Pret A Manger Employee Reviews for Kitchen Team Member

Hard work, every day but not a bad place to work at all. Free food every day, flexible shifts, depending the shop you work in you might need to work during weekends.

Pros

fair salary

Cons

long hours, short staffed

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Work place and management

Kitchen Staff (Former Employee) - Bristol - 9 August 2023

The management is very poor with communication. They treat you really badly and the fire you because of one mistake which they cause. When your new they take advantage of you and make you do thing which is not part of the role.

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Insights into Pret A Manger

Based on 465 survey responses

What people like

Feeling of personal appreciation
Supportive environment
Fair pay for job

Areas for improvement

General feeling of work happiness
Energising work tasks
Sense of belonging

Busy

Kitchen Leader (Former Employee) - Norwich, Norfolk - 28 July 2023

It was a really good company to work, but after COVID unfortunetlly it's getting worse and worse. They are cuting hours and its really hard to get a bonus.

Pros

Free coffee and meals

Cons

Unpaid breaks

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Avoid if you can.

Kitchen Staff (Former Employee) - Leeds - 21 June 2023

What is the best part of working at the company?There is no best part at this place.You will be toilet and table cleaner at same time in kitchen for food prep on the tills responsible for unloading the delivery and at the end you will be paid nearly minimum wage.What is the most stressful part about working at the company?Target are calculated with minutes and seconds so precise, they are so mene and disrespectful.What is the work environment and culture like at the company?I was working in place in basement without windows.What is a typical day like for you at the company?Frustrating,do everything and at the end no extra bonus.

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Good workplace

Kitchen Member (Current Employee) - Brixton, Greater London - 19 May 2023

very busy schedule as work starts at 5 am. You constantly have to hurry and keep up with their plan. A little stressful, but the team itself is not bad. It helps a lot

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Really depends on what kind of team you get

Kitchen Leader (Current Employee) - London - 15 May 2023

(This review does not apply to head office candidates)Been working here for over 4 years and it really seems that they care less and less about people who work in stores. The labour allowance each store has was cut drastically and it doesn’t seem like it will return to what we used to have even half a year ago now that they’re pushing their subscription harder than ever (Head office peope going around central london stores complaining that we’re not pushing the “New club pret subscription” to every single customer in the middle of morning coffee or lunch rush times to people who don’t want yet another subscription…). They also cut paid breaks which was a huge part of why some of us even started working here.

Pros

Free breakfast and lunch (if your shift is over 4hrs), unlimited hot drinks

Cons

All the rest

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Unorganised , poor management

Kitchen Staff (Former Employee) - Stansted Airport - 8 May 2023

I worked at the Pret store in Stansted airport and it started off as a good experience but massively deteriorated. First of all the job advertisement was misinforming the work pattern as it was stated as behind a Sunday to Thursday role but I never got given this work pattern. I could never speak to a manager because they were always too busy for their staff and there was always a shortage of management. It was almost impossible to contact them when you were calling in sick or needed to organise holiday. We were always given a weeks notice of shifts or even less so it made the balance between work life and personal life almost non existent.The money was good but it was a very stressful environment because the colleagues and managers alike could not handle pressure. It became very toxic and members took their frustration out on one another. There was little to no compassion from the management system in regards to personal life and it always came down to the business needs without factoring in the well-being of the employees which led to depression for multiple members of staff including myself. There was a lot of backstabbing and drama 24/7 with no one holding any professional etiquette especially from the management system. When I decided to quit and told the manager my grievances I received no reply back and that sums up the managers at Pret, unprofessional, unethical, rude and outright pathological liars. I would not recommend this company what so ever.

Pros

Free food

Cons

Poor management

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NOT fun, only stress and militant

Team Member/Kitchen (Former Employee) - London, United Kingdom - 8 March 2023

I disagree with the strange reviews that Pret is fun! The workday is abysmal. I left without having a new workplace because I couldn't take it anymore! Pret needs a union!

Cons

Toxic, not a safe work place.

