Yeah, Pret can’t go half-way scandal, they have to go full-on! Ignoring TWO customer deaths and 20+ injuries before it got public, and still mislabelling and even selling “freshly made” mouldy food (please see photos via these two links). And now almost killing a low-wage staff member who got trapped inside the walk-in freezer for 2.5 hours fearing for her life! This was the 2. staff member who got stuck in the same freezer, the year before another one was trapped, but not as long as over two hours.
Here just one of many customer pictures, more in above link:
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Why does the following read like an “article” by The Sun or a Daily Mail tabloid piece … or a Mafia job?
Oh, it’s Pret A Manger at it again! Gotcha!
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Having survived Pret during bereavement being targeted and bullied, involving the executives and HR, I thought I’ve seen and experienced it all. But no, Pret always have to top themselves with another jaw-dropper, even though it’s no surprise to me. And when I started to expose Pret in May 2018, hardly anyone believed me. I was even blocked, banned, suspended, cussed out, called any name in the book, called mentally ill etc. Now, Pret can’t fix the cracks in their facade anymore and have become a laughing stock to many.
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And little side note, the staff member trapped in the freezer was female, and who again says that women are weak and just damsels in distress? I suspect maybe also she might have been corpulent and her body-fat kept her going if she had some weight. I used to be very overweight when I worked at Pret and lost it all after my brother died. If she was a small petite woman, this might have not gone well! But, what a trooper!
I literally cried for hours yesterday as I kept reading more detail and got flashbacks of how unsafe and careless Pret are. It’s one thing getting trapped inside a small room with poor light or no light. Add to that a fncking freezer??? In one walk-in fridge I went in and the slide-door closed, the lights turned off by default. And sliding doors are scarier/harder to open than a door you push open. The poor woman!!!
Part of the City of Westminster report, quote:
“The investigation established that there was no suitable risk assessment for employees working in temperature-controlled environments. The reporting system used by Pret revealed that there had been a number of call-outs relating to defective or frozen push buttons in the previous 19 months, including a previous occasion at the same remote kitchen in January 2020 when a worker had become entrapped in the walk-in freezer, having been unable to open the door from the inside. On that occasion, the internal door release mechanism was not working.”
Repeat:
“The investigation established that there was no suitable risk assessment for employees working in temperature-controlled environments.”
What, tell me WHAT does this remind me of?
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Link to the inquest into the death of second customer Celia Marsh.
Where has Pret’s slogan gone from years ago?
“Doing the right thing naturally”.
Oh I forgot, Pret had been banned from claiming their food is “natural” as it’s loaded with the “obscure chemicals” Pret claimed to not have.
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Having worked at Pret, I was always annoyed with all the brainwash slogans EVERYWHERE!!! Not wanting to label food with life-saving information, but brainwash slogans everywhere you look! The most annoying one for me when I helped the kitchen, stocking up the fridges was the “Lovingly Handmade” slogan. This one is gone now, thank god. Such a stupid, fake slogan that had me angry many times, because there is nothing loving in Pret. There is unnecessary pressure, a bullying environment, aggressiveness, fast pace, fake smiles, anxiety, depression etc. I might do an extra post on every slogan from the past and what rubbish they currently display.
My absolute all-time favourite customer tweet that hits the nail on the head, tweeted after people found out how Pret cut wages during the pandemic:
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So, they changed all the bullsh!t slogans containing “natural”, “naturally”. This, I believe, was part of the reason Pret refused to label their food, despite all the warnings and despite customer deaths as customers would have seen all the stuff, E-numbers, Glyphosate etc. that’s in their food. With labelling, Pret ONLY started acting when this became public.
I changed Pret’s logo for them to reflect a more truthful message:
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Only heavy fines, the media, court cases etc. will implement change. But having worked at Pret, this change will only last a while, and then they go back to their neglectful self again.
“It’s what makes Pret, Pret”
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Former HR slogan (I added the question marks):
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People wonder, as I did as well, if the staff gets a compensation. The Evening Standard reports, that, quote: “The judge spared the company a compensation payout as civil proceedings over the incident are ongoing.”
But knowing Pret, they will try to settle out of court and have the staff sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for a small sum of money so she will ever be able to speak about her ordeal with the press. Pret offered me a few thousand £ if I sign an NDA, but I declined because MY VOICE, free speech and my experience is too precious to me to sell for a few (for Pret) pennies. Money will be gone one day, but then this stupid agreement is still in place. I rather starve but keep my voice and expose this toxic company.
The woman also got brainwashed by Pret because they made her a team leader now, as if that position is in anyway good or rewarding. This is how low-wage staff, foten from other countries, are brainwashed.
But little by little Pret true face keep getting exposed everywhere. The truth will ALWAYS come out, it’s just a question of time.
Further in the City of Westminster report, quote: “Pret a Manger pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay the Council its full costs, in addition to a victim surcharge, within 28 days. When passing her sentence, the District Judge decided on a starting point of £1.6 million, which was reduced to £800,000 following credit for an early guilty plea and mitigation advanced on behalf of the company.”
I don’t want to elaborate too much and turn this post into my usual long text, but below I want to briefly explain why this happened, as people on social media have repeated valid questions.
I want to first repost a brilliant article that came out after the news of two customer deaths was made public in the fall of 2018.
Pret A Manger and “Broken Windows Syndrome”
Absotuley spot on regarding Pret ignoring issues that happen and are raised again and again.
And another little side note, Pret was able to keep two customer deaths and multiple injuries quiet for two years, not even telling us staff. The freezer incident was in July 2021, TWO years ago. How many other incidents, be it customer deaths and injuries or staff deaths and injuries are under the carpet? During the pandemic staff contacted me saying that Pret let them work WITH Covid and that was even in 2020/2021 before a vaccine was out! Detail here: Pret Staff Tested Positive for Covid (2021).
So, with the freezer situation, people on socials keep asking certain questions I will briefly answer here in no particulr order. And please note, these are just my theories from having worked at Pret, these are not facts as we don’t know the full details. I hope a sensitive journalist gets a hold of the lady and she feels safe to tell her own story in her own words, and maybe her colleagues who witnessed the full shift.
But here’s my take from knowing Pret:
- Why did the door not have a handle inside?
It DID, it was broken and the issue was raised multiple times the previous 19 months including another staff getting stuck inside the year before in the same freezer, but nothing was done to fix it. (It’s what makes Pret, Pret!)
. - Why did no-one notice that their colleague was gone for over two hours?
That is a repeated question which I would also ask if I wouldn’t know Pret. But having worked at Pret, there is a very simple answer and several possibilities what may have happened here.
The MAIN reason from own experience is chronic understaffing and cutting labour costs. Pret are notorious for sending staff home as soon as business becomes a little quiet. And even when it’s not quiet, managers’ jobs are to ALWAYS scrutinize where to cut costs. So, anytime in the day, staff are sent home and the other staff who stay behind are SO SWAMPED and busy, working for three people, they don’t notice when people leave. And many don’t even say “bye”, they just leave to get home. Also, even when staff notice or are informed that someone is going to the remote kitchen, they forget about them as they’re too busy. Out of sight, out of mind.
Plus, everyone starts and finishes at different times as well. When I worked at Pret it took one, two, three hours before I even noticed that a certain staff already left. You’re simply too busy to notice people gone. And this was a REMOTE kitchen. Many kitchens in Pret are downstairs, away from the noisy shop floor and office.
Also, Pret manipulate staff to work overtime without pay. Pret schedule the work time so tightly that it is IMPOSSIBLE to finish tasks in the time given. Staff are then gaslit and pressured to stay longer for free. It happened many times that a colleague finished their shift, we thought they were gone, but then found them 30 minutes later in the office on the computer or cleaning something in the kitchen as the manager called them back to finish something.
And also don’t forget, THIS was during the height of the pandemic, where there was a lot of chaos and confusion already everywhere.
. - Why was there no jacket / why did she not wear a jacket?
First of all, asking the question of why she didn’t wear a jacket to me smells like victim blaming!
2. Pret do have jackets, but many shops lose them or they are so stinky and dirty, most either don’t wear them or wear their own (which is not allowed due to outside elements being carried into the fridges and freezers). I once wore this jacked which is basically PLASTIC to do a delivery. It was regular cool outside, not too cold, but when I returned to the shop and took the jacket off, I was soaking wet, sweating and had to change my Pret shirt.
3. No-one expects to be stuck inside a freezer, let alone for over two hours! I went into the walk-in fridge and the freezer countless times without a jacket as I just needed to grab a box quickly and was out in less than 10 seconds.
I only wore a jacket when I spent 5-10 minutes in there writing down the ordering of what the shop needed as I was a team leader running shops. Pret are known for their fast pace, staff are bullied and pressed to ALWAYS work fast, fast, fast … Many kitchens are small where you can’t even hang the jacket. You’d have to go all the way upstairs or downstairs to grab the stinky/sweaty/dirty jacket from the staff-room or office. And then you get fear managed why you’re taking so long to just grab a box of croissants from the freezer.
. - She should have taken her mobile phone with her
First of all again, victim blaming.
Second, Pret staff, except for assistant and shop managers, are not allowed to carry their phone with them. Even as a team leader running shops, I was not allowed to have my phone on me. I often carried the cordless shop phone due to calling other shops, being called by shops, customers or managers. But private phone is a no-go.
And thirdly, I doubt there would be any reception, especially if the freezer was downstairs. I worked in over 30 shops in Pret and we always struggled even in the staff room, on the same level as the shop, to get reception on our phones.
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So, for sure, NOW they have things in place to avoid any further issues (or rather to avoid fines and bad press!). But I also know for a fact that Pret will just pressure staff further to sign training material without being trained properly. I talk about the lack of training on a podcast.
And Pret being Pret and in business for 40 years, they still don’t have BASIC safety measures in place.
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If there are more repeated questions popping up all over, I update and add them here.
And in another blog post I write in detail what staff go through every summer with overheated shops. They work in 40+ degrees for hours everyday due to broken or inadequate air conditioning. It’s ongoing, and Pret don’t do anything about it despite ongoing complaints year after year. Not to mention the food being warm. I hardly ate at Pret in the summer during my breaks. Try eating a luke-warm duck wrap! Revolting!
In one shop ALL air cons were off, even the one in the office. We staff always went inside the walk-in fridge for a few minutes to cool off, and one colleague got pneumonia from going between 2-5 degrees and 40+ degrees back and forth every day.
“It’s what makes Pret, Pret”.
Please see customer complaints who often step in because Pret don’t listen to staff. And even then, Pret continue to demand staff to put on a big fake smile tested by strict weekly mystery shoppers who equally don’t care how hot the shops are, as they’re in and out in minutes. Not one mystery shopper week after week ever mentioned the over-heated shops. Not one, in all the years I worked in hot shops. Physical, mental, emotional, psychological strain and abuse becomes so normalised, I still don’t know how I survived this, even then during traumatic bereavement. But I survived to expose the sh!t out of Pret!
Please see: Pret Staff Work in Over-heated Conditions.
Although I am not surprised whatsoever that Pret yet again ignored issues raised, I am absolutely mortified at this woman’s ordeal! I wouldn’t be surprised if she suffers with PTSD after this life-and-death situation and am plainly disgusted at Pret’s ongoing neglect and profit-over-lives attitude!
Kudos to her, what a kick-ass strong woman she is!!!
I hope she gets a HEFTY payout in her civil claim! My thoughts are with her, my heart goes out to her and I hope she gets good mental health help and has lots of support!
Fnck Pret! Fnck their whole executive team and HR department! Fnck ’em all!
Pano Christou having come from McDonald’s, an incapable CEO having learnt from his entitled mentors Clive Schlee and Julian Metcalfe, he’s a “manager”, not a leader! He just about manages.
Stop killing and hurting people, you psychopaths!
And don’t get me started on Julian Metcalfe, I chased him off Twitter and wrote a little exposé on him.
Thank you for your time and for reading all this. Look out for each other and treat your staff with the utmost respect and care! They are the reason your business exists. They make it all happen! Never forget that! Life is too short to be exploited and treated like the dirt on your shoes! You will build a legacy alright, and Pret have certainly crafted theirs.
I finish with a short video on what to do when stuck in a freezer. For any Pret staff and food workers in general reading this, the Pret staff used cardboard from the croissant box. That was very good as homeless people use cardboard and it helps. You can also use the large plastic bags inside the croissant boxes that hold the products and wrap it around the neck, head, face (enough to still breathe) hands, feet etc.
I didn’t think of the plastic until this video:
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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 and was mentioned by the BBC.
Please also see the MEDIA page for more.
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Thank you for reading/listening.
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Interview:
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Bullied during bereavement in Pret A Manger 
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