restaurant staff

store manager

kitchen team member

restaurant manager

general manager

Panda Restaurant Group

A typical day at work consisted of dishwashing, vegetable prepping, and wok cooking. During slow times, we would clean and organize the store. It was an easy job as long as you could multitask.
I learned a lot while working here. I learned that lowering food costs was the first priority, even if it meant using rotten vegetables. I have been told to put the rotten vegetables in the food processor for use in the chow mein. If a vegetable falls on the floor, you pick it up and continue preparing it. Since meat costs more than vegetables, we were told to add more vegetables into the meat dishes than the standard Panda recipe asked for. The employees go days without clean aprons. They won't replace dishwashing gloves even if all five fingers have holes in them. When you try to wear a disposable plastic glove underneath to keep the dishwashing chemicals from getting onto your hands, they make you take them off.
I have also learned that it is speed versus quality here, and speed always wins. If you take too long on dishwashing, they will show you how to do it faster. Basically, dunk the pan in the soap water, pretend to scrub, rinse, dunk in sanitizer, and then dry. Even if there are pieces of rice or food stuck on the "clean" pan, they make you move on to the next pan. When cooking food, if customers are waiting, we send it out even if it's undercooked. I have seen rice that was 30% undercooked(cooked 30 minutes instead of the standard 45) being served to customers. I have been trained to cook chow mein in a minute, even though it takes at least twice that to cook on the maximum heat setting.
The management is very ill trained and inappropriate. Our store was given a serious violation by the food safety inspection company because I didn't know I had to wash hands between certain tasks. I wasn't trained correctly and yet the management, from the store manager to the area manager and regional director, kept blaming me and telling me that it was common sense. Because they didn't train me on it, I followed what every other employee was doing, thinking that they were doing it correctly. The management told all the employees that the store got a violation because I didn't wash my hands and then started the nightmare. Instead of management keeping it anonymous, they made it a personal attack on me for bringing this burden on them. All the employees would come up to me every 5 minutes while I'm working and tell me to wash my hands. This was after I told the managers that I understood the standards now and that it wouldn't happen again. This harassment continued for a week, even outside of work when I would sit in my car before work. Employees would come to my car and tell me that management told them that we failed because of me and that I should wash my hands.
One day, a health department worker noticed that an employee went outside to smoke and walked in to the food serving area without washing their hands. The manager was called and she decided to drop by while running an errand. The manager immediately came up to me and accused me of not washing my hands. I told her I washed my hands and that it wasn't me. She continued to accuse me and told me that there was a problem with me. This harassment got so out of hand that I decided to confront her about it. The management had created an offensive and hostile workplace environment for me. She told me that this was how they did it at Panda and that it wasn't harassment. I told her that I would talk to higher management and she told me that was disrespectful and that I wouldn't make a difference. I asked to speak to the vice president of zone operations and she kept telling me that it wouldn't make a difference. I decided to talk to the area manager and he said, "Let me invite you to change your way of thinking. What we are doing is not harassment, but a group effort. If you think this is harassment, you are going to have many problems in your life." This was getting way out of hand so I decided to resign from my position. He told me that was up to me and said, "Since you won't change your thinking style, we're done here. Bye bye." What kind of person with that kind of unproductive communications skills gets to a position of managing people? I have over 7 years of higher education at a respected university and have traveled the world far and wide. I am considering opening a restaurant and took this job to learn why Panda was so successful. I did not take the job to be belittled and harassed.
While working there, I noticed that morale was really low with all the employees and that they all felt taken advantage of. Most had no choice but to work there and had to endure all of this unfair and inappropriate behavior from management.
The hardest part of the job was definitely enduring the inappropriate management. They will not help you at all, even though the employee handbook encourages you to talk to your supervisors when there is harassment or misconduct taking place. They try to make you change your way of thinking. They don't care about Panda, they only care about themselves and their jobs. When the store got the violation from the inspection company, the questionable food was still sent out to be served. The look on the inspector's face was priceless. I also caught the area manager breaking a food safety standard in the back. He was washing rice in a sink that was being used to prepare other foods. There was a possibility of cross contamination. When I called him out on it, he told me it was okay to do it during a rush. When I asked the regional director, he said it was not okay, not even in a rush, because of cross contamination. Instead of throwing out the batch of possibly contaminated rice, they let it get served to customers. When I asked the store manager why they hadn't thrown it out, she said the chances of it being contaminated were small. They are gambling with customers' safety and health! It is so wrong on so many levels...and they wonder why there are countless customers complaining about being sick from the food every day! Well, keeping food costs down is the most important thing to them I guess. As long as their numbers are good, they're okay...or so they think! Once the customer's stop coming, the managers will be out of jobs and they will regret not being farsighted in their thinking.
The most enjoyable part of the job was hanging out with the employees outside of work, away from management.

