deli associate

cook

person in charge (pic)

kitchen team member

kitchen manager

PCC Community Markets

Understaffed! I understand with Covid and no one wanting to work that understaffing is to be expected. However working here three years I started before all of this. Not a day has gone by without continuous sick calls and workers expected to over compensate. People are allowed to be late and not show up with nil to no damage to their jobs. I have barely receive more then a 40 cents raise in three years. I have amazing skills and have taken my career to a company the appreciates me.

After many unpaid hours preparing, developing, editing classes, you will shop, organize, teach, then clean depending on store this is simple or difficult. Management is terrible but the general staffing are lovely. Most enjoyable part is getting to take part in cooking classes that are fun and educational for the community. Hardest is if you need any benefits like insurance, you most likely won't qualify. You may spend 10-20 hours minimum developing classes to have them be denied or cancelled meaning you get no pay for the time. They're desperate for teachers though as so many have left due to lack of support from the management team and terrible relationships they have with store managers so you're likely to get hired if you want to give it a go! Most instructors spent too much time trying to rebuild positive relationships with the stores but it is not always easy.

As a courtesy clerk my job had very inconsistent hours which made it difficult to balance my personal life. When making efforts to move up to a new position I was discouraged from applying by my managers and was basically told to wait six months in my current position until considering a new position. The hardest part of the job was dealing with the consistent hours. Additionally, sometimes the courtesy clerk team would be overstaffed or understaffed- when overstaffed it was difficult to find something to do, and when understaffed too much was expected of the employees. During the few months I worked there I saw a lot of turnover among the courtesy clerks. This is not a job for you if doing mindless tasks is difficult to withstand. Besides the job, the people there are really great to work with. I'd imagine it would be a much more enjoyable place overall if I had a position that felt valued and had more interesting or challenging tasks.

I loved working here, I loved the food the atmosphere some of my coworkers and I miss it sometimes. The culture was nice with people from many walks of life, at the West Seattle store. I personally felt that I experienced blatant racism at this job with management and some very nasty co-workers. I am a bi-racial woman and have never had problems in any other job the way I did at this one. They have great benefits and pay. I loved being on my feet and moving all day. There is lots to do and lots of ways to move around in the store if you're white. Before I left I began working nights because of the negative energy and when I complained to management of my concerns I was dismissed. I have seen white co-workers get promoted quickly at this job and minorities not so much. It could have been the management at that particular store but who knows. I was pretty sad when i left but my next job and co workers gave me faith again.

As much as the pay and benefits were really good, the mangers (called PICs there) were pretty inflexible and not understanding. The work environment felt too rigid and PICs will look for any reason to fire you in your first months there, thus why there isn’t a lot of young people working in PCC. Also, it is severely understaffed, and a lot of work is put on each employee. The most understaffed areas are the deli and the courtesy clerk, so if you are applying for those positions, be prepared. I worked at the Kirkland PCC and there was no handicap accessible way to the staff room/clocking in device, for it was up a narrow set of stairs with no elevator, which is disappointing to see for a new building. My mental health tanked there from bad PICs, to heavy duty work with little reward, to the lack of accommodations for neurodivergent/mentally ill and physically disabled people. I wouldn’t recommend this job to anybody.

My co-workers are really cool people. And the customer base for the most part is easy to deal with as well. There are some customers who feel entitled and that is definitely frustrating when it happens. But overall customers respond gratefully to assistance.

Management (both at the store level and corporate level) is a whole other story. It's a good thing we have a strong union to protect us. During the last round of contract negotiations with the union, management really pulled some dirty tricks that the union had to file Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) for. And we were just inches away from going on strike because PCC refused to meet our demands. Also, chronic understaffing, management refuses to hire more people to fully staff the store due to "not enough money in the labor budget" which is just their way of saying they're too cheap to hire more people. As you can imagine this leads to massive burnout. 

My typical routine involved arriving, greeting colleagues, preparing my workstation, and commencing my tasks. I believe I have accumulated substantial experience over the years, having had the opportunity to interact with individuals from diverse age groups, beliefs, and backgrounds. The workplace fostered a strong sense of community until a post-pandemic management change introduced new operational challenges.

A significant challenge involved assuming the responsibilities of three absent colleagues due to illness or other reasons.

The most gratifying aspect of my role, and a source of considerable pride, was consistently performing my duties with efficiency and collaborating effectively with a dedicated team.

I was a cook, and I always worked under stress and so much critics. other places that I worked before PCC I was a favorite person for most of my managers but at PCC managers know only one thing, criticizing you. Pretty much there is no manager at PCC that is going to give a good feedback unless has already gave you so much bad feedback and negative things. On my first review I was wondered how they could say so much negative things when they had barely worked with me. I was working overnight shift and I was not working with my managers. Their problem was they wanted me to work over their minimum expectation, at the beginning they gave a minimum expectation and you are happy because you can achieve that but after that managers will start to pushing you. So, that was the reason of all negativity and embarrassment. It did not matter to them how much I was a professional cook with good character.   

I have left PCC not out of personal frustration, but more out of an understanding that it is not conducive to my own personal and professional growth. The benefits and style of work provided in the unionized PCC atmosphere are great for those who are trying to settle down into a job that will last for a while without a lot of advancement. PCC tries to provide good pension and benefits to its workers, which is ideal for those trying to start a family or gear up for retirement, but is not a good match for someone trying to advance within Seattle's culinary industry. It is nigh impossible to advance into cooking positions because of how sought after they are, and there are few places in between deli-clerk and cook that serve to train and grow employees from a food production perspective.

I worked in the deli as a dishwasher. My coworkers were nice, deli management was ok. General management was not my favorite. I did have some issues with mold in the kitchen that I brought up to a few managers and was told that they would hire a cleaning team to deal with it…but it took a few months for them to do anything. The sanitizer I used was ancient and broke down many times including my first week there. My supervisor told me to just deal with it and “not worry” about leaving dirty dishes after my shift (closing shift). This lead to me feeling unfulfilled and disregarded. I will say the pay was nice (they were still doing hazard pay when i worked there) but i believe it has ended since then. We almost went on strike because they didn’t want to raise the wages like 30 cents or something. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Deli associate 9 salaries reported	$20.64 per hour
Cook 1 salary reported	$20.90 per hour
Person in charge (pic) 3 salaries reported	$24.33 per hour
Kitchen team member 3 salaries reported	$19.38 per hour
Kitchen manager 2 salaries reported	$25.80 per hour

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