I was in the Panera Bread in California, MD around 8-8:30 one night and witnessed a manager whom seemed as though she was in the process of leaving when she pulled a young girl aside and proceeded to yell at her in front of customer such as myself, and her fellow employees as well. From what I could heard it sounded as though she was being scolded for looking tired. I'm not sure about everyone else, but personally, I've had those days and would expect everyone to have had them! Yet she acted as though the girl was scaring away customers by appearing to need sleep. I'll let everyone know now that it was not to girl that is keeping me away, it is the woman whom I saw yelling at her employee. Embarrassing her in front of her peers as well as paying customers. Cut your employees some slack!

I was employed by Panera Bread in Boardman and upon employment I was told of the dress code policy and diligently followed it so that I could get the job. Due to their no visible tattoo policy I was told I was allowed to cover the small tattoo on my wrist with a watch. Due to their no piercing policy I removed my nose stud. Their dress code states that you can only have two earrings per ear. I have stretched ears so I put flesh colored plugs in them and took the other two in each ear completely out. I was told, by the director, on the day I went in to watch videos about safety that I was okay as long as I definitely took out my nose piercing. She went into some speech about how I have a great personality but that the owner of the franchise wanted everyone to have the "girl next door" look, which I felt was an inappropriate remark. Who out there can define what the "girl next door" looks like? I would have felt much more comfortable just being told "hey, your piercing might fall in someone's soup, please remove it." I went in to train for my first day and the staff was great and very helpful, I loved the fast paced work and was picking everything up rather quickly in the sandwich line. After my shift was over, I went home with my spiffy new hat and a name tag. I was called the next morning and told that the director didn't feel that I fit the "Panera look" because of my ears. I am still very upset about this matter. I did everything I could to make sure I fit the said "look" and was still let go. NOWHERE in the policy does it say that gauged ears are not allowed. It only states that you can have two in each ear. Both of the director's own sisters work in management and the one has 6 holes in each ear and other employees cover tattoos with bandaids and watches. I also took notice that apparently people of other races do not qualify as "the girl next door" since not once have I seen, upon being employed or as a customer, any person of color working there. I sincerely hope that one day businesses will stop letting go or denying others a job because of appearance, because it's truly sad to see that discrimination still happens in 2011.

My sister and I went for coffee at Panera last night 12/23/2010 at around 8p after Xmas shopping. We normally go to the Clearwater Panera which is by far the best. This Panera was the absolute worst. First, we ordered our coffees and when we went to get out coffee we noticed it was old and the cashier said that a water main broke and that they could not make anymore coffee (not Panera's fault) but the cashier should of told us ahead of time and we could of went somewhere else...since we paid we decided to have the old coffee. Meanwhile a bum came in (note, there was hardly anyone in the place at all) paid for his coffee and got something to eat. I was behind him in line waiting for the half and half and that is how I know that he paid, he did not smell and was not bothering anyone. As soon as he sat down to enjoy the coffee and his meal the manager told one of the employees to ask him to leave. I could understand if he was bothering people but he was not. Nobody was complaining but the manager told the girl to tel him customers were complaining. I think that was wrong..it is Christmas and they sure took his money even though they did not want him to eat in. Shame on Panera. I will boycott this Panera for sure.

The woman who is the General Manager at the Panera, auto mall store in Fremont (I believe her name is Christine S.) is the most unporfessional, rude person I have ever dealt with in food service. She looks like she is high half the time and she is mean and short with her employees. She has no customer service skills, she is short tempered and innappropriate. Is Panera so hard up that they hire managers like this? What are they thinking?

I have worked for Panera Bread for about a year, and I have had a very horrible experience. First of all, the employees are treated like crap. The managers do what they want, when they want and break any rules they set down for their employees (i.e. eating in the back of the restaurant, smoking while taking out the trash, talking on cell phones, listening to MP3 players while working, etc). I tried to call the corporate store and make an anonymous complaint, but nothing happened, so i submitted another one a month later with my name, and again, no repercussions to them, but I was forced to take a week off while corporate "investigated". Then, when i returned, I was made to scrub floor stains with a Brillo pad and toothbrush for my next 3 shifts. But I was not too upset with this because I have grown used to doing all kinds of shitty jobs while working there. I used to work as a server for a nice sports bar, but I realized that I would have different responsibilities while working at Paneras (i thought it would include making food or doing dishes or something of that nature) . But when I was hired as a cashier, I had no idea I would spend most of my time scrubbing out the insides of ovens, cleaning out clogged or dirty toilets and bathrooms, scraping off gum (and other substances) stains on the floor and inside refrigerators, and even scrubbing out smelly garbage bins. If I would have known that I was going to be doing janitorial work, then I would have applied as a janitor. These intense cleanings usually all happened near the end of the month when the inspections were, and the rest of the month the store was FILTHY. Also, the sanitary conditions are HORRIBLE, food is dropped and served (they joke Paneras goes by the 10 second rule), food is also kept way past expiration dates and most things that cannot be used one day are kept and reheated and served indefinitely. But that was all accepted evil.
What finally made me leave their employment was the fact that they NEVER kept to their employee's schedules. They changed people's schedules randomly and many times forgot to tell the person whose shift they changed. They would let their favored employees show up late or leave early without any punishment, while I got written up the first time I was late (I was 15 min late because I got pulled over on my way there, and I even called them and told them I'd be a few minutes late). They rarely let people go on break and if you were lucky enough to get one, they would chew you out if you clocked back in after 31 minutes instead of the 30 min break they allow. Also, like other restaurants, the managers have to count out the cashiers at the end of each person's shift before they can leave, but it was nearly impossible to get them to do it. The managers would try to dismiss you between each other, and if you could finally manage to get someone to do it, they would always be late. I understand that this thing happens, but when it becomes an every day thing, it is hard for employees to have a life. For example, I had to work until 3, and I needed to leave on time to pick up my cousin from his soccer practice so I let my managers know when I came in that I needed to leave on time, but the managers all were "too busy" to count out my drawer when the time came, and when I told them I NEEDED to leave asap, they told me "its your cousin or your job". I can understand that things get busy (and my store was very busy), but I ended up leaving work at 5 (2 hours after I was supposed to leave). This kind of thing happened so often that I got used to planning on leaving an hour late. Also, when it was time to close and clean up at night, managers told employees to clock out when the store closed and then they had to clean up (usually for about an hour) after they had clocked out. Most of the other employees are college kids and don't understand that the managers are doing a lot of illegal things. Other employees and myself have submitted complaints to corporate and again, nothing.
All this crap was considered normal practice at Paneras, and if you refused anything the managers said, you were threatened with termination. After about a year of slave work and numerous complaints without any resolve, I quit. I have submit many more complaints and I hope that this company gets their stuff together before they get in serious trouble. I hope this will reach people that are thinking of applying there so they can realize the horrible work and terrible employee treatment that Paneras lets happen in their restaurants.