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Productive

Kitchen Staff (Former Employee) - Oxford Street, Greater London - 16 February 2023

Can't explain my self how I felt to work there. It's really worth and also career progressive place. All staff support at work , understanding and growth help

Pros

Free meal, drinks

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Hard and non rewarding

Kitchen Staff (Former Employee) - Birmingham - 4 February 2023

Work in pret is like a never ending marathon. You start at 5 a.m. and finish at 4 p.m. Every week a new staff member is 'trained', or shall we say thrown into the water to swim, because staff keep leaving. We have angry customer waiting at the door but we can't open when we are two people in the shop. No food ready for customers. Pret knows how it is. But we alone. :[

Pros

Stress

Cons

Too much expected without support. :[

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Jobs at Pret A Manger

Kitchen Team Member positions

See more jobs

Kitchen Team Member - Heathrow Airport - Full Time

Hounslow

7 days ago

Kitchen Team Member - Bath - Full Time

Bath

9 days ago

Kitchen Leader - Glasgow Airport - New Shop Opening

St. Andrews

10 days ago

Kitchen Leader - Glasgow Airport - New Shop Opening

Glasgow

27 days ago

Kitchen Leader - Glasgow Airport - Nightshift - New Shop Opening

St. Andrews

30+ days ago

Productive but chaotic at the same time

KITCHEN TEAM LIDER (Former Employee) - Bournemouth - 15 January 2023

Way too much pressure from the management group to make sure they do massive sales, get bonuses and save money - not just for the electric bill, if not for the team member hours or doing online training from home (what it should be done in the store and get pay for it).

Pros

Free food and drinks

Cons

Bad management, sometimes you have to work 6 or 7 days a week.

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Exhausting and lots of cleaning

Kitchen Team Member (Former Employee) - London - 5 January 2023

Whilst the pay was good, the hours were uncertain you would often be sent home early if all the work was done and I wasn’t able to do enough hours to pay my way. Often kitchen jobs would be finished quickly and they would make you clean and clean. Due to hiring more than the necessary amount of people actual kitchen tasks would be completed in less than four hours and for the remainder of the day they would just make you clean.

Pros

Good pay, friendly management

Cons

Long hours, overworked

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Hard to say

kitchen team member star (Former Employee) - london - 13 November 2022

Confliting, work pace is hard to keep up. We never stop and mental health is strain on our mind. Pret work us hard we are not paid hard enough to live in london.

Pros

:( not good

Cons

:( not good

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If you read this do not work in pret

Kitchen Team Leader (Former Employee) - London - 11 July 2022

I left Pret after 6 years. Totally understaffed, you can start at 5 am and finish 4pm without taking break, eating or even having a sip of water because your manager sent everyone home to cut hours and expect you to do the job. Management will push you to the limits so they can have a good bonus and go for holiday to Dubai when you work 50hrs a week for 350 pounds and have no life. Pret is the worst place I have ever seen in my life. Full of lies, toxic people and no respect to each other. Im so happy that I left this place.

Pros

none

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Horrible company

Kitchen Leader (Former Employee) - Trafford - 7 July 2022

Worked in pret nearly 10 years and every year it gets worse and less pay No set days off unpaid break but not enough staff or time to take a break finishing late every day starting early every morning but still labour is too high

Pros

None

Cons

Health and life expectancy

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Heavy workload

team member kitchen (Former Employee) - London North, Greater London - 31 March 2022

I will just say this - you will work without a breath until drop. The amount of work in comparison to the salary is not acceptable. Pret wants everything from you without giving anything in returns apart from the minimum they can get away with. Go parttime or work at another company altogether not Pret.

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Great

Kitchen Staff (Former Employee) - London Bridge Station, Greater London - 29 March 2022

They have a great team to help you push in all areas it’s quite easy to get put up for bonus there’s a pay increase also working for pret would be great for anyone who likes working fast paced environment also with on duty drinks meals and discounts of shift.

Pros

Great working environment, food, and drinks

Cons

Really early start

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Stressful place

TEAM KITCHEN LEADER (Former Employee) - Kentish Town, Greater London - 11 March 2022

Avoid Franchise. Always expecting more and more. They change Your work hours don’t ask if You can work. Some people running like donkey other just come and it’s enough.

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Starts off fun but then gets very tedious.

Kitchen (Current Employee) - Peterborough - 5 March 2022

Working at Pret drained me mentally more than anything as I am doing the same thing every day. Some days you will do better than others but it’s always expected for you to always improve and best your previous productivity. Events are meant to be organised for the team so that you can all bond outside of work and relax but the team at Peterborough don’t have any of that (I’m assuming because the store doesn’t make enough money). The team all seemed to want to quit after just a few months as there was no real drive or reward from the management. It always feels understaffed there but there isn’t enough sales to hire more people.

Pros

Free lunch and hot drinks

Cons

Same thing every shift

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Sometimes si stressful

Kitchen Leader (Former Employee) - London - 12 December 2021

Now they don't even pay your breaks. People find better place to work then Pret. A lot of work for a little money to live in London. Busy environment

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Badly managed

Kitchen team member (Former Employee) - Edinburgh Airport - 13 November 2021

Management a joke.Pick on people and favouritism Don't care about staff.Arguments all the time in the kitchen with terrible atmosphere.Worst job I've ever had.