The Pret A Manger Uniform Cupboard.
Take your pick Team Member, any of those will do.
Quote of the Day:
“Forced happiness…management tends to have a patronising approach to employee, and a customer service way that request people to show a “fake” happiness.”
I got in trouble when I didn’t smile at times after the Mystery Shopper mentioned my lack of smile. What the “Misery” Shopper didn’t know (and probably didn’t care about anyway) was that I just buried my brother and my managers had no mercy on me.
But even before that, I had a cold once and coughed while serving customers, and the Misery Shopper wrote this report after which my then line manager had me in the office, giving me a good telling off.
Side note, Pret staff are not paid sick leave unless they have a sick note from 1 week sickness onward, the first 2 days are not paid *cough*:
Magnifying the small print (or press ctrl & + until you can read the comment, to decrease size again ctrl & – ).
The Misery Shopper commented: “Team member should smile at customers and may not work when ill, as team member was coughing whilst serving me and was therefore not feeling cheerful enough to smile that day.”
Amazing observation. I also wasn’t cheerful enough to smile when my brother died AND Pret A Manger bullied me during bereavement. What now dear Misery Shopper?!
Review from a former Assistant Manager, London Nov. 2017
One GM would hold a meeting in the kitchen and tell us team to leave our problems at home and that our smile is part of our uniform (while he never smiled during customer service).
PLUS
” This job can annihilate every piece of humanity inside of you. … 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. … You will loose everything that makes you human.”
PLUS
“One of the things that I absolutely hated about working at pret, was the fact that management wanted you to act like you were were having fun and smile at all times.”
PLUS
“extremely rude co workers, unprofessional management, not properly trained however expected to know what you’re doing and smile while doing it.”
PLUS
“Minimum salary for everyday smiling … We have to be smiling a being polite to a bunch of unpolite people.”
AND
“Manipulative and exploitative approach to employees as owners and senior management concerned about profit margin only. People are taken into account only if it makes a good PR. Genuinely fake and dishonest company.” Former IT Analyst reviewing Head Office, Dec. 2017
ETC. ETC. …
FAKE happiness; FORCED happiness; FAKE smile; Pret-ense; EMOTIONAL labour; SMILE while sick; SMILE while bereaved; NO MERCY, smile for the millions that Pret’s CEO is pocketing and the thousands upon thousands of £$€ the top leadership reap in bonuses.
@Pret, it’s your turn to smile and keep your PR(et) machine working!
Selected “Quotes of the Day” taken from the complied list of Staff Complaints to highlight the common thread of the problem in all of Pret in different countries and cities.
Substantial list of Staff Complaints from various Employment Review sites, YouTube, Twitter etc.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
©2018 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
©2017 – Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Bullied during bereavement in Pret A Manger 
I will never shop there. I’m sorry that you had to experience such cruelty by people whose only bottom line is money. I hope your next job be with people who appreciate you. 💕.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey, thanks for your very kind words. Most people don’t believe what I went through. That’s Why I sought and gathered all these staff reviews, many of which are even days old. I can verify every one of those after my 10 year experience.
The public and customer just want to believe the shiny facade of Pret. People seem to want to close their eyes and believe the PR.
Thanks for your words. Means a lot. I almost lost my life and cannot, even if I wanted to, be silent again.
Please pass on these staff reviews/complaints:
There are veven more from recent days ago that I haven’t yet added to the long list:
https://latenightgirl.org/open-letters-to-pret/pret-staff-complaints/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I will pass it on. Thank you for being brave and authentic and speaking your truth. There are people who value that and will listen. Never mind the others. They prefer labels to compassion. 🙏💕
LikeLiked by 1 person
❤
LikeLiked by 1 person