crew member

store manager

area supervisor

shift manager

assistant store manager

Papa Murphys

It used to be the best pizza around for the least amount of money. In the last 3 years, the amount of toppings have been cut down and crusts are no longer allowed to rise for a hour before being sold. Imagine getting a 16" pizza with 4 or 5 toppings with almost 5 pounds of cheese for $10 to $12??? Roundtable is at least $22 for a 2 topping pizza and Mountain Mikes is $33 or more for the same pizza!

I used to own a Papa Murphy's Take n Bake Pizza. The corporation was all about money and when my landlord forced me out, Papa Murphy's Corporate would not lift a finger to help me, and in fact, they delayed and went out of their way not to help me when i could have moved to a new location.

Since 2004, 4 stores in San Jose, 1 in Morgan Hill, 1 in Fremont, 1 in Santa Cruz, and 1 in Watsonville have had to close mostly b/c rents have gone up and the Corporate offices will not help us out to stay in business. Additionally, high weekly franchise fees coupled with "forced" footprint changes of the stores constantly drained my bank account.

There are only 2 stores left in San Jose, both of which have incredibly low rents. My store's rent was $4500 when i bought it and the rent went up to $6000, which forced me to close. Sadly, there was a comparable location right across the street that would have only cost me $3300 per month, but Papa Murphy's Headquarters would not lift a finger to help me and they even delayed my request for help by 3 to 4 months until it was too late for me to move.

The truly sad part was the store i purchased from another owner, who was mismanaging his 4 or 5 stores, I took a business that was $35,000 in the red to $2,000 profit in only 9 months by running my business and actually wanting to do a good job. I received an award from Pepsi for increasing my business with them by 250% in less than a year (which greatly annoyed and angered established owners).

Even sending a 2000 signature petition to the corporate offices would not convince them of the value of my business to the neighborhood. I was instructed by the district manager to cease and desist from notifying my customers i was being forced out of business by the landlord and to ask Papa Murphy's Corporate to help me find a new location and help me to move.

If on the other hand, you are a person looking to be a crew member, this is probably the most incredible place to work, but only as long as the owner (insert mature adult) is working in the store. Stores not directly managed by the owner tend to have poor customer service, high overhead costs, and slow food preparation.

I treated my employees like family and they enjoyed a fun environment. There are no ovens or stoves and no grease. The only real work is prepping food (done during the day), washing dishes, making pizzas, serving your customer with a smile, and cleaning up when you close!

Since most Papa Murphy's are individually owned (a few owners, like the brother in law of a highly placed executive at Corporate who owns over 20 stores) and because of this, there is a more direct focus on serving and knowing your customers.

The busiest times of the year are Fall, Winter, and Spring. Summer can be slow b/c who has an oven at the beach to cook a pizza.

Super Bowl Sunday, Halloween, and the day before Thanksgiving are the busiest ever!

As a side note, if I ever were to do it again, i would open my own Take and Bake *that allows* you to cook a pizza for cuotomer for an extra cost (like those visiting a Residents Inn where they have no oven) AND sell pizza by the slice mostly for the lunch crowd, since most of your normal business is 5pm to 8pm nightly.

This particular Papa Murphy's I wouldn't recommend working at, even to my worst enemy. And almost all of it can be placed on the management.

The Logan Utah location is managed by two brothers, one of which oversees day to day work specifically in Logan. He will be one of the worst bosses you will have, and you will regret having to deal with him. The worst things I remember him doing during work hours while I was there include:

Yelling at employees in front of Customers. It was bad enough to where a random person waiting for a pizza told him to stop, and calm down.

Threaten an employee. I remember working with another employee shredding cheese in the back, and working at a decent pace. He came in ten minutes after we started, and the employee I was working with made a small mistake. The boss walked over to us after seeing what happened, and told said employee that if he wasted any more company time he would fire him on the spot. I already knew the manager disliked this employee, and that the said employee already put in a 3 week notice, but the the employee just had a baby, and was saving up to move across the country. The way he said it was pretty awful too.

