I want to point out something else here with Pret’s advertisements.
For one, Pret only use slim FEMALE hands in their advertising and mainly CAUCASIAN female hands. And the way the hands are holding a baguette or wrap has even other customers stunned.
Of course Pret will say it’s up to the customer in how to interpret Pret’s communications. When I worked at Pret and we had our training days in Head Office to become Team Leaders, we spoke about the calories in products. We were informed that the Posh Cheddar baguette had the highest calories, but that it is up to customers to decide what and how much to consume.
In other words, we say it’s healthy, while it’s loaded with salt, fats, chemicals, but you dear customer decide if you want to stuff yourself with out food. So, don’t complain later! This also happened in the lawsuit regarding Pret’s “natural” claim. Pret tried to get the lawsuit tossed out saying that paraphrased, customers should know that Pret’s food isn’t natural. I write on this in detail here at the bottom of the post: Pret A Manger – Ready to (ch)eat.
I will just put a few screenshots here, but people can check themselves what kind of ads Pret do, only using female, mainly white hands.
One customer pointed out on Instagram about the length of the baguette advertised that Pret enlarged. I worked at Pret for 10 years and NEVER seen this size baguette:
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The same ad on Facebook where a customer “omg’d” on it:
Also, a little side note, Pret is often cleverly using customer photos for their online ads. At times customers are “lucky” to get a month of free coffees for making free advertising or provide photos, other times customers have to ask for something. In reality, ads usually go for thousands of pounds especially when in print forever. But many are willing to give it freely to a multi-billion pound company making money off people’s photos and printed words.
And the monthly free coffees are of course via the subscription service that people have to sign up for! Win-win for Pret all the way! Coffees for Pret are extremely cheap. It costs Pret nearly nothing. One cup, including cup, lid, milk, labour etc. doesn’t cost more than 30-35p. Do the math on the profit margin and people easily selling out for cheap items in return for precious data (for marketing and to bind people to the brand) including intellectual property.
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Here, a customer is bold enough to ask for something for allowing Pret to use their photo, and yet after 3 weeks still hasn’t heard or received anything, while Pret collects data (home address, email) for future marketing:
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I also pointed out to Pret during Christmas time 2018 how unprofessional and CHEAP it is to use in-house staff for ads, when one photo showed quite poor, actually missing, manicure. Pret then deleted the Tweet, photo-shopped the picture and re-uploaded 11 days later. Now they seem to have gotten a better photographer, but it’s clear that the advertising people in Pret seem to be male.
Deleted Tweet from 10. Dec. 2018 which made me lose appetite:
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New Tweet from 21. Dec. 2018, photo-shopped and cropped whatever couldn’t get fixed 😀
Even when zooming in on a 2021 ad for a wrap, the fingers are also look “rough” as if Pret used a kitchen staff for a free photo shoot.
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Why am I making such a fuss about it apart from being put off by poor manicure for food ads? Because Pret DEMANDS front-line, low paid shop staff to be PERFECT while under intense, unreasonable stress, and then in their highly paid marketing and digital departments at Head Office not delivering themselves!
Apart from that, I want to point out that Pret 9.9 out of 10 times use Caucasian, female hands and leave it up for interpretation what customers see in the photos.
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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.
Below are just a few of the recent or repeated lawsuits Pret has faced and/or settled. Some lawsuits have disappeared off the news, and it may be because the plaintiffs settle out of court and signed an NDA, like the former staff lawsuit on racism. The case completely disappeared off the news.
Please be aware that this is not an exhaustive nor updated post on Pret lawsuits, settlements, fines etc.
Update 2023: A recent fine Pret got was £800,000 ($1 million) after yet again neglecting safety issues and another staff got trapped inside the same walk-in freezer, this time for over 2 hourse, fighting for her life. Please see: Pret’s £800,000 Fine.
Many customers on social media complain that Pret has raised prices to 20-24%.
Apart from getting more money of course, it is to cater to the owners JAB Holdings with seat in tax-haven Luxembourg under the second richest family in Germany, the Reimanns. Also serving shareholders and Pret executives, it may be that because Pret is facing settlement payments, who better to foot the bill than customers.
In the USA people sue very quick, while in the UK, even after customers died, hardly anyone is suing, and when they do, Pret keeps winning. The legal systems in the USA and the UK can’t be further apart.
A staff member in the USA mentioned the constant lawsuits against Pret:
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UPDATE 2026 – A third class action settled in New York for wage theft:
There are ongoing lawsuits, at least six against Pret in the USA for unpaid rents. And even though Pret got help from the Government for employee costs during Covid, has received a cash injection from owners JAB Holdings of £185 million, have been awarded £100 million from shareholders etc. These are what Pret received. Another £87 million Pret is trying to get from the banks.
Altogether Pret received Government help and privately £285 million plus trying to get another £87 million. All the while refusing to pay bills and many customers feel cheated on the subscription service, hardly getting the items they’ve been told they’d get.
The money Pret received, they don’t use to pay their rents and debt, they use it to open 200 more shops. Pret lowered wages, benefits, paid breaks of already stretched and burnt out front-line workers, then raised the wage to £10 after a lot of public pressure and a strike announcement. But the raise is still UNDER the living wage and Pret just made a big PR announcement about it! Staff are still worse off than already before.
Pret raise prices, refuse to pay the bills etc. etc. And now customers and staff foot the bill under the inflation umbrella.
A few recent lawsuits, some that have been settled, others that are still ongoing or settled and plaintiffs can’t speak about it.
One of the most troubling ones, and where Pret is showing their TYPICAL naughty streak is the fingerprinting of employees in Illinois. The $677,000 settlement is really peanuts, because 800 current/former staff will get around $500+ each AFTER legal aid took their share.
While I’m with staff lawsuits, Pret had to repay TWICE 4000 staff for “shaving off” (rounding down), cheating staff out of pay. I write about this here: Wage Theft in Pret
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And another former staff lawsuit regarding racism in several NYC shops. This is the lawsuit that has disappeared off the public and press, unless I’m not searching right. Link: Lawsuit vs Pret A Manger on Racism with a link to the full court document.
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I can’t find any more info on this lawsuit and its outcome. I suspect that it was settled and the plaintiff Ms. Battle may have signed an NDA. Hence, we won’t hear of it anymore in the public. But it’s just my guess.
Regarding Allergen Lawsuits – So far Pret has won them ALL, unless something got settled out of court and so is not in the public knowledge.
Pret has set aside £10 million for allergen lawsuits and keep winning cases, even after two customers have died and 20+ allergen injuries Pret ignored until it all blew up in the media. Pret won because they didn’t break any law. and YET, Pret still don’t label in Paris and Dubai according to customers there. The UK now has “Natasha’s Law”, so it is LAW to label food. And which ever country outside the UK that does not have labelling laws, Pret just goes ahead and DON’T label! So far to the “meaningful change” Pret promised in 2018 when the deaths and injuries were revealed.
Instead of setting ONLY aside £10 million for lawsuit settlements, Pret should continue to invest in LABELLING also outside of the UK. In the UK “Natasha’s Law” is now in effect since October 2021, but Pret AGAIN will blame laws in other countries should another customer die or get injured.
And other lawsuits that are older or settled out of court.
One important lawsuit and challenge by the Advertising Standards Authority is on Pret’s “Natural” claim. Many people either haven’t noticed yet, or don’t know why Pret removed the word “natural” off all their signage and packaging. I explain here: Pret A Manger – Ready to (ch)eat
etc. etc. etc.
One interesting lawsuit that was won against Pret RE-founder and itsu founder Julian Metcalfe where former Pret CEO Clive Schlee was involved (who owns half of itsu) is from 2002, quote from The Caterer article:
“A senior chef last week won his unfair dismissal case against Julian Metcalfe, founder of both the Pret A Manger sandwich-shop chain and Itsu sushi restaurants in London.
Clive Fretwell, who had worked for 14 years at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, told a Woburn employment tribunal he had been recruited in 1988 to help develop a chain of Itsu restaurants.
He said the intention had been to give him a 2.5% founding stake in the business and an additional 10% in two years, with the possibility of ‘big money’ if it were sold. When a second restaurant, which opened two years later, failed to live up to expectations, Fretwell claimed he became aware that Metcalfe and Itsu co-director Clive Schlee were trying to get rid of him.
He said he was told last July that the company could not afford his salary, and he was dismissed in August.
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. Schlee is CEO of itsu since 2024. 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 and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou. 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 as well as mentioned by the BBC.
Below I explain that I was reported to Twitter (screenshot below) because I wrote a blog post OUTSIDE of Twitter. I can see now that my Twitter account has been shadow banned (restricted, censored).
What Laura Elliott who rallied followers to report me, doesn’t realize is, that this happens all the time and is called “shadow banning”. It is a regular occurrence on Twitter. Many Twitter accounts are shadow banned constantly for speaking out after someone, who doesn’t like free speech, reports them. Some of course broke some rules. But restricting accounts/shadow banning is super normal on social media, especially on accounts that are whistleblowers or call out wrong doing in general (my Pret issues etc.).
In the first year when I blogged and tweeted about Pret, and CEO Clive Schlee was still on Twitter, I got shadow banned every other day! Now they stopped reporting as it is useless to silence free speech.
With the Laura Elliott situation, after Twitter initially didn’t find that I broke any rules, Laura deleted her Tweets (evidence), made her account private so that she can’t get reported and seemingly she and her followers continued to report me. And then Twitter just went ahead to shadow ban me to just have peace. 😀
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UPDATE: Twitter again reversed their decision of the shadow ban, which I explain in a Tweet (scrolling up).
Their generic mail:
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And since then the bully brigade plays Wordle to swamp tiny bully’s Twitter feed. Little do they know …
But of course they will continue to try to shut me down. A little message to tiny bullies, it doesn’t matter, even if you succeed, you will be known for your actions.
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I encourage Laura to continue to rally her yes-people to keep reporting me. It makes no difference whatsoever. Even if my account gets suspended. It makes NO difference.
Laura Elliott aka @TinyWriterLaura has rallied to bullying and grossly lied about me which I explain in my first blog post (below).
I have come up against a multi-billion pound company that I’m writing about. If she really feels so “harassed” because of disability like they claim, she is free to go to court and take all her followers with her as witnesses. She can then have the chance to tell court about her disability and where she felt that I harassed her.
I don’t know what happened to her, why she is so angry. But I am not interested in someone who rallies a mob to bully. I write about my own traumas very openly here, it’s very easy to see. I don’t make vague claims without explaining or evidence.
I have ONE regret, that I gave this bully too much space on my blog, but it is important to write this to show how “mob bullying” and gaslighting can be spotted. It takes tiny, insecure, cowardly people to gather a mob against someone, explained below.
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I already expanded on a very long blog post on the mob bullying I experienced on Twitter two days ago. I want to highlight an article that is much more poignant than I could ever write (I tend to write long texts!). But the article is EXACTLY what I wrote about in my experience.
Someone wants to be in the right, and when they can’t be in the right they elicit their followers (a mob), and in my case to report me to Twitter to get shut down. I say it again, I don’t care if I’m shut down, it’s just online stuff, Twitter goes rampant with quickly shadow banning or suspending accounts. It means nothing! I will always continue to write and speak out, no matter how much anyone wants to silence me.
People go against freedom of speech and freedom of expression while themselves publicly targeting others or simply speak their minds.
And I just had a thought pop up; I’ve lost everything, my family, the closest ones and the most important things in my life I have lost. And if you’ve lost everything, anything else you may “lose” doesn’t matter.
If you lose everything, you can’t lose anything! I may use that as a quote somewhere. And you can’t lose your voice! Be it in writing, speaking, using music, art etc. You can’t lose your voice. So, keep speaking, writing, blogging, singing, painting … keep speaking.
I wrote extensively about my experience with a disability journalist Laura Elliot, @TinyWriterLaura who rallied followers to report me to Twitter. They then proceeded to claim she is harassed as a “disabled” person.
I came across a quote that puts it in a nutshell in much less words than I am able to write, but this is EXACTLY what’s going on.
Quote: “One reason for mob bullying is to get the target to perform the desired behavior….which is to leave. If the target leaves, the mob feels empowered and turns their attention on to someone else”
They make themselves the victims, claiming they are being harassed and sought out. And whoever doesn’t agree with them is “evil”, called names, shut down. And many people just go away in silence. But not me! I will be not be bullied, they can report every day if they want, I’m not scared or intimidated by tiny characters who gather a mob because they can’t stand on their own! I survived too much, especially in Pret to be taken for a ride by cowards like this.
This is also what I wrote in above blog post about this being visible from this “mob” when someone doesn’t agree with them, they are labelled evil and other names. I posted an example of this by another person who called Laura out on this:
People who bully and want others to “bow to their whims” are generally very insecure. That’s why they call for followers to gather and report or whatever they scheme against one person or a small group of people.
They attack and then claim to be harassed. Disability is used etc.
When they succeed, they pat each other’s back “well done, good on you for not letting others harass you”… kind-of-talk. They claim to be harassed on their disability etc. There have also been open lies and from what I experienced in Pret and was able to proof it via grievance hearings, the leader and the mob are pathological liars. They literally come up with stuff. I also mention this in my long post with screenshots of Laura’s deleted Tweets.
I really feel sorry for them, because in the long-run they will run into problems where they get so entangled, they can’t see reality from imagination anymore.
I want to avoid writing another hugely long post and just link to an excellent article on this, with a quote that I experienced two days ago: “Mobbing typically starts with one individual, a leader of sorts, who then solicits secondary individuals to assist …”
Boom! Classic again.
An even PUBLIC call was made to followers to report me to Twitter to get shut down. Someone tagged me in after I was blocked, hence not followed any more Tweets. And others DMd/mailed me. Her account has been privatized after Tweets have been deleted. Basically evidence has been deleted. But I have all the screenshots before they got deleted.
Being tagged in and private messaged by people I never engaged with. Maybe this was done to get me back involved into the “conversation”, as I was already done.
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Shadow banning (censorship) happens very frequently on Twitter. And when I’m shadow banned, that doesn’t matter. Many accounts on social media are shadow banned when one tiny person reports. It has become very normal. It is a good sign because it shows when people are speaking out and “rocking the boat”.
Also, I want to recommend an amazing 3-part series on systemic workplace bullying that ITV put on in December 2019. The full episodes I link here to YouTube.
There are so many “mob bullying” scenarios that also shows pathological lying, targeting, sabotaging etc. which is different from what I described above. But it’s a really good drama series on how targeted mob bullying works. In this case the LEADER is bullied by his team because the company is making people redundant and the group is after the Team Leader’s position.
The actors, ALL of them are not only scarily good in portraying this, but I was so glad that they did a series on this, as workplace bullying is hardly covered in film, TV and theater. I hope they do a squeal or more on this subject, as workplace bullying is a pandemic on its own!
Trigger warning: If you’ve survived bullying of any kind, and especially workplace bullying, there are several things that can trigger or distress you! I myself was only triggered in the sense that I cried through almost all 3 parts of it, as I recognized so many things. But I was also still fresh in bereavement after my dad died. It was a mix of things. So, please be careful and just bookmark for later view when having breaks.
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.
Yes, I can be light hearted and join some “fun” from time to time. But I can’t keep it just at a wishy-washy la la land situation. Fun here can be interpreted as wished!
A few “fun” things I tried to fling into the atmosphere from serious issues regarding Pret A Manger.
WOWing Pret Customers (Area managers sometimes give a staff member £10 or £20 when they see staff “wowing” at work incl. wowing customers. This is to manipulate other staff to do more. I still wow customers 😉 )
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 starve and 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. 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: 1. “Late Night Girl’s” Story with Pret and 2. Pushing Back Against Pret. Thank you for reading/listening.
I received an email by a current Pret staff last night. This staff has given a “fake” email that doesn’t work, so I can’t respond to it. Some staff write with their true name and email, others with pseudonym but still a real email, and others want to completely be anonymous, which is fine. But if any current Pret staff read this, could you confirm if this is true or not? The full email verbatim, quote:
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Comment: »Hey! I am a Pret employee and I have been reading on the news that Pret will increase our salaries and benefits. This is true. However all the news I’ve read doesn’t make clear that those changes will be in place only from April!! Even The Times says that this is our second pay increase in four months which is not true. I believe those newspapers were misinformed on purpose. It is ridiculous to announce a pay rise two months and half in advance!!!«
End of quote.
If this is true that Pret misinformed the press, then it truly is merely a PR stunt to lure workers in and make Pret look good again in the public eye because many customers boycott Pret after staff wages were cut to minimum-wage. And Pret is desperate for staff! The press played messenger again, like I mention in below post in my take on the pay-rise and why this is a joke: Pret’s new PR Stunt – payrise in Pennies.
UPDATE 30. April 2022:
I want to elaborate on some numbers in regards to pay.
CEO Pano Christou 2020 pay: £300,000 (more than UK Prime Minister) Source: The Times April 2022. Source: The Times.
USA President pay 2021: $378,333 (2022 conversion rate £300,897). Source: Yahoo news.
Now, it’s interesting that CEO Pano Christou spilled the beans on his 2020 pay, but NOT on his 2021 and 2022 annual wage, let alone how many millions on bonus he got. Former CEO Clive Schlee pocketed £30 million on bonus alone. Source: Daily Mail.
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I think Pano doesn’t give details on his 2021 and 2022 pay because Pano, Pret, former CEO Clive Schlee etc. are always QUICK to make charity or any “good-doing” announcements for the public. Pano, Pret cut staff hours and then wages during the pandemic. They did that in a very nasty way. I write about this extensively on To NHS Staff.
But in a nutshell, on 18. March 2020, just before first lock-down, Pret made a typical PR announcement to be giving free coffees and 50% rebate on food to NHS workers. The public and press went ballistic with praise as usual. The very next morning on 19. March 2020 I wake up to a DM from a Pret staff, whom I don’t know, that Pano has just sent a mass email to all shops and HQ to announce cuts to hours and with it pay. This is the very next day, early in the morning (probably sent late on 18. March 2020) Pano announced cuts to staff hours.
I was later contacted by other staff who sent me his email which I posted in above blog post which I addressed “To NHS Staff”. Pret did their usual nasty thing, doing PR announcements and even worse, using NHS staff as a smokescreen to hide cuts to own staff. I say it again what I said about this before, low-wage Pret staff basically paid for the NHS freebies and this PR stunt.
In above NHS blog post I posted a few customer comments on this. But this NHS worker was one of the very few who spoke out on behalf of Pret workers, most NHS staff enjoyed the freebies and didn’t give a toss who actually paid for it. It’s the same with all the free coffees, Pret don’t pay for it, they raise coffee prices to cover the cost. Same with the “free” plant-based milks, the week that Pret made vegan milks “free” was the same week they raised the coffee prices. You ALWAYS pay, one way or another, and most customers fall for it. The TImes made that clear as well: “Milking it: Pret a Manger’s dairy lovers pay for vegan surcharge“.
But to take from already low paid employees to give as a PR stunt to NHS staff takes a special breed of business people. Many call this “normal” business, no there’s nothing normal about that. In our society we’ve just been brainwashed to believe this is normal and good.
That’s why I emphasis some rare gems who speak out, like this NHS worker:
After cutting contracted 35 hours to maximum 28 hours and managers contracted hours from 42.5 to 35 hours, Pret then also later made pay-cuts. Pret “asked” staff to TEMPORARILY get less pay, as if they had a choice. Many were fired, those who didn’t want to sign the new contract were let go. And then in 2021 Pret announced the pay-cuts to remain permanent. Staff were now on less contracted hours, while still working overtime for free, a very common thing in Pret, and also had their pay decreased to the national minimum pay of £8.91.
If Pano would have also taken a pay-cut during the pandemic, he would have announced his 2021 and 2022 pay to boast about his “charity“. But he only revealed his 2020 pay.
When the public got wind of the pay-cut, many customers on social media started to call Pret out and many not just boycott Pret, but vowed to never set foot inside Pret again. Hello independents became the mantra. Even “celebrities” like Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha started speaking out. Mrs. Sawalha has over 500K followers on Instagram and more followers on Twitter than Pret UK and Pret USA combined. Her words alone has lost Pret a lot of customers and staff turnover remains high.
Pret silenced a staff strike announcement in 2021 with a trick after The Guardan reported on the strike announcement. I explain hat trick Pret used, here: Pret Staff consider Strike.
Nadia Sawalha’s stern words to Pret and some of the many staff reviews can be found in below YouTube video.
Back to some numbers:
UK minimum wage for over 22 year olds before April 2022 was £8.91, less for under 22 and even less for under 18 year olds.
UK minimum wage for over 22 year olds since April 2022 now is £9.50, less for under 22 and even less under 18 year olds. Needless to say that Pret love to employ under-aged workers and older experienced staff have to make up in unpaid overtime for the lack of skill and work experience young people come with.
In early 2022 when Pret learnt about the government minimum wage increase coming in April 2022, Pret made their typical PR announcement again on their website, not on Twitter because I and many others call them out on their bullsh!t on Twitter. Pret had the audacity to announce that they are having the highest payrise in their 36 year history to £10 and more. Source: Pret.com But Pret did not mention that this will come in April 2022 and Pret lied again, it’s not £10 an hour, it’s £9.75 as found on job recruiting sites. Link on Twitter from 7. April 2022 AFTER the government raised the minimum wage to £9.50 and Pret claimed to have the biggest pay-rise to over £10.
Here the potential worker even has limited public transport: .
. Pret have always paid a few pennies more, up to 25p, than the competition to appear generous and lure low-wage workers in. But staff have to work double and triple for it, and don’t get a payrise or promotion in many years. Even when staff go into a new higher role like barista, team leader etc. shop managers procrastinate the training, procrastinate the promotion, and with it procrastinate the higher pay.
MANY many staff members work in higher positions without the higher pay. I myself have been tricked by a manager who delayed my “graduation” to not pay me. She also broke a promise to give me the highest pay. When I confronted her and announced I’d be leaving if she doesn’t keep her promise, which she made with an old school handshake, she immediately promoted me and increased my pay to the promised highest rate. But then, she and her boss, the operations manager (OPs) transferred our kitchen assistant manager to another shop and we had no assistant manager anymore, and my work load increased. They basically retaliated by giving me part of the assistant manager’s job.
Pret staff over 22 years old starting pay £9.75 LINK
Pret is heavily into wage theft. I had to chase unpaid hours for years in every single shop I worked in. It was “normal” for me to have my separate spreadsheet, noting down how many hours I worked and how much I was paid. It is very normal for shop managers to take an hour here, and hour there, 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there from many staff members. It all adds up at the end.
Pret settled class action lawsuits TWICE in New York having had to repay 4000 workes combined almost $1 million each time. I write on this in Pret A Manger Wage Theft.
It is also very common that Pret does not pay the last week pay when staff leave. They did that to me, but I only noticed months after I left Pret because of the payout I received when Pret fired me, I didn’t notice that the last week is missing, also as my dad died at the time etc. My mind was occupied again from yet another blow. Some former staff mention the missing pay issues on review sites like Glassdoor and Indeed.
Little side note, there’s a reason why Pret and even CEO Pano Christou have such low ratings. Former CEO Clive Schlee already left with a “legacy” and even before he “retired” in September 2019, he let Pano Christou already take over Glassdoor representation in July 2019 to avoid further “landslide” ratings.
When Schlee’s “retirement” was announced in June 2019 (while he remained in the background as Non-Executive Director until mid 2021, a customer on Twitter pointed out the poor ratings and reviews on Glassdoor.
Since mid July 2019, typical Pret “leadership”, blame downwards, let lower ranks take over in critical times:
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So, if £9.75 or even if £10 is the highest pay-rise in 36 years, then it shows you how ridiculous and stingy Pret are, yet they are so used that the public falls for their bullsh!t, and employees are brainwashed and fear managed to look for better alternatives.
Journalists should go to Pret shops and ask staff directly. They may not get an answer as staff are instructed to refer journalists to Pret and not speak with them. But staff are frustrated and some may speak to the press nevertheless.
And here again a reminder on the public outcry last year after a strike was announced and Pret cutting pay to minimum-wage. Customers not only boycott, but many vowed to never set foot inside Pret again!
Two YouTube slides/videos within a playlist. I use YouTube because Facebook and Instagram have completely blocked my website after Pret must have reported me. So, I’m “forced” to reach out on other platforms. Just let the player continue after the first slide with all the customer boycotts, to the next video that will start automatically with Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha’s stern words to Pret. Nadia basically highlighted – I paraphrase – how staff have carried Pret through the pandemic and as a thank you Pret cut pay down to minimum, as well as cutting benefits etc.
And Nadia Sawalha having half a million followers on Instagram and more followers on Twitter than Pret UK & Pret USA have combined, Pret surely is desperate to do a PR stunt to fool the public AND potential employees again with the help of mainstream media:
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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.
PLEASE SCROLL TO 01. June 2022 UPDATE! Pret are doing an ILLEGAL thing of NOT paying their staff today! For the second time!!!
Please also see my post on Pret’s WAGE THEFT and the class action lawsuits in the USA Pret settled TWICE within 4 years: Wage Theft in Pret.
Also upfront as a point of reference, Pret SILENCED a strike action that was announced by Twitter person @at_pret last year. Pret did that with a nasty TRICK! Explained here: Pret Staff Consder Strike Action (and how Pret silenced it fast). I never heard anything further from @at_pret even after they asked me and others for help.
Please also see an update from 08.06.2022 at the bottom.
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Here we are again, Pret with the help of mainstream media doing their usual PR stunt. Headlines saying that Pret raises wages the second time in months … or this being the biggest ever raise in Pret’s 36 year history … or calling it a pay “boost” … etc.
And upfront as a little side-note, it is telling that Pret made this announcement on their website and NOT anywhere on social media, but let the press announce it. Pret has recently deleted former staff comments and made commenting on their “We’re hiring” posts unavailable. So, they don’t make staff announcements anymore on social media, but use the press for it as Pret wouldn’t be able to keep up with deleting all those staff comments! Why? Here’s why with screenshots of deleted staff comments: Pret “Last Minute” Staff Shortages?
Calling 50p or even 90p etc. the “biggest ever” raise in 36 years is very telling how 1. greedy Pret is and 2. how easily fooled the public is with the help of mainstream media! And even Unions fall for this, assuming “victory” where there is none! Pret only always raised pay a few pennies when the government raised the minimum-wage. On their own, Pret did not raise wages, that’s why they may be calling these peanuts the biggest ever in 36 years. Quite a joke!
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UPDATE late night 01. June 2022
Pret A Manger’s “payroll error” cough cough … So, it really seems that Pret are in financial trouble, with the loans, lawsuits, debt etc. But again, taking it from the lowest paid employees, well keep sleeping well at nights Pano. You think you get away with this? Staff and friends of staff ALWAYS contact me when you do sh!t like this again!
Just recently I changed my Twitter profile text. And more than ever, it may become reality.
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For the 2nd time Pret is not paying their front-line low wage shop staff. So much to the “biggest” pay-rise in their 36 year (39 year > Jeffrey Hyman) history (PR stunt).
Private DM from staff:
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For people with visual impairment whose programs cannot read screenshots, part of the DM I received from a person on 01. June 2022 says, quote, “For the second time in around 2/3 months pret has failed to make weekly payments to their workers. The failures of prets payroll team today will leave workers unpaid for 5 days. … They have set up a support portal which is only available on Saturday, still leaving two days without pay.” End of quote.
The DM includes screenshots of Pret’s email to shops, not included HQ staff like they usually do, which means, this might only apply to the lowest paid staff on the front-line shops and kitchens.
The person further writes, quote: “This is literally devastating for workers who not only have bills to pay for but also may have plans over the bank holiday, and also with banks shut are unable to set overdrafts etc” End of quote.
And Pret do this AGAIN in a very sneaky way like they did with the NHS PR stunt in 2020. Pret do this during the Queen’s Jubilee weekend when all the press and everybody are distracted with the Queen. By the time anyone notices or responds, Pret already made money and delayed pay to please shareholders and JAB. Low-wage workers suffer YET again for Pret’s crooked greed!
Brief recap from 2020 just before first lock-down: Pret announced on 18. March 2020 freebies and 50% rebated to all NHS staff. The very next morning on 19. March, I received a DM from a Pret staff writing that CEO Pano Christou sent a mass email to all shops AND head office, announcing cuts to staff. I write about this here where I published Pano’s email: To NHS Staff.
Pret used NHS workers as PR and as a smokescreen to distract from the cuts. The same he does now again during the Queen’s Jubilee. The press are busy and distracted. Disgusting @&%!….
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Yesterday’s message, NOTE: Payment will be made on BANK HOLIDAY Monday!!! On a bank holiday? Pay can never be made on a bank holiday or Christmas/Easter holiday etc. Pret STEAL and LIE in broad daylight!
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UPDATE 22.06.2022
Quote from Propel Info who only report on sales and positive things of Pret, never of critical issues: “The return of London’s bankers to offices last week following school holidays and the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday pushed sales at Pret A Manger in the capital’s financial districts close to a pandemic high.”
Sure, the numbers are up because Pret took pay from the staff over the Jubilee weekend, these crooks.
So, here’s the deal: Pret shop staff are NOT paid, and if they need money, there’s a fee which Pret are supposedly paying. We don’t know where to reach the government department, but this time a lawsuit is mounting.
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Pano Christou, what you are doing is ILLEGAL!
Shop staff are paid every Thursday, and Pret cleverly use the Queen’s Jubilee bank holiday to delay pay! I am beyond disgusted! There is no such thing as “payroll error” in advance, and then for the 2nd time! Pano, you got £300,000 in 2020, but haven’t spilled the beans on how much you got paid in 2021 and now in 2022, PLUS millions in bonus!
I have emailed Pano Christou and copied in journalists. The person who DM’d me, I have passed on emails of journalists to them and will get financial standards body and the government involved now!
STOP STEALING from low-wage workers!
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UPDATE 02. June 2022, after emailing journalists, including Sarah Butler from the Guardian: “Pret workers short-changed as ‘payroll error’ delays jubilee wages”
A payroll employee calls Pret out on their bullsh!t, of course it’s inexcusable, because it’s a lie and an excuse in the first place. Pret should get investigated by financial authorities and the government.
I emailed CEO Pano Christou copying in Sarah Butler and others, which resulted in above The Guardian article. I sent one last email to Pano Christou yesterday and published it here:My Last Email to Pret / Pano Christou.
For people who come to my blog for the first time, I write so openly and bluntly after having been bullied and targeted DURING bereavement in Pret. Pret offered me hush money, but I declined and never signed the NDAs offered. My full story at the bottom audio player and links.
UPDATE 03. June 2022 Staff begin to sabotage Pret which means customers will also suffer. Instagram message, quote from one person:
“This is outrageous, it’s a bank holiday week-end and your team members are working instead of enjoying themselves and you didn’t even pay them. You should not allow to have these technical issues as you push your staff to not do any mistake. And is not even the first time.” End of quote.
Response by a Pret worker I highlighted some words, quote:
“Don’t worry. We already drastically reduced food and service quality (since we work for free) and we will make sure Pret doesn’t make as much money as they think they will this bank holiday weekend. They told us 12 hours before payday that there is no money, on 1st of June when everybody has rent/mortgage to pay. They left us with no money to provide for our families. We tried to contact the head office regarding the issue but all of them were already gone enjoying early bank holiday. Lots of people already took sick-leave as a strike action leaving those in the shops understaffed (food availability will be affected). Thank you for your support. I advise to come back next week if you’re our customer to avoid disappointment. @pret you forgot to pay us because of public bank holiday. That’s the real reason, you simply forgot but you’re trying to hide it under an “error” excuse. You deserve to be publicly shamed.”
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Off the bat, Pret of course are not paying £10 an hour. They pay £9.75, 25p above from April 2022 on minimum wage. And in this job ad, there’s even limited public transport. Staff have to figure out how to get to work.
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This Tweet is from 7th April 2022 when the new UK minimum-wage of £9.50 came into effect: Link
With the rising costs of food, utility bills etc. Pret staff are not only NOT better off than before, they’re WORSE off! Pret already made pay cuts during the pandemic down to minimum-wage, as well as cutting benefits, paid breaks and other perks. Raising the pay back to a little over minimum-wage is where staff were before, yet workers are still worse off than before! No more paid breaks. Staff rebates down from 50% to 25%. And other perks and benefits that remain cut.
And before you office workers complain that you don’t get your breaks paid, you should work just 1 hour in any Pret shop! You will run out within minutes, kissing the pavement!
So, what’s this new Pret hype all about that most fall for again?
A pay rise in pennies that’s a little over minimum-wage, like they had before Pret cut wages to minimum. Yet, wages are still below the Living Wage and Pret keeps the “temporary” benefits cut and other perks they cut during the pandemic, while putting more work on staff who work for 3 people each!
The bonus from £1 to £1.25 is also a joke because bonus is at the discretion of extremely strict, micromanaging weekly Mystery Shoppers AND shop management. Bonus can be refused for any and all reasons, no matter how small! Staff reviews on Glassdoor and Indeed have mentioned that the bonus is used as a “weapon“.
Or another review where shops are extremely under-staffed and workers have NO CHANCE to do everything as they have no staff, and the Mystery Shopper cuts the bonus because there was a little toilet paper on the floor in the toilet! Quote from Glassdoor review “Stressful“:
»Constantly understaffed and expected to clean the entire store andmultitask like crazy because there is no one else to do it Sometimes really hard to get the bonus because you work so hard to make the entire store presentable, clean and neat but if the mystery shopper comes during the busy lunch period when you are understaffed and have to stay on till and cannot leave it and tidy the shop floor and they then don’t give you the bonus because there was ‘toilet paper on the floor in the toilet that could have been tidied’. Or if there is a long queue until the door they complain that they were not served within a minute and a half of joining the queue which is ridiculous.«
And these are just 2 of the many reviews on Mystery Shopper bonus issues. And from my own experience, I and my colleagues have been threatened with not getting bonus for the silliest reasons. Current Pret staff who recently wrote to me said that their shops hardly get bonus anymore due to the utter chaos and mess in their under-staffed shops! I know from experience that it was already hard before the pandemic, but I don’t even want to think how staff suffer now, physically, mentally and financially. All the while Pret boast again, having a laugh on the cost of their hard-working employees.
I write about the extremely strict, micromanaging and humiliating Mystery Shopper scheme where ONE staff did not ask a SPECIFIC question, resulting in the whole shop team to not get bonus.
If you don’t read anything I write, PLEASE READ the following Mystery Shopper report via the link, and tell me if reinstating and even raising the bonus isn’t a PR trick by Pret: Pret Staff don’t look Happy.
But not only a little toilet paper on the floor is the issue now, many customers complain about dirty shops. London City Airport has received a hygiene rating of 2 in December after an EHO visit. Detail here.
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The bonus system is a tool to manipulate and fear manage staff. Low-wage shop and kitchen staff ONLY rely on the bonus via the weekly Mystery Shoppers AND shop managers random mood swings.
Shop and area Managers (OPs – Operations Managers) get their bonuses quarterly and their bonuses rely on a host of things like shop profits, waste management, labour costs etc., and the biggest chunk is the Mystery Shopper scores. But shop/kitchen staff only get or lose bonus from Mystery Shopper visits and Managers’ moods.
Hence, Pret reinstating the bonus back in September 2021 after a staff member announced a strike action because Pret cut bonus from £1 to 50p, is a TRICK. I explain in detail here: Pret Staff Consider Strike Action.
