barista

assistant manager

team leader

general manager

team member

Pret A Manger

With previous barista/ management experience I was excited to start work at Pret. I had interview and trial shift and then was offered barista job. While on the job I understood that certain management have their favourites giving them favours and allowing them to work less then others.
If you had any problem with work or coworker, managers encouraged you not to speak out, but if you complained they do nothing. They like to sweep thing under the carpet. If you complain to head office, they will promise you support, but really do nothing about it.
Pay, they pay above minimum wage but not allowing you to accept tips. They promise you bonus which is good in quieter shops, but If you work in busy place like station, you always loose the bonus as it’s too busy to keep shop clean and immaculate at all times. So you better of working In quieter Pret, because you work less and get paid more.
The job itself very busy and energy consuming. You make coffee non stop, and their coffee calling system is more stressful than effective. They ask you to remember 10 drinks at the time. After few months of bashing out the drinks non stop I have developed triggered finger. It took five months for my finger to heal after leaving this job, but in some cases it requires a surgery to get triggered finger back to normal according to NHS. They ask baristas to be very outgoing and entertaining, to create the buzz. So if you have a quieter more introverted personality you might struggle, as you are required to put on a show all day every day, they call it Pret behaviour.
Strange thing was that Pret ask you to read and sign a lot of training programmes with their standards, but in reality staff and managers don’t follow the standards (especially the hygiene standards such as washing hands), they only follow standards when area manager is around.
Managers always messed up with the pay, mostly underpaying you. So if you work for Pret, keep track of the hours. You end up chasing your pay afterwards. Also keep track of the pension contribution they pay you, I had to chase them to pay all the amount they deducted from my pay. They did pay in the end months later.
Some manager crossed the line by using phrase like ’work my slaves’ and on several occasions manager was casually pinching staffs bottoms as if it was ok, but it is not ok.
Another annoying thing was that they promote use of foreign languages, so if you only speak English you might struggle, as most people speak foreign languages and they don’t care that some people feel isolated and left out, since most employees are foreign. If you mentioned that to manager, you get reply ‘Are you paranoid that they talking about you?’

Now the good things: you get paid break and free lunch. You also get paid, not always correct amount but at least get paid every week. And you get holiday pay, but then law requires them to pay you. Also you can take all sandwiches home after finished work. Another good thing is that you can have unlimited coffees, so if you like coffee like I do that’s a bonus.

It is almost like Pret once was a great company but then became too big to keep control and order, as they have everything on the paper, but very little in reality.

Personally I would not recommend to work for Pret to a friend. But that’s just my observation based on working in two different Pret shops.

I worked in London  staring 2017 and finished just when the pandemic started so I will just rate that perioud. I don't know how the company is now.

People who came and worked seamed to be either extremely strict, or care-free people who don't have any sense of what cleaneness means, (or customer service).
One rude customer would make up for 100 nice ones.
 The most ridiculuos thing was that you had so many things to do and standards, wash your hands every half an hour(in the kitchen) while still at the same time to have more than 90% productivity. All the while the manager would randomly come and ask for a product which wasn't yet ready and you had to stop what you were doing and do just one for a customer who didn't want to wait. So put everything away, clean everything, collect ingredients and do just a few. That whould affect your productivity but who cared.
Some kitchen leaders would work side by side with the team memebers while others would not even clean or perform more difficult tasks and they got away with it because the manager liked them.
There was litlle honesty most of the times .

The number of standards and things to do were too high for the pay they offered. I liked that I would never sit still and always had something to do but it is not a job to have if you don't like advancing by making friends with the managers and telling them everything that moves in the shop.
Some would advance based on merit of course but then would have to treat the people under them badly making them do stuff which doesn't make sense.
The biggest issue for me was with the department which invented these standards. They are essential in any company but after a while they can't justify their existence anymore as a department so instead of doing something else and periodically check the standards are up to date, they put more and more standards because sure....in a limited time you can add an unlimited number of standards and things to do. People who came up with the recipes live in another universe as well. Why make recipies with so many ingredients when you are a fast food chain all the while having to respect 100 standards and a draconic productivity level?
I would recommend this company to people who want to toughen up and get thick skin. I learned a lot of things in the years I worked there and I hope the company changes for the better in the future. I have seen a lot of people work so hard and for their effort I rated it 3 stars but really, working here is really demoralising.




I've worked with Pret on and off for about a year, in 4 different stores all in different environments. I enjoyed the buzz within stores, the sounds, smells and great atmosphere for customers. I liked the fact that Pret take so much pride in the quality of their products, it's how they achieve this that I disagree with.

I found that the management, especially team leaders, were highly critical and didn't understand the concept of re-training if you made a mistake; instead of explaining what went wrong and how to do something a different/better way, they would stop you and completely go over everything, but would be so condescending doing it that you wouldn't take on board what they had said, and would often punish you, whether it was to take away your bonus or make you spend more time doing mediocre "training" on an iPad.

The culture within the company speaks of growth and personal development, but all they seem to do is try to create robots that operate at 100mph and have no personality.

