Panera Bread reviews

The pay wasn’t that great

First, allow me to start off by saying that Panera was one of the better low end (translated: disposable) jobs when I started it a year ago as a driver at the Tomball location. Lately, I’ve been seeing signs at Panera that companies in distress start to exhibit….(microwaves and icemakers that break and no longer get repaired, as well as the cutting of labor hours of ALL staff including managers). And finally, the last straw was drawn with this new delivery driver application, BRINGG. I should give you a little back-history for my gripe with this app to make any sense. When I was hired a year ago, a cell phone was not a precondition of my employment as a driver, since I had a Garmin GPS. Now, with the introduction of this new app, all drivers are required to have their own cell phones, with active data plans, and the BRINGG app running. But that still is not the main gripe I have. My main gripe is that the app is required to be on and running in the background for your entire shift, and since the app piggybacks off of the google maps app, it is constantly consuming your data. While this may sound like a petty gripe to some, it disproportionately affects low-income and minority employees who are the largest subscribers of limited data plans on their cell phones, and hence, the majority of which will be consumed by the Panera delivery app. So when I presented this argument to management, they made the case that the app is a benefit to the Panera company and to the customer because it now allows the customer to track their food delivery status in real time. I shot back to the management that this is unfair that we the employees are expected to absorb the cost of such a benefit both to the customer and the company without having received any added benefit to ourselves or our pay…..after all, this added benefit they speak of is being incorporated into our cell phone plans and bills, and at the cost of our limited data plans, and is done so without any recompense. In other words, the app, which will gobble up your limited data plan, will be of a great benefit to the customer and the company, and you alone will foot the bill for it. Even after my presenting my logical argument against this app, my gripes fell on deaf ears…so I will be tendering my resignation post haste. By the way, I do not blame my store manager, he is simply a poorly paid company man beholden to the cleptocratic corporatocracy, and must give way to their oppressions lest he place his own job in jeopardy.