The psychology is simple: Pret cut wages to minimum-wage DURING the most dangerous times in recent world history. Pret also cut benefits and other perks. Then Pret raises the wage again to a little over minimum-wage the way it was BEFORE, while keeping benefits cut and staff doing much more work. And thus, they continue to sell ice-cubes to Eskimos in winter time.
And unfortunately staff, most of the public and the press fell for it! Even Unions celebrate! Shame on y’all!
Pret did NOT raise the wages now in pennies because of the strike announcement back in August 2021.
Pret now raised a few pennies as psychology for low-wage workers and the public because many Pret staff walked out, shops closed (also due to rent issues and lawsuits on unpaid rents etc.), many customers announced boycotts and some vowed to never set foot inside Pret again, Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha’s stern words to Pret, bad press etc.
All these led to Pret playing another trick by raising the wages a few pennies above minimum wage, but still under the Living Wage.
And all y’all are fooled again! Shame!
And as a visual reminder again, former CEO Clive Schlee pocketing £30million in BONUS for himself alone! Do a rough calculation how much pay PLUS bonus current CEO Pano Christou, all the other execs and the shareholders get! And then tell me again that the pay “boost” and investment of £9.2million for 8000 front-line staff who carried Pret through the pandemic on wage cuts risking their lives, is generous!
Pret’s owners JAB Holdings with seat in tax-haven Luxembourg under the second richest family in Germany, the Reimanns, must have given the green light to Pano Christou to throw a few crumbs at workers to appease the public and burnt-out staff. Front-line workers are so burnt out, they have no strength to even look for a better job. Morale is low, hope is gone, so a few pennies are supposed to fool them again! And it will.
»You can’t run a business on goodwill when the goodwill dries up.« – Pret Staff Review on Glassdoor.
And remember the NHS smokescreen in March 2020 just before first lock-down? Here’s a reminder!
On 18. March 2020 Pret VERY quickly acted to the possibilities of a lock-down and announced free coffees and 50% rebates on food for NHS workers. The press and the public went ballistic with praise.
The very next morning on 19. March 2020, I wake up to a Twitter DM by a Pret staff who in despair wrote that shops have just received an email by CEO Pano Christou in the morning, announcing cuts to staff hours, and with it to pay. Other Pret staff started to send me the CEO email from that morning which I then published on my blog, as my website is the “channel” so-to-speak between Pret staff and the public/press.
I tweeted this to the press and all over, and Pret retracted for a few months until grass grew over it, but then started making cuts left right and center. But only to front-line Pret staff.
NHS workers were used twofold, 1. as a PR stunt for the public as well as NHS staff, and 2. as a smokescreen to hide cuts to staff. I write about the timing of this announcement and posted the full CEO email to shops here: To NHS Employees.
It is safe to say that millionaire Pret execs, who safely worked from home or socially distanced in air conditioned head office, TOOK from their low-wage front-line workers to pay for the NHS freebie PR stunt.And you all applauded!
And here is how Pret continually get caught doing Wage Theft.
Also, if anyone wants to take a peek behind the scenes on WHY Pret always makes BIG and noisy “charity” announcements: Pret’s Charity Projects.
So, dear mainstream media, you can continue to ignore my writings, my own experience and firsthand knowledge of Pret. You can continue to support this gaslighting system that claims to not be able to afford at the LEAST a living wage and PROPER benefits, to keep on enriching entitled prats who s*it on those who made them rich! You can continue to ignore Pret staff experiences and keep their voices silenced. You can continue to suck up to Pret because it’s not YOU who has to feed children on slave wages, after getting burnt out day-in, day-out until there’s nothing left to even find hope that this short life can be good for hard-working, honest people, who are stepped upon because their work is called “low-skill” to justify poverty wages …!
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That’s why very few people make it on my blog and playlists, who are not as easily served up with Pret’s PR bullcrap!
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UPDATE: 08.06.2022
Someone posted on Linkedin about an auction for the Pret Foundation. Pret really seem desperate for money, using their “charity” smokescreen to get money.
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.
I’ve been writing on Pret’s hygiene and pest issues since I started my blog from own experience as well as what customers post on social media.
I’ve tweeted @foodgov on Twitter many times regarding pest issues, stale/expired food etc. I am surprised though that Pret at an airport did so poorly.
When I worked at Pret, an internal health and safety staff from head office made an unannounced visit to a Pret shop, and when this shop did poorly they call it a “black visit”. This means that shop had multiple issues of poor hygiene, expired foods, pest etc.
When this happens, Pret then names and shames that shop throughout the whole company for the rest of us to shudder in fear to do better. I never liked this calling out of shops, managers and staff, for the main reason that Pret do NOT give shops enough staff or PAID time to do things properly. Managers have not been trained properly on pest issues until a shop was shut down by an EHO at around 2011-ish. THEN only did Pret get a professional pest control company on board whereas before only had internal staff to deal with it.
I write about this in below link “Rat A Manger …” where I worked in a mice infested shop and we BEGGED head office for us to close the shop over the weekend to get on top of this! But no, nothing was done until an EHO closed down a shop after finding pest issues. Then Pret started firing and penalizing Managers who weren’t trained in the first place!
Plus, staff have always been overworked, even before the pandemic. Pret schedules staff rotas so tightly that staff have no chance whatsoever to finish all the tasks, especially the cleaning in the time given. Pret pretends that staff aren’t working hard enough, while in reality they work their @rses off! Managers then manipulate and fear manage staff to work overtime for free!
But because I was/am very organized by nature, I often managed to finish tasks with my colleagues on time, even early. And after this constant aim to manipulate us to work even harder for free, I drew the line and clocked off by the minute and as a Team Leader let my colleagues go home at the DOT of our scheduled finish time.
Whatever task couldn’t be completed, we left undone, as long as we did the most important things first, like cleaning, health and safety checks and repairs etc. Anything unimportant we left for the end, finished it, or we didn’t finish it and went home. Enough was enough! As long as we worked hard and did our utmost best, I refused to be threatened or manipulated to do even more for free. My Managers had no choice but respect this, because most of the time we DID finish everything and they KNEW my and my colleagues’ work ethics. They had NOTHING to get us with, even though they tried!
So, my question to regular customers is: You witness shops being so immensely busy, overcrowded, understaffed, two people behind the counter if they’re lucky, one person on the coffee, queue to the door, day in day out! And now during the pandemic and much more staff shortages, staff sick, staff walking out … shops close unannounced and without explanation or with dodgy “technical issues” notices.
Do you think that the food you eat is really FRESH?
Do you think that minimum-wage burnt out staff have time nor care to wash their hands in-between products (vegetable to meat products, allergen, gluten-free etc.)? Especially now during the pandemic in even more understaffed shops?
Do you really think that Pret has high quality products after being fed these slogans for decades?
London City Airport’s hygiene rating is just the tip of the iceberg!
And if an airport shop can rate so poorly, a shop that is within a shopping unit on a property run by third parties, not independently as a shop on its own on the high street, are you kidding yourself that all the other shops are doing better?
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When I walk by a business that has a rating of 4, I always ask myself “What was the ONE point they lost the rating for?” I am not a competitive person in sports, or creative things etc. I do my thing, and when people are better or more successful in whatever they do, that’s great. I don’t care about that. Everyone has talents, makes effort, does hard work. But when it comes to hygiene ratings, I expect 5 out of 5 and won’t enter the business with a rating of 4! When it comes to hygiene and health & safety, I have zero tolerance to the slightest issue that is easily preventable!
The first thing I do when entering a restaurant, I go to the toilet, partly to wash my hands before eating, but also to see how the toilets are. I have walked out of businesses before even sitting down at a table, just by the looks of the toilets. End of.
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Link to part of the report which in this case was pest issue.
Quote:
»Cleanliness and condition of facilities and building (including having appropriate layout, ventilation, hand washing facilities and pest control) to enable good food hygiene« Improvement necessary. End of quote.
Usually when pest issues are found, the EHO who did the visit closes the shop until it is free of any pest. When an internal Pret HQ health and safety staff had a “black visit”, the shop has 4 weeks to improve. Often the shop Manager, even Assistant Managers and Team Leaders will be moved to other shops or send on “holiday” or get fired, depending on the situation and/or how close/friendly the Manager is to the OPs/area Manager. It’s all about making friends in Pret unfortunately. I was never good at making friends. I just wanted to do my job and go home.
Back in 2015 six+ months after my brother died and an area Manager targeted me for months on end with the help of other Managers, I was sent to a shop that had a “black visit” to help fix the mess. I was known for my strict hygiene and safety record, doing things by the book. But it was my darkest time in 2015 and 2016, with my brother’s death and the intense bullying issues that started shortly after I lost my brother.
Other Team Leaders and an Assistant Manager from other shops were also sent to that shop, as the whole shop leadership team was sent on holiday or fired. We had 4 weeks to fix the shop. What I didn’t know at the time is that I was sent there to FAIL! And I did fail in a few things, which was NORMAL because that shop was a f@cking mess and we were in front of a mountain of issues trying to figure out where to start!
All eyes were on that shop! Everyday “important” people from head office visited, health and safety staff came by, the pressure to improve daily was very high. And frankly, it was very unfair on us who came from other shops to fix a mess we didn’t create! They had no mercy! This area Manager who targeted me to get rid of me used the SMALLEST issue to get me a written warning etc. with the help of another area Manager and Managers.
Last year I called out another area Manager on Linkedin and Twitter who helped her to target me. This area Manager who’s shop had the black visit (she doesn’t work at Pret anymore after 20+ years, but still interacts with Pret on Linkedin), helped target me and then had the audacity to “like” my pinned Tweet about former CEO Clive Schlee. I asked her many times, for months to unlike my Tweet as I did not want her on my time line.
She was a SENIOR OPs Manager with 18+ years experience at the time. She could have EASILY supported me instead of supporting the bully-area Manager to target me. I still did my job exceptionally well, even during traumatic bereavement. I was KNOWN for my work. I was TOLD and confirmed via Mystery Shopper reports etc.
She could have stepped in, having seen my track record at work. But she helped the bully instead to get me a “note of concern”, a first step in the direction of a disciplinary and then dismissal. The smallest things I made a mistake in I was targeted with, penalized and threatened. All during the darkest time in bereavement! It was an emotional war zone I found myself in! How I survived this, I do not know! At the time “ignorance was bliss” and I kept giving Pret the benefit of the doubt, until the evidence mounted! I saw with my own eyes after applying for my file, how Pret with HR and Managers SCHEMED against me! It was there, in black and white on paper!
Bereaved, ill, even disabled staff have no room in busy Pret shops. Time is money, and whoever crumbles under the weight of personal tragedy will be sieved out fast.
If Pret would have supported me from day one, like they boast about their Pret Foundation Trust to be helping vulnerable people, I would be writing a completely different blog now!
And the little help they did provide was ONLY after I contacted former CEO Clive Schlee in WRITING, so as to cover their tracks! But the bullying continued, it just shifted in more subtle ways.
Pret’s Foundation Trust charity project is PR and a smoke screen. Longtime staff have no chance when they become bereaved or ill! They need to go ASAP!
I even suggested to Pret in writing to put me under someone in the Pret Foundation Trust until I recuperated, another OPs Manager I worked with briefly, also suggested this to Pret, also in writing! But Pret refused!
So, this experienced area Manager helping the bully and then liking my pinned Tweet? Really?? Nah!
She ignored my request to “unlike” the Tweet again and again! Only when I requested this again under current CEO Pano Christou’s Linkedin mention, did she unlike it, then blocked me and then LIED publicly to never have liked it. Well, thanks for confirming what a toxic b**** you are!
Typical Pret leadership!
She then lied publicly on Linkedin after I asked again for her to “unlike” under a post that mentions former CEO Clive Schlee and current CEO Pano Christou. I then got booted out of that feed and my post got hidden/deleted by Linkedin after someone reported me. That’s why I take screenshots. But this is VERY typical Pret A Manger leadership, they like stuff in secret while pretending to be with/for Pret in the open.
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But regarding Pret’s hygiene and pest issues, and the 2 rating in City Airport, dear customer, you see the tip of the iceberg here!
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.
My second post of the year is for a lady who has raised the issue of racial profiling in a Pret shop in Manhatten, NY. She contacted Pret, and after a few times did get a response, but then keeps getting ignored again since months.
Of course, at this point it’s an allegation, but no-one who makes up stories would pursue this for months. And from experience having worked at Pret, I know for a fact that there is racism in Pret, also toward staff. I mention this because some come with the bullcrap “argument” that these are only allegations and no proof. I can only implore journalists again to go undercover into Pret and see for themselves!
I send her a link to CEO Pano Christou’s Linkedin post on Facebook, she posted on Linkedin as well now (see below). But so far no response again.
Pano Christou closed his Twitter account on 01. July 2019 after I tweeted to the press about Clive Schlee’s “retirement” and also mentioned Pano’s Twitter account. He then promptly deleted it and now “hides” on Linkedin where people tell each other sweet little nothings all day, and how awesome Pano is, while Pret shops lie in shambles!
Journalists read my blog, so I offered her to put her concerns on my blog. Her message to Pano on Linkedin which they still leave in, usually they delete critical posts:
»On August 30, 2021 I was racially profiled in one of your locations in Manhattan New York 47th & 6th street. I went through the proper channels and emailed customer service. As of this date December 23,2021 I have not gotten a phone call or any type of gesture apologizing. I have been in contact with someone but nothing has been done. I emailed them yesterday and my email came back blocked so I use two other emails address and they came back blocked. The first Rep was Elle Reference #10091595. I don’t want to discuss in details what happened on the platform but if I have to I will. You can check into this matter and get back with me ASAP.«
And having worked at Pret for 10 years and visited Pret’s London Head Offices many times, I rarely saw Black, Indian/Asian staff working there. Most are Caucasian British, German, French with very few exceptions. The same with OPs/area and shop managers.
UPDATE
February 2022
Pret’s response via Facebook (Shanee sent this to me). Pret AGAIN claims to have some technical difficulty, pretending they didn’t get the message.
I ask again like I did in my other post about Pret’s ongoing “technical issues” while having received a “digital technology leaders award”:
Pret A ‘Manager’ Received Digital Technology Award (for screwing up their digital technology so much!). In the post I linked to some of the many customer complaints that they can’t use their subscription and Pret claiming “technical issues”.
Question: How can a multi-billion £$ company have THAT MANY technical issues for so long?
Anwser: they don’t have technical issues, they’re just lying again!
Pret’s response on Facebook while continuing to ignore the complaint onracial profiling AGAIN. Shanee has the her emails as proof she sent it:
“Hi Shanee, We’re sorry to hear that your original message has not yet been resolved. We’ve asked our team to see if they’ve received your emails so they can get back to you as soon as possible. We’re also currently working to resolve a tech issue that sends an “undeliverable” message even when the emails are delivered. This is likely what happened when you tried to email our team this week.”
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Also, a Twitter feed of a customer experiencing racism in a Pret shop:
Former Pret staff after Pret made their PR stunt BLM message and always make big noisy charity announcement:
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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.
What encourages me so much in this is that he, that SOMEONE recognizes that this has been a “lonely” road, and that in fact ONE person can have an impact!
So, please NEVER underestimate YOUR voice, no matter how silently you whisper at first!
Check out his music, very soothing:
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And while I’m at it, another musician I literally just discovered yesterday, the last day of 2021. A year cannot end and start better than with new discoveries!
John Murry of Mississippi, but residing in beautiful music country Ireland. Also, check out his amazing covers of Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World”, and the classic Jimmy Ruffin’s “What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted” and have some hankies ready! …
UPDATE 06.01.2022
After purchasing John Murry’s last album and one song jumping out at me, I find that John Murry has plagiarized Mark Heard’s song “Nod Over Coffe” as his version of “Yer Lil Black Book”.
I’ve listened to Mark Heard since 1991-ish / 92. Unfortunately discovered his music shortly after he died through some of my favourite artists at the time doing a tribute to him. His catalogue is out of this world. Having died at age 40, he made 16 albums and collaborated, was a writer to writers like no other.
Up until 06. Jan. 2022, John Murry’s album was a new favourite. But not crediting to Heard is unacceptable. I will not post here what Murry’s excuses were he wrote me in DMs. But it’s telling that he took “Nod Over Coffee” and put the lyrics in the tumbler, swirled it around and out came a product he portrays as “art”.
And of course, if Murry would have clearly stated that this is a cover of Heard’s “Nod Over Coffee”, but that he’s put his own spin on it, way to go! I even love this cover. But now I will take a closer look at all the other songs.
I hear Nick Cave, Nick Drake, Joy Division … and that’s all valid and ok. We all are influenced and sound like so-and-so a bit. No problem. But FREAKING GIVE CREDIT!!!
Please scroll up in the following Tweet feed. I’m sorry, I made a mistake!
My Tweets to him, please scroll up. I deleted some Tweets as I was angry and don’t want to unnecessarily offend Murry:
My twitter account got suspended after I called the Tate brothers “pimps”. But I don’t care.
Songs below, but I also put the two lyrics next to each other on a PDF file and uploaded it, external link.
Seeing the lyrics next to each other, it’s safe to say that about 80-90% of the lyrics and a lot of the rhythm/melody is taken straight from Mark Heard’s “Nod Over Coffee”. Heard’s title even appears in Murry’s body of text towards the end! That’s when I woke up after thinking “I know this song, I know this song … where did I hear this song???…”
When you click on the – minus to decrease the page, a pop-up window will come up which is advertising, just click it away and ignore. Then click – minus or plus again how you need it.
I even love this cover! But if he won’t give credit to Mark Heard, I don’t want any of his music! It’s a principle.
Mark Heard’s original from 1991 just before he died, my favourite of his:
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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. Schlee has been appointed CEO of itsu in 2024 by Julian Metcalfe who gave him the CEO spot at Pret many years ago. 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 and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou. 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 as well as mentioned by the BBC.
Please also see the MEDIA page for more on my work with the press.
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. Schlee has been appointed CEO of itsu in 2024 by Julian Metcalfe who gave him the CEO spot at Pret many years ago. 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 and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou. 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 as well as mentioned by the BBC.
Please also see the MEDIA page for more on my work with the press.
From the day I started writing on my Pret A Manger ordeal to the day the BBC, via journalist Mike Powell, put my writings on the map, 1312 days have passed.
Thank you BBC.
Thank you Mike Powell. Thank you Vivienne Nunis. Mostly for your patience. And for believing (in) me.
730,000 rounded down, because in selfish capitalistic worlds you round down … Time is money, and we don’t have time to be generous! Lose leap years, hold your numbers very tight! Mathematics don’t lie. In a nutshell, estimated 730,000-ish days from the first Christmas. Happy Christmas y’all! Life comes to an end, but until then we’ll live it. Every second of every day.
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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.
When I started writing about Pret publicly in May 2018, I never knew about Glassdoor and Indeed. I was too occupied with work and the traumas I went through, that I never realized that there were employment review websites out there.
I started to research on Pret and then came across Glassdoor and Indeed. It was like a new world opened up to me. I was so naive and like a kid in a sweet-shop, I discovered all these reviews about Pret that sounded so similar to my experience.
I then went to town and started collecting reviews. I put a chosen review that spoke to me on my blog every day and called it “Quote of the Day“. I obsessed over those reviews and scanned through the whole of Glassdoor and Indeed, as well as YouTube, Twitter etc.
Yes, I know! Whatever you think of my loony mind, it’s okay with me! I know what I survived!
These days I don’t check reviews so much anymore because I’m tired and I think I made my point now!
But a new review by Senior Leadership came that deserves its own blog post. I don’t know what “senior leadership” means, if it’s a shop General Manager, OPs Manager or someone in head office. It’s someone who’s either been in Pret leadership for a long time, or is in a high position. But these words ring painfully true and I love the way the person wrote it. Simple, short and sharp!
Quote:
»Awful, non-collaborative leadership that are never on the same page. Huge toxic blame culture. People are expendable… expected to work around the clock for the business but then in return were treated inhumanely when covid hit. Pret doesn’t care for it’s employees at all – it only cares about it’s externally facing reputation. Many of us that left, after having our morals and ethics compromised during lockdown have experienced PTSD.«
Advice to Management »You can’t run a business on goodwill when the goodwill dries up.«
PHEW!
The advice to management would have been a quote of the day I’d chosen. And this is exactly what CEO Pano Christou’s problem is. He has his head in the sand and is stuck in the past. He runs Pret the old way and thinks that sweet-talk and brainwash will continue to float the ship, while not realizing that the ship has run into an iceberg and is slowly tilting!
This review is one of those reviews that has me in tears! Please be safe, value yourself, aim for a better job that you deserve. Life is short.
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 collaborated with the BBC.
I understand now why no journalist wants to report on my story. Every journalist wants to put THEIR name under your story! I am too much in control of my own story. It is always and will always be about people wanting THEIR name under a story. I is always and will always be about money, self-interest, ones own skin.
Your friends will leave you when you lose the floor underneath your feet. You employer will move heaven and hell to get rid of you once you have loss or illness in your family.
This world will spit you out once you are of no use to them.
Britney Spears said it best in her now deleted Instagram post:
Stay safe y’all.
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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.
The ongoing issues in Pret with EXPENSIVE items Pret don’t serve under the supplier issue lie.
So, how do Pret make money, save money, and get as much money as possible?
If you think that it is a coincidence that Pret keep having supplier issues, then why do Starbucks, Caffe Nero, Costa etc. even small independent cafes/restaurant have all the items that Pret claims are not available? Pret rides on the supplier chain issue and don’t give any EXPENSIVE item or complimentary extras. The pandemic forced Pret to show their TRUE face!
Interestingly, Pret NEVER have supplier issues on coffee, cow’s milk and bread, all the main products, but ALWAYS on expensive items like: chai latte, matcha latte, hot chocolate powder, frappe, smoothies (always broken ice machines or blenders or no ice!), plant based milks, and now cream! Complaints started also that shops don’t do a strong espresso shot or syrup when buying with the coffee subscription.
UPDATE: 23.12.2021 on Facebook:
Also as a side note, but IMPORTANT to note that Pret do NOT serve full extra shots, but HALF shots! I write extensively about this in Pret A Manger’s “Strong” Espresso Shot and why Pret call it “strong” and not “double”.
If a shop truly runs out of milk or coffee, then it’s due to management having miscalculated and didn’t order enough or in rare cases there can be delivery issues. But that’s rare. When I worked at Pret as a shop Team Leader, responsible to order stock, I once miscalculated and we ran out of milk. This is extremely rare. I grabbed a colleague and we went to Tesco down the road to buy milk. Pret allows that as long as the milk is organic, or whatever Pret advertises.
Of course, there are occasional delivery issues, but we had to move heaven and earth to get the missing stock in from another Pret shop or supermarket. Pret has no mercy on shops running out of even 1 item! But now, it’s a daily occurrence since the pandemic started. And supply chain delays come in handy for Pret to dupe customers. Wouldn’t it be funny if the supply chain REALLY don’t deliver coffee beans, milk and bread? 😉
Customer complaints since 2020 when Pret started the subscription, no iced drinks, or then iced drinks were served in SMALLER paper cup sizes, again due to “supplier issues” Pret claimed. Pret had NO issues getting the NEW 14oz paper cups while having supplier issues on their more expensive 16oz plastic cups for iced drinks. Do a rough calculation how many people are cheated out of 2oz per iced drink IF they’re lucky to get one on the subscription. The plastic cups are back now, but if I’m not mistaken, have also shrunk in size.
How do Tesco say? “Every little helps”! It all adds up in numbers!
Check the dates of the Tweets, especially towards the end of the slide. This is STILL going on now in December 2021:
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Clever thieves don’t do a big heist, they steal little by little but MANY people. People who had their credit card details stolen didn’t realize for months that a consistent amount of money was stolen, because the amount was small, but it went on for months. A steady income for thieves.
A customer realized this as well recently:
Pret stopped the complimentary butter portions for the soup bread. Customers also started to complain that Pret don’t do the little compote and seed pots for the porridge. And the honey sizes in the little pots has also decreased to smaller squeezable honey.
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Of course it’s at the discretion of a business to offer or refuse complimentary items. But I’m painting a picture here in how Pret is pinching at every turn while sitting on millions and making profit again. Little by little things are removed and people get used to it after initial outcry. And of course it helps for staff to not have to prepare all the little pots for porridge which is very time consuming, but to decrease sizes and stop complimentary items altogether is the typical business thing to cut costs.
And with the cream they ADVERTISE for their Christmas drinks, now they give more reasons to try and prevent exposure. And I keep telling people to contact ASA as well as consumer rights groups, and fill in the complaint form for false advertisement Pret keep doing. It just takes 2 minutes to fill in.
Day 20? Month #6! No cream since at least June 2021:
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Sorry 8 months!
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Sorry, 12 months! You get the picture!
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How can a company the size of Pret have “supplier issues” for 6+ months on specific items?! Since I write extensively about Pret’s “supplier issue” and Pret read my blog, the updated version now covers a broad range of reasons, quote: “ongoing shipping issues, delayed 3rd party deliveries or smaller quantity deliveries”.
And this way customers as well as consumer rights group cannot trace back if that is true, because more people/businesses are blamed.
But again, Pret NEVER has issues with coffee beans, cow’s milk and bread, the holy trinity of Pret’s business.
Also, Pret now SELL expired food they give to “charity” via food app TooGoodToGo (TGTG). Pret sell food under their “charity” umbrella and try to get money at every turn. Pret even now sell hot (cooled down) expired food via TGTG that Pret before wouldn’t even give for free due to safety issues with the temperature fluctuation! Also, soups get frozen now, NOT fresh as Pret claim. It was never freshly “made” anyway as soups are cooked in factories! I write about frozen soups in Pret Food is NOT Fresh.
The Mushroom Risotto soup is usually a favourite of Pret’s soups by many customers.
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When I worked at Pret, I know for a fact that the soup for example is heated at least twice, often 3 – 4+ times! By the time it is given or now sold after its 2 hour hot shelf life, the customer then heats it up AGAIN for a third or more time!
Soup is cooked in the factory and delivered in plastic bags holding 6 cups per bag. First thing in the morning the Hot Chef then places soup bags into the water bath (marinator) or later heats it up in the microwave. This is then the second time soups are heated. If a bag of soup is still in the water bath at the end of the day, it HAS TO be wasted! But many cheat under the pressure from stressed Managers. They let the bags cool down and then put it back into the fridge and heat up the next day. Third time heated up! Etc.
Of course this is not allowed, but many do it! My Managers always hated me because I wasted it! Yet, even with the waste, I still managed to help shops be successful. You absolutely CAN do things properly without cheating, but due to understaffed shops, staff feel the intense pressure and keep heated products as well as “stretch” dates of expiry dates!
Pret now making money for “charity” where before they wouldn’t give high risk products like hot food for FREE! When it comes to money, health and safety out the door! When I called Pret & TGTG out on it on Twitter, TGTG_UK promptly blocked me! Thank you for confirming that you don’t appreciate the truth! I can still respond to people who tag you in TGTG_UK, you know that, right?
After getting challenged on their “supplier issue” excuse (Pret read my blog), they now use a broad, general excuse of “operational difficulties as a result of the pandemic”. A one-size-fits-all approach that cannot be traced for truth. Clever Pret. But still, customers aren’t stupid and remain unhappy. Many silently vote with their feet.
Pret also placed donation devices NEXT to payment devices. Customers in a hurry and with the noise and stress in shops accidentally donate £5 thinking they’re paying. Pret does their usual psychology without saying it, many customers are upset but too embarrassed to request a refund from “charity”. Pret knows that very well! Many businesses, even theaters etc. have these donation devices SINCE the pandemic to raise funds. But they don’t place the devices NEXT to payment devices like Pret do!
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And many more complaints on all social media platforms.
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A small collection of issues where people feel scammed by Pret:
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Some posts of how customers feel scammed via the subscription, including not being able to cancel, and even if they manage to cancel in time, received a confirmation email of the cancellation, Pret still takes money even months after people have cancelled. Pret need serious investigation from financial auditors on how they skim customers.
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.
As current and former Pret staff contact me, at times I want to post their words on my blog, always with their permission.
A recent email in which I keep out certain information [deleted content], as they are too specific and may identify the person, like the shop they mention or their position or a specific incident with management, or the exact time they’re working at Pret etc. But here a few words verbatim:
“Hello,
I am just discovering your blog; first of all, hope things are getting better for you, on a personal level.
There is so much to go through, but so far what strikes me is that what was said 3 + years ago about pret, is still so very true. … [deleted content] … What I seen and experienced in just about [few] months at pret, I have never experienced it anywhere, and all I’ve read so far from your blog is still very accurate. I am thinking about … [deleted content] … Kind Regards,” Current Pret Front-line Employee
I totally agree with what the person wrote in regards to never having seen/experienced anything like this anywhere else what we experience(d) at Pret. I worked most of my life in the hospitality industry, in 3 different countries. I’ve never ever experienced the micromanagement, emotional abuse, exploitation and sheer toxic environment than at Pret.
I had to learn to respect myself and stay out of this type of environment. In my case I had to learn it the hard way as I kept questioning my own feelings. And Pret took advantage of that. In my case the top leadership and HR got involved. For any new reader, my story is scattered throughout my blog on every page at the bottom audio player interview.
To the person who emailed me with above words, thank you for permitting me to publish, and like I wrote already to you and to all others, join a union, leave a review on both Glassdoor AND Indeed (even in your own language to help your country women & men understand fully).
One of many former staff words, on reddit for example:
Please note, WordPress at times mess with pages, for some reason the below screenshots seem stretched in the letters, can’t fix it, see the links if they haven’t deleted it.
A recent Tweet regarding sexual harassment has since been deleted. But any staff who goes public on social media is desperate for things to get resolved, but out of fear staff then withdraw complaints, especially while still working at Pret, understandably:
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etc. etc. etc. I have listed countless staff reviews and complaints as well as customer observations. But I want to keep posts short as I’ve written enough for 3.5 years.
And to Pret customers, contact consumer rights groups when you run into problems regarding the coffee subscription, pest problems and other issues.
A small overview of issues at Pret on YouTube. But issues are much bigger and persistent, this is just a small overview:
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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. Schlee has been appointed CEO of itsu in 2024 by Julian Metcalfe who gave him the CEO spot at Pret many years ago. 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 and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou. 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 as well as mentioned by the BBC.
Please also see the MEDIA page for more on my work with the press.
Terms and conditions at the bottom of this below Loyalty Card:
“Redeemable at the Manager’s discretion. Excludes Pret shops within Central London Zones 1 and 2…”
It even has an expiry date on it, forcing the customer to buy coffees before that date to get a free one … and at the manager’s discretion mind you! Pret showing its true “generosity” here!
I’ll spare the readers with more screenshots and links to Pret’s rip-offs. Do your own homework if you truly care!
But just to say that the Pret Perks (which used to be what they called “Pret Perks” for Pret staff with rebates from other companies) is NOT a first ever loyalty program for loyal customers. Pret had loyalty cards as you can see above, as far back as 2012, probably longer. But these loyalty cards were only available outside big cities and Pret kept it really quiet.
So, here you go with another Pret shadiness.
And also, to the WordPress staff who check every post I post after Pret contacted WordPress, and you’re instrumental of getting my blog moved to the adult section where porn sites are moved to. You will be found out as censorship on WordPress will be exposed. I’m not doing anything wrong. I exercise free speech and whistle-blowing. You will be found out and expose as well.
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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.
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.
Since I’ve been writing openly on Pret A Manger issues from a behind the scenes look with my own horrific experiences and other staff complaints directly to me and on review sites, I’ve been asked by many people WHY these issues aren’t more known in the public.
Simple answer: free speech does not exists on social media platforms, with mainstream media and with Wikipedia etc. Censorship is rampant on platforms.
It shows how Pret fears the truth getting out and how mainstream media and social media platforms assist big brands from exposure. I’d need a Ronan Farrow type journalist who cares about the truth getting out!
Here’s an example of how many customers are gobsmacked that they never heard about the issues in Pret. And here via the YouTube slide I ONLY included Tweets, I did not even bother to include Facebook posts/messages, Insta, private mails via my contact form etc. etc. If I’d include all, the slide would be over an hour:
Facebook and now Instagram that is under FB have completely blocked my website. If you enter a complete url from any of my pages here even into a Facebook PRIVATE mail, you will receive a message that this page goes against some rules etc. That’s why I started YouTube slides that FB/IG can’t block. I also link to Tweets etc. where my blog is linked to and people then can go directly via Twitter to a specific blog post that I post. And if FB shut me down, I will find another way. But Pret & Co will not be able to silence me!
Twitter:
Since 2018 when I started to publicly call out Pret, Pret that can’t sue me for libel as I have 1. evidence and 2. I declined 4 NDAs from Pret. All they can do is report me to the social media platforms to get censored or what is called “shadow banned”. Twitter then hides my Tweets and my Twitter account altogether where people can’t find my Tweets even when specifically searching for it. To check if you are shadow banned (censored) on Twitter, please visit www.ShadowBan.eu or if that site is down then www.ShadowBan.io .
Twitter heavily shadow banning has forced me to have several Twitter accounts, which is allowed on Twitter. You can even merge several Twitter accounts.
Taliban members and pornographic images are on Twitter. Facebook has heavy criticism on their dodgy actions. But hey, lets censor a nobody, a female who has written the most comprehensive website on Pret A Manger. Nothing new under the sun!
Put my Twitter handle @LateNightGirlMe (now changed to @expretDOTorg) into Twitter search and click on “Latest”. You will only find a few recent Tweets but not ALL of the latest Tweets. Compare this by going to my handle directly and click on “Tweets and Replies” for truly the latest Tweets, you’ll see ALL the recent Tweets than the Twitter algorithm are programmed to leave out randomly, even when I’m NOT shadow banned.
Linkedin:
People on Linkedin are die-hard Pret fans! They don’t want to hear the truth and they reported me to Linkedin. Linkedin then locks my account and wants me to send my ID! This has become increasingly an issue on social media as they are breaching data constantly. Facebook is the prime example of this. Pret know me! They know who is behind expret.org, but social media increasingly try to get private data and if they can’t force it, they lock accounts. Same with Twitter and phone numbers.
Linkedin is mainly into toxic positivity where rich business people tell each other sweet little nothings all day. It’s very rare to read critical voices on there, except when an official news report is out. But when I as a former Pret staff with FIRST HAND experience link to a critical issue on Pret, even if I link to a newspaper article, not even to my blog, BOOM! my account is locked after they report me to Linkedin.
The Press:
I have been contacted by many journalists and have contacted hundreds of journos directly and also copied in many on Twitter etc. Some journalists were very interested to report on certain issues (as I cover a lot of various issues in Pret, not just staff issues). But here I have to give a heads up, it is partly MY FAULT that they did not report because I’ve had these terrible outbursts while drunk. I speak openly about it and am still waiting for help via NHS mental help services as well as doing everything I can to recover.
I have lashed out at EVERYBODY, no matter who they were. I continue to apologize and hope people are ok. I accept the consequences as this is solely my fault and something I will always be ashamed about.
One journalists, Will Bedingfield from Wired wrote an article with a click-bait title of “The Rise and Fall” of Pret”. He wrote that 2 days after I tweeted a response to him with some facts. After he published the article I called him out and he deleted his initial Tweet. And his article wasn’t even anything deep and certainly not new. It was just a typical “lazy” report with a catchy title to put under his portfolio belt:
My Tweet calling him out and then he deleted his initial Tweet.