To start off the review I should first clarify that the "quick service" food industry is not exactly my cup of tea. That being said: Panda Express is a great company to work for. Through working there I have learned to organize my day into tasks and take things one step at a time. When working drive through I am responsible for taking every drive through order, creating every plate, and accepting payment from every guest who comes through that venue. My typical day involves running back and forth between the steam table and drive through window, keeping food on the steam table, and organizing the drive through and steam table areas. 
While fast food isn't my cup of tea, it is teaching me to adapt to situations that may not be optimal. For example: In my view, if we had 4 employees instead of 3 working front of house things would run smoother. However, according to the Panda Express employment policies our restaurant is not making enough to allow for that. So I have to adapt and mentally organize myself more in order to get everything done in the day that I need to. 
My management and co-workers have are also a huge help when at work. Everyone that I work with is understanding and will help out when they see that someone else is overburdened. In addition management is not afraid to jump in and do the grunt work when things get behind. Unfortunately, many of the co-workers are also just fine calling out whenever something comes up or they don't feel like going to work, and it puts a lot of extra pressure on those of us who get hit with the extra hours filling up when they thought they were going to get off early or not have to stay all day at the restaurant. 
This brings me to the hardest part about working at Panda Express: The sheer amount of tasks one person has to get done in a shift. As I mentioned above, the person on drive through is usually the sole associate working the window. The front counter has two associates usually during busy hours, and so one person can create plates and one person can check customers out and make sure everything is in order. On Drive Through? That all falls on one person. If the guest at the window has a question we usually have to answer that question while listening on our ear-piece to someone trying to create an order, and because of this it's hard to really help unless we're on a slow patch. This is similar in the Back of House: One person is trying to prep, keep up with washing dishes, and cook our side dishes when we need them, usually without a break. After the rushes are through I usually look back and think "oh, yeah it's fine we got through it", but in my eyes it makes so much more sense just to have one extra employee working able to create plates for drive through, or to have one extra employee in the back who is also able to help with dishes or prep. 
As I said above, fast food is not my cup of tea. However, the people I work with make the job bearable. I can honestly say that if management had not been who they were, or the co-workers had been different, that I probably would have kept looking for a different job rather than try to figure out how to manage all the tasks I was given and try to fit into the fast food niche.
That being said, the reason I am now looking for a new job is because drive through is mentally draining, and the guests who talk on the phone at the order station trying to find out what their husbands/girlfriends/children want don't make it any easier.

Ive been working for panda express for almost two years.  I've seen a huge turnover rate for the entire company, people have been quitting a lot or being fired or replaced a lot.It seems like its a revolving door sometimes. I spent many days/nights working from opening shifts to closing shifts or 10-11 hour days doing front of the house work(register/customer service) and back of the house work(cooking, meal prep, and dish washing) simultaneously while also delegating tasks to employees and training new hires and doing the accounting for the end of day sales reports. 

I've had 3 different managers since I was hired. The first one quit, the second one "retired" and my most recent manager has spent the last 6-8 months constantly asking me to work longer than i was scheduled for, come in on days that that i'm not scheduled, do both the front of the house work and back of house work and shift leadership tasks without the actual title or promotion for this labor.

I have been told my customer service is amazing countless times by customers and have many regulars that come back simply to have me serve them, ive been offered tips many times as well before at the register that I either refused because its company policy or instead asked them to repurpose the tip towards the non prophet hospital we accept donations for that the company is partnered with called Childrens Miracle Network. 

