Decent pay and benefits package, sometimes can get quite stressful. Management is pretty good, and quite flexible with shifts. Free meals and coffee is quite nice.

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Decent working place for a fast food chain

Barista (Former Employee) - Wimbledon, Greater London - 15 May 2022

decent working place. loas of incentive. can progress quick. fun if management is rightfree food and coffee training provided supportive staffawful customers most time

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Insights into Pret A Manger

Based on 166 survey responses

Areas for improvement

Trust in colleagues
Sense of belonging
General feeling of work happiness

A lot of work for little money, but really great teamworkers

Team Member/Barista (Former Employee) - London - 11 May 2022

Very busy cafes, hard work, unpaid breaks. Shifts start at 5am, but you get an extra 5 pounds to the tube for an early shift. However, very cool colleagues and managers.

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Draining

Barista (Current Employee) - England - 4 April 2022

They ask from you too much for too little. Managers are rude and take their stress onto other employees, customers are insufferable and treat you like garbage but you have to bite your tongue and smile at them. There’s no work-life balance and the company doesn’t care about anyone’s mental health.

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Interesting

Barrista (Former Employee) - Stratford - 2 April 2022

It was interesting. Had an exposure with an international team. Work might get stressful when the overall shop isn't running in profit. Good perks,

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Good in the start got worse overtime

Barista (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 24 March 2022

Was great place to start in 2016 but after covid it got worse and worse. The coffee rush got worse after the subscription and it wasn't the same quality of work as it used to be

Pros

Free lunches

Cons

Long hours, overtime, too many things to do at once

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Never again!

Barista/Server (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 2 March 2022

I was recruited through a friend of a friend who know i worked in restaurants long time. I was drawn in by the salary promise but the pay is so poor comparing to the work load. No worklife balance, they basically expect us to be on call 24-7. I don't recomend working there.

Pros

A few friends made

Cons

Everything! Worst company i experience.

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Productive and fun workplace

Barista (Former Employee) - Edinburgh - 1 March 2022

I worked there as a barista. Team were really nice and helpful. Salary was good if I compare to the other coffee shops. We had weekly bonus as well time to time.

Pros

Free launches

Cons

Busy

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Terrible place to work

Barista (Former Employee) - Tavistock - 26 February 2022

Management team only cares about making profit for the business no matter that in the process they overuse the staff. I have worked as a barista and is very stressful and exhausting, their system of doing things is awful, not organised at all, a big mess. They don’t offer any kind of training and expect you to know how to do everything from the first minute you start. Avoid

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Great banter

Barista (Current Employee) - Birmingham, West Midlands - 13 February 2022

The other staff are very sweet and they have to be polite to the customers. I particularly like the late shift because we can have the time to interact more with the funny customers.

Pros

Free lunches

Cons

early shifts

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Jobs at Pret A Manger

Barista positions

Barista - Beckenham - Full Time - New Shop Opening

Beckenham

6 days ago

Barista

London Heathrow Airport

30+ days ago

Barista - Birmingham Airport, Airside - Full Time

Birmingham

30+ days ago

Barista - Camden High Street, 231 - Full Time

London

1 day ago

stay away from pret!

team member hot chef barista leader everything (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 2 December 2021

pret is the worst place i worked at and gotten even worse. 2 people running around all day and customers are angry rude que to the streets. pret makes money again but let us in a pile of ruins. stay away from this company. they don't value employees not even customers, only money.

Pros

lovely colleges who are broken down from work

Cons

disrespect, humiliation every day, slave wages, mental health breakdown

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hard work

Barista (Former Employee) - London, Greater London - 1 November 2021

like all the hospitality jobs, pret is hard work for less money . The management is bad, they are rude probably because they are stress. A lot of pressure

Pros

free lunches

Cons

bad management

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perfect effort/pay balance

Barista (Former Employee) - Luton Airport - 21 October 2021

Been here for the past 3 years and a half where I thought I'd work for 6 months or so. The pay is good enough for the retail environment but there's something special about Pret. You have the power to give things on the house (of course there's a limit), but seeing the customers getting a little surprise be it a coffee or a cookie on the house really made my day.You could become barista (make cool coffees in the front) or hot chef (put your music in the back and cook good and easy stuff) after the initial team member training and later be offered the position of a team leader (not really worth it in my opinion). Had to leave because of moving but it's a nice place to work, the pay is the same for all ages and above minimum wage and it goes up every april and also you get mystery bonus and early start bonuses and night shift hours bonus too so the pay could really add up (especially with the holiday top up thing they have). They also pay weekly so you never have to check your money, their platform for requesting time off is really friendly and you get free healthy food on shift. Cool!

