7.5 tonne driver

delivery driver

retail store manager

shift manager

store manager

Krispy Kreme

I started here with high hopes,I needed something to pay the Bills for a few months until starting a new career but it didn’t last that long.

The job itself is easy although fast paced and constant as the factory runs 24/7.  The upper management seemed good and are trying their best to improve things but it’s not working. Shift leaders and junior managers for the most part are just bitter employees that have been there for years, they know how to make a donut but no idea how to lead people . They will complain about team members work quality while making the same mistakes themselves and are cliquey with senior members of staff, giving them preferential treatment.

Production and processing staff get paid more to motivate better quality control but when you promote people to encourage this that can’t even do the job themselves and hire people that don’t care, even that doesn’t improve quality.

Everyone is miserable yet the company claim that it’s a fun place to work etc. there is clear favouritism to employees that have been there for a while, for example, using Phones while working, smoke breaks while newer employees are made to work continually apart from the break they get which is only 30mins in a filthy break room, even if you’re doing a 10hour shift. Staff that have been there will get all the good days off. 

The place is understaffed and they will regularly have to pull people in early or on their days off. And the night shift constantly have to work later as there is so much that has not been completed during the day, this is an endless cycle so you will be starting everyday behind schedule, the management then will want things rushed to pick up the slack and then the next day you will be pulled up by a different manager who will complain about quality. You can’t do the right thing if you are being told one thing by one manager and then the opposite by another.

Training is pretty much non existent, you get sent some online videos to watch and then know everything from that. luckily the majority is easy but when experienced staff start bad mouthing new starts because they don’t know where things are immediately or how to use piping bags etc it all gets a bit pathetic. And the staff just gossip about other members and bad mouth each other. Being stood for hours listening to this is just painful.

They will take advantage of you, I left after a few weeks due to them expecting me to work full shifts on every important day during the festive period with few days warning, despite a) multiple members of staff working none of those days and b) company policy supposedly being if you worked one you wouldn’t work the other. People that were in their early 20s living at home were given Xmas day and New Year’s Day off while people with kids were expected to work both. They even put people who have no transport on those shifts expecting members of staff to go around picking them up since public transport is off. I lived 10mins away and was asked if I’d pick people living in Ayrshire etc up on Christmas Day, you didn’t even get paid extra, Just ridiculous. Again an example of favouritism to members of staff that had been there longer than a year. 

Overall it’s a place where if you need to pay the bills or are doing it while at college or waiting for better employment it’s ok. I went in after 9 years experience of managing people and a wealth of experience in multiple areas which at interview was noticed  but then When I started I had people with no people skills somehow in positions of authority speaking to me like it was my first job and was a teenager who wouldn’t know any better. It is literally dipping donuts in icing for 10 hours, it’s mind numbingly simple.


I have been working at Krispy Kreme for several months now as a Part-time Retail Team Member.

I was excited when I got this job, but that quickly faded as all of my hardwork for this company was brushed off and nobody seemed to care - you are just a number.

Here's what you're expected to do during a typical day:

Opening - set up the shop, start the coffee machine (make sure the coffee drips between 25-28 seconds), make sure the milkshake machine is on (if not, refill it and set it on auto), unload the doughnut trays onto the correct steel trays, ensure everything is clean and presentable. 
During the day, you're expected to upsell as much as you can. For example: if someone wants 2 doughnuts, you upsell to a pack of 3 or a drinks combo. You have to restock the doughnut trays when necessary, do regular coffee checks, make sure the place is clean and keep a cheery attitude. 
Closing - count the wastage and put all of the trays back into the trolleys and throw out all of the doughnuts that were not sold that day (including OG/Assorted boxes), clean the metal trays with sanitiser spray, clean the inside and out of the glass cabinet, take out the rubbish, clean the milkshake machine, clean the coffee machine, sweep and mop the floors, and, in general, just ensure the place is spotless and all of the necessary things are cleaned properly.