The division he caused. Because he played favorites, and I have no idea why it ended up like this, it caused a large division in the work force. Most people that worked there while I was also working were very young. If you couldn't tell by how they looked, you could definitely tell by how they acted. The ones he liked could do no wrong and tell no lies, which was bad news especially if they didn't like you. The ones he liked would text him like you would a best friend, too much. All the sudden you'd get a stern talking to about something that was so unimportant and so small that it was obvious who told him. I remember a bunch of coworkers and I made a fun playlist of music to listen to for St. Patrick's day, just to get yelled at by another employee that the music was "stupid", and then later on in the week getting a talking to about "inappropriate music in the workplace" The whole playlist was Folk music, with no swearing, but we had hip hop and rock on all week with multiple songs with inappropriate lyrics. It felt like being back in high school where everyone is talking behind each others back, trying to make everyone feel bad for no reason.

The funniest one had to have been our Christmas party "gift". The two brothers are friends with the owners of a breakfast restaurant (probably one of the best places to eat in Logan), so every year they invite all the employees there for a dinner, which to be fair is pretty cool. I remember one of my coworkers telling me that was the only reason he worked through December. At the end of the meal, our boss told us he had a gift for us all. They were Lottery tickets for Powerball. He promised us that we would split it all if we won. I think he bought 10 of them. He was dead serious, which made it even more ridiculous because it was late and the Powerball lottery was won and confirmed three hours before he announced this.

Overall, if he wasn't in charge it might have been a little bit better, maybe the building would have been better kept, maybe the job would have been fun, and maybe everyone I worked with would have been nicer to one another. Who knows.

That being said, I enjoyed making pizza, the customers were always kind, and a few of my coworkers were decent people. Also, the pizza you'd get for free was pretty great, saved me many times when I was low on money.

We were one of the first papa's to ever open, and we were also the worst cared for. The manager came in once a week, asked if we needed anything, then left. The problem is, nobody else was a manager there, so nobody knew what to ask the manager-- So nothing ever changed.

We never got clear direction from management. For example, I wore jeans one day and asked the assistant manager if that was okay. He said specifically that black or blue jeans were proper dress. After that, for the next two months, I wore blue jeans or black jeans according to how available they were in my wardrobe. The final day before I was laid off, I was told it was only acceptable to wear black jeans. The managers from Multnomah and the new manager we were given the last month had seen me wearing blue jeans for the last two months and said nothing until that day.



There was black mold, there was dirt all over the floor at any given time because nobody ever mopped, and people were sent home early from shifts at any sign of idleness-- even when it was clear there was cleaning to do. People weren't allowed what they were scheduled, and schedules shrank if we were efficient and finished our assigned tasks early. Morning people were especially screwed by this due to their job specifically being preparation. It had become 5-hour shifts for 4 days at one point, which is a far cry from the full-time work I was promised when I was hired. Afternoon shift was lazy, arrogant, and got mad when you told them they didn't do their job. 

Co-workers were fine, except for one. There was one who would get really mad over a chronic condition of his and start slamming things around. Nobody did anything. Nobody cared. They just dealt with it. He'd leave for a week, then take another week off even when he was scheduled, and nobody would fire him.
Any job advancement was had after about a full year, according to co-workers. Doing well at your job had nothing to do with it. It's more about what you're willing to put up with in waiting for the tools you need, and how long, which is a whole lot.

The hardest part of the job, for me, was standing on my feet all day due to weight problems I have. This wasn't any fault of Papa's, but it would have been nice to have a place I could sit down between tasks. 

An aside: There is no break area. There was a table and a chair when I was recruited, which, over time, were broken down and thrown away in favor of new racks. The kitchen was essentially a short hallway.

The most enjoyable part of the job was that I got a free pizza every week and I got to banter with my co-workers. Even though the afternoon shift had problems, I thought they were pretty funny people. Bantery, fun, easy-to-talk-with people. 

As for work/life balance; it was alright. They allowed us to leave early when we needed to and switching days off wasn't too much of a hassle.


They will only tell you what they really think of you when the 3-month mark is hit. I would really have benefited from knowing if I was doing something wrong right away. I would gladly have changed, and when things were pointed out by co-workers, I did change. The new manager had not given that opportunity.