I've seen a TMT (trainer) shouted at because he hadn't turned the kitchen radio on (it was broken), I've been shouted at because I wasn't fast enough on coffee, all because after 5 years of being a barista in other chains, and independents, I refuse to re heat milk as it is disgusting and burns it. Apparently a few seconds to empty a jug or periodically rinse it is illegal and I deserve to be shouted at. The team leader that time then threw a tantrum and started cleaning every jug saying that if i was that bothered I shouldn't be a barista, I should work as a potwash. 

The amount of times I was expected to stay on after my Rota'd hours UNPAID mounts up to almost a full week of work. If you refused to they would take your bonus and sometimes issue disciplinaries. Yet, if the shift is delayed because someone had a late break or we are short staffed or something didnt get done at the right time, it's the team leaders fault! They often spend hours doing the banking, I've worked as a team leader at other companies and banking 6 tills takes 45 mins to an hour, not 3 hours! 

One of the only saving graces to working here is the above average salary, the bonus (if you get it that week) and the free food and paid break.

I'd sacrifice a paid break and a free lunch for a decent environment to work in where I'm not shouted at daily, and made to feel sub human.

You start work at 4:30 in the morning when its dark and you finish at 16:30 when its dark again in the winter and you spend your whole day in the kitchen without windows where its very very cold, 4-5 degree and you are required to wear the short sleeved uniform because they are always under staffed and you might have to run on till at any point of the day. There is painfully loud music in the kitchen so that you dont talk with the others because this is slowing you down and you have a timer that beeps every so minutes and you have to race and assemble sandwiches as fast as you can which is like a game at first but it becomes very stressful with time and you are always late, always behind and if you somehow manage to finish for the time set the next day they give you more stuff to make in the same time. Its all about productivity. I spend 6 months racing all day and barely spoke 3-5 words a day on my shifts if I'm not on till where you are required to have the widest fake smile on earth, highly pitched voice and again be as fast as possible, its all a race. Everywhere its very noisy and very busy and you are always behind and the stress builds up so much that me and many of my colleagues had to take pills for sleep because you hear the noise in your head when you get home after work and we had this random mental break downs where you are crying on your lunch break without any real reason, its just tears coming out of your eyes and you cant stop. The giant corporation is making wealth from squeezing every drop of "productivity" from the employees and when people break and quit there are always more desperate poor students or immigrants willing to take their position. People work there no more than 3-6 months but there are people that are ok with being on autopilot all day and can deal with the lack of any thoughts in their head day after day after day. There is no place for thoughts, just reflexes. You do the same stuff over and over and over as fast as possible every day and when you get home you either drink or you you act drunk because when someone asks you something you cant answer. You just stand there like a vegetable and try not to shake, humming and trying to suppress the chaotic noise in your head.

Pret works as a temporary job when you need money fast. But virtually everyone where I worked complains that they want to leave. I myself had moved to "part-time" - which is basically a honest full-time and not modern day slavery. At first they are nice but then the workload increases, life/work balance I would say is non-existent. Managers are almost blind to their employees' needs and would do anything to increase profit, team is consistently understaffed and still you are told you don't work fast enough.

Most of the managers are also passive aggressive and just generally neurotic and stressed and have a go at you for every small detail. I've met some really lovely people, don't get me wrong, but most of the managers are as previously described, and the general atmosphere in the workplace is not a good one. At Pret it is normal to work 11 days in a row, with only one day off to then start all over again.

If you work in the kitchen you are expected to comply to the standards and get complaints if you don't do a good job when you've had very little sleep and have too much to do. I've seen members being assigned two positions at once for lack of staff. For the three months that I was there, it almost ruined my physical and mental health. I dreaded going to work. The pay is fairly good but it is not worth it considering the huge amount of stress and workload, and the long hours. 

It is disheartening that such a successful and profitable coffee chain would put so little effort in caring for its general employees, who after all lie at the heart of the company. In summary, unless you are desperate for money, steer away!

Free clean and neat uniforms, food and drinks, for you everyday.
Flexibility to settle down your time, shift and location at the interview.
Payrate is better than any other food/coffee shop chain, possibility to get promotions quickly if you work hard, also the pay is weekly, which is good if you need to catch up with your expenses.
The job can be in some shops busy over any expectations, so be ready to roll up your sleeves and work really hard in some times of the day.

Most of the staff is just arrived to London, so be ready to share their emotions and find a lot of interesting people.
They try for good means to keep all together happy, so you got parties, team drinks and stuff.
It is a customer service with a fun-based culture, so whichever is your mental state, you have to be happy and smile.
Quite unhappy about the mystery shopper whole thing, you lose your bonus most of the time and it's not your fault, even if you did a perfect service and that is not encouraging you to do better.

You can find the good manager that is adult, understanding and conscious to have a nice time through your shifts and duties, but you can also suddendly be under the powerkid that is mainly rude, ignorant and frustrated, unable to control the situation, setting up your rota to damage your personal life just for fun, or shouting at you in front of the others, bringing you quickly at the point that you're forced to leave the company or ask a transfer to another shop.

I really like the idea of Pret, but there are still some problems that can ruin entirely your experience.