Now, that's fairly standard.

However, as you continue to work for the company, a lot of red flags come out at you. 
These are mine:

- Lack of structure & childish management
I personally find that there is a serious lack of structure in management. The manager of the store I work at is extremely condescending, hypocritical, rude and overall shows a lack of care and concern for other staff working at the store. The manager also shows favouritism towards certain employees and give them special treatment - especially if you do something that is 'frowned upon', you get scolded - but if they do it, it's brushed off. The manager at my particular store is nothing more than a playground bully.

- Over-worked for little pay
You are over-worked, expected to work as if you are on commission, get paid close to nothing (especially if you are under 21!) for everything that you do, you only get half an hour break (which is not paid) even if you work a 9 hour shift. You get pressured by your Team Leaders and manager constantly - and whenever they make a comment, 80% of the time it's criticism. Not constructive criticism though - just criticism for the sake of criticising. 

- You will be disregarded
If you are at a box store (also known as a 'kart'), you are completely forgotten about by the staff and are disregarded. If you need something, the phone never gets answered.

- Part-time hours fluctuate haphazardly 
At the beginning, I was working 30-40 hours a week. I'm part-time. I'm also a full-time student. Management, however, did not care and apparently 'needed' me to come in despite having 20+ employees. However, a few months down the line, they started cutting everyone's hours and I would be lucky to get more than one shift a week. Part-timers, beware!

- High stress 
This job is incredibly stressful and puts a lot of responsibility on you. It is 100% physically demanding (carting heavy trolleys around, etc), and 300% mentally stressful. I would come home completely exhausted and would feel very unmotivated to do anything. 

- Low pay for the nature of this job 
The pay is not worth it. It is not enough for everything you do and everything you are expected to do. I would advise everyone to simply find a job anywhere else - it's probably better than working here.

15+ members of staff quit the store within 5 months which definitely says a lot about this store and company overall.

Worked at Krispy Kreme part time while studying for almost two years. It began fun and exciting, as it was my first job, but this eventually went downhill. 
To begin with, I was told by colleagues I would have plenty of time to learn every aspect of the store such as cleaning and making drinks, but when I spoke with my manager, I was told that until I learned all of the hot and cold drinks, I would not be able to move past my probationary period. This was slightly frustrating, as I was working extremely hard, while some of my other colleagues were advancing when they had done a lot less than myself. Once you pass the probationary period, you get a slight pay rise, so it was infuriating to see that others were getting paid more than me to stand around while I was attempting to serve and clean at the same time for less money. 
Apart from this slight pay rise, there has been no other benefits or rewards to working at the Krispy Kreme. Once, I was told that I could have won a bonus for employee of the month but because another colleague had gotten a bad mystery shopper score that month, I was no longer allowed to be put forward for employee of the month! After around a year or so of working there, a new line manager began managing our store. From this point, the only enjoyable part of working there was to see my colleagues, which I built a good relationship with. There was a higher pressure to deliver good customer service reviews, but with no incentive from management to do so. Two of my full time colleagues were amazing, and started their own rewards for us, paying out of their own pocket to recognise those of us putting in extra effort. Our line manager told us that other stores had incentives paid by the company, but they never seemed available in our store. 
In addition, the store became incredibly understaffed, and the manager made no effort to hire new staff, so everyone has to work longer hours in order to accommodate for the lack of staff. Recently, the manager has been ill, so the manager's tasks have been further delegated to the only two full time members of staff left, as well as the part time students off for school holidays. The line manager has made very little effort to fix the staffing problem.