These and other reports that HAVE been reported with my help have never been credited back to me. The only 2 people I will ALWAYS credit as having reported on my experience and blog are Adam from The Adam Paradox Podcast, based in California who interviewed me in 2018. And Gregor Gall, editor from the Scottish Left Review who published TWO of my posts.
Any other journalist just publishes without giving credit WHO put them on Pret’s case in the first place and who fed them all the info. They just say to me “Thank you for you help…” And that was that! And I did “kick off” many even high profile journos from the Guardian, Telegraph, Times, BBC etc. because I was tired for journoalists to sit on my following waiting for a story to drop into their laps, while some ignored or ghosted me after my DMs to them!
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Etc. etc. etc.
And Pret apparently is asking journalists who contact Pret to verify if they know me, to NOT report on my blog! And they “obey”. There you go.
But yes, my outbursts didn’t and don’t help, but if a journo really wants to expose wrongdoing in Pret, they won’t be deterred by my traumatized behaviour.
On my Media page I linked to the reports that came out from my blog having either contacted or having been contacted by journalists who then reported.
WordPress:
WordPress has moved my blog into the adult section where they usually move pornographic sites. The reason they gave me was that I use curse words. But I linked to them a few of the many WordPress websites where people use heavy language, worse than me. So, even as a paying customer WordPress censors under the “adult content” umbrella. It means that WordPress users who are logged in cannot find my blog when they search for anything Pret A Manger related.
Wikipedia:
Mid November someone has linked my blog to Pret’s Wikipedia page as approved editors can edit open source pages. Screenshot below. I saw a referrer from Wiki on 18.11.2021 for the first time. I then contacted the main editor Edward Betts who started Pret’s Wiki page, and informed him that there are some out-dated infos and a mistake on that Wiki page, which I can send him updates with evidence. He then promptly deleted my link again from Wikipedia the next day as I had last referrers from Wiki on 19.11.2021.
Whoever linked my blog to Wikipedia, thank you! Sorry, censorship has gotten the better yet again. So, lets keep the mistake and out-dated infos on that page and not donate to Wiki on their annual donation efforts. Edward Betts/Wikipedia take info from my blog without crediting back. And this is why so many people on social media asked me why the public isn’t aware of the problems in Pret. That’s why. Mainstream media and even open source pages censor whistleblowers and protect companies.
The clever thing that journalists and now Wikipedia editors do is, they skim through my website and take all my research that I did, where I found press articles or where I am leaked info where I link to press reports. They then take these press articles which they never found on their own before except linked on my page, and then use this on their Wiki page so as not to have to cite my blog as a source. Thus, the press and Wikipedia continue to ignore people who have first hand experience because they bow to Pret and companies like that.
Journalists and writers in general are the biggest thieves of intellectual property and research. So, Pret will be delighted with my short-lived link on Wikipedia.
Screenshots:
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Censorship is alive and well. Free speech and giving sources to original whistle blowers is dead. And only when people die, do the press and writers in general, swarm over their writings and steal and write on it like there’s no tomorrow! Writers are the biggest thieves of intellectual property and sources than any other “art” form I know of.
Rappers are known for nicking tunes and remix them, but writers are the worst when it comes to taking material without crediting. Now in a much more clever way.
So, my work continues unpaid, un-credited …
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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.
Please also see the MEDIA page for more. Thank you for reading/listening.
I’m leaving all the extremely foul language in below post which are direct quotes from Travis Scott and are not bleeped out on YouTube. WordPress has moved my blog to the “Adult” section because Pret A Manger don’t like to be exposed. Therefore, I might as well leave all the words in. So, reader discretion advised.
Also, writers, bloggers, YouTubers, please give credit when you find info here that helps you on your content. I do all my research by myself and whatever I learn from other sites/YouTubers/bloggers etc. I always credit to them. My blog is NOT monetized, so at least give credit when you find helpful research I’ve done. Thank you.
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I usually don’t give a subject its own blog post outside of Pret A Manger issues, but this one shook me to the core.
I’ve never heard of Travis Scott before the 5th of November 2021 because my genre and artists are elsewhere. Until the news flooded with the Astroworld concert tragedy in Houston, TX on Friday 5th November 2021 where 8 concert goers died and hundreds were injured.
Investigation is ongoing as I write and multiple lawsuits are hailing down on Travis Scott and all involved who put on this gig.
It didn’t take me half a day to get more than a glimpse of what type of “artist”, no, what type of PERSON Travis Scott is. Born as Jacques Bermon Webster II, he may have issues with his father and general authority figures, who knows. He certainly had clashes with his father when he tried to follow his love for making music.
After only a little bit of research into his behaviour at concerts and towards his mainly young fans, who PAY money to see him, I can only think of 3 words for Scott:
Narcissist
Psychopath
Sadist
Why?
In a nutshell:
Narcissist = He has an inflated ego, thinking only about himself. Psychopath = No empathy for others’ suffering. Sadist = He encourages and enjoys other people’s suffering.
In Detail (links open in a new window):
“No disrespect, I’m a artist” (kicking off a hired camera man because Travis felt he wasn’t the center of attention)
“I don’t know if you’re scared, I don’t know if you’re nervous, I don’t know what it is, but if you want to come into this pit, this is your last chance. right now…” (enticing, manipulating fans to storm to the front, disregarding security).
In above clip, he sounds like an evangelical preacher, manipulating the crowd to come to Jesus who saves their souls to hell. “I see you, I see you … Security, let em through, security let em through …”
His typical “I see you! I see you! I see you!” like he did with the young man who let himself fall off the balcony getting paralyzed.
Jacques Bermon Webster II aka Travis Scott KNOWS EXACTLY what he is doing!
A kid who goes to his or any concert, whose parents are too busy to SEE him or her, he/she LIVES for authority figures like Travis Scott to SEE them.
Travis Scott knows exactly what he’s doing.
Music is just a vehicle for a sick psychopath like Travis Scott. He’s not an artist. He “sings” on auto-tune (the BIGGEST cheat in music for singers!) and jumps and screams around. He is a bully.
Whatever made him like this is not my concern. As a life-long concert goer, and someone who’s lost my whole family, my thoughts and devastation is for those who died and their family and friends.
Here, the language of a sadistic psychopath:
“All you sorry motherfuckers on the side, put your fucking hands up man! … these motherfuckers here (center) are called “ragers”. You all over there are called scared motherfuckers…” (always demanding 150% participation and non-stop “raging”, manipulating young people to do whatever Travis Scott demands. Whoever doesn’t participate is a loser in Travis Scott’s eyes and can go home. Scott lets his young fans know what he expects, creating peer pressure! A classic BULLY by the book!)
I went to many, many concerts in my life since I was 16 years old in 4 or 5 countries including punk and rock concerts, not as big as this one, but quite a few large venues (O2 Arena London, Wembley etc.) packed with people. I love all kinds of music, hip hop, grime, pop, electronic, folk, classical, rock ….. all music. And I always avoid crowded spots in venues. But I’ve never experienced even a HINT of danger or hostile environment in ANY concert I’ve ever visited. The sheer horror of what these fans went through is outside of my imagination or potential nightmare.
And I don’t just write this because Travis Scott led multiple fans like sheep to the slaughter at Astroworld 2021, but this “artist” ONLY “sings” on auto-tune. He doesn’t dance, and whatever little pseudo-robot moves he does is a farce! He gets a little “elevated” on a joke of a platform where he clinches his hand to while jumping like a toddler. Hold tight P!nk wannabe!!!
In contrast, artists like P!nk flies through the air and does acrobatics WHILE singing LIVE!
Or Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl being beamed down from the sky. Or Katy Perry on a huge lion, balancing while singing. Or Mötley Crüe’s drummer Tommy Lee drumming on his head on a semi-rollercoaster type structure and only stopping because the structure malfunctioned half-way through with Lee on his head! And this performance feat Lee did at 52 years of age!!! And many, many other artists who are PROPERLY talented and put in the hard work AND safety care!
And needless to mention Michael Jackson, Prince, Whitney Houston etc. who dripped with sweat and talent performing LIVE without this freaking auto-tune cheat!
These and more are and were old-school TALENTED ARTISTS who give fans their money worth and a safe trip home! But this generation is being cheated out of REAL performances! And they don’t only pay a sh!tload of money in tickets and merch, they now paid with their lives for it, not of their fault!
And this cheat, Travis Scott, who bullies his fans who made him rich, in contrast to Tommy Lee’s monster performance, rides with Kylie Jenner on a little kindergarten cart above the crowd. Cute. And at Astroworld’s tragic gig clinches to the safety barrier of a little elevated stage and jumps a little, having a birds-eye view of the crowd he claims to not have been aware what was happening right beneath his feet! All while 8 of his fans die, hundreds suffer injuries and pockets of the crowd and individuals close to the stage desperately scream in one voice “Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! …”
How does Scott respond?
“Who asked me to stop? Who asked me to stop? Put your hands up” (and the music starts again for the next song).
Imagine yourself on the floor and a pile of bodies pressing down on you, you try desperately to breathe and can’t even whisper for help anymore. And all you hear is some auto-tune guy’s music continuing, maybe even a favourite song of yours while you die.
I am claustrophobic, not in small rooms like lifts, but in any room as soon as too many people come too close. I can predict the walls, they won’t move, but I can’t predict people’s movements. The thought of the sheer panic, unable to move sends shivers down my spine.
All this after Scott SEES an ambulance in front of him in the crowd, and all he says is: “What the fuck is this?” And straight after this instructing the crowd: “Everybody put your middle finger up in the sky” … and the music starts again.
Travis Scott NEVER instructed the crowd to please step aside to let the ambulance come and go easily.
He NEVER asked his crew what’s going on …
“What the fuck is this…put middle finger to the sky… 2 hands in the sky… I want to make this mother fucking ground shake, god dammit!“
Short time later a guy is DANCING on top of the ambulance and Scott, with Drake, sing happily ever after … Not even Drake asks to stop or talks to Scott what’s going on with the ambulance in the crowd. And the screwed up “irony” is, someone in the crowd is holding a large white sign with the words: “Will We Survive“! Maybe because Travis is known for wanting injuries in the mosh pit.
Die-hard fans “argue” on social media that Scott (as well as Drake) couldn’t see and hear everything. Well, he saw a guy in a tree in the DARK and instructed the crew to put the lights on him, so the audience can see him. He praised the guy in the tree, like he always praises fans who jump off the balcony or “rage” and injure themselves. He never instructed the lighting crew to put the light on the ambulance and for the crowd to MOVE and make space! He never praised the ambulance or asked his team what the fuck is going on and if he needs to stop the show! Travis Scott KNEW EXACTLY what he was doing!
Someone on Twitter made an interesting observation that Scott kept going, even after seeing the ambulance and saying “Who asked me to stop…” that Scott kept going because it was shortly before Drake came out who was the surprise guest that many fans speculated would be there.
Scott SAW the ambulance and just asked WTF that is and then continued the show. Then Drake also kept singing while a moron was dancing on the ambulance. This moron, another psychopath named Daniel Vargas later called the crowd, “baby butt soft” on Instagram. He further wrote, quote: “This is how I know the crowd was full of soft-bottomed people. We get really mad, sorry guys, you want to have a sad day because of that. With that, it’s tragic what happened, but don’t blame me, I just came to have fun and did it …”
He should face prison for hindering medics and showing no respect and regard for those injured and killed!
Scott keeps “singing” all-the-while people were dying and passing out in front of him and desperate pleas to stop the show, including a young woman and man going up to the camera man … Heartbreaking.
But he also stopped the show early on to recognize a friend in the VIP section saying, “I got my man Tom Sachs in the motherfucking building (pointing to Sachs close to the stage, the artist who designs sneakers Scott advertises) Legend! Whatever you need … Yo, Mike Brown (looking for someone else close to the stage) make sure he’s good …
Then he continued the show. Well, Mr. Scott, your FANS needed life-saving help and they were NOT good!
At another concert, I think in Switzerland (?), he spit on a fan who allegedly took Travis’ shoe when Travis jumped into the crowd. Scott CHOSE to stage dive into the crowd, no-one pulled him in, no-one pushed him like a crazed person once did to Robbie Williams. Here it would have been completely understandable for an artist, in this case Robbie, to flip out at the person who pushed him from BEHIND into the crowd full force, endangering him and fans! But with Travis Scott, we’re talking about a SHOE here!
Or Mark Schultz, singer from the kick-ass rock band Cage The Elephant, who’s known for his amazing crowd surfing and standing on fans’ shoulders and hands while singing. His shoes get regularly taken and he even described his FAVOURITE fan encounter moment where his shoe got taken, and he ONLY had one pair of shoes at this particular gig, having to take a flight the next day. Funny and lovely story Travis Scott can learn from: Mark Schultz on losing his shoe. Or the same Mark Schultz who visited with a fan after a gig, who got injured, to inquire what happened and how she’s doing, then profusely apologizing. That’s proper rock ‘n’ roll and a caring, responsible artist!
And Scott too, CHOSE to jump and crowd-surf! Artists who jump into the crowd or mosh pit often get their shoes or other items taken/stolen. It comes with the territory. And Travis loves rounding up a crowd to “rage”! And then he couldn’t take it!
So, what does little sensitive boy Travis Scott do? He throws a fit, spits on the “thief” and orders the crowd to become a mob and “Fuck him up! Fuck him up!” He then keeps on spitting on the fan and orders him to leave the venue. I’ve seen many clips where fans threw glass bottles at singers and band members in rock concerts which is underneath the belt for sure! But the angry singer then just instructed security to take the person out. And the most “aggressive” thing the singer did was just cursing out the fan! But spitting on a person and instructing the crowd to beat up the fan is despicable and shows what arrogant scumbag of a person Travis Scott is!
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What is shocking here to me as well is, that the security guards, whose job it is to protect the artists AND the fans, just assist Scott in bullying the fan with the help of fellow fans. The guards did NOT hold Travis back to protect the young fan from Travis AND the crowd. It’s just a fucking shoe man! And Travis Scott went out of his way to pour his wrath over the boy. And I can’t stop thinking what physical, as well as mental damage this fan suffered to this day!
Despicable!
In a nutshell: Travis Scott is dangerous, he should NEVER ever be allowed to stand on a stage ever again.
He pleaded guilty a couple of times before for enticing the crowd to riot. One fan became paralyzed after Scott told him to not be afraid to jump from the balcony into the crowd.
Sure, fans shouldn’t just jump or follow all instructions of an artist, but come on, we all know that young people are easily influenced and entranced by what they feel like is their hero. We’ve all been there! Don’t victim blame now!
And Travis Scott KNOWS that very, very well! He should face prison to be frank! He is a narcissist, a psychopath and enjoys his fans getting hurt. He calls for chaos and rage again and again. He disregards and disrespects security, enticing fans to jump the fence and tells guards “fuck you, fuck you”, when they just try to do their jobs, protecting the artists and fans.
Travis Scott more than betrayed his fans, he led them like sheep to the slaughter. And it makes perfect sense that he uses his giant head and mouth as an entrance for Astroworld, literally chewing up and swallowing his fans! I’m not into Illuminati or demonic sacrifice conspiracy. But it is very fitting and I’m sure Travis Scott uses his giant head figure to show how he swallows his fans like food and how he regards them. Many came out dead and many more injured! He spits on his fans, he swallows them, and then he spits them out like trash!
Sure he now reimburses all the tickets and pays for the funerals, but this piece of work should face prison. UPDATE: 11.11.2021, news is coming out that the funeral costs and therapy help is a scam!
All thoughts to the families and friends who lost a loved one, and to the survivors who are traumatized for life!
expret.org
UPDATE: 12.11.2021
A leaked audio of a first responder or paramedic at the “front-lines” of a war-zone, who speaks to someone who seems to be in charge of the Team and begs for the show to stop as people were not breathing. The response was: “You guys are doing well, take a breath … everyone’s doing a good job. Now listen, what I need from people is to get things under control at the medical tent …help is coming, just take a deep breath and relax …”
And the show went on. Death toll risen to 9 people now. The ninth victim, 22 year old Bharti Shahani, was lifted from the crowd on a stretcher unconscious. Then the 4 or 5 strong police men dropped the stretcher. She crashed on the ground slamming head first while already unconscious. She was later declared brain dead.
I’m trying to contain myself as news on this keep coming out, including security guards who were hired WITHOUT having to show ID and WITHOUT ever having worked as security guards and one guy hired, not even having ever been at a concert!
You know when you drop an item out of your hand from a shelf or a table, and the item bounces from the shelf to a table to a chair … and keeps dropping and dropping further and falls into a hole in the floor … this is how this event is, it keeps getting worse and worse, where you thought it is already as bad as it gets! Heartbroken for the families! Simply at a loss for words right now!
The sad news of 9 year old Ezra Blount now having died as the 10th victim. Oh no, don’t anyone jump on that victim-blame bandwagon! Ezra’s dad will suffer for the rest of his life and will blame himself forever. A post on Twitter mentioned that Ezra’s dad saw his son only on weekends. And dads who have certain visiting rights, or due to work are seldom at home, often want to make up big time for it. As Ezra was a huge fan of Travis Scott, it’s understandable that his dad wanted to make up for lost time.
But apart from that, no-one should be blamed for going to a concert, no matter what artist they see, where they then end up injured or killed! This victim-blame culture needs to stop. I will ignore and mute any victim blamer on social media, so don’t even waste your time!
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UPDATE: 15.11.2021 (but from 07.11.2021, I just found it)
I’m learning as I go here.
How Travis Scott became so huge. Now it all makes sense how this psychopath got that far and what it tells us about this global greed and our willingness to be hypnotized by this! From his former Manager Shane Morris who calls Scott “genuinely a horrible person” on TikTok. Although keep in mind, Shane Morris admits to having aided Scott to stardom via his job and he gives a lot of insights in less than 1 minute how Facebook (Meta), Twitter and the like manipulate likes/stats etc. While Morris spills the beans, I find it eerie though how he laughs at the end when he tells how he enhanced Scott’s visibility “via the wrong means”:
As the Ghislaine Maxwell trial started today and the UK media remains silent after I sent the below to the press, and Maxwell’s camp tried hard to keep evidence out of court, I re-post this again and again!
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So here I am, minding my own business when I receive an email from an anonymous person with a link to page 38 for a “black book” of none other then convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who some believe may have been “suicided”. As I am contacted by former and current Pret staff, as well as now itsu issues that I pass on to the press, and at times it gets reported on, I get info as my blog is the main link between behind the scenes of Pret/itsu and the public/press.
So, the black address book of Epstein, what names do I see?
Pret A Manger co-“re”-founder and itsu founder, net-worth £215 million, Julian Metcalfe and his former wife Melanie with two addresses and phone numbers.
Of course it’s not a crime to be in a convicted pedophile & sex trafficker’s address book. And to be fair, Metcalfe was married to Melanie between 1992 and 2005. The first allegation on Epstein to police came in 2005, so technically people didn’t/couldn’t know about Epstein’s crimes. But still! Itsu staff have reviewed Metcalfe as sexist, racist, aggressive etc. (see YouTube below). Metcalfe comes from a long line of elite British folk and grew up wealthy and privileged. And in an interview with the Telegraph in July 2021 Metcalfe’s words are headlined with “Only the fittest will survive high street cull”.
This is very much in line with Metcalfe’s words to the Daily Mail last year regarding lock-down and being happy to sacrifice a few thousand very old and vulnerable people for the hospitality industry (again, please see YouTube below).
So, only Metcalfe knows why he is in Epstein’s infamous “black book” that has Ghislane Maxwell shake in her boots! And it doesn’t need to mean anything. But I find it noteworthy to mention after Metcalfe’s own aggressive words to the press (and other words that he deleted after I confronted him on Twitter), and what others say about him.
Quote from the Western Journal: »Epstein employee Alfredo Rodriguez called the list the “Holy Grail” or “Golden Nugget” that would map out the billionaire’s alleged underage sex network. Rodriguez first tried to sell it to journalists; instead, authorities seized it as evidence.«
I was sent this because I chased Metcalfe off Twitter last year and put it on a YouTube slide where I explained why Pret can’t be distanced to Metcalfe, after Pret made a statement of distancing themselves when Metcalfe made his appalling “eugenicist” lock-down comments to none other than the Daily Mail tabloid of all papers! Dumb move! After I chased him off Twitter, he’s become a little more media savvy now!
On his 2 day Twitter stint, I posted itsu staff reviews to Metcalfe where he is alleged to be sexist, racist, aggressive etc. Metcalfe continued his dumbness by RT’ing my Tweets to him! I suppose someone from Pret then must have warned him of who I am, as he then deleted his Twitter account the next day after only 2 days there, not knowing I already made screenshots!
I even tweeted at him saying, “will see how long you can hold on Twitter”, never thinking he lasted only 2 days, as other Pret execs ran off Twitter since I exposed Pret there.
His deletedTweets:
I use YouTube as my blog url is blocked completely on Facebook/Instagram even in private messages! But they can’t block YouTube!
Little side note: Former Pret CEO Clive Schlee is very close friends and business partner with Julian Metcalfe. And Schlee is on the board of directors and owns half of itsu. But no, Schlee isn’t in Epstein’s address book, I’ve already checked! 😉
And a little piece about one of the phone books, as there is more than 1 it seems:
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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 (a close friend & business partner of Julian Metcalfe who also owns half of Metcalfe’s company itsu). 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.
The notice at the door states the usual: “We’re having a quick nip & tuck”. But here I explain why this is a lie.
When Pret does a quick “nip & tuck” and EVEN a massive refurbishment, they would NEVER EVER EVER close a shop for business and lose money. And they would NEVER close a shop “suddenly” for a refurbishment. Staff and customers are always warned in advance that some disturbances will take place, but that business will run as usual!
In my 10 years in Pret I worked through about 3 – 4 refurbishments in different Pret shops of all sizes, even the quiet ones. And I witnessed many more in neighbouring shops where colleagues of that shop continued to work during the day. Refurbishment, even the big ones are ALWAYS done over night and on weekends for those shops that are closed on weekends anyway.
Even the large refurbishments take no longer than 3 – 4 days as builders work through the nights. Pret NEVER closes a shop during the day even while in refurbishment, as closing shops for “nip & tuck” would lose them money! I explain this in detail here: Pret shops closed, I smell a rat.
The note directly next to the “nip & tuck” note indicates this! If there was a small refurb going on, that would mean that builders or repair workers were inside the premises during the day and/or night as they were doing a nip & tuck! This means they would see if there was damage or a maintenance issue!
Pret not only lies about the nip and tuck, they also have the audacity to “employ” the public to report a damage or maintenance issue and act as security guards! A typed out template where Pret staff just hand write the shop number in, shows how organized and premeditated this is. Side-note: The shop number here is not the number of the street address but the number of the shop Pret opened. In this case this is Pret’s 346th shop they opened.
Usually Pret give staff shortage as reason for a closed shop. While this is partially true, as Pret has sacked a lot of people, as well as staff having walked out due to the worsened exploitation, Pret even deletes former staff comments on social media. But from knowing Pret and how they lie about things, I smell a Covid outbreak!
Only one news outlet got wind of a Covid outbreak in a Pret shop in Norwich and reported on it. Pret would never tell the public that they had a Coronavirus outbreak. Just like they didn’t tell the public that they had 2 customers die from hidden allergen and at least 10 allergen injuries we know of.
I also suspect that it is financially better for Pret to close shops as a customer on Facebook once told me that Pret now do sandwiches off-side and distribute to shops.
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Journalists should dig a little deeper than just put out a quick article with some bogus notices on the door!! And journos should LISTEN to former and current staff when they spill the beans on something behind the scenes!
I share excerpts of a private message exchange I had with another former Pret staff about staff having contracted Covid, and Pret doing absolutely nothing about it: Pret staff tested positive for Covid
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.
… even though they present ongoing “technical issues” with their subscription, QR codes not sent, QR codes can’t be added to Apple app or can’t be read in-store, a recent new excuse is that Pret supposedly is waiting for payment to come through while customers are waiting for DAYS for their QR codes etc. etc. Customer service is not available via email, phone, DM … and many customers are appalled at the poor customer service!
Here’s to the parallel universe executives as well as social media platforms live in!
On Linkedin where toxic positivity rules with a velvet fist, critical voices are quickly shut down. Executives, business people and office staff mingle to tell each other sweet little nothings, while Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are on fire with customer and staff complaints!
Hey, let’s keep living in these parallel universes and on the top level keep giving each other awards for doing absolutely nothing constructive except to stroke their own egos!
Quote from PA Consulting on Linkedin: “We’re proud to have supported Pret A Manger in accelerating the transformation of their digital customer experience. Congratulations to the team on a well-earned win at Computing’s Digital Technology Leaders Awards…”
So, if the reader would scroll down to only some of the MANY MANY customer complaints on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook on Pret A “Manager’s” appalling customer service, technical issues etc. and leave the Linkedin folks up in La La Land to keep scratching each others’ ego! These award things are a smoke-screen of what’s really going on behind the facade. Pret’s always been like this. Head office has awards lined up while we staff felt disgusted at their PR bullcrap.
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And just a few of the many sweet-talk responses on how awesome Pret is etc. One has to wonder if people “up there” are really just delusional or having a laugh on the backs of customers and low-wage front-line shop staff!
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“… a company that knows a lot about client satisfaction and customer experience.”
Above is the Linkedin version of Pret’s client satisfaction and customer experience. Below is the real world!I only post a few of the countless angry complaints, as this post is already long.
Instagram:
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Twitter:
Even a BBC journalists fell for it. January 2021:
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April 2021:
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A customer who cancelled his subscription because of ongoing bad customer service.
A rare customer tenacity who stays with it like a dog to the bone!
Pret’s doing it again, this time a new lie emerges: “Payment hasn’t gone through yet”.
I will try to keep this as short as possible, only posting a handful of the MANY complaints regarding Pret’s coffee subscription.
If people put the following into Twitter search and click “latest” scrolling down and down and down:
” @pret qr “
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Go down weeks and month where subscription customers have problems with the QR code. Pret delays sending the QR code and customers give Pret the benefit of the doubt, thinking it’s just them this happens to AND it’s just a technical glitch. Or customers do have the code but the device in the shop can’t read it for … yep, you guessed it, another technical issue.
And yet these glitches keep going on since the subscription started last year, and a company the size of Pret should NOT have THAT many technical issues!
Pret also installed donation payment devises which many customers in a rush mistake for payment devices. Customers then “pay” and are prompted to touch the payment device as the payment didn’t get through! Customers donate £5+ not realizing until prompted again. Interesting that the donation devices ALWAYS work! 😉
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UPDATE 01.11.2021
THREE devices for “payment” and customers make a quick mistake in the busy, hectic, noisy environment.
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Customers then don’t get a response via email or phone when trying to get a refund! Also note the psychology here! I bet that MANY customers who accidentally donate to the Pret Foundation Trust probably don’t raise this to get a refund as they may feel they don’t appear charitable!
Pret should get seriously investigated not only for the shady practices with the subscription, but also where the money donated to the PFT actually really goes to! Pret is trying to get cash at every turn possible which some I will list at the bottom. It’s also interesting that this “payment issue” happens towards the middle to end of the week so Pret can use the weekend to say their social media team is off or low on staff and banks are closed during the weekend.
And as usual, after the “technical issue” is fixed, grass will quickly grow over it and customers are very forgiving while Pret made a quick buck again ripping customers off again and again and again …
So, today’s lie regarding the QR code delay is that the payment hasn’t gone through yet, even though some customers have been waiting for days. Many people give Pret the benefit of the doubt and PAY in-store for a coffee. Some are lucky and get a free coffee (not free as they already paid for it via the sub). But many others end up paying.
Only a few of today’s complaints and many more since months:
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From the usual technical issues, Pret now switch to the “payment not gone through” version. I’m telling customers to do what a man did in 2009 when he invoiced Pret and other companies for waiting too long in queues. Pret played along, having a laugh as Pret at the time had soaring profit. When I first came across this in 2018 the Telegraph article was still open without having to sign up, but I either missed taking screenshots of the man’s invoice to Pret and Pret’s response letter and PAYMENT, or I can’t find it at the moment. But I remember the man meticulously listing the times he spent in each company and shops to the minute.
UPDATE: 16.10.2021
So, to all QR-code-delay victims, organize with other “fraud victims” and send Pret an invoice on how many days, hours and minutes you had to wait for your QR code AND how long you had to wait in the queue to get your drink!
You never know, maybe another news article comes out of it! The Telegraph article:
And here a small list of other issues where Pret tries to keep or get cash.
I use YouTube as well for several reasons, one is that my blog is completely blocked/censored on Facebook and Instagram after Pret or a die-hard Pret fan reported me. Even PRIVATE messages on FB are immediately blocked/deleted by FB when I put the url to my blog in a message! But I can post YT and Twitter and other links. Two, some people don’t like to read long blog posts, so I try to make it more accessible if people don’t want to read too much.
No expensive iced drinks on the sub (and I suspect now Matcha Latte, Chai Latte, Hot Chocolate etc. under the “supplier issue” version). Via YouTube:
And during the summer when people did manage to get an iced drink, often by PAYING mind you, Pret provided it in either 12oz or then newly ordered 14oz CHEAPER paper cups and not in the more expensive larger 16oz plastic cups with “dome” lids for cream.
If a customer is lucky to get the complimentary cream on top, the drink will be even smaller as the lid is flatter. Pret supposedly had “supplier issues” of the 16oz cups while not having supplier issues of the new 14oz paper cups. Do an estimate on how many thousands of customers get cheated out of 2-4oz. Like Tesco say: “every little helps”! When I worked at Pret we were ALWAYS instructed to say “supplier issues” or “missing delivery” when items weren’t there, even if the reason was different like a product recall etc.
The plastic cups are back now as Pret can’t keep this on forever, but it went on for many weeks. Just one of MANY complaints:
Hard to cancel the subscription, and IF customers manage to cancel and receive confirmation email of the cancellation, Pret continues to withdraw £20 subscription fee even in months to come. I alway advise people to also cancel the direct debit with their bank as soon as they received the confirmation email of the cancellation. They can show the cancellation to their bank and request that all future payments get blocked/cancelled, otherwise customers turn into monthly donors to Pret. Also Pret did a mess-up with the expiry dates, especially in the beginning of the sub. For example if a customer received the expiry date as 16. October 2021, it really actually expired TODAY and automatically renewed. The customer thought the date is tomorrow and that they have today to cancel their first month free trial/free month, while it already renewed and Pret again blamed some technical issue!
Customers are send into a loop trying to cancel and trying to get a refund, but no reply, phone is not picked up or the phone number isn’t recognized, of if customers get through to customer service, the phone call is suddenly disconnected, yada yada yada! Good ole rip-off!
This guy screenshot the loop-rollercoaster he’s been on:
Pret doesn’t only cheat customers out of their dough! Cutting wages, bonus, benefits, even wage theft leading some caring customers not only to boycott Pret, but many have vowed to never set foot inside Pret again! Pret is now a minimum-wage employer and have recently been named and shamed by the UK Government amongst 190 other companies for paying UNDER the minimum-wage! Via YouTube:
Pret now censors directly, deleting former staff comments on Instagram and Facebook, and disabling the comment section under their “we’re hiring” posts. But I grabbed some screenshots before Pret shut it down. Plus Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha’s stern words to Pret: Last Minute?? Staff Disruptions
.
Also, going back to the Pret Foundation Trust donations, CEO Pano Christou did his usual “charity” stunt by having announced he’d be running the half-marathon in Hackney to raise funds for the PFT and to “alleviate poverty”. But he tops it by wanting donations from his minimum-wage, poverty stricken front-line staff after he cut their wages, bonus, benefits etc. The very staff who carried Pret through the pandemic on the front-lines, risking their lives, while executives and HQ staff worked from home or socially distanced in air conditioned HQ.
Some staff got Covid and Pret did NOTHING as revealed to me by a former staff on Facebook. Shop staff are getting pooped on like the Government poops on NHS staff! Pano Christou has no shame whatsoever! And I QUESTION where the money goes to because Pret has other problems right now than raising donations for the poor! I just don’t buy it!
And asking his LOWEST paid staff for donations, AFTER cutting their wages and other things, is utterly disgusting and rotten to the core!
Many Pret shops in city centers are closed down, or open later and close earlier than the advertised opening times. Pret gives the main reason as staff shortages. While this is one part of the reason as Pret has fired 3000 and many staff walked out as well, another reason may be that as Pret is opening 200 shops outside city centers, closing shops in cities helps Pret finance new shop openings. Why is that a rip-off for customers? Just two of countless complaints on Pret’s different social media platforms:
.
.
Instead of Pret listing the shops that are closed on their website or warn customers to check if their local Pret is open before signing up, Pret continues to sell the subscription that many people can’t use as their local shops are closed. Katchink!
To end this long post I couldn’t keep short again, a real Pret Mystery Shopper report with most of then 32 micromanaging questions staff are patronized with every week. Staff are forced to smile, chat, give eye contact, have spotless shops or the whole team don’t get the bonus. If ONE staff makes a mistake, the whole team get penalized by not getting bonus. If ONE kisses butt extra special like giving a free coffee, cookie or lunch, the Mystery Shopper “may” (or may not!) reward that one staff with the £100 cash reward, even when the whole shop lost the regular £1 per hour bonus. Happened here:
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.
… even though they present ongoing “technical issues” with their subscription, QR codes not sent, QR codes can’t be added to Apple app or can’t be read in-store, a recent new excuse is that Pret supposedly is waiting for payment to come through while customers are waiting for DAYS for their QR codes etc. etc. Customer service is not available via email, phone, DM … and many customers are appalled at the poor customer service!
Here’s to the parallel universe executives as well as social media platforms live in!
On Linkedin where toxic positivity rules with a velvet fist, critical voices are quickly shut down. Executives, business people and office staff mingle to tell each other sweet little nothings, while Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are on fire with customer and staff complaints!
Hey, let’s keep living in these parallel universes and on the top level keep giving each other awards for doing absolutely nothing constructive except to stroke their own egos!
Quote from PA Consulting on Linkedin: “We’re proud to have supported Pret A Manger in accelerating the transformation of their digital customer experience. Congratulations to the team on a well-earned win at Computing’s Digital Technology Leaders Awards…”
So, if the reader would scroll down to only some of the MANY MANY customer complaints on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook on Pret A “Manager’s” appalling customer service, technical issues etc. and leave the Linkedin folks up in La La Land to keep scratching each others’ ego! These award things are a smoke-screen of what’s really going on behind the facade. Pret’s always been like this. Head office has awards lined up while we staff felt disgusted at their PR bullcrap.
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And just a few of the many sweet-talk responses on how awesome Pret is etc. One has to wonder if people “up there” are really just delusional or having a laugh on the backs of customers and low-wage front-line shop staff!
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“… a company that knows a lot about client satisfaction and customer experience.”
Above is the Linkedin version of Pret’s client satisfaction and customer experience. Below is the real world!I only post a few of the countless angry complaints, as this post is already long.
Instagram:
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.
Twitter:
Even a BBC journalists fell for it. January 2021:
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April 2021:
.
A customer who cancelled his subscription because of ongoing bad customer service.
A rare customer tenacity who stays with it like a dog to the bone!