Since I started doing donations, I have always had the highest donations at our store averaging anywhere between $20-30 dollars on a bad day to $50-70 dollars on a really good day. And even though i've shown countless times i'm capable of performing tasks that all our shift leaders do my boss has not seen any reason to promote me or give me a reasonable raise in salary despite hiring many new workers that I have been given the task of training and teaching that are starting at the same wage that I just got promoted to on my semi annual performance review. 

There are countless toxic workers in this company at multiple locations (I would know because i've been sent to multiple locations to help since they're constantly understaffed since workers keep quitting). These workers are a cancer to the company that spend their entire shifts gossiping about other workers while not actually doing their jobs and doing a poor job of serving the customers, customers who have sent in plenty of reviews of bad customer service on pandas private online review forum they call GEM. 

There are also a lot of hard working people at each of these stores that get taken advantage of for labor and their work goes unappreciated and its terrible. One of my coworkers was working so many hours at the company that she once fainted at work because of lack of sleep and dehydration and had to be taken to the emergency room. She still works for the company tirelessly and told me she plans on working there until she retires. 

Many times you can see the management teams talking to each other outside while the rest of their team has a line out the door with no help and an understaffed kitchen. I wouldn't recommend working in this company as a long term career to anyone unless they want to give up all of their free time to their job.

 It taught me how to cook meals that I had never learned before but beyond that I didn't feel like there was much room for advancement in the company and don't recommend working there.

A lot of your enjoyment at this job will depend on whether or not you've managed to land a great management team at your location. Keep that in mind.

Work is rough. Because of the higher pay, Panda expects you to do more on your time on the clock. Great, if you're working in a high-volume store and have enough people on shift to cover all positions and make things smooth. However, mid volume suffers from a lack of hours to properly cover areas of the store, such as additional FOH to help with slams and rushes, and extra hands for cleaning or restocking during downtime. Because managers are pressured to stay out of operations, it can be incredibly tricky to get everything done and keep the store looking good. If you have management that steps in to help and support the team - fantastic! If not... you get to struggle to float.

Online orders print out like nobody's business and can make a manageable day feel like the busiest (worst) day you've ever had without any notice, and the best you can usually do with this sort of rush is survive. There's a certain point where there needs to be extra hours dedicated to an online runner baseline for mid-volume stores, and I don't mean something managers take out of the hours for the day - I mean extra hours to account for the convenience of online ordering and how instantaneous the business can get.

There's a lack of standardized procedures at Panda, and much is left to individual managers rather than arranged through the company or by higher-ups, leading to a lot of failings in training and development of associates. Training should happen at stores where on-boarded prospects are watched and coached for the majority of their training shifts, and enough time should be made for associates to go through modules and learn from the texts before going into operations. Because this isn't happening, a lot of associates tend to not be trained properly, and the standard of service for guests drops.

As a worker, if you have a lot of free time, don't have a lot of immediate family to help or spend time with, etc. - Panda is perfect if you want to work up the ladder and get promoted through the chain. Panda is incredibly eager to promote people and lift people to higher positions when they show they're hard-working and eager to come on shift, so it's amazing if you want to do a very quick economic climb without a degree. However, for anything past Assistant Manager, remember that you are getting further into Panda and will need to adhere to the Culture. You will have to drink the Kool-Aid and sleep Panda, eat Panda, drink Panda if you want the 6-digit salary. You will need to mold yourself to fit in so you can reach those higher positions. But... you can move up to a management position from an entry level kitchen/counter help in little under a year depending on the circumstances.

In my area, management and the area coaches were awesome. My manager, specifically, is the reason why I stayed on for so long after only planning to stay for a few months. They are truly the embodiment of an amazing manager. However, there are managers in my area that treat their associates awfully and are not looking to promote their associates (due to the amount of time investment and work needed on their end) - so, very much a YMMV situation.