The job itself is incredibly easy and most of the time you will find yourself on your phone with not a lot to do. They do provide you with training but a lot of it is just watching a video and then they leave you to it. Staff were great for the most part but you tend to be working on your own a lot which can get very repetitive and depressing. The management and company are a bit all over the place currently and hours are being slashed a lot and the company is flip flapping on different subject matters which can leave you feeling confused and frustrated. The recent management and company wide change that happened at the turn of the year has not been good for the company in terms of staff morale and work enjoyment, becoming more data driven, money saving and less of a company which cares about its workers.
The company is now very money driven which is disappointing as the warmth and friendliness of Krispy Kreme from years ago has now gone and it is trying whatever it can to stay relevant and afloat in recent times. 
As a first job this place is great and you will learn a lot about customer service, food and drink handling, health and safety and brand standards, but I'd stay away if you're looking for something stable and with a future. Best bit about the job are the doughnuts and coffee you get on shift. Hardest part is dealing with the micromanagement and inconsistency with management and general retail frustration. Praise is hard to come by and criticism is very data driven which is ridiculous in a company that used to be all about making memories and magic moments for customers, you will have your shortcomings pointed out constantly without ever being praised for doing your job right which is classic retail. 
Overall, if you can put up with the some of  the unfriendly staff and inconsistent company values then its not a bad part time role, just don't expect a lot.

Was initially promised full time hours (37.5) and at training they really sold it to me so it seemed fun at first, but it didn't take long for things to start unravelling. Hours are all over the place so you either end up overworked or out of pocket. Some weeks the rotas only have 141hrs on them which is ridiculously low! You get left on your own for hours and it's one of the busiest shopping centres! You are treat like cattle. Management don't care. Not in my time have I worked in a more gossip fuelled environment where the boss feeds into it. Everyone is at each others throats 24/7. You are thrown to work at other stores without even being asked. Multiple complaints to the area manager and head office over my time being there and you just get ignored even though illegal procedures were taking place! All they care about is money and they have an excuse for everything. Such high staff turnover and its no surprise why, everyone ends up mentally ill and on sick because of the treatment you get. Never get a day off sick either! You are expected to still work even though it goes against basic food hygiene safety. The company was all about profit and money saving. Also was hypocritical!! The rules changed every week to whatever suited them so nothing was ever fixed or stable, honestly just made the rules up as they went along. Nothing was ever good enough, no praise given at all. Cannot progress either. Don't even waste your time, for what you get paid it's ridiculous and it's also minimum wage. Would rather stick my hand in a blender than work there again.

Working for Krispy Kreme sounded like a dream job. The company sounded good and the perks were also desirable (above minimum wage salary and a free box of doughnuts each week).

Unfortunately the novelty wore off quickly when i was regularly given more than 25 hrs per week. this was for a part-time role. I was even given a 39 hours one week. 
There is a day and night shift meaning the shift hours were long (around 11 hours). Due to the 'efficient' nature of the business; only one production member per shift was ever used. This meant that production members were put under extreme pressure every shift. 

Employment law states that a worker must take a 20 minute break after 6 hours of work. This regularly didn't happen due to not being allowed to leave the production area whilst the machine was making doughnuts. This would not be an issue if there was more than 1 production member per shift. I regularly worked between 8-10 hours before being able to take a break. 

After repeatedly complaining to management about the poor working hours i was told time after time that it was 'just how the business is.' On more than one occasion i have worked 9+ hour shifts without a break.

This job puts an awful lot of responsibility on one person. It is not only physically demanding but mentally stressful too. The pay is simply not enough for a job of this nature.

For all of the negatives i have enjoyed working with the other staff members. Thankfully my line manager was understanding otherwise i would have quit long ago.

I have learnt a lot through this job and it has taught me great time management skills.