Pret’s doing it again, this time a new lie emerges: “Payment hasn’t gone through yet”.
I will try to keep this as short as possible, only posting a handful of the MANY complaints regarding Pret’s coffee subscription.
If people put the following into Twitter search and click “latest” scrolling down and down and down:
” @pret qr “
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.
Go down weeks and month where subscription customers have problems with the QR code. Pret delays sending the QR code and customers give Pret the benefit of the doubt, thinking it’s just them this happens to AND it’s just a technical glitch. Or customers do have the code but the device in the shop can’t read it for … yep, you guessed it, another technical issue.
And yet these glitches keep going on since the subscription started last year, and a company the size of Pret should NOT have THAT many technical issues!
Pret also installed donation payment devises which many customers in a rush mistake for payment devices. Customers then “pay” and are prompted to touch the payment device as the payment didn’t get through! Customers donate £5+ not realizing until prompted again. Interesting that the donation devices ALWAYS work! 😉
.
.
UPDATE 01.11.2021
THREE devices for “payment” and customers make a quick mistake in the busy, hectic, noisy environment.
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Customers then don’t get a response via email or phone when trying to get a refund! Also note the psychology here! I bet that MANY customers who accidentally donate to the Pret Foundation Trust probably don’t raise this to get a refund as they may feel they don’t appear charitable!
Pret should get seriously investigated not only for the shady practices with the subscription, but also where the money donated to the PFT actually really goes to! Pret is trying to get cash at every turn possible which some I will list at the bottom. It’s also interesting that this “payment issue” happens towards the middle to end of the week so Pret can use the weekend to say their social media team is off or low on staff and banks are closed during the weekend.
And as usual, after the “technical issue” is fixed, grass will quickly grow over it and customers are very forgiving while Pret made a quick buck again ripping customers off again and again and again …
So, today’s lie regarding the QR code delay is that the payment hasn’t gone through yet, even though some customers have been waiting for days. Many people give Pret the benefit of the doubt and PAY in-store for a coffee. Some are lucky and get a free coffee (not free as they already paid for it via the sub). But many others end up paying.
Only a few of today’s complaints and many more since months:
.
.
.
.
.
From the usual technical issues, Pret now switch to the “payment not gone through” version. I’m telling customers to do what a man did in 2009 when he invoiced Pret and other companies for waiting too long in queues. Pret played along, having a laugh as Pret at the time had soaring profit. When I first came across this in 2018 the Telegraph article was still open without having to sign up, but I either missed taking screenshots of the man’s invoice to Pret and Pret’s response letter and PAYMENT, or I can’t find it at the moment. But I remember the man meticulously listing the times he spent in each company and shops to the minute.
UPDATE: 16.10.2021
So, to all QR-code-delay victims, organize with other “fraud victims” and send Pret an invoice on how many days, hours and minutes you had to wait for your QR code AND how long you had to wait in the queue to get your drink!
You never know, maybe another news article comes out of it! The Telegraph article:
And here a small list of other issues where Pret tries to keep or get cash.
I use YouTube as well for several reasons, one is that my blog is completely blocked/censored on Facebook and Instagram after Pret or a die-hard Pret fan reported me. Even PRIVATE messages on FB are immediately blocked/deleted by FB when I put the url to my blog in a message! But I can post YT and Twitter and other links. Two, some people don’t like to read long blog posts, so I try to make it more accessible if people don’t want to read too much.
No expensive iced drinks on the sub (and I suspect now Matcha Latte, Chai Latte, Hot Chocolate etc. under the “supplier issue” version). Via YouTube:
.
And during the summer when people did manage to get an iced drink, often by PAYING mind you, Pret provided it in either 12oz or then newly ordered 14oz CHEAPER paper cups and not in the more expensive larger 16oz plastic cups with “dome” lids for cream.
If a customer is lucky to get the complimentary cream on top, the drink will be even smaller as the lid is flatter. Pret supposedly had “supplier issues” of the 16oz cups while not having supplier issues of the new 14oz paper cups. Do an estimate on how many thousands of customers get cheated out of 2-4oz. Like Tesco say: “every little helps”! When I worked at Pret we were ALWAYS instructed to say “supplier issues” or “missing delivery” when items weren’t there, even if the reason was different like a product recall etc.
The plastic cups are back now as Pret can’t keep this on forever, but it went on for many weeks. Just one of MANY complaints:
Hard to cancel the subscription, and IF customers manage to cancel and receive confirmation email of the cancellation, Pret continues to withdraw £20 subscription fee even in months to come. I alway advise people to also cancel the direct debit with their bank as soon as they received the confirmation email of the cancellation. They can show the cancellation to their bank and request that all future payments get blocked/cancelled, otherwise customers turn into monthly donors to Pret. Also Pret did a mess-up with the expiry dates, especially in the beginning of the sub. For example if a customer received the expiry date as 16. October 2021, it really actually expired TODAY and automatically renewed. The customer thought the date is tomorrow and that they have today to cancel their first month free trial/free month, while it already renewed and Pret again blamed some technical issue!
Customers are send into a loop trying to cancel and trying to get a refund, but no reply, phone is not picked up or the phone number isn’t recognized, of if customers get through to customer service, the phone call is suddenly disconnected, yada yada yada! Good ole rip-off!
This guy screenshot the loop-rollercoaster he’s been on:
Pret doesn’t only cheat customers out of their dough! Cutting wages, bonus, benefits, even wage theft leading some caring customers not only to boycott Pret, but many have vowed to never set foot inside Pret again! Pret is now a minimum-wage employer and have recently been named and shamed by the UK Government amongst 190 other companies for paying UNDER the minimum-wage! Via YouTube:
.
Pret now censors directly, deleting former staff comments on Instagram and Facebook, and disabling the comment section under their “we’re hiring” posts. But I grabbed some screenshots before Pret shut it down. Plus Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha’s stern words to Pret: Last Minute?? Staff Disruptions
.
Also, going back to the Pret Foundation Trust donations, CEO Pano Christou did his usual “charity” stunt by having announced he’d be running the half-marathon in Hackney to raise funds for the PFT and to “alleviate poverty”. But he tops it by wanting donations from his minimum-wage, poverty stricken front-line staff after he cut their wages, bonus, benefits etc. The very staff who carried Pret through the pandemic on the front-lines, risking their lives, while executives and HQ staff worked from home or socially distanced in air conditioned HQ.
Some staff got Covid and Pret did NOTHING as revealed to me by a former staff on Facebook. Shop staff are getting pooped on like the Government poops on NHS staff! Pano Christou has no shame whatsoever! And I QUESTION where the money goes to because Pret has other problems right now than raising donations for the poor! I just don’t buy it!
And asking his LOWEST paid staff for donations, AFTER cutting their wages and other things, is utterly disgusting and rotten to the core!
Many Pret shops in city centers are closed down, or open later and close earlier than the advertised opening times. Pret gives the main reason as staff shortages. While this is one part of the reason as Pret has fired 3000 and many staff walked out as well, another reason may be that as Pret is opening 200 shops outside city centers, closing shops in cities helps Pret finance new shop openings. Why is that a rip-off for customers? Just two of countless complaints on Pret’s different social media platforms:
.
.
Instead of Pret listing the shops that are closed on their website or warn customers to check if their local Pret is open before signing up, Pret continues to sell the subscription that many people can’t use as their local shops are closed. Katchink!
To end this long post I couldn’t keep short again, a real Pret Mystery Shopper report with most of then 32 micromanaging questions staff are patronized with every week. Staff are forced to smile, chat, give eye contact, have spotless shops or the whole team don’t get the bonus. If ONE staff makes a mistake, the whole team get penalized by not getting bonus. If ONE kisses butt extra special like giving a free coffee, cookie or lunch, the Mystery Shopper “may” (or may not!) reward that one staff with the £100 cash reward, even when the whole shop lost the regular £1 per hour bonus. Happened here:
.
DONATIONS
I fully fund my blog and I choose not to use ads
If you would like to donate, it would be appreciated. Thank you!
£10.00
.
.
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.
A rare customer tenacity who stays with it like a dog to the bone!
Pret’s doing it again, this time a new lie emerges: “Payment hasn’t gone through yet”.
I will try to keep this as short as possible, only posting a handful of the MANY complaints regarding Pret’s coffee subscription.
If people put the following into Twitter search and click “latest” scrolling down and down and down:
” @pret qr “
.
.
Go down weeks and month where subscription customers have problems with the QR code. Pret delays sending the QR code and customers give Pret the benefit of the doubt, thinking it’s just them this happens to AND it’s just a technical glitch. Or customers do have the code but the device in the shop can’t read it for … yep, you guessed it, another technical issue.
And yet these glitches keep going on since the subscription started last year, and a company the size of Pret should NOT have THAT many technical issues!
Pret also installed donation payment devises which many customers in a rush mistake for payment devices. Customers then “pay” and are prompted to touch the payment device as the payment didn’t get through! Customers donate £5+ not realizing until prompted again. Interesting that the donation devices ALWAYS work! 😉
.
.
Customers then don’t get a response via email or phone when trying to get a refund! Also note the psychology here! I bet that MANY customers who accidentally donate to the Pret Foundation Trust probably don’t raise this to get a refund as they may feel they don’t appear charitable!
Pret should get seriously investigated not only for the shady practices with the subscription, but also where the money donated to the PFT actually really goes to! Pret is trying to get cash at every turn possible which some I will list at the bottom. It’s also interesting that this “payment issue” happens towards the middle to end of the week so Pret can use the weekend to say their social media team is off or low on staff and banks are closed during the weekend.
And as usual, after the “technical issue” is fixed, grass will quickly grow over it and customers are very forgiving while Pret made a quick buck again ripping customers off again and again and again …
So, today’s lie regarding the QR code delay is that the payment hasn’t gone through yet, even though some customers have been waiting for days. Many people give Pret the benefit of the doubt and PAY in-store for a coffee. Some are lucky and get a free coffee (not free as they already paid for it via the sub). But many others end up paying.
Only a few of today’s complaints and many more since months:
.
.
.
.
.
From the usual technical issues, Pret now switch to the “payment not gone through” version. I’m telling customers to do what a man did in 2009 when he invoiced Pret and other companies for waiting too long in queues. Pret played along, having a laugh as Pret at the time had soaring profit. When I first came across this in 2018 the Telegraph article was still open without having to sign up, but I either missed taking screenshots of the man’s invoice to Pret and Pret’s response letter and PAYMENT, or I can’t find it at the moment. But I remember the man meticulously listing the times he spent in each company and shops to the minute.
UPDATE: 16.10.2021
So, to all QR-code-delay victims, organize with other “fraud victims” and send Pret an invoice on how many days, hours and minutes you had to wait for your QR code AND how long you had to wait in the queue to get your drink!
You never know, maybe another news article comes out of it! The Telegraph article:
And here a small list of other issues where Pret tries to keep or get cash.
I use YouTube as well for several reasons, one is that my blog is completely blocked/censored on Facebook and Instagram after Pret or a die-hard Pret fan reported me. Even PRIVATE messages on FB are immediately blocked/deleted by FB when I put the url to my blog in a message! But I can post YT and Twitter and other links. Two, some people don’t like to read long blog posts, so I try to make it more accessible if people don’t want to read too much.
No expensive iced drinks on the sub (and I suspect now Matcha Latte, Chai Latte, Hot Chocolate etc. under the “supplier issue” version). Via YouTube:
And during the summer when people did manage to get an iced drink, often by PAYING mind you, Pret provided it in either 12oz or then newly ordered 14oz CHEAPER paper cups and not in the more expensive larger 16oz plastic cups with “dome” lids for cream.
If a customer is lucky to get the complimentary cream on top, the drink will be even smaller as the lid is flatter. Pret supposedly had “supplier issues” of the 16oz cups while not having supplier issues of the new 14oz paper cups. Do an estimate on how many thousands of customers get cheated out of 2-4oz. Like Tesco say: “every little helps”! When I worked at Pret we were ALWAYS instructed to say “supplier issues” or “missing delivery” when items weren’t there, even if the reason was different like a product recall etc.
The plastic cups are back now as Pret can’t keep this on forever, but it went on for many weeks. Just one of MANY complaints:
Hard to cancel the subscription, and IF customers manage to cancel and receive confirmation email of the cancellation, Pret continues to withdraw £20 subscription fee even in months to come. I alway advise people to also cancel the direct debit with their bank as soon as they received the confirmation email of the cancellation. They can show the cancellation to their bank and request that all future payments get blocked/cancelled, otherwise customers turn into monthly donors to Pret. Also Pret did a mess-up with the expiry dates, especially in the beginning of the sub. For example if a customer received the expiry date as 16. October 2021, it really actually expired TODAY and automatically renewed. The customer thought the date is tomorrow and that they have today to cancel their first month free trial/free month, while it already renewed and Pret again blamed some technical issue!
Customers are send into a loop trying to cancel and trying to get a refund, but no reply, phone is not picked up or the phone number isn’t recognized, of if customers get through to customer service, the phone call is suddenly disconnected, yada yada yada! Good ole rip-off!
This guy screenshot the loop-rollercoaster he’s been on:
One super angry, now former, customer on Instagram. I’ve read many angry customers’ comments, but this one I have to share:
.
Pret doesn’t only cheat customers out of their dough! Cutting wages, bonus, benefits, even wage theft leading some caring customers not only to boycott Pret, but many have vowed to never set foot inside Pret again! Pret is now a minimum-wage employer and have recently been named and shamed by the UK Government amongst 190 other companies for paying UNDER the minimum-wage! Via YouTube:
Pret now censors directly, deleting former staff comments on Instagram and Facebook, and disabling the comment section under their “we’re hiring” posts. But I grabbed some screenshots before Pret shut it down. Plus Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha’s stern words to Pret: Last Minute?? Staff Disruptions
.
Also, going back to the Pret Foundation Trust donations, CEO Pano Christou did his usual “charity” stunt by having announced he’d be running the half-marathon in Hackney to raise funds for the PFT and to “alleviate poverty”. But he tops it by wanting donations from his minimum-wage, poverty stricken front-line staff after he cut their wages, bonus, benefits etc. The very staff who carried Pret through the pandemic on the front-lines, risking their lives, while executives and HQ staff worked from home or socially distanced in air conditioned HQ.
Some staff got Covid and Pret did NOTHING as revealed to me by a former staff on Facebook. Shop staff are getting pooped on like the Government poops on NHS staff! Pano Christou has no shame whatsoever! And I QUESTION where the money goes to because Pret has other problems right now than raising donations for the poor! I just don’t buy it!
And asking his LOWEST paid staff for donations, AFTER cutting their wages and other things, is utterly disgusting and rotten to the core!
Many Pret shops in city centers are closed down, or open later and close earlier than the advertised opening times. Pret gives the main reason as staff shortages. While this is one part of the reason as Pret has fired 3000 and many staff walked out as well, another reason may be that as Pret is opening 200 shops outside city centers, closing shops in cities helps Pret finance new shop openings. Why is that a rip-off for customers? Just two of countless complaints on Pret’s different social media platforms:
.
.
Instead of Pret listing the shops that are closed on their website or warn customers to check if their local Pret is open before signing up, Pret continues to sell the subscription that many people can’t use as their local shops are closed. Katchink!
To end this long post I couldn’t keep short again, a real Pret Mystery Shopper report with most of then 32 micromanaging questions staff are patronized with every week. Staff are forced to smile, chat, give eye contact, have spotless shops or the whole team don’t get the bonus. If ONE staff makes a mistake, the whole team get penalized by not getting bonus. If ONE kisses butt extra special like giving a free coffee, cookie or lunch, the Mystery Shopper “may” (or may not!) reward that one staff with the £100 cash reward, even when the whole shop lost the regular £1 per hour bonus. Happened here:
If you would like to donate, even a small amount is appreciated. Thank you!
You can choose any amount from £1 upwards.
£1.00
.
.
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.
A Tweet that unfortunately has been deleted, but is spot on!
I had a VERY proud day! A very, very proud day indeed!
After three and a half years of writing on Pret, mainly staff issues but also other issues, Pret has now disabled commenting for me on their Instagram and Facebook post from yesterday on “we’re hiring”! Why? Because I am causing too much staffing disruption! 💪😎👌
When I started writing in May 2018 former CEO Clive Schlee (whose Twitter account was deleted in July 2020) and Pret never blocked me. I mainly got shadow banned (censored, Tweets and account hidden from the public and from search), but they never blocked me. New CEO Pano Christou when he was the UK Managing Director and then COO blocked me. Christou then deleted his Twitter account in July 2019 when I tweeted the press about Schlee’s “retirement” and linked to Christou’s Twitter account on my blog. Another Pano Christou from Canada later took on the Twitter handle.
But I managed to grab a screenshot of Pano Christou blocking me!
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It’s interesting in above former account that Pano wrote “@ Pret” instead of “@Pret” as if to distance himself. To enlarge the screenshot press ctrl and + And to decrease it again ctrl and –
He blocked me and now “hides” on Linkedin where toxic positivity rules with a velvet fist, and rich business people tell each other sweet little nothings while ignoring the plight of front-line staff who make them rich! Business people are huddled in their bubble on Linkedin knowing very well how they exploit low-wage staff for their own pockets. Even when I write nice and positive, Pano, Pret and die-hard Pret fans will get me shut down. So far to free speech and Pret’s “open door policiy” to tell them the good, the bad, and the ugly.
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On 01. July 2019 Pano deleted his Twitter and later that year another @ChristouPano took that handle:
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UPDATE November 2021!
As of 26th November 2021 I’m delighted to say that Pret has FINALLY blocked me on Twitter!!! As Pret shops are in shambles and countless customer complaints flood in which I keep posting on YouTube etc. they finally decided to slam the door! Muhahahahaaaa!!! 😎 🤭 🙂 🙃
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And THIS is my last Tweet to Pret which made them block me! It took them 3.5 years to finally see that what I write is trouble for them! Thank you Pret!
But back to the staffing issue.
Why am I so happy that Pret now has disabled commenting for me on their “we’re hiring” post, even though other former staff write their negative experience? Because Pret’s very very desperate for staff and I’m rocking their boat too much.
I’m not sure if Pret completely deleted/hid comments on Instagram or if it’s just my account and computer that can’t see comments anymore. But I managed to grab some screenshots yesterday before Pret booted me out. On Facebook I’m not able to comment, but I can LIKE comments and in this way draw attention to my page! ‹^› (°_°) ‹^›
One former staff replied to me before Pret shut it down, laughing about “flexible hours” and then saying, “I used to work there for 4 years until it pretty much broke me”.
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Another former staff:
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And many others that I missed taking screenshots as I didn’t expect Pret to shut it down! It’s the first time that I’m aware of Pret completely disabling and deleting/hiding all comments.
I haven’t checked Facebook today, but a few I grabbed yesterday and managed to “like” but can’t comment:
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Quote: “Pret A Manger limited who can comment on this post.”
THANK YOU Pret for finally confirming that you have a lot to hide behind that smiley facade! How do they say in McDonald’s? “I’m loving it!” 😊
So, instead of reporting me, Pret now does the dirty work of censoring themselves! Wash your hands with soap for 30 seconds Pret!
And since Friday where it was 42 comments, Pret must have completely disabled comments now for all.
Some comments on Facebook that Pret leaves in as only good comments would look fishy. Also, see how many people “laugh” about it in the “like” section. Some I recognize as former staff, most likely all of them are former staff, one is even angry:
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For people with visual impairment who can’t read screenshots I put a few quotes here that former staff commented on Facebook.
Pret advertises jobs as follows:
“Free Food Great pay and benefits Flexible Hours Apprenticeship opportunities”
Free Food – All if not most hospitality business, cafes, restaurants provide free food for staff. Great pay and benefits – National minimum wage of £8.91 and less for people under 21. Flexible Hours – 28 hour contracts but staff work 60 – 70 hours and are manipulated to work overtime without pay. Managers now are on 35 hour contracts (42.5 hours pre-Covid) but also work 60+ hours unpaid. Apprenticeship opportunities – Young people are employed who get less pay and don’t know their rights.
After a strike action was announced by a brave staff member (who has since been silenced!) and the bad press that followed, one customer started an amazing feed on Twitter after having a VISUAL of the pay and “benefits”:
And yesterday’s Facebook comments by former staff, each quote from a different person for anyone who can’t read the above screenshots:
“Worked for Pret, my life improved so much, [when] I left!!!!”
“If the pay is so great why not name it then?”
Response: “exactly when you start 8.20 (before tax) less than 30min break, “training” one week, shouting that staff are too slow, insults etc. If they ask for help, to stay longer IT’S FOR FREE”
“I have worked there for over 10 years. If you work extremely hard there is a career opportunity but I am glad I don’t work there anymore.”
Response: “extremely hard and you get extremely sick and mentally destroy…”
“I really feel sorry for staff who work on this company. I work before and NEVER again”
“modern slavery”
“Great pay and benefits? What a joke. Low pay, no, VERY LOW PAY and what are the benefits? None.”
“Great pay and benefits ”
“never been back”
etc.
So, of course Pret now has “staffing disruption” and have disabled their comment section for me!
Here again 2 slides that Pret don’t want people to see. I use video platforms and Twitter links because my blog is blocked at times on Facebook and Instagram. But they can’t block video platforms and Twitter!
Slide is the immense outpouring of love and support from customers, many who not only boycott but have vowed to never set foot inside Pret again:
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This powerhouse of a lady, Nadia Sawalha, using her huge platform to make a strong and public stand for low-wage staff has me still in tears when I watch it!!! And the recent staff reviews here are very telling as usual!
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Customers flock to Twitter and increasingly raise the issue of long queues, few staff and closed shops without notice, or with conflicting messages. Pret continues to sell the subscription which many customers can’t use as their local Pret shops are closed.
Maybe Pret staff finally are fed up enough to walk out of Pret. Burger King staff certainly have had enough and a Pret customer finds it appropriate for Pret to take heed!
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Here the FULL email again by a Pret shops staff member who contacted me in December 2020, among many other staff, quote:
»Hi, I work for Pret right now and honestly everything you say is 100%. If I didn’t need my job so bad right now I would tell them all to go fuck themselves!
No bonus, unpaid breaks. Everyone is like a workhorse… even a 28 hour contract working 48-60 hours because not enough staff.
People are now just working their 28 hours and leaving, no one stays over anymore the people are waking up!
The exploitation is unreal! Calling people from other shops all over to help! Sweating all day, customers are rude because service is slow.
To make matters worse they add the subscription which states on their website over 18, we have kids coming as young as 8 ordering coffees smoothies and frappes!
Pret don’t care about anyone in this company, everyone is replaceable. It makes me so sick to work for them but at this moment I do not really have a choice!
Keep doing what you do! Fuck them! I really hope they sink In this pandemic! This horrible corporate cog of the biggest scandals wheel.«
To all Pret and general staff, join a union and leave a review on both Glassdoor AND Indeed, especially in your own language to help your fellow country men and women to make informed decisions.
I adopted the following song as the Pret A Manger Anthem!
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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. Schlee has been appointed CEO of itsu in 2024 by Julian Metcalfe who gave him the CEO spot at Pret many years ago. 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 and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou. 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 as well as mentioned by the BBC.
Please also see the MEDIA page for more on my work with the press.
I wrote a post with 3 possibilities why several Pret shops are closed throughout the UK: “Short Term Staffing Issues“.
But I want to do an extra post adding a 4th reason. My alarm bells go off when Pret seemingly speak the truth. It is true that Pret has staff shortages, like all in the hospitality industry.
But some shops have a note on the door saying they are closed due to refurbishments. The memo didn’t get around to settle on which lie to tell I guess. So, there are always conflicting messages even within ONE shop.
There are daily complaints on all social media platforms to Pret that customers cannot use their subscription as their local shop is closed. Thus they keep paying the monthly £20 without being able to get any drink. This looks typical like Pret to me ripping customers off and not giving a refund. This to me is unethical, because if Pret would care about their customers, instead of quick money coming in, they would make a list on their website with WHICH shops are currently closed and email all subscribers informing them of those shop closures.
If Pret cared, they would also put information on Pret’s subscription sign-up page, to inform any customer who is about to sign up to check THEIR area for open/closed shops BEFORE they sign up. But what am I talking??! Since when would Pret care for customers and for ethics instead of just for money.
My theory is that Pret does a clever economical thing, they take all the staff from shops that don’t bring much profit, close those shops and place the staff in the shops that do make profit.
Then Pret negotiates with landlords to get a cheaper deal or refuse to pay rent altogether, like Pret does in the USA and has at least six lawsuits on their necks for unpaid rents.
So, saving money in rents, maybe either negotiating with landlords or refusing to pay altogether in the hopes they get away with it, as the UK is more forgiving then the USA. Pret has also received a £185 million cash injection from their in tax-haven Luxembourg based owners JAB Holding, yet do a lot of questionable money saving stunts. I list some here: Pret will INDEED try anything to survive.
Saving on overhead costs on closed shops, deliver service costs for the daily products delivered to shops from the depot, saving on shop management payroll as less Managers are needed, and then continuing to sell the coffee subscription to customers who can’t use it!
Clever deal, Pret. But in my eye highly unethical.
Also, some shop staff put the lie on the front door of a closed shop that they are closed due to refurbishment, or like the above Tweet says “nip and tuck makeover”. Well, if you’d worked at Pret like I did for 10 years (yeah, don’t ask me, it’s my biggest regret!) you would know that refurbishments in Pret take no more than 2 days, 4 days max AND that refurbishments are ALWAYS done at night, OUTSIDE of business hours so as not to disrupt the trade!
I have worked in several shops over the years where Pret did the huge refurbishments back in the early 2010s when they changed from the cold, silver, metal look to the warm wood ambience! The shops where I worked at did the refurbishment mainly during the weekends at night, but also during the week at nights. Many times when I opened the shop on Monday morning 6am, neighbours were already waiting outside fuming and then coming in to complain that builders were making unbelievable noise during the night. Builders were hammering, using the electric saw OUTSIDE to avoid too much saw dust inside for staff to have to clean … Everything was done during the night to avoid interruption to the business!
I had to personally apologize several times to rightfully angry neighbours and get them the number or email for head office. I always offered a free coffee on top of it, but some were so angry, they didn’t even want a freebie! And when Pret opens a new shop, builders in different shifts work 24/7 to get the shop opened as soon as possible. The worst that was always shocking to me was when neighbours told us of the sawing machines OUTSIDE where builders were sawing during the night! No regard whatsoever of the residential neihbourhood.
A FULL refurbishment doesn’t take 4 days! Even when they work only the night, it may take 4 days, but during the day the shop is open! And especially a “nip and tuck” which indicates a small refurb, doesn’t even take more than 2 nights!
Pret itself give the “short term staffing disruption” on several occasions while some shops didn’t get the memo on which lie to post on the door.
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I can only say to customers who have the subscription while their local Pret shop is closed, to demand a full refund for the period when the shops where closed (while having the subscription).
But Pret won’t do that, because they are not challenged by consumer rights groups or in court. In the USA there would be a class action suit in no time. But in the UK people keep giving Pret the benefit of the doubt, no matter how many customers die, how many staff speak out about exploitation and the bullying environment in Pret etc. etc.
For more on how Pret is ripping customers AND staff off: HERE again.
The rip-off also happens in the USA where customers pay for their drinks while having the subscription (pass), or the usual “no iced drinks”, no expensive plant-based milks, customers can’t cancel the subscription, and IF they manage to cancel, Pret continues to withdraw money yada yada yada …
Customers are continuously charged AFTER they successfully cancelled the subscription. Via Vimeo:
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Hardly any shop serves the expensive frappes and smoothies on subscription. This goes back since the subscription started last year which can be seen in below YouTube slide on the dates of the Tweets towards the end.
And IF people are lucky to get an iced drink (often the cheaper iced Latte or Americano, Pret managed to get 14oz cheaper paper cups from the suppliers, while claiming since MONTHS to have “supplier issues” on the more expensive 16oz plastic cups.
My question to a current Pret Barista on the cup issue, but the Barista isn’t sure why Pret changes the cups. What this Barista means by “which is bigger” is that the 14oz paper cup is bigger than the usual 12oz hot coffee paper cup, but it’s smaller to the 16oz plastic iced drink cup.
Pret should actually adopt a similar slogan to what Tesco uses: “Every little helps” (for Pret that is)!
Pret in the UK did only 2 cup sizes (apart from the small espresso cup), the 12oz usual coffee paper cup and the 8oz flat white and strong espresso cup. Mind you a “strong” espresso is NOT a double shot, it’s 1.5 shots, thats why Pret NEVER advertises it as “double espresso” but “strong espresso” to not get n trouble, while paying with people’s perception of “assuming” it’s 2 shots. But Pret charges the 1.5 strong coffee shot as if it was a 2 shot coffee, just like normal cafes like Caffè Nero does. Caffè Nero does actual TWO shots as a double shot and charges the same for an extra shot like Pret does.
When a Pret customer asks for a double shot latte, the Barista presses the “strong” espresso button, which is 1.5 shots NOT 2 shots. Even when a customer asks for a latte with an extra shot, the Barista presses the strong button. ONLY when a customer asks for a latte with TWO separate shots but demands to pay for the advertised “strong latte”, the Barista reluctantly does it as an exception if the customer persists. But most customers don’t know about the 1.5 shots as they assume it’s a double shot.
Please scroll up and down in the following Twitter feed where a former Pret Barista confirms this.
Pret just uses psychology to fool people into thinking they get a double shot. Every little helps! 😉
And now Pret has added a 14oz paper cup for the iced drinks. Excuse me, how can Pret have NO “supplier issues” on the 14oz paper cups, but since MONTHS on the 16oz plastic cups?
Every little helps!
Pret confirming to a customer that their iced plastic cup is 16oz:
Getting cheated out of 2oz doesn’t sound much, but it adds up. Every little helps!
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Anyone who has the subscription while local shops are closed should get a full refund.
UPDATE 16.08.2021
It seems that Pret also closed shops in city centers to open new ones outside cities. Oh and the irony of creating 2000 new jobs! Minimum-wage jobs and facing strike action!
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.
I recently discovered a band, an album, a song that has been around a few years but is not “out there” for mainstream ears to hear.
It’s so profoundly amazing, ONE sentence, one meaning, one message, one experience, 9 words.
When my brother died and we learnt of it 5 weeks after the fucking fact that he was dead AND cremated, I slammed into hell and had to dive deep into it to learn what friendship means.
I lost friends early on, most were at a loss themselves, but that’s not my problem. Some gave me a hard time like they did Job in the Bible I don’t believe in anymore. Others wanted to cross oceans to pick me out of hell.
One of my former friends lives only 5 minutes by car or 20-30 minutes by foot from me. They distanced themselves early on, or at best behaved like soldiers doing duty service. If you should read this, I forgive you and I don’t blame you anymore. But I am glad that you are not in my life anymore.
I lived in Florida for a few years and travelled the States many times. In the first year of my bereavement and what Pret put me through, there was a friend in Virginia with his family. He wanted to book a flight to London to pick me up to stay with them. I declined, because how the fuck can my friend of 20+ years living 20 minutes from me not BE with me, while a friend thousands of miles away was about to pick me up to find some rest?
When I heard this song recently for the first time, all of this came up and I want to put this here and say to you Wa. C. and your family in Virginia, thank you again for having been there, but I couldn’t take it because I could have never repaid this friendship. I still can’t.
But you have shown me that to a friend’s house the way is never long. P.
and a video message to Pret by Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha.
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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.
I try to keep it as short as possible, but this is THE reason why people need to ORGANIZE and stand up in unity as a group.
My heart is broken for this former Pret staff, a Kitchen Leader (KL) who made the same mistake I and so many other Pret folk do: He fought alone. But at least he FOUGHT!
Below is a link to a full Tribunal court decision, which shows that even if Judges agree that the respondent (in this case Pret who was getting sued) acted unreasonable, Judges have to do the fair thing, uphold the law, listen to other aspects and make decisions on democratic level UNLESS a law was broken.
This to me is a very sad case and a lost opportunity YET AGAIN!
Former KL J-P Moussye sued Pret for “redundancy” pay after being dismissed/fired from Pret for refusing to sign the new contract of lower contracted hours. But Mr Moussy was NOT made redundant, he was fired.
This is on page 6, point 32, quote:
“As the claimant was not dismissed by reason of redundancy, he is not entitled to a redundancy payment, and I dismiss this part of his claim.”
Redundancy pay package can only be claimed when made redundant due to down-sizing a company etc. But here the deal was “you sign or get dismissed”. And dismissal is more negative than redundancy. Dismissal puts the blame on the one fired, while redundancy is not the person’s fault who got dismissed as redundancy. Therefore, no redundancy pay.
The simple choice that Pret forced upon staff was: you sign the new deal of lower contracted hours or you get fired. End of.
The court document states on page 5, point 27. quote, that “out of 4,443 staff members presented with proposed changes to their contracts of employment, all but six accepted.”
A little side note: the proposed changes happened just at the start of lock-down March 2020 when Pret boasted of around 12,000 staff. Interesting to see that less than half of employees have been “offered” this lower deal. And the question on social media always is, if the big guns, the execs also took a pay cut! Well, this number suggests no!
UPDATE July 2022
The Guardian:
“Pret CEO handed near-£4m bonus in year staff pay was cut
Pano Christou also given 27% salary rise in 2021 as chain took more than £50m in government support”
And another little side-note, of course Pret would thrive again. Pret has cheated customers out of expensive ice drinks on subscription, keep having “technical issues” where the QR code doesn’t work or isn’t being send for days, forcing customers to buy instore as they give Pret the benefit of the doubt etc. etc.
News three days ago that sales are soaring again due to office workers going back to the offices. 80% of sales from pre-Pandemic levels! But of course, wages remain lowered and all the other perks Pret cut.
So, only 6 staff refused to take the cut and were fired. And only one of the six went to court over it.
It further states in point 29. quote (I highlight/bold):
“Whether the dismissal is fair or unfair depends on whether in the circumstances (including the size and administrative resources the employer’s undertaking) the employer acted reasonably or unreasonably in treating the reason as sufficient reason for dismissing the employee, and is to be determined in accordance with the equity and the substantial merits of the case.”
Further on page 6, point 30. b, quote:
“The fact that a large percentage of the workforce has accepted contractual changes is a material factor which the tribunal can take account of in assessing whether the dismissal fell within the band of reasonable responses …”
Further point 33, quote:
“99.9% of the workforce went along with change, which in itself is supportive of the soundness of the respondent’s business reasons for restructure.”
In a nutshell 99.9% of staff said to Pret: “Lovely dearest Pret A Manger, we absolutely love for you to fuck us over with even less hours, and with it less pay, for the hard work during a live threatening pandemic! And we loved how you immediately cut our hours before the first lockdown while giving NHS workers free coffee and 50% rebates on food, taking from us and using the NHS for a PR stunt and as a smoke screen to hide cuts to staff from the public. Hallelujah! We totally agree with this! Thank you SO much for exploiting us further! Big thumbs up!” 🙂
But what the Judge doesn’t realize is the fear management and brainwash and breaking of promises that Pret does and workers feel hopeless to fight, so they capitulate. Of course the majority of low-wage, mainly foreign workers who have kids to feed or university fees to pay rather take the lousy deal, giving Pret the benefit of the doubt that the cut is temporary as promised!!!