What I learned from Papa Murphy's, as a company, is that the management will do as little as they can get away with. The regional management had come in for an inspection and seen the horrible conditions we had to work with as acceptable.

Your experience at Papa Murphy's will solely depend on your coworkers.

Management is terrible. They decided that threatening to fire the new people rather than taking the time to train them is a better idea. 

The workload is simply too much for how little you get paid. You are often paired with one or two other people, if anyone working that day slacks behind, everyone gets f-d over. Constantly stressing every day you work there. Shift Leads are expected to do everything, which is expected, but impossible when EVERYONE is supposed to get out all at the same time. If you stay past closing, you get in trouble with upper management.

You will not get the hours you want here. If you want anything full time, its not going to be here. Papa Murphy's has a rule where no one is full time except for Managers. This is so they keep rotating workers.

If you ever have a complaint, nothing will be done to fix it. Even as a Shift Lead, I never felt heard. Communication from Manager to me was non exsistent. I try to communicate things, it is brushed off. The only times I was reached out to by management was to cover for someone.

Despite being a Shift Lead, I was never communicated to about new things on the menu, prices increases, specials we have, new closing tasks, or new stuff to prep. I was always one of the last people to find out. Which should be the opposite because I am Shift Lead. This made my role in the store almost impossible to execute because I was being treated as if I was a trainee. 

 Communication is just terrible all throughout working here. I never got told things and instead had to figure it out from my coworkers, rather than my manager.

Vertical movement in Papa Murphy's is nonexistent. There are extremely picky for who to raise up. Even if you are promoted to a higher role, your pay will more or less stay the same. It is a complete rip off to put in work and to be treated with such disrespect.

Raises in general just never happen. You are supposed to get a general yearly raise, I've only gotten one in my three years of working there. Shift Lead Promotions give you a dollar raise. I only got a 15 cent raise to be Shift Lead. Your pay from when you get hired, is more or less going to stay the same.

The only good thing about working at Papa Murphy's will be the co-workers, and sure, free pizza. But never expect it to last as management will change. And workers will get fired so more part timers can work.

Avoid Papa Murphy's if you can. I'm sure other stores are run better than mine, but either way the pay just isn't worth sticking around for. Good for work experience, terrible for the long run.

Unfortunately my experience with corporate isn't very good. The first manager they sent in barely worked with us, was gone for days at a time and "training" was a brief, and mostly incorrect, explanation that only served to confuse and irritate other crew members. Our paychecks and promised raises would also not be given for weeks at a time, one crew member waited nearly a month for the five hundred dollars missing from her check when she has five children to care for. Along with this said manager brought an assistant manager who would come to the work place heavily intoxicated, was rude to customers and crew along with being a suspect in stealing from the registers and safe. What struck me as odd was that the previous store these two worked at and ran was actually quite successful so that always confused me. After maybe a month or so of hounding him to train me, after promoting me with no training for the position which I accepted because my hours would've been cut if I didn't, he and his assistant were let go and another manager was brought who also ran a successful store at another location. She seemed to be eager to get things done right and give training to those who needed it. What ended up happening is that she didn't train anyone and put crew on shifts by themselves and expect them to complete tasks that were previously done with three or more coworkers to help. Along with this she too seemed to disappear from the store and not return for days. This continued until I was let go and the new assistant manager and another crew member quit due to overly stressful task of running a business by themselves for long periods during the day, including lunch and dinner rushes and promotional sales. As seen my view of Papa Murphy's is not a good one and it saddens me to say these things because when the store I worked at was a franchise the crew got along, training was done to the employer's standards and the customers were happy with our services/products. So in short, before the corporate takeover, I learned how to give excellent customer service, work a register in a fast and efficient manner and prepare our product with equal skill all while staying professional and friendly with customers.