A day at work is dependant on what shift you are on, the day is broken down into 3 different types. Morning shift which is generally a 7am until 3pm, this consists of working on your own for the first couples of hours setting the store up for the day, the doughnuts get delivered to the warehouse which is away from the store so you have to bring the trollies over, then set them up in the display. As a team leader I also have access to the safe so ensuring the safe is balanced in a morning and making sure the tills have an accurate float amount of £200 in a morning is also required. On a morning shift as a Team Leader I also have to input the doughnut delivery into the system and pay for our daily delivery, also any other order such as milk, coca-cola, boxes basically everything we use as a store. Then there is mid shifts which is work times from 9am until 6pm or 11am until 8pm, these shifts are mainly for serving purposes, making sure the customers/guests are happy and have everything they need, and making sure their overall experiences are pleasant. Then the final shift is the late shift, which is working hours of 2pm until 10pm, this shift consists of closing the store down, ensuring everything is clean and tidy and washed, so for the person coming in on the opening shift can do so happily not having to do anything that should have been done the night before. On the night shift as a Team Leader you have to cash the tills up and bank any profits, then everything must be inputted onto the computer such as banking, wasted doughnuts and daily excel trackers.

Honestly, I loved working with the staff, I enjoyed talking to the customers and I enjoyed the atmosphere of the shop. I learned so much from them and was promised to progress.

However this is where everything fell apart, I worked for the company for over a year and 3 months and in that time, I had 4 managers, the first treated me very nicely, but she said this is no career for me and I should leave as soon as I find another job. The 2nd taught me a lot about the company but said I was incompetent, the 3rd said I could be management material, and started training me to become a manager in the future, but ultimately I did all of the work for him, and the 4th was the reason I left, being she did nothing right. She sold out of date products to customers, something which I challenged, but was ultimately shut down for doing, even against the Area manager, I ended up doing a lot of her work too, and it was disgusting. We as staff were forced to do jobs we weren't trained in, one of which, resulted in 2 of us becoming severely ill. 

I then decided to hand in my resignation, which a manager from another store and my area manager told me I should reconsider. The staff around me all asked me to stay as well, as they felt I was the better leader compared to my manager, so I reconsidered. But the Area manager just told me that I can't reconsider, when a day before had asked me to. It was horrible for me to go through all of that. But honestly I am glad to be free of the company now.

On top of all this, the company will not give you a reference, or at least, the area manager doesn't allow it from her area.

The interview process is simple and relaxed. However, vacancies were advertised as full time. You didn't find out you'd only get a 4 hour contract until you were offered the job, but were falsely promised longer hours. I couldn't turn the offer down as I was on Jobseekers Allowance. I ended up in a worse financial position than I was in when I was on benefits.

Advertised with a competitive salary. At the time when I applied, this turned out to be 10p over minimum wage.

Staff would regularly be sent home or have their shifts cancelled at short notice.

Team members (including the team leader) had a bullying, gossiping culture.

I struggled with the role at the time because of mental health issues. Instead of offering support, management set me up to fail. This included not raising numerous issues they had with my performance until a week before my probation ended, complaining that I didn't "create a positive working environment" when I was suffering from severe depression and claiming to provide "extra training" (they asked me to come in for an extra hour and a half, less than a week before the end of my probation. This gave me no chance to show any improvement). Not an acceptable attitude in this day and age.

Route check must be done but they can’t be Because the company want us to cover the office 7 days a week, be in for loadout from 01:00 and Debrief until 16:00 7 days a week, do all HR, brand standards, work over our 9 hour shifts because “it’s what we do”, keep all systems up to date, manage compliance, manage drivers, engage the team, develop a good relationship with manufacturing, monitor all vehicles for damage 7 days a weeek AND have a work/life balance.
Train your senior drivers to do it - well they can’t because the routes are maxed out now so there’s no time for them to be in the office because the company didn’t want them off the road and extra shifts brought in to cover them, but the routes have to be 11 hours in length and the senior drivers have to cover loadout and do a route, oh but they can’t fail deliveries and they must clean well, but must be back within their contracted hours, 
Oh and I forgot you’ve got to be available at any given moment at the drop of a hat to cover a route or go and enter some data just because the company wants to look like it’s doing a great job - some balls are going to drop
Lack of documented process on HR makes decisions based on what’s happened before, and because everyone has got away with everything before there is no line that can be drawn in the sand. 
Very unachievable targets, difficult to motivate staff and a simple thank you from senior management is normally non existent. 

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