The Judge took that willingness to get further exploited into considerations and concluded with a fair (to the Judge’s knowledge of Pret), but heart-breaking decision, point 34. quote:
“In considering whether the respondent acted reasonably or unreasonably, it is not for me to substitute my own opinion but to assess whether the respondent’s actions fell within a range of reasonable responses.”
In other words, even if Judge Heath agreed with J-P Moussy that Pret acted unreasonable, the Judge HAD TO take into account that 99.9% of staff loved getting screwed over with more exploitation!
I don’t know which number or percentage would have swayed the Judge to conclude in favour of Mr. Moussy, but imagine even just 5%, or 20% = about 1,200 staff would have objected to the new contract, or let’s dream of half, 50% = 2,000+ … the outcome would have been a very different one!
And that’s what breaks my heart, that Pret workers like ALL workers are sleeping GIANTS who don’t understand that if you ORGANIZE in numbers, you’ll chase Pret out of town in a heart beat!
And that is WHY I keep pressing people to join a flipping Union and ORGANIZE in increasing NUMBERS!!!!!!
The Judge’s job is to uphold the law. Pret has not broken any law. So, the next thing a Judge will do is take all sorts of things into consideration, and in this case the strongest issue leading to Pret winning is that 0.01% objected, resulting in less than that losing in court.
J-P Moussy probably has a huge legal bill on his neck. Is certainly depressed, hopefully his mental and physical health isn’t taking a hard nose-dive. But if you should ever read this Mr. Moussy, I for one have HUGE respect for you to have taken Pret on, even if I want to shake you for doing it alone! But I can’t shake you, because I made that mistake for too long!
But to give Pret staff and other low-wage workers hope, here a small YouTube slide on SOME of the MANY MANY customer voices on social media boycotting Pret because they learnt from ONE Guardian article after I tweeted to the press, because ONE Pret staff ask for help with a strike that never happened, as the staff must have been silenced by Pret. But they can’t silence customers and public voices!
And underneath, an Instagram rant by Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha who used her HUGE 400K+ followers platform to kick Pret’s butt, after customers learnt that Pret has made temporary pay cuts permanent:
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Direct link of Nadia Sawalha’s beautiful rant on Instagram that still has me cry when I watch it. Pret staff you are NOT alone, but you need to stand up TOGETHER in a GROUP with a UNION!
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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. Schlee has been appointed CEO of itsu in 2024 by Julian Metcalfe who gave him the CEO spot at Pret many years ago. 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 and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou. 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 as well as mentioned by the BBC.
Please also see the MEDIA page for more on my work with the press.
then shuts the Door to her divine Majority present no more
Unmoved she notes the Chariots pausing at her low Gate unmoved an Emperor be kneeling upon her Mat
I’ve known her from an ample nation choose One then close the Valves of her attention like Stone
– Emily Dickonson
c. 1862
I’ve asked NHS psychiatrists if I have Asperger, Autism … why I handle things the way I do. No response. No help. Long waiting lists.
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I worked at Pret A Manger when my Brother died, and they bullied me, involving 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 since over a year Pret’s been giving hot food leftover away via food donation apps, especially after I keep informing people on social media about the immense daily food waste in plastic to landfill via Pret A Manger Food Waste.
To safe face after all the criticism of food waste that customers in the UK, USA etc. have made photos of, Pret then started to even give hot food away that previously was STRICTLY NOT allowed to be given out. I was a Team Leader at Pret and got in trouble by management when I gave hot food to charity. I didn’t know at the time that we weren’t allowed, as I was trained on this.
Of course I stopped giving hot food and only gave to the charity guys who picked up food with the instruction to please consume the hot food immediately and not keep it over night.
So now, what does Pret do to safe face with all the criticism, they give end of 2 hour shelf life expired hot food away. Bur now donations have turned into sales, they now can be PURCHASED via food saving apps! People now have to PAY for hot food that became cold, has been sitting on the hot shelf for at least 2 hours, probably re-heated at least 2 times which I explain in detail here: Request to Remove a Tweet. Suddenly it’s not a health and safety issue anymore.
And to make it worse, people now have to PAY for expired hot food that turned cold, may have been reheated already 2 – 3 times, which people then heat up AGAIN at home! Loss of profit due to the pandemic of course eliminates any health and safety issues *irony off*!
The marking on the porridge lid means the porridge has to be wasted at that time of that day. This porridge may be from yesterday or at least from HOURS after it was already on the hot shelf for 1.5 – 2 hours.
The marking on this porridge (also soup) lid means the item has to be WASTED at 10 am (if a shop is open late, a soup then may be good until 10 PM). The lids and stickers in Pret are like clocks. The large lines are full hours, the shorter lines are half after the hour. In this case (photo) it means that the Hot Chef put out the porridge at 8am in the morning, having to mark it to 10am.
At 10am this item has to be put in the bin OR immediately consumed. This is mainly for quality purpose. The longer a porridge or soup sits on the hot shelf, the more the quality suffers as well as the item cooking down.
It doesn’t mean it becomes “off” per se, just the quality isn’t good anymore. BUT, when taking the soup outside, keeping it in your bag for another few hours, the temperature fluctuation could created problems. PLUS, as I write extensively that hot porridge and soups have already been heated at least TWICE (1. in the factory cooking, then 2. in the shops water-baths/microwaves).
Pret via TooGoodToGo app now fool customers by saying, you can still eat it (after paying less money), but it has to be consumed within 2 hours.
Well, hold on a minute Pret! Didn’t you say for DECADES, that hot food HAS TO be wasted AFTER the 2 hours it has been sitting on the hot shelf??? We weren’t even allowed to give it for FREE to charity! I myself got REPRIMANDED by management when I gave hot food to a homeless person after 2 hour shelf-life!
But now you just add an additional 2 hours AFTER the 2 hour shelf life? Oh, I see, you need money! Ah, I get it! Makes sense! Now health and safety doesn’t count anymore. I see, I see! 😉
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Pret policy as stated above was to WASTE all hot food after 1.5 or 2 hours on the shelf, depending on the product. Some products are 1.5 hours, other items have 2 hour hot-shelf life. This is not due to expiration but due to quality.
So, since profit losses and criticism of too much food waste, Pret suddenly changes its policy and it’s supposed to be safe now?
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Advertisement on Pret shops ONLY show 1. TooGoodToGo WITHOUT mentioning that it will COST money to buy expired food and 2. the Olio app is NOT mentioned because Olio doesn’t have a deal with Pret to SELL food. Via the Olio app the food is FREE!
When I called Pret and TooGoodToGo_UK out on SELLING hot (cooled down) expired food that Pret wouldn’t even give for free before, I got blocked:
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UPDATE August 2023
Pret again LIE, this time USA side saying again for food safety reasons, they can’t donate hot food after being caught throwing food away while claiming to donate food. In August 2023 Yahho News reported on a TikTok “dumpster diver” finding wssted Pret food in the street. So, Pret lie in any way it suits them, claiming AGAIN to not donate certain foods for safety reasons, while the food that was wasted were safe sandwiches, salads etc.:
Early 2020 before it got clear how the pandemic would affect worldwide economies, a customer witnessed soups being thrown in the bin because it expired according to (then) Pret policy. The customer just purchased a soup and seeing that it’s basically becoming zero value within minutes, asked for her money back. Pret responded by asking which Bath shop it was, because the stressed out staff member threw the soups out IN FRONT of customers. Pret will have instructed staff to waste behind closed doors, not on the shop floor.
Pret Staff Tested Positive for Covid (pre-vax) and how expiry dates are “stretched”, food kept for several days and soup is now frozen to safe money on waste.
Rat A Manger & Pret A Mice – understaffed shops, overworked staff lead to lack of hygiene. Rat droppings, flied, hair, plastic, critters etc. in food.
UPDATE:
Many customer complaints on social media, not just Twitter, that they paid for the expired food, but don’t get it:
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.
AND a brilliant and heart warming 4+ minute rant on Instagram by Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha. I still cry when I watch this: (This is the actual video, not just a picture, click play)
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.
I want to address something without having to publicly out people, as I am being met with bullsh!t lately and have no time for this.
I am being contacted by all kinds of people, by customers, journalists, former and current Pret staff etc. I appreciate the encouragement, the support (also for other Pret staff) and the interest. I also appreciate critical feedback, suggestions and so on.
I also want to apologize again and again for lashing out at people, especially good people who try to help. I have explained this on my blog and social media many times, that I am working on stopping to drink, which leads to verbally (writing) lashing out in anger and paranoia. I’m not proud of it, I sabotage myself like this, and I am still trying to find therapy and overcome the trauma and losses I still suffer. That is MY fault, MY responsibility and MY problem, not yours!
But what I don’t appreciate is when people want to tell me what I should write about or how I should construct my social media profile etc. And then when I don’t do what they want, they sulk and gaslight or ghost me.
I want to make this very clear, I am very open for critique, for suggestions, for ideas, for correction. I welcome ideas. I have been told by several Pret staff that my blog is too cluttered, too wordy, too complex. And I completely agree with that, and try to cut down on the sheer volume. I also welcome when people give ideas or critique, and would ask to point me into the direction of services or people who can help me shape my website better or make it simpler. Critique is good and welcomed, giving solutions and where I can get help is even better. And believe me, if I had the funds I’d hire a proper web developer as well as editor to do me a shiny, easily readable website. But I’ve done all this solely on my own, without know-how, support, financial help. And for this, I’ve done a hell of a job! But I do appreciate critique and suggestions.
My url expret.org came to be because a web developer explained to me that it would make more sense then my previous main url LateNightGirl.org, as people initially won’t understand the meaning, while an url with the word “pret” in it makes more sense! I am super happy to change my approach or layout or whatever suggestions may help and make sense to me.
But I am not willing to take any bullsh!t from people who try to boss me around, telling me what subjects I should write about or what emoticons to use on my Twitter profile etc. And then they sulk and play hurt puppy when I don’t “follow” their wishes! And then after initial support, when I tag people in they ask me to not tag them in anymore because they are sulking and are having a pity party because I don’t do what they want!
I asked this before, if you don’t want me to tag you in, please block me, because this is the easiest way to not get tagged in, as I tag people at times accidentally in time, having forgotten their Twitter handle after a long time etc. I don’t care about numbers and followings, I don’t care when people block me! I am not on Twitter to be friends. I am on social media for the sole purpose to expose Pret A Manger after what I survived!
Sure, it would help if I had more followers, more RTs etc. And I shoot myself in my own foot by offending people. I’m learning to be more “diplomatic” in my approach and am not proud of how I behave at times fueled by alcohol. I spent 10 years in Pret being forced to smile, pretend a happy facade or get fear managed and penalized. I do not have any smile or happiness left UNLESS I feel like it! And unfortunately I went into the other extreme and am trying to level it out again!
At the same time, I do not put weight on clicks, likes, followings etc. as these go as easily as they came. My handicap here is that I am so used to fight “giants” on my own, being betrayed, lied to, fear managed, and the worst to lose family/friends/job/money … that “compliments” or the amount of following/clicks/likes have no meaning to me! This is also one reason I push people away because I’m fucking scared everyone dies around me or what I’ve built up will be taken away again. I know how quickly we can lose people and things for no reason that I don’t put weight on amount, volume or numbers.
And those I address here, you know who you are! And I will not stoop low again to out anyone unnecessarily. But I will also say again, if you claim to be a journalist or anything you tell me, but you are not willing to get your butt off the cushion, and campaign for subjects you are keen to get public, then do not tell me what I should do! And also do not claim to be someone that you are not! It doesn’t help, it’s not honest and I always worry if what people tell me is actually true! Also, if you claim to be someone you are not, you will always have to look over your shoulder to not get caught! It takes more energy and goes no-where.
I have different Twitter accounts because I am shadow banned (censored) at times where Twitter hides my tweets and account. But people know it’s me, and it’s not illegal to have different accounts. Twitter even allows for accounts to merge. But I don’t claim to be someone that I’m not!
Many people on Twitter and other social media platforms know me! They know my name, my face after we’ve met in real life or on Zoom, they have my number etc. And that includes some journalists. Pret certainly know me and know who is behind my blog and social media handles. The reason I write anonymously in public is anxiety after what Pret has put me through. Especially after being bullied by a GROUP of “professionals”, Managers, under HR etc. during bereavement! And the worse thing that Pret has done via Lila Warren that still has me paranoid that Pret sends a “spy” again, which I describe in detail here: Questions to Lila Tighilt Warren.
This is one reason I lash out while drunk when GOOD people contact me, and I make the poor decision to drink and fall into paranoia that these good people are “spies” to “get me”. I get troll and disgusting mail/DMs at times which comes with the territory of being on social media. And being female seems to be another reason for some people to try and patronize me. So, if someone then claims to be someone they are not, you are not doing yourself a favour by getting in contact with me. I’m not having it!
And people may not believe this, but I’m actually a very private person who usually doesn’t spill my guts all over the place. This has just been a necessary stretch for me to not only expose Pret and what happened to me, but to distract myself from ruminating too much on loss and grief. Between 2015 and 2018 my blog was solely about my brother’s death. Then I turned my website around into campaigning and telling my story with Pret.
And before you assume that I didn’t get mental health help or legal aid, ASK first what I’ve been through and do your homework on my story before making assumptions and judgements!
I have been to hell and back more than once and I was never too proud to ask for help! I don’t just write a blog the size of this website on a subject to just kill time! You don’t write a blog that I do without having been through hell! I have suffered to the point of suicide and still am just surviving! I pay money for my blog, I don’t get any money, I don’t even take donations! I could easily put a donation PayPal button on my blog and start asking for money! But I don’t want to do that. No-one can accuse me of monetizing anything, even though I deserve to be fuck!ng rich after the immense work I’ve put into my website!
I EARNED my blog! I EARNED my experience and horror with what Pret has put me through! I made MANY mistakes, hurt and offended MANY people. I have lost everybody and everything except the roof over my head! But I EARNED what I write about, I suffered through this, I keep suffering and pay the consequences for anything I say, do or write that hurts people or myself!
So, if YOU want to expose an issue, wrong doing or even just do a fun thing to cheer people up, then please do that. But do not tell me what I should or should not do, and then want to “punish” me through manipulation, gaslighting, ghosting etc. I have zero tolerance for bullsh!t like this. And if you claim to be a BBC, Times, Telegraph or any big name reporter, and I find out that you’re not, I will out you publicly!
And I say it again to any person who is hurt because of Pret or ANY person/group: BE YOURSELF! Don’t be someone that you are not! Be as open or as anonymous as you want to be, but be yourself. OWN your story! You EARNED it! You suffered through it! It’s YOUR story!
I didn’t chase three multi-millionaire businessmen off Twitter without having a story to tell that has almost destroyed my life and that scares them!
Do as little or as much as you can and want to do. Start a blog, or a YouTube channel, or a podcast, or a band, or political party, or a Union, paint a picture, sing a song, cook a meal, talk about mental health or healthy food, rescue animals, pick up waste to recycle … whatever you want to raise awareness of, go for it! However small or big it may be. Go for it! Don’t ever underestimate ONE voice! Don’t let people tell you that you don’t have enough followers or clicks and likes to make an impact! It means nothing in the long run if it doesn’t change a thing or if it doesn’t give you some sort of satisfaction or peace or whatever.
I KNOW the fear, anxiety, paranoia of getting hurt. It took me YEARS to stand up and lose fear! I am not scared of Pret. I spent years being scared of these coward millionaires who sh!t on hard working people! Ten years of being fear managed, exploited, taken for granted and then even bullied during the worst time of my life, I have no fake smile left anymore! And I have no tolerance for fear management, manipulation or any other crap that tries to hold me down. Those days are over!
So, if you don’t want to be tagged in, please just block me because I am not on social media to make friends. My sole purpose is to write about Pret and my experience. My true social – and friendship circle is in real life, not on social media.
And my apologies again for having lashed out at anyone! I’m working on it every day. I’ve come a long way, and have a long way to go.
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.
The coffee freebie and 50% off food for NHS workers, just before first lock-down, while the very next day cutting staff hours, pay. Pret using NHS staff for PR and as a smoke screen to hide staff cuts. Full CEO email in above link.
CEO Pano Christou doing a half-marathon for the Pret Foundation Trust AND asking low-wage staff for donations of whom he made cuts to. Pret trying to get money at every turn under the “charity” umbrella.
Customer photos/video of Pret food in the street, fly tipping and staff reviews on foodwaste:
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And more PR stunts …
UPDATE 2022
After 4 years on exposing Pret, Sarah Butler from The Guardian who followed me early on in 2018 (but I kicked every journalist off my following in a drunke stupor) now started to dig deeper and take my tipps/leaks from staff.
TWICE this year Pret delayed paying staff under dodgy excuses. The 2. time during the Queen’s Jubilee bank holiday celebrations, knowing very well that the public is distracted should this come out in the news, which it did. I emailed CEO Pano Christou after being contacted by desperate staff who didn’t get paid during the Jubilee weekend with the Monday being a bank holiday, all banks closed, no chance to arrange an overdraft.
And a few months later further news that CEO Pano Christou got a payrise and nearly £4million in bonus in 2021 AFTER he cut wages and then had the audacity as described above to asked his minimum-wage staff for donations.
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 and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou. 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 as well as mentioned by the BBC.
I would like to explain something to Pret front-line workers.
I am ecstatic about @at_pret‘s planning to strike and am super proud of their courage! If the strike goes forward or whatever the outcome may be is another topic. And of course I hope the strike goes forward and staff ask for and get MUCH MORE, especially the London Living Wage.
But I like to put some balance into an issue that I had to balance out many times when I was a Team Leader at Pret in many of the shops I worked at.
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I was a Team Leader of the shop floor and also worked in the kitchen to learn the products and helped out many times. I ALWAYS was gobsmacked and had a high respect for Kitchen Team Leaders, because I could never do what they do! I ran the shops as a shop Floor Leader (FL) and even though it was extremely stressful, the job was EASY for me!
One General Manager (GM) said to me once that I run the shop with my eyes closed! It came easy to me! What did NOT come easy was all the bullsh!t and bullying from the top! One GM tried to coax me into becoming a Kitchen Team Leader (KL) if I wanted to move up to be an Assistant Manager. But I declined because running the kitchen is a nightmare!!! And I also loved working with customers and appreciate daylight!
There are many Pret staff who prefer to work in the kitchen as they don’t like contact with customers. And that’s fair enough!
But at times when the shop staff had a go at the kitchen staff and visa verca, I quickly jumped in to balance out the conflict.
Kitchen staff often think that shop staff are lazy because at times after the busy coffee rush and before the busy lunch rush, one or two staff stand by the till and seemingly look like they’re not doing anything!
But shop staff are always pressured by management to STAY at the till and DON’T MOVE! Because staff are pushed to drop everything as soon as a customer approaches the till! Staff are pushed to serve FAST to get customers in and out fast, as this means fast money flow.
I don’t want to get too much into this and want to avoid writing a LONG post again, but I often explained to the Team that we ALL work HARD and each team just has a different kind of stress!
I explained to those who never worked on the shop floor, what kind of stress shop staff suffer. And then I explained to shop staff what kind of stress kitchen folk suffer, and they started to appreciate each others’ work and helped each other more. And thus we all realised that it is much easier to work TOGETHER than to fight each other!
Kitchen staff have to work FAST like machines WITHOUT ever stopping! But kitchen staff don’t have to SMILE and pretend to be happy every second of every day on the shop floor and kiss butt of customers who have a go at them because their latte is cold!
Kitchen staff have LOUD and FAST music, NOT for fun like Pret claims, but so they don’t talk and work fast. Fast and loud music serves as a beating drum for the work pace! Your head explodes with that stress!
Same in the shop, the music has to always be loud so that customers don’t linger around too long! But kitchen staff at least can choose their own music and even switch it off if they want to. Although management and KL will switch it on again! I was told off by an area Manager once because I kept turning the volume down in the shop after my head was exploding and I had a concert of Tinnitus bugging me every day. Also, customers kept complaining, but Pret wants the music LOUD! In the kitchen at least staff have some control of the music system.
Shop staff have to listen to the same songs day in day out for months until head office changes the playlist!
If you are ill, depressed, bereaved and you work in the kitchen, you can do your bench in the corner of the kitchen, don’t have to speak with or look at anyone. You can even have a quite cry and wipe your tears on your shoulder!
If you are ill, depressed, bereaved and you work in the shop you are NOT allowed to have a sad face and MUST pretend to be happy and smile at all times! You MUST suppress the tears while being bugged by a customer who’s taking 5 minutes to get out pennies to pay for the £2.85 and tries to get rid of change. …
I know the public doesn’t believe this, unless you have worked or know someone who’s worked at Pret. But I had countless times when I went into the toilet when the shop was quiet, burst out in tears, splashed water on my face, dried up, waved wind into my eyes for my red eyes to settle back, went back on the shop floor, smiled and my customers never knew how suicidal I was. Especially after I buried my brother. At times I BEGGED my Manager to put me in the kitchen to work for a day when I was very down. I couldn’t afford to take unpaid leave if my holiday was already taken, and wasn’t paid for the first two days off sick, even if I’d had a GP sick note.
Most of the time my GM refused me to work in the kitchen because I wasn’t used to the pace and would have slowed down the production and the whole kitchen Team. Other times I begged to be the coffee maker for the morning so I don’t have to face customers and smile all the time. Again, refused because unlike in the kitchen, I was very efficient with fast service and looking after the shop. Even during extremely busy lunchtime, the shop side was immaculate at all times when I ran the shifts. So my Managers never wanted me in the kitchen or on coffee. If I was at any other position, coffee, kitchen it meant my GM or AM would have to look after the shop instead of sitting in the office checking Facebook! This is REALITY in Pret with many Managers!
It is ALWAYS about Pret, about Managers not wanting to work but dump all the burden on those who already work like machines. And I say it again, that I survived this especially during bereavement I still don’t understand!
This has screwed me up so deeply that now I REFUSE to smile or even be friendly if I don’t feel like it. And much worse, I lash out in a drunken stupor at GOOD people because I get paranoid they’re out “to get me” … You can judge me if you like, but this is reality.
Since @at_pret made the strike announcement and the Guardian took it to another level, social media is exploding with customers boycotting and even vowing to never set foot inside a Pret again! Reddit even has several former Pret staff speak out! I will STOP myself from posting ALL the reddit posts, but one I want to highlight and say that I also had to countless times console a colleague who cried in the staff room because our boss told them off, or a customer had a go at them …
»I can see no one in the comments worked for Pret. That place is a hell to work for, you always end up doing the job of 3-4 people, they have high standards, you are scolded if you don’t smile, and so on. It’s hell, I have never seen so many people crying during and after their shift. You are paid pennies compared to your workload. I can keep going, but it’s just not worth it and now they even cut the paid break, which was the only incentive to stay there. I am glad I left.«
One of many staff reviews along those line, this one is from 2015:
Quote: “A lot of people cry in the staff room especially in their entry period …”
I could go on and on on with the different stress points in both areas, but I only want to emphasise that BOTH, kitchen and shop Team work bloody HARD, each with their own stress levels!
Sure, kitchen staff have very little opportunity to get the individual outstanding card awards! Shop staff have much more chances to get an outstanding card. But the outstanding card is an INDIVIDUAL reward, while the bonus is for the whole Team.
When someone kept having a go at the kitchen Team I said to them that they should work in the kitchen for one week and then after a week they come back to the shop floor and KISS the ground! And visa versa said the same to a kitchen staff to work a week in the shop!
I always stressed to kitchen and shop staff that we are ONE TEAM not two Teams, ONE team! And division and stress between staff is EXACTLY what Pret and low-wage companies love! It distracts from the REAL issues of exploitation by millionaires, who throw crumbs at the bottom to fight over!
I saw a bunch of pigeons fighting over crumbs once and realised then where the term “picking on each other” comes from!
@at_pret kitchen staff, if you’re reading this, please understand that the shop Team have AS MUCH stress, it’s just a different kind of load, but shop staff work AS HARD as kitchen staff and kitchen staff work AS HARD as shop staff. NO-ONE works harder, and NO-ONE has it easier! It’s just a different kind of stress!
UPDATE 2022 – Two pay delays that I passed on to The Guardian, and further investigation into CEO payrise after he cut staff wages. If it doesn’t play at the spot, fast forward to 1:27 minutes or click at here at 1:27.
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My favourite review I came across is from a kitchen worker who also had to jump in to help out in the shop on the till. And trust me, as a Floor Leader I often helped out in the kitchen or asked a shop staff who wasn’t busy to help out in the kitchen as much as kitchen staff also helped us in the shop.
It’s ONE Team! ALL work hard!
My favourite review that still has me cry at times as it triggers the pain that follows you home! I gave it an extra YouTube slide because the public NEEDS to understand how Pret staff suffer!
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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. Schlee has been appointed CEO of itsu in 2024 by Julian Metcalfe who gave him the CEO spot at Pret many years ago. 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 and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou. 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 as well as mentioned by the BBC.
Please also see the MEDIA page for more on my work with the press.
And even though my post here makes indirect advertisement for Pret, I want the public to see how utterly, utterly careless, patronizing and disrespectful Pret is towards their staff!
Is he delusional or just outright, unashamedly disgusting to staff?
As all social media platforms are on fire with customers not only boycotting Pret, but many having vowed to never set foot inside Pret again, and some staff find courage to speak out over Pret’s exploitation, cutting pay etc.
What does CEO Pano Christou do?
He does what Pret does best: he announces his self-loathing “charity”.
He wants to run a half marathon to raise money for the Pret Foundation Trust to, quote: “alleviate poverty, hunger and homelessness” … and then he’s asking the staff of whom he just cut wages, benefits etc. to donate to his cause @%!*&% 🤬🤬🤬
I have so many curse words on my tongue but don’t want to degrade myself further! He is spitting on his staff with his charitable pretends! F****** 🤮
They’re trying to get money at EVERY corner including donations from staff.
But this goes exactly along the lines of what Pret did to staff in March 2020 when Pret did the NHS freebie PR stunt. On 18. March 2020 just before first lock-down but at the intensity of the pandemic where it was clear how contagious Covid 19 is, Pret announced coffee freebies and 50% rebate on food for NHS workers. The very next day “charitable” Pano Christou sent an email to all shops and HQ to announce “temporary” cuts to staff. NHS workers were used twofold, as a PR stunt and a smokescreen to divert from cuts to own staff.
I was contacted by several Pret staff on the morning of the email and was sent his email. Full email: (My plea) To NHS Employees. The audacity to use the pandemic to justify cuts and at the same time TAKE AWAY from low-wage staff. In my eyes, Pret staff basically PAID for the NHS freebies. And it was disheartening to read that most NHS staff didn’t care except for their own pocket. Just very few NHS staff spoke out, one very strongly:
Since the Guardian article by Sarah Butler came out yesterday and a social media storm erupted of customers showing LOVE and solidarity to Pret staff, I’ve spent most of my day tweeting with tears streaming down my face! The overwhelming support from the public I didn’t expect. There’s always some support, but there’s always more silence than voices. But yesterday and still today customers speaking out is like a much needed rain in a drought, and I haven’t cried tears of joy in a long time. And this in contrast to just few voices of NHS staff who mainly seemed to care about getting a freebie while Pret staff bled for it!
So Pano does the usual Pret thing, floating HIS boat on his charitable ventures while sh!tting on staff! His marathon message he sent to all staff, one of whom sent it to me. Also very economical for Pano, instead of joining and paying for the gym or doing a boring morning run on his own, he goes for a public exercise and gets money for it!
And mind you, this message has been sent to me by a low-wage front-line SHOP staff, NOT HQ staff! Pret wants £8.91 p/h staff to donate to his “charity” act! Yeah Pano, I wish you luck! You’ll need more of it now than you ever thought!
Pret staff and the Unions should take the picket-line across the route where Pano will run! And the banner at the goal should have a strong message from staff and the Union on it!
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ADDITION 14.08.2021
After pondering on Pano’s charity stunt, it seems to me that Pano is losing it and is clueless on how to act. Going on a charity marathon thing is a coping mechanism he does from long days gone by. When Pret found itself in deep water on any issue, their strategy was always to do some quick charity stunt reaction. But Pano hasn’t realized that this old coping mechanism doesn’t work anymore. It’s out-dated, it’s INAPPROPRIATE and it has NOTHING whatsoever to do with current issues of the pandemic nor staff shortage!
I wrote in May that I have a feeling that Pano will soon be replaced as a CEO. Staff never really saw him as a leader who’d make an impact. He was Clive Schlee’s shadow for years but never really brought anything new or inventive to the table. He just learnt how to sweet-talk like a parrot!
And in the early hours of 29. March 2018 former CEO Clive Schlee made the £1000 announcement to all staff (£800 after tax) after he found out late at night on 28. March about my blog. I give a visual of the evidence here:
If you would like to donate, it would be appreciated. Thank you!
£10.00
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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.
Of course this article took the strike announcement to another level and a social media storm erupted as usual, with caring customers announcing to stop buying at Pret. And this comes days after the UK government named and shamed Pret amongst 190 other companies for paying under the minimum-wage: Pret ‘named and shamed’ in government minimum wage list.
Just hours after the Guardian piece, Pret made what Sky news called a “U-Turn” and reinstated the £1 per hour bonus. BUT, this is a joke and a trick! The bonus is not guaranteed and I will briefly explain here below why this is a joke!
First of all, yes of course it’s not law to have to pay breaks and most retail business don’t pay breaks! But why do we settle for a SYSTEM? Why not get this changed? Fast-food workers, especially Pret staff work like machines! It was already horrible to work before the pandemic! Pret always boast that they pay a little more then the competition. But 1. staff have to work triple the amount for it and 2. they don’t get a pay-rise in YEARS except on what the Government raises.
Some people get it to not accept certain “normal” things:
And now, Pret ALSO pays the national minimum wage of £8.91, and with all these cuts staff get more work, many have left, who knows if there are Covid infections or even deaths. Pret was able to hide TWO allergen deaths under the carpet and a 3rd narrowly survived and more injured until an Inquest into the first fatality forced the news out.
The reason why the bonus being fully back from 50p to £1 per hour is that this is just another one of Pret’s tricks!
The bonus is not a guarantee whereas a living wage, paid breaks etc. are a guarantee. Pret has an extremely micromanaging, dehumanizing, humiliating Mystery Shopper scheme in place. I’ve written on this several times and have done some YouTube slides with real Pret Mystery Shopper (MS) reports because my blog is heavily censored on Facebook, Instagram, even here on WordPress. My blog is blocked on those sites and Facebook algorithm even deletes my PRIVATE messages when I link to my blog! But FB, Insta etc. can’t block YouTube, Twitter etc.
The MS has immense power to make or break shop bonus. Every week they visit and any little thing that p!sses the MS off can cost the whole shop the bonus. Pret Managers also have discretion to NOT give bonus for ANY silly reason. The MS is used as a tool to bully and fear manage staff!
If the Manager doesn’t like a staff member and that staff comes in ONE minute late, boom, the Manager withdraws the bonus.
The staff who got the ball rolling on the planned strikes confirms this:
If you work 60 hours per week because Pret has always been under-staffed, but now since the pandemic it’s much worse, you get exhausted, sick, Covid is still around etc. and if you are sick even just for ONE day, you get your whole week’s bonus cut. If you work 60 hours and the MS visit is successful, you get £60 on top of your wages (£1 per hour). £60 is a LOT of money for underpaid staff who, some of them are on benefits to pay their rent. If you worked all week for 52 hours, and on your last day of that week you call sick missing 8 hours to make it to 60, you lose the whole week’s effort of £52 of the previous 52 hours you DID already work!
Many times I myself worked while I was sick because I had to make a decision if to stay at home and get well, but lose money, or work while sick risking further health issues AND potentially losing my whole Team the MS bonus. One MS I unknowingly served pointed this out when I was coughing while serving them and I was not able to smile. My Manager had me in the office after we received the report.
Ctrl & + to enlarge screenshot.
Quote:
Pret: “We aim to connect with every customer with eye contact, a smile and some polite remarks. Rate the engagement level of the person who served you at the till.”
MS: “Team members should smile at customers and may be not work when ill, as team member was coughing whilst serving me and was therefore not feeling cheerful enough to smile that day.”
Fathermucker, I was also not “cheerful” enough after I buried my brother and my boss told us to leave our problems at home and wear a smile like we wear our uniforms! If an undercover journalist would go into Pret to experience the Mystery Shopper hell. I renamed it to “Misery” Shopper. And dear MS, next time PAY staff to stay home and get well!
One staff member confronted former CEO Clive Schlee on this and called it “stealing”. The staff might have been warned by Pret as they since deleted their Tweet. Also, Clive Schlee’s Twitter account has been deleted in July 2020, so all that’s left are replies to him and many of the screenshots I have from his Tweets.
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And a recent Facebook DM with a former Pret staff who points this out as well, how working 70 hours per week is harmful for mental health, but also physically. I have permission to post this:
And other issues with the bonus being weaponized against staff, I worked with a colleague who came to work from his holiday with a little beard. I’m not sure if this is still the case, but in my time when a guy wanted to grow a beard, he had to let Pret know in advance. Pret had this in WRITING in our staff manuals, that’s why I know about it as I had to read stuff as a Leader. To this day I still don’t understand why they had to let Pret know because in the kitchen men with beards wear beard nets as well as hair nets! But he came from holiday with a beard and our Manager cut his bonus!
I got threatened that my bonus will get cut if I keep forgetting to slide the plastic opening sign to “open” in the morning. Pret don’t have these stupid red sliding signs anymore, but in my time when I was new as a Leader I kept forgetting, partly because no-one trained me on “Managing by Walking Around” (MBWA).
Anything can be used by management to not pay bonus. And knowing Pret, they may retaliate against staff for announcing a strike by making the Mystery Shopper harder and/or hint to Managers to cut bonus at any turn possible!
One recent review on Glassdoor by a Team Leader puts this in simple terms: “Bonus is used as weapon”:
Another staff explains that due to the extreme under-staffing they have no chance to clean or check the toilets. If there is just a little bit of toilet paper on the floor in the toilet, the mystery shopper will deny ALL staff in that shop and kitchen the bonus. Hence, many shops just close the toilet with an “out of order” sign on it as they have no staff to clean. I put a YouTube slide underneath with few of the many customer complaints from different shops and dates:
We staff always were suspicious as well that when Pret threw these elaborate huge summer and Christmas parties that each cost at least £10.000 and more, VERY OFTEN straight after the parties that week, many shops lost bonus! We couldn’t proof that Pret was behind this, but I don’t believe in coincidences anymore. And it was like clockwork, we staff always laughed and made bets if we get bonus the week after a party.
The same with overheated shops! I worked in 2 different shops, both for months without adequate air conditioning and broken ACs. Shops and at times kitchens if all ACs broke, were 40+ degrees! Every Mystery Shopper, every week NEVER even mentioned this! We were expected to keep smiling and performing at highest standards. We lost bonus if we couldn’t smile etc.
I write in detail and walk people through how working in 40 degrees is like and put many customer Tweets who complained to Pret over overheated shops: Pret A Manger Overheated Shops.
After I started my blog here I registered once on a Mystery Shopper forum about 2 years ago. People were sharing their experiences. There was no-one who was a Pret MS, but I explained from staff perspective how horrible it is for us. And 9 out of 10 MS on that forum were brutal with me! They said that this is our job and that we are expected to fulfill what the company wanted, no matter what. They said even after I explained that I was bullied DURING bereavement and expected to smile! I was shocked at their response! Many Mystery Shoppers seem arrogant and entitled, this is visible in their comments. And to become a MS, you are not allowed to have retail work experience. I believe that is because companies don’t want the MS to have empathy but be like a brutal customer who ONLY spends money when their butts are kissed!
I could go on and on, but I’m trying to learn to write shorter texts. Reinstating the £1 bonus is not good enough and as the only option is a bad deal because bonuses are not a guarantee. Knowing Pret from my own horrific experience, I truly believe it’s a trick of Pret, and staff should NOT settle for it.
As social media is on fire, even former Pret staff on reddit spill the beans on the reality of Pret:
The following reddit comment I will quote here to enlarge it! These guys speak TRUTH!
“No, I’ve been working in hospitality for years. I’ve never seen anything like Pret, the amount of emotional abuse is unacceptable. But hey, people need to see you smile while they’re buying an effing sandwich…”
Ian Hodson, President of the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union on LBC, whom I connected to @at_pret who announced the strike. Ian was happy to help, but staff decided to go alone. Pret has since silenced the strike action:
Low-wage shop staff depend ONLY on the Mystery Shopper to get their peanut bonus of £1 per hour. But Managers and higher up Managers have their quarterly bonus GUARANTEED!
Low-wage front-line staff get the bonus paid weekly, if you worked 40 hours, you get £40 extra. But the bonus relies solely on the Mystery Shopper results, whereas shop Assistant Managers (the position CEO Pano Christou started), Managers and higher ups get their bonus quarterly and the Mystery Shopper is just one part of it. It’s the biggest part, but even if they have low scores, they still get their bonus every quarter!
Little side note again, I write about Pano Christou’s “Rags to Riches” story and explain that he started at position number 4 in the shop NOT at the bottom. He loves to tell the public that he started “in shops”. Sure he did, but he started as an Assistant Manager with a ton of benefits including £500 to buy business attire, monthly £50 for the dry cleaner, health insurance, sick pay from day one, a LOAN to buy an annual travel pass that costs only for 10 months (2 months free travel), elaborate executive parties, travels for Team building, higher pay, bigger bonus and a bunch of other perks along the way. He just loves to fool everyone how he started at the “bottom”! Give me a break!
Staff, as well as customers, have Pret at their balls now and should keep squeezing! DON’T let go! This is a momentum and an opportunity that doesn’t come around often!
They have the press AND the public AND former/current staff AND the Unions now with open eyes on this! DON’T LET GO!
Two slides I’ve done so far and may add more if staff send me updates with new Mystery Shopper reports. But once you look at the detail, you get the idea how dehumanizing Pret’s MS report is. Pret has downgraded from 32 questions to a little over 20 questions, but it’s still horrible for staff who have to act like acrobatic clowns to just get more crumbs that Pret throws at them.
Slide 1 are excerpts from different MS reports from different shops I worked in and different years. Slide 2 is from one shop in 2019. Pret changed some wordings a little since I extensively write about the Mystery Shopper and may have forced Pret even to mention the MS on shop walls. I renamed it to “Misery” Shopper!
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And most of the 32 MS questions from 2019. I have a report from 2020 but had no chance to work it into my blog or YT:
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Also, regarding cuts and exploitation, please see the following posts that show how Pret exploits staff since YEARS including wage theft, lawsuits, using NHS workers for PR etc.
The Difference between Kitchen and Shop work (The strike announcement says that kitchen staff are the hard workers, but I explain that ALL staff work hard).
UPDATE: Please see how Pano Christou is further ripping low-wage staff off by trying to get money for “charity”: CEO Pano Christou is Having a Laugh!
And lastly, if customers and staff really want to reach the top executives after being ignored on Twitter, FB, Insta etc., it’s best to post to CEO Pano Christou directly on Linkedin. He deleted his Twitter account in 2019 after I tweeted Clive Schlee’s “retirement” to the press and also linked to Pano’s Twitter.
Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha’s stern words to Pret regarding cut wages via her Instagram. To American readers, “Loose Women” is a TV program similar to the American program “The View” or “The Talk” with mainly female presenters and themes. Nadia Sawalha is known for not shying away to speak out on issues. She has close to 500K followers on Instagram and has more followers on Twitter than Pret has. Her voice is vital and much appreciated. Many of her followers stopped going to Pret:
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I adopted a song as the “Pret A Manger Anthem”:
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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.
So, here I am minding my own business, writing my posts on Pret and doing other things in life, when I was informed that my blog cannot be found on WordPress.com READER when a WordPress user is signed in and searching for “Pret A Manger”.
And I’m sorry, I’m a better writer than a drawer, apologies! I do understand that the red middle-finger / dick that I drew looks more like a cactus with a sun burn that has lost its “spikes”, but I never claimed to be an artisté! I’m just exposing Pret and have pulled down their pants, revealing their teenie tiny dicks! And now I’m censored for it … Of course.
Censorship is nothing new under the sun, it’s happening throughout the Internet since the stone ages of the Internet. It’s subtle, it’s sneaky, it’s disgusting!
I contacted WordPress, and this is their reply today.
Viewer discretion advised and disclaimer: Please go to the toilet before you read the following otherwise you may wet yourself laughing!
Click ctrl & + (ctrl & plus) to enlarge the dick uhm pic:
Now, which part of my blog is mature content porky pie?
I also sent WorPress examples of blogs where people say “fuck”, “cunt”, “shit” without “bleeping it” out, and other profanities. But they are NOT moved into the mature content / porn section. I showed WordPress the hypocrisy because they use the “mature content” excuse for censorship, because Pret must have bugged them. WordPress is in a pickle because of free speech on one hand, but then when they censor use a bogus reason on the other. They please Pret by hiding my blog within WordPress, and use the excuse for censorship that it is mature content!
My blog can be found on search engines of course, but it’s about the internal WordPress reader when other bloggers are logged in doing a search.
Dear WordPress, I’m sure you don’t need my business as you pride yourself in being the most used web-provider out there. I should have known better and choose the little guy web provider. I pay for 1 main URL and 2 further URL’s. I was planning to upgrade, I will shop around to move my website over to another web provider who doesn’t suck up to Pret A Manger’s tiny dick!
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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.
Andrej (PAMSU) tweeted for 6 years after he was fired for having started a Trade Union.
Once I came along on Twitter in 2018, he stopped tweeting. I get it that he was tired. But I don’t appreciate that he never replied to my email, Facebook messaging, and even lied to a journalist. Not good Andrej.
I understand that this is AGAIN about a FEMALE speaking out, and you males shutting down.
I don’t need you.
Facebook group “I Hate Pret” posted in 2011 and then a few years after that. And then stopped.
I myself wrote an Encyclopedia on Pret in 3 years that journalists pretend to not care about, while drooling over it, trying to figure out how not to plagiarize.
So, when journalists come across my story and website, they do one of the following depending on the person:
They pretend to not care and ghost (while checking out your website)
They REPLY that they are interested, trying to lure you in to share more than they can handle
They really don’t care, and in that case, they have other projects worth investigating. But the main thing is, you will know a bullshitter miles away.
When I stared to write publicly on Pret, I wanted to write down my story and die. I wanted the public to know that there are Pret staff who suffer and why they died.
The public and journalists are catching up now. But in the end they don’t care.
I contacted hundreds of journalists.
Most continue to play-pretend to not care.
You won’t be remembered in my book.
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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.
I’m actually surprised that this Tory Government has investigated, and now names and shames companies for not paying staff. I am so disheartened with the Tory Govt. for how they squeezed the UK for years, especially the NHS, and mishandled the pandemic. So, the publication of this list of companies is a pleasant surprise!
Our usual suspect of course is Pret A Manger. And as usual, many people are surprised, especially business people. But why? Business people should know best how companies cheat to get and keep money!
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Pret has been stealing wages for years and settled TWO class action suits in the USA having had to repay 4000 workers close to a combined $1 million. In the USA people quickly sue and get results, while in the UK the legal system is very different. Even if you win in court, the effort and price you pay compared to the rewards is not worth ruining your mental health and finances. It needs class actions as well as individual lawsuits.
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.
The above gentleman is Jeffrey Hyman, the original founder of Pret that Pret loves to avoid mentioning. Pret even use his original sign/logo/font in a room at 75B, Verde, 10 Bressenden Place in Victoria, London’s Head Office and I made a photo of this logo in one of Pret’s Victoria shops. Pret use his sign, but refuse to mention him.
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Photo taken mid 2021
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Here’s my prediction on Pano Christou’s career in Pret:
It is 2021, his mentor Clive Schlee has been guiding him since the sh!t hit the fan.
JAB Holdings will find a new CEO and Pano will coincidentally find another occupation.
And the staff on the front-lines hope to have a company, a CEO who truly cares (but this is fast-food, so don’t get your hopes up!).
You’ve heard it here first.
BUT, the above is only if anyone on top levels care.
If they don’t care, Pano Chrsitou stays on, the same old, same old goes on, and Pret remains a mini McDonald’s with a posh front.
That’s it.
P.S. Pano Christou is a little over his head, but mentor Clive Schlee is standing by. If Pano would have started at the bottom of Pret A Manger… This is Pret A Manger with a smile.
I mention all this because I keep seeing increased General Manager reviews and staff contacting me that HQ and the top leadership are “detached” from the business. But, they’ve always been detached, they’re just good in pretending to care.
A friend of Jeffrey Hyman told me:
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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. Schlee has been appointed CEO of itsu in 2024 by Julian Metcalfe who gave him the CEO spot at Pret many years ago. 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 and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou. 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 as well as mentioned by the BBC.
Please also see the MEDIA page for more on my work with the press.
I wrote a post with 3 possibilities why several Pret shops are closed throughout the UK: “Short Term Staffing Issues“.
But I want to do an extra post adding a 4th reason. My alarm bells go off when Pret seemingly speak the truth. It is true that Pret has staff shortages, like all in the hospitality industry.
But some shops have a note on the door saying they are closed due to refurbishments. The memo didn’t get around to settle on which lie to tell I guess. So, there are always conflicting messages even within ONE shop.
There are daily complaints on all social media platforms to Pret that customers cannot use their subscription as their local shop is closed. Thus they keep paying the monthly £20 without being able to get any drink. This looks typical like Pret to me ripping customers off and not giving a refund. This to me is unethical, because if Pret would care about their customers, instead of quick money coming in, they would make a list on their website with WHICH shops are currently closed and email all subscribers informing them of those shop closures.
If Pret cared, they would also put information on Pret’s subscription sign-up page, to inform any customer who is about to sign up to check THEIR area for open/closed shops BEFORE they sign up. But what am I talking??! Since when would Pret care for customers and for ethics instead of just for money.
My theory is that Pret does a clever economical thing, they take all the staff from shops that don’t bring much profit, close those shops and place the staff in the shops that do make profit.
Then Pret negotiates with landlords to get a cheaper deal or refuse to pay rent altogether, like Pret does in the USA and has at least six lawsuits on their necks for unpaid rents.
So, saving money in rents, maybe either negotiating with landlords or refusing to pay altogether in the hopes they get away with it, as the UK is more forgiving then the USA. Pret has also received a £185 million cash injection from their in tax-haven Luxembourg based owners JAB Holding, yet do a lot of questionable money saving stunts. I list some here: Pret will INDEED try anything to survive.
Saving on overhead costs on closed shops, deliver service costs for the daily products delivered to shops from the depot, saving on shop management payroll as less Managers are needed, and then continuing to sell the coffee subscription to customers who can’t use it!
Clever deal, Pret. But in my eye highly unethical.
Also, some shop staff put the lie on the front door of a closed shop that they are closed due to refurbishment, or like the above Tweet says “nip and tuck makeover”. Well, if you’d worked at Pret like I did for 10 years (yeah, don’t ask me, it’s my biggest regret!) you would know that refurbishments in Pret take no more than 2 days, 4 days max AND that refurbishments are ALWAYS done at night, OUTSIDE of business hours so as not to disrupt the trade!
I have worked in several shops over the years where Pret did the huge refurbishments back in the early 2010s when they changed from the cold, silver, metal look to the warm wood ambience! The shops where I worked at did the refurbishment mainly during the weekends at night, but also during the week at nights. Many times when I opened the shop on Monday morning 6am, neighbours were already waiting outside fuming and then coming in to complain that builders were making unbelievable noise during the night. Builders were hammering, using the electric saw OUTSIDE to avoid too much saw dust inside for staff to have to clean … Everything was done during the night to avoid interruption to the business!
I had to personally apologize several times to rightfully angry neighbours and get them the number or email for head office. I always offered a free coffee on top of it, but some were so angry, they didn’t even want a freebie! And when Pret opens a new shop, builders in different shifts work 24/7 to get the shop opened as soon as possible. The worst that was always shocking to me was when neighbours told us of the sawing machines OUTSIDE where builders were sawing during the night! No regard whatsoever of the residential neihbourhood.
A FULL refurbishment doesn’t take 4 days! Even when they work only the night, it may take 4 days, but during the day the shop is open! And especially a “nip and tuck” which indicates a small refurb, doesn’t even take more than 2 nights!
Pret itself give the “short term staffing disruption” on several occasions while some shops didn’t get the memo on which lie to post on the door.
I can only say to customers who have the subscription while their local Pret shop is closed, to demand a full refund for the period when the shops where closed (while having the subscription).
But Pret won’t do that, because they are not challenged by consumer rights groups or in court. In the USA there would be a class action suit in no time. But in the UK people keep giving Pret the benefit of the doubt, no matter how many customers die, how many staff speak out about exploitation and the bullying environment in Pret etc. etc.
For more on how Pret is ripping customers AND staff off: HERE again.
The rip-off also happens in the USA where customers pay for their drinks while having the subscription (pass), or the usual “no iced drinks”, no expensive plant-based milks, customers can’t cancel the subscription, and IF they manage to cancel, Pret continues to withdraw money yada yada yada …
Customers are continuously charged AFTER they successfully cancelled the subscription. Via Vimeo:
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Hardly any shop serves the expensive frappes and smoothies on subscription. This goes back since the subscription started last year which can be seen in below YouTube slide on the dates of the Tweets towards the end.
And IF people are lucky to get an iced drink (often the cheaper iced Latte or Americano, Pret managed to get 14oz cheaper paper cups from the suppliers, while claiming since MONTHS to have “supplier issues” on the more expensive 16oz plastic cups.
My question to a current Pret Barista on the cup issue, but the Barista isn’t sure why Pret changes the cups. What this Barista means by “which is bigger” is that the 14oz paper cup is bigger than the usual 12oz hot coffee paper cup, but it’s smaller to the 16oz plastic iced drink cup.
Pret should actually adopt a similar slogan to what Tesco uses: “Every little helps” (for Pret that is)!
Pret in the UK did only 2 cup sizes (apart from the small espresso cup), the 12oz usual coffee paper cup and the 8oz flat white and strong espresso cup. Mind you a “strong” espresso is NOT a double shot, it’s 1.5 shots, thats why Pret NEVER advertises it as “double espresso” but “strong espresso” to not get n trouble, while paying with people’s perception of “assuming” it’s 2 shots. But Pret charges the 1.5 strong coffee shot as if it was a 2 shot coffee, just like normal cafes like Caffè Nero does. Caffè Nero does actual TWO shots as a double shot and charges the same for an extra shot like Pret does.
When a Pret customer asks for a double shot latte, the Barista presses the “strong” espresso button, which is 1.5 shots NOT 2 shots. Even when a customer asks for a latte with an extra shot, the Barista presses the strong button. ONLY when a customer asks for a latte with TWO separate shots but demands to pay for the advertised “strong latte”, the Barista reluctantly does it as an exception if the customer persists. But most customers don’t know about the 1.5 shots as they assume it’s a double shot.
Please scroll up and down in the following Twitter feed where a former Pret Barista confirms this.
Pret just uses psychology to fool people into thinking they get a double shot. Every little helps! 😉
And now Pret has added a 14oz paper cup for the iced drinks. Excuse me, how can Pret have NO “supplier issues” on the 14oz paper cups, but since MONTHS on the 16oz plastic cups?
Every little helps!
Pret confirming to a customer that their iced plastic cup is 16oz:
Getting cheated out of 2oz doesn’t sound much, but it adds up. Every little helps!
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Anyone who has the subscription while local shops are closed should get a full refund.
UPDATE 16.08.2021
It seems that Pret also closed shops in city centers to open new ones outside cities. Oh and the irony of creating 2000 new jobs! Minimum-wage jobs and facing strike action!
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.
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.
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.
I start entering the conversation under @Ethical_Sailor’s Tweet. Please click “Show more replies” and “Show replies” as my account is blacklisted on Twitter due to censorship as I expose Pret. I won’t put all my Tweets here, please just read the feed on Twitter as I added some more.
Here is a screenshot of a Mystery Shopper (MS) comment when I served the MS (unbeknown to me) and I was coughing because I had a minor cold. I remember this very vividly because after we received the report that week, my boss ordered me into the office! I was intimidated at their “preaching” to be more careful when serving. I wasn’t as bold then as I am now. This was before my brother died and all hell broke lose in Pret. But comments like this can tip any person over who suffers mental health issues, let alone having a flipping cold!
And maybe the MS doesn’t know that low-wage staff are NOT paid sick day on their first and second days, even with a GP sick note. Or maybe they didn’t care. But I worked while sick MANY MANY times, having to make the decision if I should stay at home and get well, but lose money or go to work struggling, but able to pay my bills.
I don’t understand why above MS screenshot is blurred! Is there censorship on this website provider, too??
Please see the following link where the screenshot is enlarged and clear:
Pret: “We aim to connect with every customer with eye contact, a smile and some polite remarks. Rate the engagement level of the person who served you at the till.”
MS: “Team members should smile at customers and may be not work when ill, as team member was coughing whilst serving me and was therefore not feeling cheerful enough to smile that day.”
Uhm, I wasn’t even “cheerful” to smile under extreme stress and noise 8+ hours each day on a good day you arrogant, entitled prat!
Since I started writing on Pret’s micromanaging Mystery Shopper scheme, Pret has now changed the wording, they don’t say anymore “We aim to connect with every customer with …” as many customers on social media became appalled at this when I posted this.
Back to above Tweet feed, I started looking at Ms Persaud’s original Tweet on the top closer and decided to write a blog post on this. And this time I WANT Deborah Persaud to take it personal. I’m going to copy her full text into my blog as well as the screenshot above.
Quote: »Just goes to show how much difference one good person can make – went to my usual @Pret fir coffee this morning. The helpful person must be on holiday as I stood right at the counter for 5 minutes being actively ignored by the staff. So I left, lunch-less.«
Poor YOU Deborah Persaud, poor you!
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This kind of attitude and expectation is what Sophie McBain writes about in her subtitle of “How Emotional Labour Harms Us All” quote: »Workers are put at high risk of anxiety and burnout, while consumers are emboldened to behave aggressively.«
Now Deborah Persuad doesn’t seem like behaving “aggressively”, rather more passive aggressive, but comments like hers I remember reading in the weekly Emails that Pret’s head office sent out to all shops on Fridays where we, in our area would read all the positive and negative comments on shops in the area that customers sent in to Pret. Some sent it via Email, others on Social Media. Pret does this so that EVERYONE in shops can read each others’ comments to either shame us if negative comments or make others jealous if positive, so as to strive to achieve better. It’s the typical manipulative bullying behaviour to keep low-wage staff on their toes at all times.
And customers like Deborah Persuad love this, because she gets her emotional ego stroked, probably even a free voucher to keep her coming back spending more money. In the meantime the staff member whom Ms Persuad complained about PUBLICLY, will probably find themselves in the office with the equally frustrated Manager who gives the staff member a good telling off, threaten them with a disciplinary and then sends them out onto the shop floor demanding to smile for Mystery Shopper bonus. Please read this real Mystery Shopper report and put yourself just for 5 minutes into the shoes of a low-wage front-line FOOD worker.
And mind you, some customer take photos of staff and publish their names on social media, humiliating already burnt out, underpaid staff.
»Workers are put at high risk of anxiety and burnout, while consumers are emboldened to behave aggressively.« Sophie McBain
I recently had a go at a customer from Pret New York who put a photo of a female staff member whom he accused of having touched her face while serving. As the staff member was black, I equally accused the Tweeter of racism! I won’t put the screenshot here, because this low-wage worker deserves protection and dignity! And many other Tweets with photos and names of staff that arrogant, entitled, spoiled customers post.
Two YouTube slides I did on Pret’s abusive Mystery Shopper scheme. I use YouTube as well because my blog is blocked on Facebook/Instagram where the algorithm even deletes PRIVATE messages when I link to my blog! But they can’t block YouTube or Twitter! ‹^› (°_°) ‹^›
The first slide is with excerpts of Mystery Shopper reports from different years and shops. All those were from shops that I worked at. I coined Pret’s Mystery Shopper as “Misery” Shopper for a reason:
This second slide is from one Mystery Shopper report in December 2019 that a Pret staff send me. From this report I included most of the 32 micromanaging questions Pret tasks weekly Mystery Shoppers to test staff on. Staff have to bend backwards and sideways like acrobatic clowns, just to get some extra peanuts. selling their smiles like emotional prostitutes, yet with NO guarantee to even get the bonus! If ONE Team Member “sicks duck” enough, they MAY be lucky to get the £100 reward, which happened in this report, while the whole shop lost bonus because a few food products were missing from the range:
And then of course as we are in the Internet age and also in the cancel culture pandemic, she now blocked me. As if I’d care! 😀
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The only thing that is disheartening is that customers who are the “worst” in terms of quickly complaining and completely disregarding low-wage fast-food worker’s plight, are often mental health advocates, in Deborah Persaud’s case she’s a “disability activist”. She seems to have forgotten or not know that many disabilities are invisible.
And I take offense that Deborah Persaud doesn’t think the person who didn’t live up to her expectations isn’t a “good person”.
When I read her initial complaint Tweet closer again, I read with tears in my eyes, partly in sadness and also fuming in anger. I had a clash yesterday with a Samaritan which was a scary moment for me to tip me over. I write about it here: I’d Rather Die Than Delete My Tweets. Apologies for my strong language and fuming anger, but I smiled for 10 years in Pret INCLUDING during horrific bereavement while being bullied! I have NO MORE sweet words to say to people who don’t give a sh!t while presenting themselves as “saviours”. And on a side note, the fact that the Samaritans give awards turns my stomach! Shove your awards up your asses and STOP using broken people to scratch your fucking egos!
And to any new reader, before you judge me as being a “disgrunted” former employee, please familiarize yourself with my story first and also read some of the accounts of other former and current Pret staff that I post on my blog. I wish I was “just” a disgrunted former employee! I wouldn’t go out of my way writing “war and peace” on Pret!
Dear Pret Customer, you want to go on social media and shame low-wage employees who are burnt out, depressed, some are even suicidal, others functioning alcoholics or taking medication to be able to sleep, especially during this horrific pandemic, I may come and shame YOU!
One of many GOOD and important Tweets, just yesterday by a rightfully concerned customer about how shops are SWAMPED with customers and only 1 or 2 staff at breaking point. And Pret does NOT care!
To anyone else who cares, please read the following Facebook exchange I’ve had with a former Pret staff, who described that Pret did NOTHING after a colleague tested positive for Covid-19: Pret A Manger Staff Tested Positive for Covid (and Pret did nothing).
Excerpt:
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UPDATE 30.07.2021
As there have been some more information via a Tweet exchange and then I was blocked again, I want to update this post and respond to Tweets that I cannot respond to as I’m blocked.
Please scroll up (and down) in the following Tweet exchange:
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A blind person once told me that they cannot read texts that is on the screenshots, so I type out each Tweet underneath the screenshots, and then my response to it.
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Quote:
»Thank you, @FieldsHighbury. I don’t need to explain myself to strangers, and my OP wasn’t directed at you, @ExPretAManger, but my banner and profile sets out a few salient facts to help readers understand my situation, and a moment’s perusal would have helped you here.«
First of all Ms Persaud blocked again but continues tweeting @ my blocked account. So, I respond here on my blog. After the Tweet exchange with FieldsHughbury I see the figures/emoticons on your profile now. As many people on Twitter use flags, emoticons etc. it often passes me by what some signs mean or because they are very small. But of course now I can see what this means. I am a text person, I don’t like picture books, I don’t often use emoticons, but only started recently to use them more, I prefer text and #hashtags, my brain doesn’t pay attention as fast to pictures compared to text.
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2. Quote:
»For the benefit of anyone who needs my OP spelled out more clearly… My guide dog and I visit that branch of Pret very regularly and are welcomed warmly. They even know my order. This is a very nice thing.«
Yes it is. And why couldn’t you spell this out from the get go? And I have seen this MANY times that customers have had 10 experiences in Pret, 9 of the 10 experiences were super positive, and the 10th was negative. And immediately that ONE negative experience makes them go on social media and rant! Disheartening.
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3. Quote:
»This time, however, in an almost empty store, my dog and I stood at the counter repeatedly asking for help and I was ignored. This is not a nice thing and I left empty-handed. I decided to let @Pret know. I did not direct individual criticism at anyone, just a generic (emoticon of a woman shrugging her shoulders).«
And why not? Why using a general brush aimed at ALL Pret staff giving vague information? What you have experienced is unacceptable and hurtful. A fair criticism would be to openly critique, explaining what happened so that the company and the people involved can UNDERSTAND where they were wrong or made a mistake.
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4. Quote:
»If you care to track back through my historic tweets, you’ll soon see the numerous occasions where I’ve given very positive feedback on the service I’ve received. Hence the (emoticon of a woman shrugging her shoulders)«
Why would I care to track through your historic Tweets if you keep blocking me first thing, and then even write TO ME while I am being blocked, not able to read your response TO ME (except when locked OUT), and not able to respond as I’m blocked. This cancel culture to immediately “diss” people who disagree with you is tiring. I have no interest to check the historic Tweets of a person who immediately shuts the door in people’s faces because they have a different opinion or who give critique, especially while not knowing the events but vague and general criticism of staff.
You chose to write on a PUBLIC platform, without initially giving information and then expect people to immediately understand what the issue is. I am not a saviour or “advocate” or anything like that, but from my own experience in Pret where we got DAILY criticism from our line Managers, from Pret’s Head Office, from customers, and to top it and make it worse, from weekly micromanaging Mystery Shoppers commenting that basically NOTHING is EVER good enough and that EVERY LITTLE thing we do or make a mistake on is IMMEDIATELY condemned, called out, named, and shamed!
And if that wasn’t enough, low-wage staff don’t get their bonus and suffer not only mentally, emotionally and physically, but financially!
If I then see vague Tweets like your initial Tweet, I cannot just silently read it and move on KNOWING that low-wage, exhausted, bullied, overworked, underpaid, depressed, sick Pret staff have NO ONE to speak up for them! Because I KNOW how they will find themselves in the office with an equally frustrated, and by area Managers bullied shop Managers, and the staff are NOT given a chance to voice THEIR side of things! But instead they are shouted at behind closed doors in the office or kitchen or staff room, away from customers. They are fear managed to get in line or fear for their job. Then they are send out to the shop floor and ORDERED to smile and pretend to be cheery, so that the WHOLE shop Team get their bonus and the area Managers their bigger chunk of money while sitting home having a laugh!
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5. Quote:
»I know the staff are minimum wage and I have always graciously thanked them (we have no way of tipping here). So I can only conclude that @ExPretAManger is a lazy troll and I was right to block. Take your grievance out on the right person and leave me and my supporters alone.«
I’ve been called a lot of things since I expose Pret. I’ve been called “insane”, “angry”, or when people are upset because I have a different opinion they quickly call me “troll” etc. But “lazy? LOL! No, that’s not one that people call me. 😀
And yes, it is kind of you to thank staff and try to give a tip. Pret has even stopped the tip box in the USA and turned the tip boxes into charity boxes. But while tipping staff and thanking them is wonderful and boosts their spirits for a moment, what people really need to start looking at is the HEAD of the company, the SOURCE of the problem. This is why Tweets like the following has me hopeful that some customers pay attention at the REAL issues.
Screenshot with text underneath:
Quote:
»Until it changes its exploitative working practices I will not buy a single sandwich a @Pret_UK. The average worker at Pret works a 6-hour shift without a single break (breaks are unpaid) at an unstoppable pace. …« – Dr. Eunice Goes Link to Tweet
Regarding your assumption on me being a “lazy troll”, what you CAN indeed call me though is: uninterested in your historic Tweets! And that is because, if you come on Twitter and in a passive aggressive way criticize low-wage staff in GENERAL, WITHOUT giving specific details on WHAT happened, and THEN you immediately block someone who KNOWS firsthand how immensely stressful, ungrateful, toxic, fear managed, depressing … working at Pret is, where staff are FORCED to smile or they lose money and get threatened with their job security, then I have no interest whatsoever to check your history.
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6. Quote
»And I really don’t think going into a shop, standing at the counter and asking for service is being ‘emotionally needy’ – it’s just buying stuff in a shop. Most people do it most days!«
Knowing what I know now, no of course it’s not “emotionally needy”. I wrote my blog post without the information I have now because people throughout the years have complained on Twitter or via email to Pret making staff responsible for THEIR emotional needs. Pret itself even demanded from staff to “attend to EACH customer’s needs” as if staff are little psychologists or nurses responsible for customers’ emotional well-being. So, staff love-bomb customers to get extra money and avoid getting fear managed if they lose bonus.
And you wrote, quote: »I’ve become reliant on the warm welcome and consistently great service…«
Please do NOT become reliant on low-wage staff’s welcome or the lack thereof! They just sell coffee and sandwiches under EXTREMELY stressful conditions! And even if it is quiet in the shop, you don’t know how it was prior to it, and if a staff member just was bullied back in the office. That of course is NOT your problem or responsibility, but please do not put your reliance of warmness on low-wage food staff!
And especially since you have received CONSISTENTLY great service, it is upsetting that ONE incidence makes you question the “goodness” of the staff, not knowing what went on that moment or day.
I’ve read many ridiculous complaints from customers with the expectation to, figuratively speaking, be “cuddled” by low-wage food staff, but the most ridiculous and plainly upsetting complaint is this:
»@Pret Queen Street Pret at 8:10 this morning. Poor service from server named ‘Adil S’. No smile. Rushed service. Didn’t give me a warm and welcoming feeling. He should not work in the service industry if smiling doesn’t coming naturally for all your morning coffee customers!«
I responded to his appalling complaint, but now I would just put a vomit emoticon under his complaint! Pret staff including Baristas have 60 seconds to serve a customer or risk losing the WHOLE shop their bonus! I am sick to my stomach at customers like this.
»Workers are put at high risk of anxiety and burnout, while consumers are emboldened to behave aggressively.« Sophie McBain
And I won’t get bullied to take down anything I write while equally being offended. I am by all means NOT lazy at all, and for sure I’m angry and to a certain degree “insane”, but I am not interested in anyone who comes on a public platform and in a vague way “snitches” on low-staff who are at breaking point, without giving fair and specific details why you are upset or offended.
I want to end with an excerpt of an email by a current Pret front-line staff who wrote to me in tears. And believe me, Pret staff will NEVER tell you and other customers how it REALLY is for them for fear you jump on Twitter and humiliate them, or for fear they happen to speak to the Mystery Shopper, because even regular customers can be Pret Mystery Shoppers!
Staff excerpt, quote:
»I came across your blog just before applying for a job at Pret, but stupidly looked over what you were saying as I was growing desperate to work … I’m writing to you … and I wish I’d taken your warnings before applying. … Honestly, I feel like I’m drowning … I would never want to be the kind of person who gives up on things just because they’re challenging, but …. I spend most … times … crying, I don’t have enough time to eat. … I haven’t been shown where to get certain items and have to keep asking, it’s absolutely humiliating. …«
So, please complain to Pret, even publicly which is important, because it is UNACCEPTABLE how you were treated! But PLEASE complain fairly and be specific on what happened without expecting people to read every emoticon or history of your Tweets! And before you criticize my grammar or English, because that’s what people often do when they run out of arguments, please know that English is not my mother tongue and I haven’t studied. I do know about my weakness of making sentences too long. But I don’t apologize for it. It’s everyone’s prerogative to read or not.
But please do some research on what a troll actually is. If you do choose to respond, please do so in a FAIR way. Other then that I have nothing to say to you or your friend anymore. Best wishes.
P.S.
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Also for the record, it’s open to me to comment on anything that is written on a public platform. To call this “harassment” is laughable and a typical accusation when people are not happy being challenged. When you call people a “lazy troll” you cross boundaries and have become extremely rude, and I would like it to stop. Thank you.
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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.
Thinking it’s just a usually annoyed person which happens, and is completely understandable and acceptable. I get that occasionally. I start replying with my usual response to just block me, and then my eye caught his profile to the right … and I started losing it!
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I know why I don’t trust awards! And that HR departments are toxic is more or less common knowledge, but this just turned my stomach. I’m not proud of my language here and the row of Tweets that follow, which you can easily follow by clicking “show more”. My Tweets are hidden in general, all the time behind the censorship wall, even when I write positive things, as my account is blacklisted for exposing Pret. But his profile just did it for me.
I used to call the Samaritans. I will certainly never call them again. I’d rather jump off the bridge.
If this guy answers a phone call or email of a suicidal person who happens to work at Pret and shares that they want to end their life because they are bullied during bereavement, the exact thing why I called the Samaritans 5-6 years ago, of course he would NOT say to not “call him again with my sad story and that he loves Pret”, but he would also NOT take a suicidal person with exactly that experience serious! Just the thought makes me want to get the fuck drunk and end my fucking life!
He would sweet-talk the caller and volunteers as well as professional counsellors are (supposed to be) trained to be non-judgmental and neutral. And just thinking that he would sweet-talk on the phone to a suicidal person and in private be so vile … The Samaritans have certainly lost my “custom” should I ever stand at the bridge again.
Of course I’m now partially shadow banned for the next 12 hours (until approx. midnight tonight) as he must have reported me.
I wrote further once I noticed that my account is shadow banned. And by the way, Twitter allows multiple accounts, so I’m not doing anything illegal here by having more than 1 account, Twitter even allows to connect one account to another.
I explained to him that as a mental health worker especially in suicide prevention, that he is held to a higher standard. And what he tweeted would have pushed me to the edge 2 years ago if not even recently, and I’m still struggling to survive, let alone live. I expect these kinds of words from ANY regular Joe, and I have received much worse comments from a regular person, but NOT from a suicide prevention volunteer (or staff).
I am grateful I wasn’t drunk when I read his words, I would have right jumped out of my window. And I need not go down the alcohol path.
What is also such a cowardly thing he did, he deleted @sharkyrae handle to reply only to me and Pret so she won’t see it. People sometimes do that to suck up to Pret while hiding their true face from others. I later copied @sharkyrae back in again amongst others like the Samaritan handle etc. Fucking hypocritical coward!
If you as mental health worker, no matter if volunteer or paid staff, write in such a way, and THEN hide yourself from others in the conversation, I will CALL YOU OUT EVEN LOUDER!!!
I filed a complaint with the Samaritans that this guy should not be near a mental health service, let alone suicide prevention. People tell me at times on Twitter to fuck off, or that they don’t care, and much worse things. That’s “normal”. And I can understand people’s annoyance being tagged in. But I also know that this is a public platform. I don’t knock at people’s door like a Jehovah Witness or call people on the phone, even though I have some high profile numbers.