The hardest part of this job in my opinion is based on your manager. Some are chill and not really looking for much from you than the bare minimum and making sure food quality/cleanliness is good. Others will expect almost complete perfection from you (clean area during rush hour, no food waste, leave on time and perfect closing/opening) and yes, those ones have no problem writing you up for it too. 3 write ups is grounds for termination. I’ve worked at the same store for about 2 years now, have supported 4 other stores. The other stores I have been to are not like mine. They are very chill and laid back. The management will be nice to you and build a bond with you. They will allow you too cook enough food that you don’t have to be running back and forth like crazy to get all your tasks done in a reasonable time. At my store I’m expected to make minimum batches even when it’s busy, make sure everything is immaculate and leave on time with minimal food waste. It is very challenging and I’ve had corrective action on me for not completing it before. For a while I was trying to get promoted to chef. It took them 6-7 months just to make me a cook. My interview was postponed 4 times. When I was finally given confirmation of my interview I showed up and waited 2 hours for the manager to show up for my interview. Yes he was that late. The work can be fun and fulfilling when you look at your food quality, how many people you just fed and how clean your area is, but it can also be very stressful. I work at a pretty busy store. There is 0 pay difference for cooks/shift leads and below based on sales. So if you can work at a slower store I would suggest that. There is a structured culture that they make you memorize, but all the upper management/supervisors seems to have a different interpretation of it. The most enjoyable part is the people I work with and practicing making the best food possible. I think if you’re trying to find a decent job that pays well while you’re in school then being a cook/shift lead or below is where to go. They’ll try and push you to be a manager once you make it to shift leads or cook, I would advise against that unless you really want it, are willing to work very hard for your bonus and possible want to be a business owner/store manager/supervisors long term. Otherwise it’s just very stressful and a lot of pressure from upper management. It feels like a dog and pony show when upper management comes. Everything has to be perfect for them, and even when the store is beautifully clean and good quality, customer service are all great they’ll find some little thing to “have a conversation” with you about. If you don’t submit to them then they won’t like you. One time the owners came to visit my store and everything had to be just perfect for them. They sent us like 7 extra people to deep clean the entire store and property. If it can’t be like that all the time, then what is the point in doing it for the owners? And guess what Andrew’s one complaint was? Labor was too high, because they had too many people on the clock to make sure everything was just right for him, only for everything to go back to normal immediately after he leftz


My experience applying for Panda Express Was very exhausting.  I went through five extended long interviews some face to face and others online. And I also know several people who worked for panda as well and we exchange information about the culture.  panda pushes on its employees about trying to better their employees. they have a full page of mission statements plus their values and vision which you do have to memorize by heart if not you fill the promotion test.  interviewing the management and the employees was very discerning.  Then as part of my training I had to train with a training manager.  Pretty much I had to read my modules and hardly get any help with the training manager because they were always gone.  it seems like they put so much pressure on these managers they have to perform at the highest level and if you fail they let you know and make you feel miserable. management has a very dry cut throat personality. Talking to the employees I could not hear one good positive outcome of working at panda besides the pay.  Every employee complained about how they were treated by their manager and upper management.  they sit here and tell you that they respect everyone and it's a beautiful culture but instead it's very toxic. That’s why they’re turnover rate is huge. talking with management it sounds like all they care about is making money and if you can't problem solved or grow then you're a problem. and they don't want problems they want problem solvers. But I do remember in the interviewing process they try to act like they’re a mental health facility because they're telling you that panda will help you grow mentally and that it's a company that. Is built on making people better. The truth is they’re just overrated and they know that if they pay people a lot of money they're forced to stay and be treated poorly for the money. they even focus their locations near schools in high traffic areas. they have programs to help entice children to come in and eat with reading programs.  at first you would think that's nice but if you think about it the food in panda is not healthy high levels of sugar which can be considered addicting and is a major one causing child obesity.  so it's interesting that they're actually targeting children and making sure their stores are nearby middle school and high school.  days off are a joke it's almost impossible to get a day off without being called on or getting texts yelling at you every day.  I’ve got phone calls at one or two in the morning about non important things that the manager wants to complain about.  Especially when it comes to vacation and funeral leave. They state that you have a certain amount.so when my mother died I was only allowed one day because I was guilt trip into having to take a day off.  They turn around and told me that I should have planned better for her her funeral. so if you want to work in panda just know that the pay is good but the toxic environment may not be worth selling your soul to accompany that knows that they're buying you.

I had the misfortune of working at Panda Express, and I can confidently say that it was one of the most dreadful experiences of my life. From the moment I stepped foot into that establishment, it became abundantly clear that the management and overall work environment were nothing short of a nightmare.