Pros

Free food, weekly pay, nice environment

Cons

sometimes when it's too busy and someone calls sick you have to prepare as usual

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Used to be great, terrible after the cutbacks

Barista (Former Employee) - West Sussex/ Hampshire - 28 September 2021

I was based in one of their stores in the south, was always very busy but also manageable. It was good pay and you always got your contracted hours, plus paid breaks and a £1 bonus per hour if your shop passed a mystery shopper bonus.Our store got shut down and we all got made redundant. A few months later I managed to get a position for the same old role I had as a barista, but in a different town.Staff were all exhausted, like my previous it was still busy, but every day was overwhelming and undermanned. The £1 bonus was scrapped, paid breaks were scrapped, our slightly higher than average wages didn't rise with the April minimum wage increase, so we had essentially had a pay cut - and in general everyone had to do a lot more for less. A couple of members of staff had a mental breakdown in my time working.Both sites employ lovely people with a great work ethic, but in the end that's not enough to make you stay and the new post covid grind will wear you down. I actually quite liked the individual shop management, but the company in general is now tight and cutting back wherever it thinks it can. Personally I believe there are far better paid and less stressful jobs out there for similar positions, and I would not recommend working for Pret in its current state.

Pros

Free lunches, guaranteed contracted hours, seems to employ staff with great work ethic

Cons

Long hours, always busy, understaffed, previous bonuses and incentives all cut, expected to always work more than contracted hours/ poor work life balance, poor pay

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Do not work here !!

Barista (Former Employee) - Warwick - 25 September 2021

Worst job I ever had, long hours, 5am starts, refused breaks when I suffered from mental health issues. Gave me one day of training then expected me to know everything, told me that it wasn’t their fault I was slow when asking for help. Awful company awful job awful co- workers. AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Pros

Weekly pay but it’s not even worth it

Cons

Everything about the job

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Everyday is not the same at Pret when u work there

Coffee Barista (Current Employee) - Marylebone High Street - 2 August 2021

It’s good company if you have good manger and good team to work with everyday is not that same and you can win money if you do good service £50 or £100

Pros

Free lunch

Cons

Long hours per day

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Overworked and extremely fast paced

Barista (Current Employee) - London - 25 June 2021

As a barista you will be expected to make 20 coffees a minute or will be considered too slow. There are standards and procedures that should be followed but they are all ignored when it gets busy. Quality is so poor across so many shops to the point where customers don’t know what a good quality drink is. Type of customers depend on area, high street shop is the worst by far.

Pros

Free lunch and coffee

Cons

Poor management, overworked and underpaid.

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wholesome job

Head barista (Former Employee) - London - 25 June 2021

Great first Job. good place to work and meet people also the charity work you get to do is somewhat selfless. you must give them ago best company when it comes to people on the high street,hands down.

Pros

everything

Cons

leaving

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Rude overall

Barista (Former Employee) - Warwick - 24 June 2021

Was doing upwards of fifty hours a week when suffering with mental health was not allowed to drop hours down at all which meant I had to go off sick and then was not paid holiday left over when left

Cons

Long hours

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Regressing as a work place

Barista - Team Leader (Current Employee) - London, Greater London - 22 May 2021

Employee benefits are constantly regressing (even before Covid), work place is very exploitative, and consuming, hours can vary from 28-50 a week, six days a week and rota is usually provided very last minute

Pros

Free food

Cons

Everything

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Every shop is different

Barista (Former Employee) - Manchester - 8 March 2021

I had a chance to work different shops in the area and everyone was different with kind of customs, being busy, opening hours, days etc. Company is providing a very good training and gives you a chance to improve your skills with many different ways.

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