Start out with reviewing the day (compiling books, double checking numbers, inventory, reviewing auxiliary stores, customer surveys, completing prep charts, bank deposits, scan/send invoices)
Move to prep (aid in dough production, side item production, vegetables cheese meats, set up prep levels for the next day)
Move to AM cleanup (sweep/mop, dishes, laundry, trash, complete pre rush check lists)
Move to PM set up (stock levels, temp checks, station assignment charts, PM cleanup assignments, customer surveys, check emails/respond)
PM rush (manage make line while interacting with customers, spot check production portions and service, ensure that upsizing and add on sales building is accomplished)
End of day (check in with auxiliary stores to troubleshoot issues and/or set up next day, ensure sales goals have been met and adjust day of or next day to reflex sales trends, check emails/respond, manage week/month cleaning list goals)
Week/Week
LSM initiatives (reach out to local community to create donations or sales opportunities in the area to drive in sales.  often cold calls or use customers as resources to build business)
Scheduling weekly (also review other stores schedules to ensure accuracy)

My co-workers are often first time job employees with 2-4 college/fulltime employees.  our business model is based off of very low overhead modeled by our employee hiring

I've learned how to coach all varieties of employees old and young, experienced and inexperienced.  Customer service is the easiest thing to do but the hardest to ensure, creating a positive environment for your employees creates the best way to ensure that this will occur.  When your employees are happy so is the customer.

The hardest part of my job is balancing my home and work life.  I often overcompensate my need at the store, which cuts into my home life.  I have a strong need to be hands on and involved with my store, but this often creates a situation where I sacrifice my home life.

Most enjoyable part of my job is when I receive a great compliment by a customer via survey.  2nd best is when my employees thank me for working hard for them and tell me to leave because they can handle the store.  3rd best is when I hear from an ex employee that my recommendation gave them their job of their dream and they thank me for all of my coaching and advice.

Working for Papa Murphy's was a valuable learning experience for me, especially for the field of work that I am pursuing. I learned how to treat customers, coworkers, and management alike with respect. I learned a large amount of vital information about inventory, food handling, ordering, sales forecasting, data input and other managerial tasks, and efficiency in the hospitality industry. In short, this job was a great opportunity; I enjoyed every part of it. I absolutely looked forward to seeing my regular customers and also to establishing relationships with new customers to give them an incentive to return to our store on a regular basis- that was probably my favorite part. Aside from my coworkers; I established great relationships with them and even though I no longer work there, we still keep in touch. 

On a typical day, If I worked morning shift, I would let myself in and lock myself in to the store, take the dough out of the walk-in to sit out at room temperature, set up the make lines and registers, put dishes away off the drying rack from the previous night, do a dough count and determine how much needed to be made, prep food and stock the make lines and the walk-in, set up the lobby and set out sheeted dough ready to be used up front, unlock the door and open up the store and sheet the dough I had previously pulled out. When customers came in I would greet them, take their orders, make their pizzas as quickly as possible, often timing myself and conversing with the guest while doing so. When the guests left, I would go back to sheeting or prepping. Generally, the manager gets to the store and begins the days work, and an hour or a few hours later, depending on when you are scheduled to come in, a second employee would come in around the time you unlock the door. or you may work the entire morning shift yourself. Now if I worked night shift, I would come in around 1 or 2, change and join in wherever I was needed, be that on the make line, on the register, making the dough for the next day, doing inventory, ordering, inputting invoices, prepping food or doing dishes. When we closed the store, we stock, break down the make-lines, and clean the store. I preferred working nights and being part of the action rather than opening and doing the prep work, but I did both pretty regularly.

At a typical day of work, the morning crew would prepare all the necessary ingredients for the day, including fresh vegetables, dough and dough products, add-on sales and everything else. Inbetween all the preparations, they would take care of customer orders and answer the phones. And then by the time most of the morning prep work is finished, the afternoon crew would come into work and they would do their preparations. After their preparations they would focus on customers and clean the store, and then eventually do their closing duties.

As far as what I learned, I learned how to make pizza's according to company standards, learned how to deal with the customers on the phone, and learned how to market additional products to customers through up selling and other techniques.

Management was "Okay", I saw a lot of things that I would like to change or would like to have changed. The management structure is very "Free spirited", my boss would hire or teach "Shift leaders" and then basically let them run the store, while he would visit only occasionally. There were pros and cons to this, some shift leaders were better than others, some were lazy and others ruled with a heavy fist. All the while the boss has no idea what is going on. I remember a day where my boss was working with me for a change and he was just watching me work and noticed how great I was doing, that was the first time he's seen me work since he hired me 5 to 6 months beforehand.

My coworkers were pretty nice, they each had different personalities, work speeds and ethics that made each shift different. Some were fast and efficient, others were lazy but efficient, and a couple were just flat out lazy. They would definitely make it known if they did not like you as a new employee.

The hardest part of the job would have to have been, when there was a day that morning preparations did not get done in time, it would create a whole lot of chaos for the afternoon crew. 

The most enjoyable part of the job though, would be where sometimes we would have a slow day where we have completed everything, and everyone could sort of take things easy while we get extra assignments done.

Our first manager was a tyrant. 

Whether or not you got decent hours depended largely on how she felt about you. Typically the boys got more hours than the girls I was told that this was because she felt the girls were more of a threat to her authority, which makes me wonder how she got to a managerial position in the first place. She endorsed nepotism. Several times people were hired when there were barely enough hours to go around. These people were related to her, however distantly. Money often went missing while she was there, and she made whoever was short on their till pay it back out of their paychecks. Later we found out that her nephew was taking money from the tills to support a drug habit. We were never compensated for his theft. 

Our second manager was a Goddess. 

She knew the store inside and out - knew the people well enough to assign us jobs we would excel at so that the store operated at maximum efficiency. Everyone got a near equal amount of hours. She was communicative and never left work early. She had as much of a 'first in, last out' mentality as one can have in a job where no one is supposed to work more than twelve hours a day. No one ever complained about her. Money very rarely went missing and no one was ever asked to pay it out of their check. 

She was transferred to a new store. 

My last manager was an idiot. 

She had asked for a transfer to our store because we had the highest service rating (hers was near the bottom). Within a week, half the employees that had made our store a well-functioning machine had been transferred to other stores and she drove the others away with incompetence and a bad attitude. She brought three people from her store to ours. They got near forty hour weeks. The rest of us were lucky to see ten. She only sheeted half the dough we normally *need* to get through the day. She would frequently send people home early. Once I got sent home an hour into work, despite the list of rules tacked on the wall less than five feet away saying that once I was at work, she was required to keep me there for two hours. I had two four hour work *weeks* in a row.

I quit. It wasn't worth it

I worked at Papa Murphy's for two years as my first job and it wasn't a bad experience. The typical workday as a closer consisted of prepping produce, making pizzas on the line and mainly closing tasks after 8 pm, which was mostly cleaning. Most of the customers were very cooperative and nice with a handful of difficult customers. I had the same manager for most of my time there and they were very flexible with my school schedule and time I needed off. Requesting time off was very easy and only had to be done a week in advance. Work didn't match the pay especially during the holiday times when we were extremely busy and didn't give double time or time and a half. There were many times that I felt like I was by myself in the front of the store with 3+ orders while others sat in the back office. Management is very flexible but didn't enforce unacceptable behavior in the workplace whatsoever, and seemed very lazy. There would be some days where the openers wouldn't have anything prepped for the closers and made the experience very stressful. After two years the entire staff consisted of people that weren't there when I started, aside from one other coworker. Very, very understaffed and many people come and go. The most enjoyable part of working there was the long breaks and the most difficult part was probably dealing with difficult customers or ones trying to cheat the system. Once you know everything it becomes pretty much second nature at that point. The job can seem monotonous at times and the ambient noise of the walk-in cooler drove me insane. Music choice was corporate's decision and consisted of the same 20 hit songs on a loop. The sanitation was something to be desired and the floors were permanently stained with dirt, and when corporate or the health inspector was scheduled to come we would have to deep clean the entire store. When either corporate or regional manager came into the store we were told to do things their way even though it was completely different than how we regularly carried things out. Many people quit within a couple of months because they find a job with much better pay.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Crew member 2472 salaries reported	$16.47 per hour
Store manager 949 salaries reported	$52,345 per year
Area supervisor 897 salaries reported	$70,003 per year
Shift manager 191 salaries reported	$14.44 per hour
Assistant store manager 188 salaries reported	$15.77 per hour

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