First and foremost, the managers at Panda Express were a complete and utter disappointment. It seemed as though they lacked any form of leadership skills or basic human decency. They were often condescending, dismissive, and indifferent towards their employees' concerns. Whenever issues arose, the managers were more interested in shifting blame than finding practical solutions.  I will say the shift leaders did their jobs to the best of their ability—way more than the managers could ever think of doing! The general manager's incompetence and lack of professionalism were staggering, and they greatly affected the morale and productivity of the entire team.

Speaking of the team, the employees at Panda Express were undoubtedly overworked. Understaffing was and still is a huge problem, and it was not uncommon to find ourselves short-handed during busy periods. The workload was overwhelming, leaving us exhausted both physically and mentally. There was a blatant disregard for work-life balance, with employees frequently forced to work long hours without any consideration for their well-being.

Moreover, the lack of proper training and support for new hires further exacerbated an already toxic work environment. Instead of investing in thorough training programs, Panda Express seemed content with throwing employees into the deep end and expecting them to swim. This led to numerous errors, frustrated customers, and unnecessary stress for the employees.

The company's disregard for employee well-being extended beyond the grueling work hours. There was a distinct absence of opportunities for growth and advancement, making it difficult to find any motivation to excel in such an oppressive environment. The complete lack of appreciation for hard work and dedication only added insult to injury.

My time at Panda Express was a nightmare that I wouldn't wish upon anyone. The incompetent managers, overworked employees, and overall toxic work environment made it an unbearable place to be. The lack of respect for employees' well-being and a dearth of growth opportunities solidified my belief that Panda Express is an establishment that prioritizes profit over the happiness and welfare of its workforce. I strongly advise anyone considering employment at Panda Express to think twice before subjecting themselves to such an atrocious experience.

Standard days at Panda Express can be steady work. It will start with slow pace morning to a intense afternoon lunch hour. Keeping up with the demand at great consistency means no rush hour will be too overwhelming if you able to handle it all. We are taught to become not just one but as a whole in the kitchen. We help each other to accomplish certain tasks around the restaurant, like keeping our work stations clean, replenishing our ingredients, helping the front house with heavy items or items that are hard to reach, and being able to fill in a position in case someone cannot make it or need to go on their break. What we learn at Panda Express is possible to carry on to other restaurants if we are to leave one day and move on. We are able to cross train to meet Panda Standards, we learn to keep our work space clean at all times in case of health inspections. We are taught basic temperature readings to avoid food borne illness, proper hand washing, cooking a certain amount of dishes depending on position, and to provide an amazing customer service so that the customer can go home with a smile. Sometime working at Panda Express can be stressful because sometimes something goes wrong and it can set back the customer line and people become unhappy due to the long wait. Sometimes someone calls off and the work load becomes double. All jobs have those certain bad days but it isn't always bad. Working at Panda can be enjoyable not because of the experience and training, but because of the staff is of importance. Great staff means everyone can be happy because everyone can become friends rather than just co-workers. Making friends means easy co-operation,and steady flow of the day. Management at Panda Express varies from strict to calm and understanding. Sometimes Work can become stressful depending on who is in charge. That isn't always the case because there are allot of caring managers,assistant managers,and head chefs. Yes the managers who are strict have reasons to be strict because they too have allot to hold on their plate and you must be able to see it from their perspective to know why they are like that. We all start from the bottom to the top, because Panda Express allow you to advance if you want it. Every Advancement comes with allot of responsibilities. Responsibilities come with great rewards if you are willing to reach for it. Last thing before I end this review is keeping an open mind is that not everything is perfect when applying to Panda Express. It comes with faults and troubles maybe because someone is stressed out or having a bad day, the weight sometimes doubles, customers can be unhappy out of nowhere, someone called off out of nowhere, or someone that is hired have attitude that can ruin someones day. That being said it's a roller coaster and experience can vary just like any other job.