Never enough people at the shift to do the job they ask to do(which is millions). They wan't team members to be not human, basically, smile like an idiot all times, not have human needs( going to toilet, drinking water, rest). Being not well is seen as being a weakness but....look, we all are human and we get sick or not well at times. Even though I had a nice first years at this company, something happened and the changes in the Edinburgh area made it worse... The management style became hardcore slavery implementation in every day. I would recommend to run away from this company as far away as you can if you wan't to keep your sanity, your self respect, your mental health and your private life intact. 
 Please look for another place, the benefits that this company offers are not worth all the trouble and bullying you will have to go through. The money they pay(looks good on paper)  is not enough for the work amount you do . The Mystery shopper bonus now is almost impossible to get because you will always be short of staff and will be in a lot of stress and the tasks that you have to do will be impossible to be done  in a normal human way. You will have to give all your blood and energy and will finish your shift sucked dry and will not have any wish to do anything you usually like to do after work.
The good thing: Pret has given me....well, 2 things- Experience and I met amazing people who are still my friends and will always be. No other good things, even though free food sounds good, you get fed up with it over time so I wouldn't say it is a good thing.
P.S. years ago I would have given a much better review but with all the CHANGES and the situation, sadly have to give a weak review.

my typical day consists of many tasks from banking to administration to be honest there are never enough hours in the day to get through all the checks, monitoring the day to day running of the store over seeing staff tasks and duties by complying daily shift plans these show where staff should be and there duties for the day my own tasks are separate from invoice checks, credits grievances, ordering all stock staff rotas, safety checks there are more but I wish not to bore you I have learnt a lot at pret how to provide amazing service how to maintain sales figures how to forecast and analyse sales reports to our advantage. my staff are great but unfortunate for me prets mantra towards labour has changed at the moment there is not enough labour being used therefore putting pressure on staff members to work more than there contracts state causing morale to drop in all areas of the shop, the hardest part is forecasting weekly sales even after factoring in year on year sales trends, events and staff intuition is still your greatest attribute if you possess luck , most enjoyable part of my job are the customers and the rewards you can get through customer service its not a bad place to work but I'm 31 now and I really don't want to get stuck here you see in Birmingham there's only 4 shops chances to enhance your career are few and far between, pret pay staff  very well therefore once in a position people will not leave my only options are going to move to another city my family are all in Birmingham  and I wish to stay here

So I understand that in a large chain every manager is different but I will just talk about my own experience. For some background I am a hard worker and have never left a job without a fair reason and sufficient notice.

When you start working at Pret you get placed in the kitchen for 2 weeks. This involves a 5.30am start. You prepare the food in a way that quickly makes you feel like a factory worker. I knew I was doing a good job at keeping to time constraints, keeping up with the team even though I was new yet I recieved NO PRAISE the entire time I was there. The only things I was told by management was negative - things I could improve on. Understandable criticisms but when this is given to you with no positive feedback it quickly felt souless. 

There are some good benefits - paid breaks, food on shift etc but I felt the stress of the kitchen work and a 5.30 start meant I should have been paid above a basic wage when there are many easier, less stressful retail jobs for the same wage. 

Another problem was that all of the staff are Spanish. I do not mean to sound racist at all, they were lovely, but they would all speak in Spanish during shift which is understandable but felt isolating to be the only non-Spanish speaker and in terms of training there were language barrier issues where the members of staff training me didn't always know the terminology or how to explain things in English

I terminated my contract during the probation period because I found the manager to be a bully. I was then owed some money by cheque - when I went in to collect this she didn't look me in the eye and handed it over without even saying goodbye.

Worked in the company 8 years but the way the company is run in this area is an absolute disaster. Managers are forced to cheat on results and break standards just so that the area manager looks good on paper, though he stays at home most of the days whilst the shops collapse. 

Since 2018 there is so much pressure in getting the standards right however I’ve seen kitchens running on two people on night shifts and even one on day shift (where four people are required per shift) as area management does want figures to be right on paper- this could cause enormous issues if something went wrong I.e. allergens. 

People are over stretched and tired since the pressure to achieve selection in stores is high but not enough labour in. I have been questioned why do I need to work 14-16 hours a day when no one is asking to yet being told going on underperformance if I over spend on hours. 

Over 200 people have pret in this area since last year, as well as 8 managers and assistant managers in 8 shops, so numbers speak on their own.

We as managers aim to make our teams happy and safe however the over stretching on labour just made us cover the gaps over and over not realising the biggest gap was within us unable to have a normal life or humanity due to the amount of hours being psychologically forced into work.

I have met great people and higher management in this company but there is an unacceptable level of fear culture up here in Edinburgh, where people believe they won’t actually be okay if they quit their job if unhappy. It’s 2019 and if your employer raises you to be scared to develop elsewhere then it’s not a good employer.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Barista 13 salaries reported	£13.01 per hour
Assistant manager 4 salaries reported	£33,375 per year
Team leader 6 salaries reported	£14.00 per hour
General manager 5 salaries reported	£37,900 per year
Team member 17 salaries reported	£13.65 per hour

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