ever guaranteed. 
If I could give anyone applying here advice, it would be to run. You will be taken advantage of. Do not sacrifice your own health for this company because management does not care and will not be there to help you. You may make some lovely friends, but you can do that elsewhere without being wildly overworked and usually underpaid.

First delivery job I've ever had, started off great, manager was awesome as well as co-workers.
After 2 weeks we had an event in our store in which we hosted a bunch of "college age" events which was essentially "water" pong, uno, and a few other things. 
Heard nothing but rumors afterwards with 0 affirmation from anyone as to what actually happened but:
Manager was fired in 2 days as well as half the staff, 4 people were fired from the back, all at once.
 Again no explanation and we were left with a "new" manager who had been promoted from the store previously, was from 3 hours away and had almost no interaction with staff.

After the second manager was there for about 2 weeks, another manager from another STATE came in and told us almost everything that happened. 5 or so weeks after it had happened and 1 new person had been hired.

After both managers had come in, both giving differing advice and management to the staff, had all artwork employees made (on breaks), as well as things employees posted to a CORKBOARD, were all taken down and TRASHED, not given back to employees.

After stripping the employees of their initiative and morale management was again lacking for almost a week, leaving our store half staffed, schedules not posted, and no standards for work. To which I finally said no thanks and walked out.



TLDR; Great place if you want flexibility. Terrible if you like consistency. 
Open letter to the company: Will work for you again, provided the store on devine street has an acting manager that isnt assigned to a different store.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Delivery driver 12 salaries reported	$12.23 per hour
Shift leader 7 salaries reported	$10.50 per hour
Baker 1 salary reported	$8.50 per hour
Campus representative 6 salaries reported	$10.00 per hour
District manager 5 salaries reported	$72,000 per year

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