I worked in the Back of House at my location for two and a half years and only quit because of a repetitive stress injury that I acquired cooking. Overall the job is very stressful and I don't think a lot of people would be interested in working as a cook or a manager in a store that is understaffed, especially if you have a lot of other obligations outside of work but if you're self motivated and driven and disciplined etc you can make it work. I often was on the hardest BOH position during all of the hard shifts (which is cooking the entrees), but personally I have a passion for doing work that I can be proud of so when things got crazy I was able to put out a lot of food and deal with all of the overwhelming parts of the job. It's not easy though. You have to be knowledgeable in all of the BOH positions so you can cover people a lot of the time, monitor the steam table which has anywhere from 22-30+ items on it, know how to multitask and use the fryer, woks, blancher, prep, just everything really all at the same time and have a mental timer going on all of the items in each of those categories so you can effectively prioritize what you need to be making in accordance with what the customers are ordering and what will likely run out soon. It's a lot. 

I would usually go to work smelling good in clean clothes and go home with a massive amount of grease on me, it was so gross lol. You can expect to get really dirty really quick just by existing in the kitchen, there's so much grease in the air its honestly a modern marvel.

The cleanliness of the store is very good where I worked. The managers would really stick it to you and make sure you kept things clean and there would often be visits by people 2 or even 3 times higher up than a store manager every month, the kinds of people that oversee an entire states' worth of stores even. The people that own the company really worry about how clean the food is which is awesome. There were deep cleaning days where we would clean every inch of the store which wasn't fun to do but was still good. 

Personally the thing that made working there enjoyable was the people, a lot of companies try to sell you on the idea that it's a family or whatever which is bologna, but at my store everyone was legit friends with each other, anytime anyone would quit we would bring ice cream and cake and a lot of people hung out after shifts, even with the managers. It really felt like we were running a store together like a bunch of sea pirates or something LOL and it was awesome to work there while I did. I'm sure this varies between stores though. 

oh also sometimes i wouldnt be able to take breaks cuz theres so much to do. also almost everyone got carpal tunnel starting out which wasn't fun

I would say that Panda Express is an alright place to work, however, there a lot of downsides to the job. For me personally the one thing I hated about working at Panda Express is how it is always understaffed, since my store is considered to be "low volume" this means that managment tries to put the least amount of people possible on shifts, however, this means that when someone calls out there is rarely someone to come in, as the amount of staff that work at the store is very low to begin with. So often I have found myself doing the job of two people very frequently. Despite this management is eternally unhappy, and have very little appriecation for their workers. Management is probably the weakest part of the whole company as a whole. Management expects a great deal from their workers, as a worker you are tasked with A LOT of responsibilities. The job can be very tedious at times, as Panda likes to emphasizes its own "Panda way" which in reality in my mind seems to just make life harder for the workers. Along with that often you can work very hard here at Panda express and management will never be satisfied with you level of work. For example for me, I often juggle front of the house and back of the house at the same time on some shifts, however, I still have my manager telling me that I don't work hard enough despite being one of the hardest workers on staff. Along with that, it seems that a lot you treament by management is completey based on how much the manager likes you. Associates often don't have very much say as management will always side with management. Along with that managment also tries to push you to choose your work over other life priorities, they have flexible schedueling, however manangers sometimes aren't always happy to accomadate you. One positive is the pay, however, to counteract that point they really make you work for your pay, cleaning is a very large part of the work culture at Panda, and a majority of you time will most likey be spent cleaning. The levels of cleanliness that they expect are EXTREMELY HIGH. So as I said earlier the pay is competative, but you almost feel it still isn't enough for all that you are tasked to do. Especially during closing shift, if you do decided to work here, stay far clear of closing shift, often you will stay alot later than you were scheduled for cleaning and polishing little crevaces. Overall, I found my co-workers is what made the job bearable, however, the job is very phsically demanding and mentally as managment can be very demeening at times. I would say if you are okay with very long hours and cleaning it isn't a bad job, as it pays very well compared to others. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Restaurant staff 165 salaries reported	$17.55 per hour
Store manager 847 salaries reported	$88,220 per year
Kitchen team member 976 salaries reported	$17.52 per hour
Restaurant manager 92 salaries reported	$84,741 per year
General manager 66 salaries reported	$72,110 per year

Working at Panda Restaurant Group: Company Overview and Reviews

Panda Restaurant Group

Panda Restaurant Group Ratings

Popular jobs at Panda Restaurant Group

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected