barista

shift leader

team member

general manager

team leader

Pret A Manger

Personally I really liked this job going in. This was pre covid. The company offered very good benefits, bonuses, and job growth. They have a couple positions they call team member (entry level worker), team members star (when you pass your 3-4months entry level) that are a good start if you never worked before or don't have experience in the field. The training is very good, thorough and hands on. Once you be "star" alot of the team encourages you to specialize in a field like barista, hot chef, team member trainer, or even team leader which can be back of house or front of house. I grew into a barista then moved to team leader, with talks here and there to be assistant manager. After Covid and many company decisions, the job growth is slow but is still there. The turn over was pretty high at the time of me leaving. If you're looking at this company now and you're interested I would first go into one of the stores and see how everything is laid out and see how the workers move around. Chat up a worker too. It's literally what you see is what you get. The benefits of the job did get cut after covid but they expect it to come back once they start making money again. The amount of workers per store is really small for them to save money. At the time I left it was 2 front of house and 2-3 back of house in day time, only 2 closing. 

Alright so I didn't spend a lot of time at this company. I'll start off with the plus side. You get to move up quickly. The base pay is a little higher than minimum. You're basically going to be working with the same people and get to know your team, which can be a plus or a downside depending on the people you work with. You do get to have a free meal and free coffee as well. 
Now the downsides. Some of these do depend on the management people you get stuck with so it's mostly based on personal experience.  Upper management is seriously stupid. I was expected to do my new role perfectly while having my hours cut, which took away prep time, despite not having the role title officially and only being with the company for about a month or 2. Training is done through a screen. I was told to do modules that could only be done during work but I was still expected to do my regular duties on top of that. I got minimal training and help from other people. I got trained a bit by the former hot chef who was very eager to leave. While it's not hard it is very fast pace especially working in the morning so being new and having no support makes for a stressful time. A lot of the maintenance of the store was not kept up. This is a store specific problem though. You aren't allowed to take tips. This is a huge fault because given how busy the morning was you could easily make 5+ additional dollars an hour at no cost to the company which would make the work load a bit more worth it.


The name says it all, Pret A Manger...Ready to Eat.  They specialize in premade food, ready to pick up and take with you or for dining in.  At lunch you have your choice of a multitude of sandwiches and soups.  My favorites are the chicken and bacon, and the California club.  The club includes avocado and pesto, a great combination in addition to the turkey breast.  The soups have included chicken noodle, shrimp gumbo, broccoli and cheddar, kale and sausage, and a macaroni and cheese with sausage. 

What I also like is that sandwiches are offered in both full and half sizes.  This allows you to mix and match if desired, to sample different items. 

The breakfast options are also winners.  The croissant with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes tastes like a cross between a Caprese salad and a tomato tart.  The bacon, egg, and cheese croissant is even better.  Normally the best part of that is the bacon, followed by the egg and the cheese.  But in this case the croissant would be delicious by itself.  For those eating healthy, they also offer two kinds of oatmeal...steel cut and a whole grain.  There is also fresh fruit available as well.  Calorie counts are also provided for all of the food.  For those not interested in calories, they serve warm cookies at lunch and chocolate chunk is the way to go.  Or pastries at breakfast. 

The space is on the small side, with only a few tables available to dine in.  But you can't go wrong making this part of your regular lunch rotation.

There's two different "work-styles" at working Pret. There is the back of house, which is everything kitchen related. Then there's the Front of House, working with customers and registers. I have experienced both, as for BOH (Back of House) its very fast paced and team oriented. You will be timed for the items you are required to make. This is to ensure kitchen efficiency which is very important because all of our food is fresh and the customers need all selection available to them. Standards are strictly followed, for example every 20 minutes a bell will ring which will require everyone to stop what they are doing and begin there 'kitchen duties'. Such as cleaning the sink, replacing garbage, sanitizing door handles, and sweeping. Washing your hands is also a must every 20 minutes, and can't forget you are still required to finish your list of items on time. So yea there is a lot of pressure working in the kitchen, however once you're trained and have a organized system its pretty smooth. As for FOH (Front of House) you"ll be helping out customers,cleaning, and also playing games with customers where you give out free drinks if they win which is always fun. Along with preparing drinks, being on register, and making sure its a warm environment for everyone. Both employees and customers. Organization, team work, and clear communication is key at Pret A Manger.

Pret A Manger is a fast-paced, high standard sandwich shop and cafe. It has its good days, it has its bad days. The work will be easy to you, if you are a hard worker, good with your hands, and have a good memory. As a trainer, my normal day to day would be making sandwiches and salads, making sure the kitchen staff is staying productive & efficient, ensure health and safety standards, and make sure all employees stay up to date with new training. The CEO, as well as the vice president, district managers, etc, would casually make pop ups to see how the shop is being ran, and ensure standards are upheld. They are very friendly, but they don't play games about their business. However there were some general managers and assistant managers who abused their authority. Watch what you say and who you say it around. Not everyone has your back. Company parties and "Top Shop" awards are really good incentives used to make sure that every location performs at its very best. Makes the "competitive spirit" between shops higher. There's nothing like a little friendly competition! Depending on location and staff, Pret A Manger can be a really awesome job

This job was one of the worst working experiences I've ever had. The management was horrendous, honestly I don't care about the workload(it's a job, so you are expected to work hard) but there were times were I felt like I was a slave, the manager would scream at me like I was a dog to make the items faster.

      One of the things that I absolutely hated about working at pret, was the fact that management wanted you to act like you were were having fun and smile at all times. Obviously you want to treat the costumers great by smiling but they don't know what happens in the back and how much stress you have to go through to get all the stuff done in TIME.

      There's also no job security because you could get fired for the tiniest thing. No sick days, no flexibility whatsoever, you need to dedicate yourself to pret 110%. The manager was always putting me down making me feel like I wasn't giving my best and threatened to fire me if i didn't make X amount of item per hour. 
Finally, to whoever is reading this and is considering to work or apply to this company, PLEASE don't do it

It's a pleasure to work with you.  but you have a lot to do at the employee level.  the heart of a business is the employees and the customers.  so if the relationships between these two or between them are not good.  everything else cannot work.  this company has a good organization and structure that any person can evolve but the team system does not exist, the employees are divided because of racism (difference in color, appearance tribal or origin).  hypocrisy also exists within this company.  people make you feel like you love and you accept that you don't.  something else there is a poor flow of information from the manager to the employees (duplicate or incorrect information or orders).  know-how and good manners do not exist, merit and competence do not count.  we do not evolve because we deserve or because we are old but rather because we have affinities with the manager or such.  this is the bad experience I have had with your company since I started working.  yet the United States is a great power, a country of law, freedom, equality and opportunity.  in societies we tend to see the opposite.

I was initially hired full time (30 hours a week) and full time employees get benefits. They give me just under 30 hours so that I will not be able to receive benefits despite me asking multiple times to pick up other shifts. Managers are rude. the GM of my store forgot to change my  schedule my first week of working there when I gave them a 3 days notice that I couldn't come in one day. Manager forgot to take it off my schedule so I got reprimanded for calling out months later, stating that I need to give them a weeks notice, yet at that point I hadn't even been working there a week and I did give them prior notice. GM has also laughed at me for trying to do my job and the store manager yells at me if I try to help out the hot chef by putting out croissants. The only good thing about working there is the free lunch and one time my team leader charged me for lunch after I had just worked a 6 hour shift.  I've spoken to 2 other coworkers who told me they started looking for another job a week into working there. Maybe other locations are better but I do not recommend this pret.

Gotta be honest, i loved my time in Pret. Manager and assistant manager of the shop are just great, they really put their heart on the job and they know how to speak with people. always available to help whatever you need and great to party on.
Due to the deadline to leave the shop at end of the night and the busy periods during the day is hard to clean the shop properly, customer view looks beautiful but lift some "rocks" and gets pretty nasty.
also you better be able to speak Spanish and Italian, it's insane the amount of people you will find that can't say a word in English, perhaps something for Pret as a company to focus on.
Team mates are good, you can't trust everyone, but you can have fun with them at work specially the great polish barista i worked with.
If you would like to work for Pret please visit Albemarle Street, is by far one of the best good environment Pret you can get.

Well about my work experience I want to say very much. But first I would say that my first work experience was fantastic and I loved my job. I started my working experience in pret a manger as an a assistant manger. My job timings used to start from 7am. and ended at 6 p.m. in the evening
The experience of working as manager was a real life experience, because I used to meet different people of different nature and handling them was a life time experience , managing stress environment and showing complete positive attitude and performance. During all the period of my job I learned how to manage the customers in efficient way and also how different people are handled. 
All the staff members were really co operative and maintained a friendly environment.  The experience and support really evoked the professional side in me and I think that this experience of my life would always be helpful in my life.
I would say that I really learned a lot from my job experience and I loved the duration of my job.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Barista 1 salary reported	$18.50 per hour
Shift leader 20 salaries reported	$21.15 per hour
Team member 3 salaries reported	$15.83 per hour
General manager 18 salaries reported	$80,000 per year
Team leader 10 salaries reported	$20.60 per hour

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