When I get an angry reply, I then just respond that they should just block me so they won’t get tagged in again in the future, which happened before by accident as I don’t pay attention to social media handles. But a suicide prevention charity worker saying what he did would have tipped me over 2 years ago. And I still am not over the hill when it comes to suicidal thoughts. I used to go to bed with suicide on my mind and wake up with suicide on my mind and have passed by countless bridges on my way home from work. It’s not a daily tortures thought anymore. But this guy turned my stomach.
The Tweets towards the end is him threatening me with a lawsuit. And I say it here loud and clear, I rather die then take back my Tweets! I have nothing to lose and a piece of sh!t like this hypocrite would just make my fucking day!
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No it’s not irrelevant! So much lack of emotional intelligence. I don’t expect a lot from human beings, but if you work in certain fields, you’d better think twice before calling someone who has NOT offended you initially a “sad account” for calling out Pret’s terrible treatment of staff who test positive for Covid19. Because that is the link I’ve tagged him in about, before he proclaimed his love for Pret again and calling my account sad.
It’s like a police officer who goes over the speed limit while driving in private without being in an emergency. Or all the politicians who broke Covid restrictions after making them law. Or if I wear a T-Shirt saying “Jesus loves you unconditionally”, and then I say to a person “I’m really not interested in your sad account/story/experience” etc. If this guy would be the average Joe, I would have laughed it off as usual and just asked to block me. But when I saw his profile, I lost it.
I was one of the first clients at The Listening Place (TLP) when they first started in 2016. They do face-to-face meetings with suicidal people. Never ONCE where ANY of them in any way unprofessional or told of their personal feelings, either positive nor negative towards Pret. They even wrote a letter on my behalf to Pret. I later applied for my file from TLP to hand it in to my NHS file and I was gobsmacked in how professional they are. I couldn’t even find ONE mistake, whereas in my NHS file are multiple mistakes that I had to get corrected.
And then a “Smaritan” like this says something that he did, I am still in shock. And I’m not proud of the language I use, but I don’t give a flying fuck about his meaningless threats. Make my day you fucking piece of shit! And get the fuck away from people with mental health problems, especially those who want to end their life. YOU piece of shit makes me want to end my life!
I received a TYPICAL sweet-talking email back from the usual “jo” @Samaritans …
Upfront, I can only say that The Listening Place started by 2 Samaritans, started off caring beyond believe, but I lost hope.
If you are suicidal, please reach out to a snail, they’ll help you.
The generic, sweet-talking email I received from the anonymous “Jo” @ “Samaritans”, and please keep in mind that this is a McDonald’s answer to beef.
Quote:
»Hi,
I appreciate you getting in touch with us. The details of your complaint have been passed on to the relevant department for review.
I am very sorry to hear about your mum passing away. I imagine not being able to go to her funeral would have been very hard to deal with. It sounds like you have been going through a lot recently with work and your personal situation. How are you coping at the moment?
You mentioned before that you would be happy to die. Can I ask, do you still feel this way? Could you tell me a bit more about your thoughts and feelings around this?
If you still feel comfortable talking to us, please know that we are here to support you.
Jo«
Here is a vomit emoticon:
🤮
SHAME on you “Samaritans”.
You are the McDonald’s of mental health. Fucking stay away from me!
I gladly die without the “help” you offer you clowns! And congratulate the Tories for privatizing mental health help. Fuck you!
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I worked at Pret A Manger and survived … no, I’m still surviving … 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.
I have the permission from a former Pret staff to post the following Facebook messages between them and myself. That’s what they meant by “yeah go for it”. I absolutely believe that account as I know Pret very well. Also, don’t forget that Pret did NOTHING after TWO customers died from allergen, a third narrowly survived and this was not public until the inquest into Natasha Ednan-Laperouse’s death. I was a Team Leader when 2 customers died, meaning part of my responsibility and job description was health and safety! But not only were we NOT informed about fatalities, Pret didn’t even give us as much as a HINT to be more cautious and diligent with labelling, and no further training on allergen was done. Zero. Nothing. Nada. Null!
And I implore the press to send a journalist undercover for at least one month in DIFFERENT shops to see the SYSTEMIC issues throughout the company. Pret is desperate for staff now, so it should not be an issue to get a journo in for a second time. Many shops are closed due to what Pret on Twitter says, “short term staffing disruption“, while some shops have a note at the door that shops are closed due to “refurbishment” or “nip and tuck”! 😀
Yet, I worked in several shops over the years and KNOW that Pret ONLY does refurbishments during the night and mostly on weekends, so as not to disrupt trading hours. I had to deal with neighbour complaints several times who came into the shop first thing Monday morning fuming that builders made noise of hammering, sawing etc. during the night.
So three possibilities why shops are closed: staff walk out, virus outbreak to pest issues, and I add a 4th now on 29.07.2021 – I have a hunch that Pret send staff from less busy shops to busier and more profitable shops, closed the less busy shops and keep selling the £20 monthly subscription, while many customers can’t use it due to closed shops!
Nip and tuck is NOT a massive refurbishment, but even if there was a massive refurbishment, they only take TWO NIGHTS while shops remain open during the day. I’ve worked in several Pret shops over the years that had huge refurbishments in the early 2010s when Pret changed from the ugly cold steel look to the warm wood ambience. And EVERYONE of those shop refurbishments were completed within two nights, often during the weekend. There was NEVER a disruption during daytime opening hours, never!
In the Facebook exchange, I leave a lot of messages out that are not relevant here, to keep it focused on issues of staff getting Covid, no cleaning, expired food etc. But they are in chronological order. I absolutely believe this former staff because I’ve seen enough carelessness when I worked at Pret, but this is now much worse which in my time I never thought possible.
Please click ctrl & + (ctrl & plus) to enlarge the screenshots for easier read, and ctrl & – to decrease again.. The blue screenshots are my writings obviously.
UPDATE March 2022 a mother of a Pret staff said that staff are required to come to work even with Covid. Pret’s doing what they always do, follow the law, not matter if those are wrong or dangerous. It has always, remains and will always be profit over lives with Pret.
An indicator that soup was frozen before re-heating again. Customers usually rant and rave about the Mushroom Risotto soup being their favourite soup from Pret. But here, it’s the worst, quote: “runny like soup, hardly warm and tastes odd”. I used to freeze soups I bought from the supermarket or cooked myself. With “creamy” soups it does become runny and tasteless.
About the toasties etc. being carried over to the next day and NOT freshly made daily, as Pret claims, confirms what another current staff private messaged me on Twitter a few months ago: Pret Food is NOT Fresh
And about the milk, what the former staff is talking about is that when the Barista (or staff in general) have milk bottles out on the counter for 4 hours, it needs to be WASTED! Because the time for the safety of the temperature outside the fridge is 4 hours. In the morning, the counter is full of milk bottles, and they will all go by the end of the super busy morning coffee rush even within 2 hours. The morning person scribbles down the time with a black marker. So, when they put out the milk at let’s say 6am, and at 10am there are still 2 bottles left outside, they HAVE TO be wasted.
In the afternoon/evening shift, the coffee maker should usually have just 2 – 4 bottles out as it is less busy. But at times they put out too many bottles, ending up having to waste. But instead of wasting, they put the milk back into the fridge for the next day.
Thus, customers flock to Twitter complaining about bitter coffees. And I could give a gazillion other examples how there’s is cheating going on under the pressure of management. I explain it in detail here: Pret A Manger also Stretched (Expiry) Dates
And important to mention that these practices where already done for years pre-Covid, it has just gotten worse now. A Tweet from 2019:
Also, at the start of the pandemic, just before the first lock-down, Pret did the typical thing to play pretend to care for customer safety for show, while completely ignoring staff safety – Customer safety March 2020:
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Versus staff safety March 2020:
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And from 19th July 2021 Pret has put the following safety measures in place:
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Link (the text in the link may change as time goes on, screenshot above with my markings).
If people check Pret’s Tweets & Replies regularly, they will find customer complaints that tables, chairs etc. are NOT sanitized. And how can it be cleaned with so little staff?!
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UPDATE 01.08.2021 – It’s not only in that shop, it’s in MOST shops due to chronic under-staffing:
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Also since the UK lifted all restrictions on 19. July 2021, daily customer complaints on social media of being appalled that Pret immediately took off the counter screens, and hardly any staff wears a mask. But I can’t be bothered to screenshot any more …
Just one Tweet from a customer at the start of lock-down 2020 where it was already evident how Pret treats staff for anyone who has OPEN eyes. This is after the PR stunt of announcing NHS freebies and rebates on 18. March, and the very next morning CEO Pano Christou sent out an email to shops announcing cuts to staff. I was sent the CEO email by a staff that morning and published it. The NHS was used for PR AND as a smoke-screen to hide staff cuts.
The following video I’ve shot in Stansted airport July 2020 when ALL food shops were closed EXCEPT Pret (and essential Boots & WH Smiths). And before anyone crucifies me, I had to do essential travel as my mum was placed in a care home and then hospital (non-Covid related) after I cared for her during 1st lock-down, briefly went home and her health (dementia) deteriorated to the point the neighbours and ambulant care service couldn’t care for her at home anymore. I tried to keep her at home as long as possible flying back and forth pre-Covid and then staying for 3+ months during 1st lock-down. I was even planning to move back and care for her. But that never worked out …
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.
With the permission of a Pret staff member who contacted me, I want to post the following email. I cut out a lot of specific detail to protect the person’s identity and checked back with them for permission. So, there’s a lot of dots and stars, but the main message is clear. I receive a lot of private messages, but this one, like the other email I posted, shows a lot of detail. The only text that I added is in italics. Thank you to the person for your trust.
The email:
»Hello,
I came across your blog just before applying for a job at Pret, but stupidly looked over what you were saying as I was growing desperate to work … I’m writing to you … and I wish I’d taken your warnings before applying.
Firstly, I was clear that I was looking for **** hours and was heavily pressured/tricked by team leaders into working around **** (more hours) with full availability all week despite me saying I couldn’t, which means I am essentially full time. They are immensely understaffed so I have received very little training (I was hired as **** and still don’t know how to make half of the ****) while being thrown into working at least three people’s jobs, all while being threatened with the mystery shopper.
Honestly, I feel like I’m drowning … I would never want to be the kind of person who gives up on things just because they’re challenging, but …. I spend most … times … crying, I don’t have enough time to eat. … I haven’t been shown where to get certain items and have to keep asking, it’s absolutely humiliating. Communication between managers and the team is abysmal. You are absolutely right when you write about younger TMs being manipulated by staff. …
Thank you so much for taking the time to read, it’s massively appreciated.«
Pret Employee 2021
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As I always advise everyone who contacts me, here again for any new reader, join a Union, even if you have no problems at work currently. The best Union for food workers is the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) that know most about Pret from my blog and communications. https://www.bfawu.org
Another good Union is the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB). They specialize in supporting foreign workers who don’t know their rights. https://iwgb.org.uk
Also, leave an anonymous review on BOTH Glassdoor AND Indeed, even in your own language to help people from your country make informed decisions. I always emphasize to leave a review on BOTH sites, as some people just find one or the other but not both. And last time I checked as I am German, there a FOUR reviews in German on Pret Berlin on Indeed, but not 1 Berlin review on Glassdoor. It might have changed, I don’t know as I checked months ago, but take advantage of every site out there and leave a review on each site especially in your own language.
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.
I have the permission from a former Pret staff to post the following Facebook messages between them and myself. That’s what they meant by “yeah go for it”. I absolutely believe that account as I know Pret very well. Also, don’t forget that Pret did NOTHING after TWO customers died from allergen, a third narrowly survived and this was not public until the inquest into Natasha Ednan-Laperouse’s death. I was a Team Leader when 2 customers died, meaning part of my responsibility and job description was health and safety! But not only were we NOT informed about fatalities, Pret didn’t even give us as much as a HINT to be more cautious and diligent with labelling, and no further training on allergen was done. Zero. Nothing. Nada. Null!
And I implore the press to send a journalist undercover for at least one month in DIFFERENT shops to see the SYSTEMIC issues throughout the company. Pret is desperate for staff now, so it should not be an issue to get a journo in for a second time. Many shops are closed due to what Pret on Twitter says, “short term staffing disruption“, while some shops have a note at the door that shops are closed due to “refurbishment” or “nip and tuck”! 😀
Yet, I worked in several shops over the years and KNOW that Pret ONLY does refurbishments during the night and mostly on weekends, so as not to disrupt trading hours. I had to deal with neighbour complaints several times who came into the shop first thing Monday morning fuming that builders made noise of hammering, sawing etc. during the night.
So three possibilities why shops are closed: staff walk out, virus outbreak to pest issues, and I add a 4th now on 29.07.2021 – I have a hunch that Pret send staff from less busy shops to busier and more profitable shops, closed the less busy shops and keep selling the £20 monthly subscription, while many customers can’t use it due to closed shops!
Nip and tuck is NOT a massive refurbishment, but even if there was a massive refurbishment, they only take TWO NIGHTS while shops remain open during the day. I’ve worked in several Pret shops over the years that had huge refurbishments in the early 2010s when Pret changed from the ugly cold steel look to the warm wood ambience. And EVERYONE of those shop refurbishments were completed within two nights, often during the weekend. There was NEVER a disruption during daytime opening hours, never!
In the Facebook exchange, I leave a lot of messages out that are not relevant here, to keep it focused on issues of staff getting Covid, no cleaning, expired food etc. But they are in chronological order. I absolutely believe this former staff because I’ve seen enough carelessness when I worked at Pret, but this is now much worse which in my time I never thought possible.
Please click ctrl & + (ctrl & plus) to enlarge the screenshots for easier read, and ctrl & – to decrease again.. The blue screenshots are my writings obviously.
UPDATE March 2022 a mother of a Pret staff said that staff are required to come to work even with Covid. Pret’s doing what they always do, follow the law, not matter if those are wrong or dangerous. It has always, remains and will always be profit over lives with Pret.
An indicator that soup was frozen before re-heating again. Customers usually rant and rave about the Mushroom Risotto soup being their favourite soup from Pret. But here, it’s the worst, quote: “runny like soup, hardly warm and tastes odd”. I used to freeze soups I bought from the supermarket or cooked myself. With “creamy” soups it does become runny and tasteless.
About the toasties etc. being carried over to the next day and NOT freshly made daily, as Pret claims, confirms what another current staff private messaged me on Twitter a few months ago: Pret Food is NOT Fresh
And about the milk, what the former staff is talking about is that when the Barista (or staff in general) have milk bottles out on the counter for 4 hours, it needs to be WASTED! Because the time for the safety of the temperature outside the fridge is 4 hours. In the morning, the counter is full of milk bottles, and they will all go by the end of the super busy morning coffee rush even within 2 hours. The morning person scribbles down the time with a black marker. So, when they put out the milk at let’s say 6am, and at 10am there are still 2 bottles left outside, they HAVE TO be wasted.
In the afternoon/evening shift, the coffee maker should usually have just 2 – 4 bottles out as it is less busy. But at times they put out too many bottles, ending up having to waste. But instead of wasting, they put the milk back into the fridge for the next day.
Thus, customers flock to Twitter complaining about bitter coffees. And I could give a gazillion other examples how there’s is cheating going on under the pressure of management. I explain it in detail here: Pret A Manger also Stretched (Expiry) Dates
And important to mention that these practices where already done for years pre-Covid, it has just gotten worse now. A Tweet from 2019:
Also, at the start of the pandemic, just before the first lock-down, Pret did the typical thing to play pretend to care for customer safety for show, while completely ignoring staff safety – Customer safety March 2020:
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Versus staff safety March 2020:
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And from 19th July 2021 Pret has put the following safety measures in place:
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Link (the text in the link may change as time goes on, screenshot above with my markings).
If people check Pret’s Tweets & Replies regularly, they will find customer complaints that tables, chairs etc. are NOT sanitized. And how can it be cleaned with so little staff?!
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UPDATE 01.08.2021 – It’s not only in that shop, it’s in MOST shops due to chronic under-staffing:
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Also since the UK lifted all restrictions on 19. July 2021, daily customer complaints on social media of being appalled that Pret immediately took off the counter screens, and hardly any staff wears a mask. But I can’t be bothered to screenshot any more …
Just one Tweet from a customer at the start of lock-down 2020 where it was already evident how Pret treats staff for anyone who has OPEN eyes. This is after the PR stunt of announcing NHS freebies and rebates on 18. March, and the very next morning CEO Pano Christou sent out an email to shops announcing cuts to staff. I was sent the CEO email by a staff that morning and published it. The NHS was used for PR AND as a smoke-screen to hide staff cuts.
The following video I’ve shot in Stansted airport July 2020 when ALL food shops were closed EXCEPT Pret (and essential Boots & WH Smiths). And before anyone crucifies me, I had to do essential travel as my mum was placed in a care home and then hospital (non-Covid related) after I cared for her during 1st lock-down, briefly went home and her health (dementia) deteriorated to the point the neighbours and ambulant care service couldn’t care for her at home anymore. I tried to keep her at home as long as possible flying back and forth pre-Covid and then staying for 3+ months during 1st lock-down. I was even planning to move back and care for her. But that never worked out …
If you would like to donate, it would be appreciated. Thank you!
£10.00
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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.
Clive Schlee further states in an interview repeating about “meaningful change” and blames the law! I “translated” his words here: Crocodile Tears
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It is July 2021 and Pret does NOT label food on the packaging in Dubai and Paris, and probably not anywhere else outside the UK if they don’t have labelling laws. “Natasha’s Law” is coming in October 2021 and yet when a customer dies in Dubai or Paris etc. from unlabelled allergen, Pret will blame the laws in respective countries and also low-wage workers for looking at the SHELF label.
And Pret passes the buck WITHOUT giving the customer ANY contact details. I bet the Dubai Prets don’t have an own Twitter handle or website like USA has. Usually the social media Team respond with the generic reply, “Please DM for more detail” etc. But here, they just shrug the shoulder saying that the customer is “through to the UK team”. Sorry but the UK team is the HEAD OFFICE team at the very heart of Pret in London.
Also, clever wording: “our PARTNERS in Dubai” as if to distance themselves from THEMSELVES!
Intrigued to know what has become of the issue and if Dubai labels now. We may never know.
Pret also continues to MISLABEL food due to chronic under-staffing, overworked staff rush and make dangerous mistakes even in 2021. AN incomplete list, there are more complaints I didn’t add:
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.
Clive Schlee further states in an interview repeating about “meaningful change” and blames the law! I “translated” his words here: Crocodile Tears
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It is July 2021 and Pret does NOT label food on the packaging in Dubai and Paris, and probably not anywhere else outside the UK if they don’t have labelling laws. “Natasha’s Law” is coming in October 2021 and yet when a customer dies in Dubai or Paris etc. from unlabelled allergen, Pret will blame the laws in respective countries and also low-wage workers for looking at the SHELF label.
And Pret passes the buck WITHOUT giving the customer ANY contact details. I bet the Dubai Prets don’t have an own Twitter handle or website like USA has. Usually the social media Team respond with the generic reply, “Please DM for more detail” etc. But here, they just shrug the shoulder saying that the customer is “through to the UK team”. Sorry but the UK team is the HEAD OFFICE team at the very heart of Pret in London.
Also, clever wording: “our PARTNERS in Dubai” as if to distance themselves from THEMSELVES!
Intrigued to know what has become of the issue and if Dubai labels now. We may never know.
Pret also continues to MISLABEL food due to chronic under-staffing, overworked staff rush and make dangerous mistakes even in 2021. AN incomplete list, there are more complaints I didn’t add:
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.
Sure it’s gone downhill, but this is just now the effect of many years of exploiting staff and treating them like sh!t, as well as ignoring customers’ health and safety.
In hard times, like in this pandemic, the true face of companies is coming to light! What customer see now is what staff suffered through for decades, even long before the Bridgepoint take-over. Pret, that claimed to have “natural” food before being challenged in court and by ASA, already showed their true face when they sold 33% stake to the USA side of McDonald’s back in 2001 to get their foot into the door of the U.S. market. Once in, they divorced their marriage of convenience.
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In 2008 private equity firm Bridgepoint took over and squeezed staff even more. And since 2018, second richest family in Germany, the Reimanns, via in tax-haven Luxembourg based JAB Holdings, took over. Not to mention customer deaths and injuries Pret ignored until it became public.
Just yesterday a customer from Pret DUBAI complained to Pret that they don’t label food in Dubai, most likely because Dubai doesn’t have a food labelling law like the UK will be having from October 2021 onward with “Natasha’s Law”. So far to “we will learn from it [Natasha Ednan-Laperouse’s death]” and so far to “meaningful change”!
Not to mention that Pret STILL mislabel food, even days ago in July 2021, due to extreme under-staffing shops, forcing low-wage staff to rush and then make dangerous mistakes. More detail in Vegetarians and Vegans eat Meat at Pret. And the lack of cleaning due to low staff and no time or strength left to clean:Rat A Manger and Pret A Mouse.
What we see now during hard times is a skeleton of a company that was very efficient in portraying an ethical and caring facade to the public and brainwash employees during GOOD and prosperous times. But anyone can do that! But behind that facade has always been a rotten egg that Pret worked very hard to avoid the stench coming out of through the cracks in the facade.
Staff review on Indeed from NY: »Oh lord. Used to work for Pret a manger years ago, and I told them about the issues back then, and look at them now. … Now, they’re tying to catch up, but it might be very late for it.«
So, “charity” and the Pret Foundation Trust and other PR stunts of course serve to try and keep the facade up and polished.
Ok, keep it up Pret! Keep it up!
Here, a lovely Saturday afternoon “film” event with what Pret employees, customers and lawsuits etc. have been showing since years. Get the popcorn out, put the kettle on, or get yourself an ice cold beer or a beautiful glass of wine. A peek behind the shiny PR[et] facade.
»Great Company in Risk of Ruin«
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»Worked into the Ground without Empathy«
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»Advise to Pret Management: Burn in Hell«
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»Pret Annihilates Humanity«
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»The Pret A Manger Love Treatment«
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»Hounded – The Sequel«
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»The Pret A Manger Anthem«
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»Smile for the “Misery” Shopper« (Pret’s abusive Mystery Shopper Scheme – 1)
»The Endless Pret A Manger Lies« (Subscription rip-off via the lack of Frappes/Smoothies)
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»Pret Air Maniac« (A Pandemic On The House!)
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»WOWING Pret Customers«
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»Pret A Manger Staff Reviews« (For the Quiet Music Lover)
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Last but not least:
»Why Pret can’t be Distanced to Julian Metcalfe« (How to chase 3 multi-millionaire business men off Twitter!)
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In memory of all the people, customers and staff, who didn’t survive Pret A Manger.
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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.
Yeah, maybe finally staff are doing what some Burger King staff did and walked out in protest and strike!
Customers flock to Twitter and increasingly raise the issue of shops closed without notice, or with conflicting messages. I explain that there are 3 common possibilities why a shop may be closed, in no particular order, and with links to each issue:
Staff issues, lack of staff, staff walk out, staff are at breaking point from the exploitation.
Pest issues, mice, rats etc. This will especially get worse when shops continue to be under-staffed and Team Members have no time nor strength left to properly clean.
Virus outbreak like the one that had to close in Norwich.
Of course there can also be true technical issues like flooding, electricity black-outs etc. But that would then be very clearly visible when the lights go off etc. and those don’t last more than a few hours before it gets fixed. These emergencies are on the top priority of Pret’s maintenance and repair department, shop would never be closed for more than half a day! I have had many incidences in different shops and the repair was done very fast for us to continue the trading.
And on a “side note”, a list of issues where Pret is ripping off customers:
So, after Pret made 3000+ staff redundant, cut their benefits, bonus and paid breaks (and then asking many again to return for less pay but more work etc., most refuse) Pret continues to exploit staff, mistreat and abuse them and then wonder why they have to close shops. In the meantime, Pret continues to neglect the very shop front-line workers who make Pret happen, by concentrating on digitizing Pret and advancing their marketing stunts.
Maybe Pret staff finally are fed up enough to join a Union and walk out of Pret. Burger King staff certainly have had enough and a Pret customer finds it appropriate for Pret to take heed!
A confused customer on Linkedin 15.07.2021 about a Birmingham shop closed without notice:
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Several London shops closed and Pret now gives the staffing reason:
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Instagram today:
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This shop closure in Elephant and Castle looks like a pest issue! If customers are suddenly asked to leave a shop during opening times, especially in the morning, it most certainly is because staff spotted a mouse. The procedure then is to close the shop until there is NO trace of pest like droppings, nibbled on packaging etc.
When I worked at Pret and we spotted pest, we were instructed to lie to customers, and the most common lie is “technical issues”. But I chose not to lie to not get into conflicting messages and I just said to customers that we have to temporarily close due to “internal” issues. This way I didn’t have to lie and give mixed messages to customers while other gave another reason (as can be seen here in this Tweet), and I left it open for interpretation.
I implore the press to send a journalist undercover for at least one month in DIFFERENT shops to see the SYSTEMIC issues throughout the company. Pret is desperate for staff now, so it should not be an issue to get a journo in for a second time. Many shops are closed due to what Pret on Twitter says, “short term staffing disruption“, while some shops have a note at the door that shops are closed due to “refurbishment” or “nip and tuck”! 😀
Yet, I worked in several shops over the years and KNOW that Pret ONLY does refurbishments during the night and mostly on weekends, so as not to disrupt trading hours. I had to deal with neighbour complaints several times who came into the shop first thing Monday morning fuming that builders made noise of hammering, sawing etc. during the night.
So three possibilities why shops are closed: staff walk out, virus outbreak to pest issues, and I add a 4th now on 29.07.2021 – I have a hunch that Pret send staff from less busy shops to busier and more profitable shops, closed the less busy shops and keep selling the £20 monthly subscription, while many customers can’t use it due to closed shops!
Nip and tuck is NOT a massive refurbishment, but even if there was a massive refurbishment, they only take TWO NIGHTS while shops remain open during the day. I’ve worked in several Pret shops over the years that had huge refurbishments in the early 2010s when Pret changed from the ugly cold steel look to the warm wood ambience. And EVERYONE of those shop refurbishments were completed within two nights, often during the weekend. There was NEVER a disruption during daytime opening hours, never!
Here the FULL email again by a Pret shops staff member who contacted me in December 2020, among many other staff, quote:
»Hi, I work for Pret right now and honestly everything you say is 100%. If I didn’t need my job so bad right now I would tell them all to go fuck themselves!
No bonus, unpaid breaks. Everyone is like a workhorse… even a 28 hour contract working 48-60 hours because not enough staff.
People are now just working their 28 hours and leaving, no one stays over anymore the people are waking up!
The exploitation is unreal! Calling people from other shops all over to help! Sweating all day, customers are rude because service is slow.
To make matters worse they add the subscription which states on their website over 18, we have kids coming as young as 8 ordering coffees smoothies and frappes!
Pret don’t care about anyone in this company, everyone is replaceable. It makes me so sick to work for them but at this moment I do not really have a choice!
Keep doing what you do! Fuck them! I really hope they sink In this pandemic! This horrible corporate cog of the biggest scandals wheel.«
To all Pret and general staff, join a union and leave a review on both Glassdoor AND Indeed, especially in your own language to help your fellow country men and women to make informed decisions.
I adopted the following song as the Pret A Manger Anthem!
If you would like to donate, even a small amount is appreciated. Thank you!
You can choose any amount from £1 upwards.
£1.00
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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.
When I started to expose Pret publicly in 2018 it was hardly common knowledge how bad Pret is to staff. Many were shocked, many remained silent, some contacted me privately to inquire etc. The majority of people are silent, either because they truly don’t care, they pretend to ignore my writing or they are clueless in how to respond.
But one thing has grown and keeps growing, the statistics on my blog are through the roof!
And since about a year plus minus, some customers or people start to tweet how impressed they are with staff. This started increasingly to happen after I extensively started writing about Pret’s abusive Mystery Shopper scheme, where staff are forced to smile, chat, give eye contact and giving a freebie almost always guarantees to get a staff member the £100 reward. If staff don’t smile, chat etc., if they don’t have time to clean etc., the whole shop lose the Mystery Shopper bonus and get fear managed.
Staff are brainwashed and bullied to present a happy facade. And since I’m exposing this publicly in great detail, many people are shocked of course, but some people start the click-bait tactic, where they give compliments on Twitter regarding cheery Pret staff in hopes I respond. And I do respond, because it’s public and others are reading. And the silent reader often then contacts me privately.
There’s a pattern with these click-bait Tweets:
Many have only few followers like under 10, which is not an issue as I have few followers and am notorious for “kicking” followers off for certain reasons including Guardian and The Times journalists. The amount of followers don’t mean anything to me, but I mention this as there’s a pattern. And of course others have many followers, but the majority I’ve some across as hostile have few followers and Tweets. It’s interesting that they seem similar also in the wording of complimenting a Pret staff with being very cheerful and kind etc.
And Pret staff ARE kind and helpful and most enjoy giving freebies, but they are brainwashed to strive for extra peanuts via Mystery Shopper rewards. I received many Mystery Shopper cash rewards after I smiled, gave freebies, chatted etc. and no-one knew that on my way home I headed for the bridge. Regular readers know my story, I won’t get into it here.
So, when I respond to click-bait Tweets with the reality of why low-wage staff smile and chat so much in extreme stress, due to Mystery Shopper fear management, they respond back with hostility that I’m just a disgruntled or bitter former employee who got fired for not doing my job etc. They start getting vile in that I wasn’t a good employee, bitter etc. etc. They’re wording is very quick to the point as if they know my story, but don’t accept the reality of how Pret is to staff. They also ignore my profile where I state that I declined 4 NDAs from Pret. Or they don’t know what an NDA is. I leave them in their ignorance.
Another common tactic also is that they don’t respond, pretending to not see or care, while in reality they post in order to get a response, not realizing that my response triggers people to contact me and inquire further.
Those who reply with hostility want to discredit people who have made firsthand experience because they can’t handle being fooled by Pret, no matter how much evidence former and current staff bring, in my case the amount of links, news/press articles, customer complaints, staff reviews, and my own story with legal written evidence. It’s a waste of time even responding to them, but it’s important to still respond for the sake of silent readers and the press.
Others are current or former Pret staff pretending to be customers.
But some customers can’t handle that someone is standing up, let alone a female, to a multi-billion “dollar” company while they suck up to a company they so desperately want to believe is either good and kiss up to, or they blatantly don’t care how staff are abused.
The other pattern is, they don’t have many Tweets, and those Tweets they have are mainly complaints to companies where they often don’t even get a reply.
They call me a “sad little life” while when you look at their social media feed, they’re actually describing themselves. There’s no substance to their posts, or at most just complaints to companies that rarely reply. Their compliments about staff seem insincere and just click-bait or seeking attention, or wanting a freebie.
It’s obvious that they posted in hopes that I respond so that they can just rant against me. I explain to them that I always follow click-bait because of silent readers.
Another pattern is that 9 out of 10 times these click-baiters are young and male. Because I state my handle clearly as “late night GIRL” (they don’t know why yet) it is mainly male “customers” or people who quickly become dismissive and hostile, but bring no further argument or depth.
Other times they get their friends together and gang up like schoolyard bullies trying to “impress” the strong kid in the school who actually has the balls to stand up against the main bully.
There are other interesting patterns, but I keep that for my book.
So, dear click-baiter, I will always follow your pretentious compliments and give you the 5 minutes you so desperately crave. But I do that for the silent reader who then contacts me via DM or my contact form in shock about what they read. So, thank you for the click-bait!
And I don’t go into much discussion with these people or explain in detail about Pret, as this would be throwing “pearl before swine”. I always write with the silent reader in mind as well as former and current Pret staff and the press. They know my DMs are always open.
And for anyone who is raising awareness on your own campaigns against be it injustices, toxic workplaces, discrimination etc. don’t give up. It ALWAYS takes YEARS for change to happen. People will call you names, try to discredit you, pretend to not care while in reality they keep writing to you and care but are too scared to out themselves. Keep going, you are making a difference.
And here for any NEW and silent reader who may wonder why Pret staff always smile so much, chat, and give freebies while being underpaid, overworked and many are depressed, some functioning alcoholics: Mystery Shopper fear management.
Staff will never tell a customer how it really is because they are drilled with fear and brainwashed to function under extreme circumstances.
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.
»Let this be the start of our revolution Let this be the day that we take it all back Let the writing on the wall be our manifesto Let this be the day we go on the attack«
– The Dead Milkmen
A small collection of press articles, social media posts and staff reviews to an appropriate song:
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.
»Chefs demand Michelin-starred restaurants be stripped of their awards if staff are bullied«
“Michelin-starred restaurants should be stripped of their awards if staff are bullied, says Unichef.
The chefs’ union, which advocates for “zero tolerance of abuse in kitchens,” said that allegations of abusive behaviour towards staff was too common within the industry. … The petition comes after reports that Tom Kitchin, who runs the Michelin-starred restaurant Kitchin and gastropub Scran & Scally, was forced to suspend two senior staff over allegations of abusive behaviour towards employees.”
There is one “argument” I mostly hear on social media when I point out the toxic bullying culture in Pret with links to employment review sites, social media complaints by staff AND customers who witness bullying, and my own story. Many people say, “well, this is in many other places, too, not just Pret”. And thus I am supposed to accept this. Well, no! It’s time things change and for this systemic toxic bullying culture to end and become widely unacceptable. People who give this “argument” really don’t care and care too much about Pret and the happy image Pret portrays. Some cuss me out because I just pulled down their illusions about Pret! Don’t shoot the messenger!
When people give me this argument, I point out that if the #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter and many other movements would not have happened, we would be in a greater mess than we’re already in. It was accepted that sexual harassment in Hollywood and in workplaces in general is “normal”. No, it isn’t! Even domestic violence has only been criminalized in the 1990s! Before that, it was none of the neighbours or the police’s business what happened next door!
Of course there will always be crimes, sexual harassment, racism, bullying etc. But this is about pulling it out of the “norm” and into the exception that makes crimes as crimes and unacceptable in society. To learn and re-learn again what is and what is not acceptable! We all agree on certain issues like murder is wrong, period. We need to get to the place where we also believe and know that bullying is wrong. Period.
Of course stripping restaurants of Michelin stars is just a demand and a draft of a first step towards luxury brands, but it can trickle “down” to lower wage and fast-food chains and the hospitality business in general, with different consequences for companies who allow and even promote bullying.
It’s not popular to say this, but I always was bothered with Gordon Ramsey. He made a fortune and became famous for bullying, shouting and humiliating the people who worked with and for him! It’s cool and trendy to tell a colleague to “fuck off” even on Television! How then do we wonder that this is so rampant in the hospitality industry.
It’s an upside down world to reward bullying. Life is too short to be treated like dirt when all you do is work freaking hard to build a life and a dream at best, or just pay your bills at worst, and in many cases for the lowest of the lowest wage! NO! Life is too short!
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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.
If there ever was a modern-day golden cage, forced emotional labour, bullying, slavery, getting tranquilized, human trafficking, threats, black-mail … right in front of us, it’s Britney Spears!
I usually don’t give “outside issues” a blog post, here, but this is utterly shocking!
I’m not into Britney Spears’s music and often felt her performances were too “technical” and robotic. Now I understand why!!!!!!!!!!!
This is emotional labour and captivity to its extremes, covered up behind a golden cage.
I am horrified of what is unfolding and my respect for Britney Spears went through the roof! I firmly believe she WILL be free soon. Her fans, the media etc. are too strong now for this to just go away into hiding again! It just cannot be going on!
Britney has functioned since childhood on. She has performed, worked, paid everybody and has been a “good girl”. And then she JUST had a breakdown when she shaved her head and hit a paparazzi’s car with her umbrella! Male musicians have done MUCH much worse!
This is just Judy Garland’s story on steroids and the court system is AS corrupt! And it’s 2021! This is about human rights that are violated to its core, and there is too much money involved! And Britney said it best, that those who control her need to go to jail!
Leaked audio of Britney’s testimony last week. God bless whoever dared to record and leak this. You get your voice back, Britney! You are just now getting your voice back! Fuck ’em!
I want to add 2 things, the post underneath the line below I have converted on my Anchor.fm podcast to a voice version. It’s an automated voice, not perfect, but for those who don’t like to read long blog entries. I place the episode here as well.
And the other thing is I want to place my favourite tweet of recently after a customer responded to other customers outcry of Pret making temporary pay-cuts permanent. The below blog post/voice convertion is very important for people to understand Pret’s mentality and why it remains dangerous to eat there.
The Tweet by @betty_de_brazil from 12. August 2021 reads, quote: “A while back, I saw a Pret ad that said its staff were “passionate” about making sandwiches. This kind of bullshit talk always hides ruthless practices in my experience.” End of quote.
Unfortunately reading programs can’t read screenshots of Tweets or YouTube slides. I have to keep that in mind when doing new blog entries, to write out Tweets. I was also once told by a blind person on Twitter that their programs cannot read screenshots. So, below Twitter screenshots are not read by this automated voice conversion. Apologies to all with visual impairment, I’m learning as I go.
This episode is close to under 11 minutes long. At this time the French word “manger” isn’t pronounced the French way, but the American/English way of “Jesus in a manger”. For those who love to point out unimportant mistakes, get over it. Thanks.
This audio episode is close to under 11 minutes.
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A few years ago I already dissected an article where Pret’s HR Director Andrea Wareham was interviewed. “Pret’s People Management Secrets” from HR Magazine. In this interview Andrea Wareham shares a lot about the typical Pret PR bla bla. But one sentence stands out to me which is typical Pret, but also dangerous.
Quote: »Pret famously recruits for behaviours, “personality rather than skills” as Wareham puts it, and these, she adds, are “relevant in every market”.«
When I worked at Pret it always astounded me how little many shop Managers knew of the job they were hired to do. Those staff members in lower positions who had more knowledge than some shop Managers due to experience and skill, were exploited and the Manager took credit for it.
It often bothered me how the “wrong” people got promoted and those who knew how to do the job where kept low.
In an unlisted video on YouTube (why unlisted?) new CEO Pano Christou even inadvertently gives away how poor the training in Pret is. He shares how when he did stock take for the first or second time, that he stayed until 4 o’clock the next morning! And that’s exactly how it is in Pret. The training is so poor and even Managers often are clueless that especially new staff have to stay long (unpaid!) hours to figure out how things work! Before I worked at Pret, I worked in many different food places, most of my life I worked in hospitality industry, in wine bars, restaurants, a canteen, a hotel. But never did I have to stay longer hours to figure out how things are done than in Pret! It was the most frustrating thing not being trained and not being given time to train others!
If people are trained and have skills, especially since Pano Christou was a Manager at McDonald’s before he joined Pret as an Assistant Manager, there would be NO NEED to stay until 4 o’clock the next morning to know how to do a stock take and other issues!
Pano should have known the job already, or at least picked it up quicker as he had previous Management experience. Unless he kissed his way up, like so many do. In Pret people also get promoted through the bedroom, and then more than few are incapable to do the job and rely on lower ranked staff to do all the hard work!
Pret is famous for their smiley staff, but since I write about it more extensively since 2018 it has become more common knowledge that this smiley culture is driven by weekly Mystery Shoppers. I wrote a few posts about it and made some YouTube slides as my blog is heavily censored on Facebook and Instagram where it is completely blocked. Even private messages are deleted automatically by algorithm when I link to my blog as Pret must have reported me, thus FB, Insta put me on a black list. But YouTube isn’t blocked.
Journalist Timothy Noah wrote a brilliant article on Pret’s emotional labour (labor in US English) that Pret enforces low-wage employees to perform. “The enforced happiness of Pret A Manger“. I really recommend reading this article! And oh, how I remember the mental agony to have to smile, chat, present a happy facade, just to get a few more peanuts. And even during already traumatic bereavement I was expected to “leave my problems at home and wear a smile like I wear my uniform”! Real words of one of my Managers after we lost bonus for not smiling! Low-wage staff have to act like emotional prostitutes and acrobatic clowns to make Pret look good and as a happy place!
Noah wrote this article in 2013, a year after the first public “scandal” hit Pret when Andrej Stopa was fired for having started a trade union. Noah was one of the first, if not THE first journalist to take a closer look at Pret and write critical about the company when no-one dared to write critically. In fact, most journalists, even to this day write ecstatic positive articles about Pret.
Noah points out what former CEO Clive Schlee said about staff touching each other, quote: »”The first thing I look at,” Chief Executive Clive Schlee told The Telegraph last March, “is whether staff are touching each other . . . I can almost predict sales on body language alone.”«
Pret’s previous Mystery Shopper requirements even was that Pret aims to “attend to EACH customer’s NEEDS” … and aims to “connect with EVERY customer with eye contact, a smile and some polite remarks”. The weekly Mystery Shopper is then tasked to comment on how low-wage staff smile etc. and give points accordingly.
Excerpts of the old Mystery Shopper reports before Pret changed the wording but kept the expectations via Managers:
Since I write extensively about Pret’s Mystery Shopper scheme which has surprised many customers who assumed that staff give freebies out of “random acts of kindness”, while in reality staff are almost guaranteed to receive the £100 reward when giving a freebie to the Mystery Shopper, or the MS at least witnessing this “generosity”!
And Clive Schlee to me served like the Ronald McDonald of Pret. He was the friendly clown that was approachable to customers and staff alike, while in reality putting a rigorous Mystery Shopper scheme in place and manipulating staff with brainwashing slogans, and expecting touch to portray a wholesome and happy company … all to increase sales.
And yet, we all wonder how on earth can TWO customers die in Pret, a third customer narrowly surviving and at least nine more injured due to unlabelled allergen in the food. Pret IGNORED the multiple warnings to label their food, even after customers have died and got injured, Pret kept smiling and went full steam ahead doing business as usual. Pret only started slowly to implement product labelling AFTER customer deaths became public! I worked at Pret when 2 customers died and we weren’t even informed of this. Not even a HINT to be more cautious and diligent with labelling and allergen. Nothing! The emphasis was ALWAYS to drop every task, run on till, smile, serve customers fast and present a happy facade. Personality is more important in Pret than skill!
If you don’t know what you’re doing and just “look” the part, but neglect life saving issues, you shouldn’t be hired or run a business! Smiling and having a bubbly personality is a plus, but without skills it’s useless for the health and safety of staff and customers alike! Clive Schlee, the Ronald McDonald of Pret has proven time and again how clueless he was:
Alicia Turrell deleted her Twitter account, so this link is gone. But to zoom in on what former CEO Clive Schlee responded to an open letter, shows how he lacked skills and knowledge on how to approach the lack of labelling that several customers pointed out, including a lawsuit BEFORE the first customer died.
Schlee’s patronizing, appalling and plain clueless response:
»Dear Alicia, I am sitting in Gatwick Airport waiting to board my flight and I have been reading your discursive open letter to Pret. I must say you have a charming, self deprecating writing style and it was very gracious of you to mention so many good things about Pret. I am Pret’s CEO. You also make your point about allergen information. To be honest, I am not exactly sure how to respond. I think you are telling us to train our staff better. I can’t argue with that. I think you are suggesting we treat allergens more seriously. Again, fair point. Is there anything else that you would specifically like [u]s to do? With best wishes Clive«
I am not a fan of Wetherspoons or any food/drink chain at that, and at least their staff have started standing up with Unions. But I heard an interview of founder and CEO Tim Martin recently on Desert Island Discs from 2017. He said something that positively surprised me and maybe because pub business is a different animal from cafe/restaurant business in customer service to some extend, but he mentioned something on how staff present themselves.
Then presenter Kirsty Young asks Martin at around 26 minutes in the interview, quote: »And when you are chatting, as you are doing every week to managers and deputy managers and bar staff, do you ever say to them, “never ever say this to the customer?«
Martin replies: »No. And I also tell them, “you don’t have to smile either”.«
Kirsty Young: »You tell them they DON’T have to smile?«
Martin: »They don’t have to smile, no! We don’t go out of our way to tell them to be nice, because I think that puts too much pressure on people. I think when you go to a pub you get a beer, someone’s natural personality will emerge better if they are not under too much pressure, which of course they are under tremendous pressure anyway. Some of our best bar staff are quite grumpy.«
I cut out that part from the above program:
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Or in the closing words of Timothy Noah’s superb article on Pret’s emotional labour enforcement: »Now that I know Pret’s slender blonde doesn’t love me, I prefer the human contact at a D.C. lunch counter called C.F. Folks. The food is infinitely better. But I also like that the service is slower, the staff is older and grumpier, and the prevailing emotion is “Get over yourself.” Try touching someone at C.F. Folks, and you just might get slugged.«
I say it again, recruiting for (fake or even true) cheerful personality rather than skill can be fatal!
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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.
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.
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.
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 upfront, if you are new to my blog and read through the below wage theft issues in Pret, and you have been a longtime customer, you may think that Pret is generous. You may remember the £1000 announcement that former Pret CEO Clive Schlee did in 2018, well guess how that came about?! Spoiler alert: he made that announcement in the early hours after he was informed about my blog. More and in detail here: The Day Clive Schlee had a Bright Idee.
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Pret has settled twice in NY on wage theft and repaid 4000 workers. The wage theft in Pret is rampant, also in the UK. I had to chase my money countless times for years, even my last pay. In the UK workers hardly go to court because the legal system is very different and the rewards very low.
At the bottom of this page I list a host of tricks Managers use to cheat already low-wage and overworked staff out of their pay. I explain also how management manipulate staff to get free labour out of them. I speak from own experience and what colleagues told me, as well as what staff write on review sites and social media.
A 2019 staff review from New York, from an all-rounder employee doing different tasks as Pret chronically under-staffs to maximize profit:
One very detailed review touches on several issues in Pret, including sick-pay and takes a much closer look than most staff do:
Link to the review which is worth reading in full. But a few highlights in red which I experienced myself numerous times, quote:
»Pret seems perfect if you throw it a quick look. Great pay, great food, great team mates, everyone’s so happy and friendly all the time… did you know that we have to? The “perfect Pret” standards state that the Pret employee is happy all the time, never drepressed. Not kidding, it’s printed in our locker. Sometimes it can be challenging maintaining a natural smile on my face for 8 hours straight. … 1. I recently had to call in sick, and it led to 2 days off work. When I logged in online on the website, it showed me someone put two different illnesses for those 2 days, and most oddly, both very wrong. I have already spoken to the managers about it, so how could they have gotten it wrong, as they wrote it down on the form in front of me? Intrigued, I looked into it a bit more (I have also realized, there is no one colleague of mine that bothered going into such depth researching). There is a very small subsection of a subsection on the website that states, in summary, you get paid, as a part-time worker, from the second day of illness, and as a full-time worker, from the third. I am part-time. I should have been paid for my second day. But what did Pret do? They put two different illnesses, so they don’t have to pay me (it counts as the first day of illness, for both days). I have talked to some colleagues, they never got paid, no matter how long they have been working there for (the little subsection also states that if you’re more than 12 months older in the company, you’ll get wellness pay. For more information, please visit this website – followed by a broken link. That’s a lot of weird coincidences, isn’t it? … Not everyone is like that though, there are some nice people, who don’t deserve to be associated with what I wrote. I am not discontinuing my contract with them because of these things either (mostly because I just need to make rent). I just feel very strongly that the general public view of this company is very far off from the truth, and I believe in using my voice.«
End of quote.
These “coincidences” especially when error pages appear on issues that would help staff get information, but they can’t get the info because these very pages don’t work while other pages in favour of the company always work smoothly. This then gets my traumatic mind in a spin when I see error pages on Trade Union websites or other sites where the benefit seems to be for the organisation, not the person who’s powerless due to lack of knowledge.
Please just read the full review, it very well exposes how Pret is cheating.
And a little reminder on what ONE man received on BONUS alone! Not to mention what all the other execs and shareholders receive.
Prat A Manger’s tricks and tactic to cheat staff out of their pay:
Upfront, to any Pret staff and any low-wage fast-food worker in general, ALWAYS write down the hours that you worked to compare to your payslip. I had a spreadsheet at home where I updated when I worked extra hours when and where. And I also made notes IMMEDIATELY on my phone when asked if I could work an extra hour, as I sometimes forgot to add extra hours to the spreadsheet at home. If I would not have done this, I would have worked for free for months as an hour here and an hour there adds up over 10 years. ALWAYS write down the ACTUAL hours you worked even to 15 minutes! Do the math, it adds up quickly!
Yes, there are genuine mistakes Managers do when they forget to add extra hours worked. But 1. it’s NOT a genuine mistake when this happens almost every week, and 2. it’s not genuine when the mistake is ALWAYS for the benefit of the Manager (bonus) and Pret! I cannot remember that any Manager accidentally overpaid me! Never! So, write down your hours and don’t let the Manager confuse or threaten you when you confront them on missing hours! A CLASSIC tactic by management is that they don’t have time to talk to you. KEEP BOTHERING THEM UNTIL YOU GOT YOUR CORRECT PAY! Keep a clear mind and trust YOURSELF! And join a Union!
Extra hours not paid: The most common way Pret tricks staff out of pay is that the Manager asks a Team Member (TM) if they can work 1 hour more due to extra busyness or someone called sick. Yet, let’s be frank, shops are ALWAYS understaffed! The TM works the extra hour(s) and then the Manager “forgets” to pay the extra hour(s).
THIS HAPPENS ESPECIALLY when you work to help out in a different shop for a day or a week! The Manager of the other shop where you help out HOPES that you 1. don’t realize that they didn’t pay the extra hour and 2. that you can’t be bothered to contact that shop as you have to look up the phone number or go to your own home shop Manager to speak to the other Manager etc.
Only in hindsight do I understand this trick. The Manager of the other shop where you help out for a day asks one of his own Team Members to come in 1 hour later than scheduled. Then the Manager turns around and asks me if I can stay 1 hour longer (where his own TM would have worked). Then the Manager “forgets” to pay me, and thus gets an hour of free labour!
Asking his own TM to come an hour later. Asking me to stay 1 hour longer, doesn’t pay in hopes I don’t notice, the perfect way to get free labour! This is two-fold a cheat: his own TM is cheated out of 1 hour work and with it pay which I then work for, and I am cheated out of pay after having worked that TMs hour!
When a Manager has a Team of around 25 staff and the Manager “forgets” to pay EACH TM 1 hour per week. Do the math on how much money they save per week, per month, per year! It’s like thieves who steal credit card information, they don’t wipe out the victims bank account when they steal CC numbers. They just go shopping a little bit here and a little bit there. The victim never knows that money is being REGULARLY stolen in small numbers and thus never reports it to stop the card being used.
Same with shop Managers, they steal 1 hour here, 2 hours there, taking hours from several staff members in hopes no-one notices. And if they notice and confront the Manager, well it’s “just” 1 hour here and there! The Manager plays stupid and staff continue to give the benefit of the doubt. I had a Manager who tried his luck with me in a very blunt way once after I was sick for ONE day. By “mistake” he clicked 3 days in the computer instead of 1 day sickness! Thus he cheated me out of 14 hours (2x 7 hours per day). More on this further below on another trick.
Giving little time to do the job, then demanding to stay longer and not paying for overtime: This is the Pret-wide system. Staff are given VERY little time to do their job. Especially in the kitchen staff are expected to do their “bench” (amount of sandwiches/products for the shift) in a certain time. The times are unrealistic. So, either people cheat and don’t do the products properly cutting corners, or they are manipulated and told that they didn’t work well or fast enough, therefore have to stay longer UNPAID!
Reality is, staff work EXTREMELY hard, fast and well under immense stress. But they get lied to, pressured, bullied, manipulated, and even sweet-talked to work longer for no pay! This staff review is THE most poignant I have found so far on Pret! I often use it in blog posts and on Twitter as this is THE BEST way to describe work conditions in Pret.
I even made an own YouTube slide out of this review because no other review describes Pret A Manger in a nutshell like this person’s does!
Late Rotas: Rotas in Pret are supposed to be done 2 weeks in advance, but this never happens as Managers juggle the hours according to business needs. Managers KNOW they need more staff and more hours for them, but plan the rota VERY TIGHT and publish the rota in the staff room just 1 day before the new week starts. Staff can never plan ahead for their free time as Pret secretly demands staff to be on call 24/7 but pretend that rotas have to be done 2 weeks in advance. But it never happens.
The Manager then puts me on my contracted hours on the rota, which are now 28 hours, but they know already that I will be working 40 – 60 hours as shops are purposely under-staffed to make as much money as possible and also to not waste money if the shops are quiet. I then work my usual 5 hours but will be asked every day if I can work longer! I agree because I am naive, hard working and give smiley Pret the benefit of the doubt.
Then I forget to check my payslip the following week as I am too exhausted and also forgot to write down the extra hours. And I never realize how much on a regular basis I am being cheated out of my pay.
Delegating jobs close to finishing time: Another common trick is, the Manager asks you 5 minutes before your shift is finished to “quickly” do a task, like cleaning the Hot Chef baking trays or whatever other “quick” job. They know this will take at least 10 – 15 minutes, and because you don’t want to come across not being helpful, you agree. You then work around 15 minutes for free! Do this 2 or 3 times a week with new tasks the Manager comes up with, and you’re cheated out of 3 – 4 hours per month. So, Managers sit in the office checking Facebook while you work on the tills. And just before you finish your shift, the Manger or Team Leader comes out and asks if you can do this quick job, which in reality takes 15 minutes to do!
After years of bullsh!t like this, I said to any new Manger who tried to pull that number on me, “Sorry, I have to leave for an appointment”. End of. They don’t need to know the reason for me leaving sharp at my finished time. My appointment may be to meet with a friend for the cinema or to walk a dog or to do some much needed self-care in taking my usual shower and go for a nap after an intensely stressful shift. It’s not their business why I have to leave, but I had no benefit of the doubt anymore to give away after years of BS like this!
Stealing from FREE Time: A systemic issue by cheating staff is to give them training material to read DURING their breaks or free time instead of training them in their PAID time during the shift! Training in Pret is appalling which I write extensively about in my open “letter” to the Prosecutor in the recent allergen trial. Staff are NOT fully trained, but instead are explained things in a rushed manner and given stuff to read during their break or at home. Pret stopped paying for breaks, so staff now have UNPAID breaks.
But even while it was paid, Managers often want staff to “work” DURING their break. People read training material during breaks INSTEAD of resting from the intense work. I was often asked by management when I sat at a window for example, with the view to the outside tables, to keep checking the tables. When a customer left we had 1 minute to clear and clean the tables or risk losing Mystery Shopper bonus. So, I then started looking for spots to sit where I was with my back to the shop or I put my head down on my phone with my headphones on. So, even paid breaks where used to utilize staff to work or learn instead of leaving them the fuck alone to rest for 30 minutes! Exploitation on every turn in Pret!
Spreading out costs and pay: Back to the 14 hours my Manager didn’t pay by “mistakenly” adding 2 extra sick days. When I confronted him, he profusely apologized and then with a puppy look in his eyes asked me if he can re-pay in the coming 4 weeks and spread it out. I was new in Pret, naive and stupid, so I agreed. In reality I should have demanded the full 14 hour pay on THAT day! Pret and any company can do this. The Manager could and should have just send an urgent email to the payroll department to pay me the 14 hours THAT day! I was paid once in the same day from Pret on another issue.
So, the Manager tries his luck and steals 5, 10 or more hours in ONE week, then when confronted he asks if he can reimburse spreading out over several weeks. This was his main goal from the get go to steal hours first, waiting to be confronted, and then wanting to spread out the pay. Spreading out costs will add to the Manager’s bonus. Two tricks the Manager tries: 1. steal a lot of hours in hopes the staff don’t realize. Then 2. when confronted, spread out the back pay in small installments to gain more bonus for the Manager.
Any current Pret staff reading this, if you are asked if the missing pay can be added over another week(s), say NO and demand your full pay TODAY! You have no money already, you have bills piling up, and all the Manager and Pret are doing, is taking from YOU and adding to their profit and to THEIR pay!
If your manager looks at you with their puppy eyes and asking you to spread the repay over several weeks, always have ONE number in front of your minds eye: £30,000,000!
Clive Schlee, former CEO of Pret, received £30 MILLION on bonus alone!!! That was “just” his bonus, not to mention his annual salary! And add to that all the other executives working for Pret in Head Office and elsewhere and find a bucket to vomit into at the sheer number they earn on your backs! This IS about the rich taking from the poor and exploiting at every turn possible!
Managers look for any way to NOT pay bonus. In their own discretion Managers can withdraw bonus when a staff member is even just 1 minute late for work. One colleague got his bonus scrapped because he turned up for work with a 3-day old beard after having had the weekend off. Pret demands that staff tell Pret BEFOREHAND if a guy wants to grow a beard! I have to find the info in the paper I still have. So, our bullying Manager just took that as an excuse to withdraw the bonus from my colleague. My colleague went bonkers and left the shop and Pret on the spot after all the other stuff the Manager was doing to us.
Working higher positions but not being paid for it: Most staff I spoke to this happened to them as well as to myself. When I was trained to be a Team Leader the Manager promised me a certain pay once I “graduate” to be a Team Leader. The training weeks I think was 6 weeks if I remember correct. My Manager did several things to cheat me out of my pay-rise. She kept postponing the graduation date under excuses. So, I worked as a Team Leader but didn’t receive the Team Leader pay. And then weeks later she also said that she couldn’t give me the promised pay she herself offered me (the highest rate for a Team Leader). Then when I confronted her after she kept postponing graduation and pay-rise day, I said to her that I would quit on the spot if she doesn’t graduate me and give me the promised pay she offered! I was graduated and got the promised pay rise on that day I threatened with leaving! And I meant it! I was so fed up with her lies and tricks she also did with colleagues!
Then she and her boss, the Operations Manager (OPs) did another trick and removed the Assistant Manager from the shop, so I was doing double work and picked up where the Assistant Manager left off! That shop saved a huge chunk on monthly Assistant Manager wages and that work load then was dumped on me! Again, I was naive still and wouldn’t accept this exploitation today anymore.
A common trick Managers do is to postpone training. The coffee maker who is in training to be a Barista with higher pay is being told that no spot is free for the training. Training only happens every few months, not every week. Because once people have completed the 2 or 3 days of training in Head Office, the shop has to give a first small pay-rise. Then a full pay-rise comes when the coffee maker “graduates” as a Barista weeks later. But training and later graduation day is being delayed to save money on the pay-rises.
Also, shops have to PAY for the training! So, they do any- and everything to delay training. Thus, many people work in higher roles for MANY months without a pay rise!
All the while top leadership and executives squander money on parties and flying to Dubai, Vegas, Paris … for leadership “meetings”.
Last week’s pay not paid: When you leave Pret you MUST check that your LAST week is paid to you. When people start at Pret their first week of pay is paid after the second week. So after the first week, there will be NO pay. The first week’s pay is paid after the end of the second week. Pret did NOT pay me for my last week. I only realized after a year when I looked at the numbers more closely!!! The reason I didn’t notice at the time when I left and received my pay was because Pret fired me under pretense of other issues, and had to pay me 9 weeks of pay as I worked just short under 10 years in Pret.
So, the chunk of money Pret paid made it confusing for me to notice that my last week wasn’t paid. I also was NOT sent my last payslip. I completely missed that theft because I flew back and forth between London and Germany where my dad just came out of a coma and was still in intensive care.
Pret fired me days after my dad came out of a coma! Hence, I missed checking properly if my last week was paid. And of course it wasn’t! They think they got away with stuff and keep getting away. No they don’t and they won’t. Pret may have cheated me out of money and so many others, too. But this is your legacy Pret A Manger who always puts up the ethical and caring facade, while in reality Pret are greedy crooks, corrupt, thieves and liars!
If I missed anything in how they cheat low-wage staff out of money, just drop me a line via the contact form.
The following Unions are best for food workers:
BFAWU know the MOST about Pret from my blog and have already helped individual Pret people.
IWGBspecialize in helping foreign workers and even have a former Pret staff working there.
Pret staff need to get active and stand up for your right, respect, dignity and better work conditions because the exploitation will just get worse!
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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 and what Shop Managers and HQ Staff say about Pret and their leadership. I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review and was mentioned by the BBC.
Yeah, I know how it is to wake up every morning at 3:30am and go to work to start at 5am trying to catch some fish, only to find NOTHING in return, or at best chasing wages!
THE OLD pret a MANger AND THE SEA at the bottom of your cup is for your astrology reading. You know it’s the soya coffee you ordered, not chewing gum. But good try! 😉
The Old Man sitting on the Sea waiting and waiting and waiting for Pret to deliver …
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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.
I rarely give a single blog post to a customer complaint or issue. But this one deserves a spot on its own. Thank you Dr. Eunice Goes. Nothing more to add!
If you would like to donate, it would be appreciated. Thank you!
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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.
The data grab planned for 01. July 2021 has been postponed to 01. September 2021 after widespread outcry and the threat of a lawsuit against the Government. BUT it doesn’t say yet what the new deadline for the opt out is except “before 01. September”, so I keep the below deadline at 23rd June at the moment.
BBC: “New NHS patient data store delayed by two months.” Link
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People in ENGLAND:
The Guardian, »Your medical records are about to be given away. As GPs, we’re fighting back. GPs in England have been told to hand over all patient data to NHS Digital – potentially to be exploited for corporate profit.«
50+ million people’s medical data are about to be grabbed for a central data base and up for sale to third party for profit companies! All your medical data, sexual issues, mental health issues, any and all personal detail you’ve shared with your GP is up for sale! This is the Tory sh!t we get again! Two years ago they already changed the rules that all of our organs can be harvested when we die. We need to opt out if we don’t want to donate our organs. I am FOR organ donation, but I’m against not being informed or asked!
The Government did this already in 2014, but informed the public and gave the option to opt out. Most people opted out, so now they tried to keep it as quiet as possible and rush this through, just giving us 6 weeks to 1. know about this and 2. to opt out.
And as we’ve seen how the Tories have handled the pandemic and the constant lies, they WILL sell our data for profit under the disguise of “research”! And some try to make people feel guilty if they don’t give their data for research!
IT’S YOUR MEDICAL DATA! DON’T LET ANYONE MAKE YOU FEEL BAD FOR NOT SHARING YOUR PERSONAL MEDICAL DATA!
And sure, the Government says the data will be anonymous, yet the postcode and other sensitive detail will be added. And anonymity can be reversed. And without getting political here, but after so many lies of the Tory Government, I don’t believe a word they say. And I won’t pressured with handing out my precious data for important research! I don’t trust this Government one bit!
Here is how to opt out of the NHS central data base. Data will be collected from 01. July 2021 and many GPs will try to refuse to hand it out as the Government has been sneaky and not given the public this information and enough time!
On below page of the digital nhs website, scroll to the link “returning this form”
Download, fill in & send to GP by 23.06.
❗️This is the Type 1 opt-out of the upcoming data base❗️
This is THE MOST important document you need to download and hand to your GP!
This form NEEDS to be send/given to your GP by 23. June!
After this deadline people can still opt out, BUT whatever medical records you had before the 23. June will be shared and you cannot retract or get it deleted! So, you MUST opt out by 23. June.
Also, if you are a parent, legal guardian of children, an elderly, disabled, anyone who can’t opt out by themselves, you can opt out for them as well. People can always opt in later if they change their mind, but if you missed the 23. June deadline, you can never get the data back of up to that date, from the time you’re born!
Many watchdog groups etc. have voiced their concern that when the Government (that needs money!) sells our medical data, this can potentially sold to insurance companies. So, if you are buying travel insurance for a trip to America or elsewhere, the insurance comoany can check your medical records and refuse to sell insurance or raise the price depending if you have a health condition already. Etc. etc. etc. The possibilities for abuse and exploitation is ENDLESS!
On below page of the digital NHS website, scroll to the link “returning this form”
Download, fill in & send to your GP by 23.06. including for your children and/or anyone that you care, like elderly person, demttia patients, people with disability, anyone you are a legal quardian for etc.
❗️This is the Type 1 opt-out of the upcoming data base❗️
This is THE MOST important document you need to download and hand to your GP by 23. June 2021!
DON’T get confused with the “National opt out” which can be easily done online! You NEED the “Type 1” opt out and give to your GP! I emailed it AND hand it in, double secure!
Pass this info on to as many people as soon as possible! I went to my library and told them, they didn’t even know. I ask if a poster can be put into windows like they do for the settlement scheme for EU citizens.
UPDATE 2025, the “Type 1 opt out” link has been deleted as the dateline is gone, but below is the current opt-out link.
So, understand that there are 2 DIFFERENT opt-out links you should use.
Also, please be aware that since 2020 the UK government has voted that upon death, every citizen in England will become an organ donor by default upon death UNLESS you also opt out during life time. MANY people don;t know this!
In my opinion, this has NOTHING to do with saving lives but with making money as the organ donation industry is a multi-billion industry.
I am FOR organ donation, but during lifetime. I’d like to be in control of when I donate an organ and not have my corpse butchered and harvested for money.
If you opt out, tell your close loved ones and also request copies to give one to your GP and whoever is looking after you medically, like if you are already in longterm care. And don;t let ANYONE make you feel bad for opting out.
My take is, that in life governments take and take and take, and then they want to take in death as well! I am fed up with these vultures who want the very core of us. There’s no dignity in this! And if anyone argues that in case I get sick and need an organ, I have had a lot of tragedy and losses in my life. I am old fashioned and let life do its course. So, stop judging me for MY decision over MY organs or property.
Don’t ever let ANYONE gaslight, manipulate or pressure you into making decisions that you do not want to make!
So, if you are happy with your organs being harvested after you die in the UK, you don’t have to do anything.
I myself consider donating an organ during lifetime if a friend or someone I know is in dire need of an organ and I’d match, and I offered already. But that’s my decision in life. My organs and tissue is NOT there for organisations to make profit off.
And for those with strong nerves, please listen to the podcast Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know episode “Body Brokers“. What they do in America with organs, especially of poor people.
Stay safe and informed, and pass these issues on far and wide.
expret.org
UPDATE 2025
A conversation on social media with a person who was about to have an operation and their opt-out decision for organ donation on their medical records, being pressed by the surgeon as to why. Medical staff are NOT allowed to ask why. It was a clear point to pressure the patient and make them feel bad about their decision.
Text for people with visible impairment where AI programs can’t read screenshots yet:
Quote: “I opted out, technically medical staff are not allowed to ask about why, unofficially I was questioned by the surgeon aggressively about 20 mins before a big operation, about why it was down on my medical records that I’d opted out, later he claimed it was because he was worried I might be a Jehova’s Witness. I’m not.” End of quote.
This was an excuse after they filed a complaint. The surgeon could have simply asked if the patient is religious do to Jehovah’s Witness believers notdoing blood transfusions.
When I look at this photo, I see a man who was a worker for the McLibel case. Keir Starmer worked for free. The longest running libel case in the UK.
I learnt about Keir Starmer in the mid 2000s when I stumbled across the “McLibel” case in a YouTube documentary. He represented two “little” people against the mighty McDonald’s for years as their legal aid. He did it for free.
When I started to write publicly about and against Pret A Manger, I always had this McLibel case in the back of my mind. I started to write in sheer fear but with the knowledge that if Pret was to sue me, people like Keir Starmer fought in European Court that I would have legal aid.
The McLibel Case documentary. A must-watch for anyone who thinks we little people cannot stand up against greedy giants.
It’s important to mention that Ian Hodson with the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union have been hugely instrumental in the very first McDonald’s strikes in the UK. Ian stood with just a handful of people outside a McDonald’s years ago. Do not underestimate small beginnings!
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The woman to Keir Starmer’s left in above photo, I happened to have on camera in 2018 at the global fast-food strike in London. She “spoke” the megaphone and is seen here in the shot. Maybe one day Pret A Manger staff are sick and tired enough to stand up as well.
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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.
The above gentleman is Jeffrey Hyman, the original founder of Pret that Pret loves to avoid mentioning. Pret even use his original sign/logo/font in a room at 75B, Verde, 10 Bressenden Place in Victoria, London’s Head Office and I made a photo of this logo in one of Pret’s Victoria shops. Pret use his sign, but refuse to mention him.
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Photo taken mid 2021
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Here’s my prediction on Pano Christou’s career in Pret:
It is 2021, his mentor Clive Schlee has been guiding him since the sh!t hit the fan.
JAB Holdings will find a new CEO and Pano will coincidentally find another occupation.
And the staff on the front-lines hope to have a company, a CEO who truly cares (but this is fast-food, so don’t get your hopes up!).
You’ve heard it here first.
BUT, the above is only if anyone on top levels care.
If they don’t care, Pano Chrsitou stays on, the same old, same old goes on, and Pret remains a mini McDonald’s with a posh front.
That’s it.
P.S. Pano Christou is a little over his head, but mentor Clive Schlee is standing by. If Pano would have started at the bottom of Pret A Manger… This is Pret A Manger with a smile.
I mention all this because I keep seeing increased General Manager reviews and staff contacting me that HQ and the top leadership are “detached” from the business. But, they’ve always been detached, they’re just good in pretending to care.
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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. Schlee has been appointed CEO of itsu in 2024 by Julian Metcalfe who gave him the CEO spot at Pret many years ago. 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 and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou. 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 as well as mentioned by the BBC.
Please also see the MEDIA page for more on my work with the press.
below are some hints that Pret did not train us staff well and that former CEO Clive Schlee had no clue on what to do. I write from 10 years of front-line shop experience in Pret, most of which I was a Team Leader responsible for running shops. Sure, people think I have a vendetta against Pret and that’s why what I extensively write shouldn’t be taken seriously. That is people’s prerogative to decide. I just write.
Am I out of my mind? Sure. Am I angry? Of course. Are my social media rants off? Yes, at times, after I had one too many drinks in order to cope with trauma. But I know what I’m talking about first hand when it comes to Pret!
What I have been through is stuff for a shooting spree, but I went on a writing spree, and people can block me, look down on me, call me insane and all kinds of names, anything and everything. But I know what I have experienced and so many others I mention in my blog. So, people can continue to block me, report me, get my social media channels shut down. Be my guest.
And upfront, English is not my mother-tongue, so my grammar is a mess!
In the trial in Bristol it was said, quote from Sky News: »Food safety expert Dr Belinda Stuart-Moonlight told jurors Mr Rodriguez was fully trained and had acted outside of Pret A Manger’s allergen procedures.«
Well, Belinda Stuart-Moonlight is a food safety expert, but I and my former colleagues are Pret A Manger experts! And no-one wants to listen to low-wage front-line shop workers! But I’m going to say it anyway!
From my 10 years in Pret plus witnessing my colleagues in over dozen shops, I can verify that Pret’s training is extremely poor! For me it didn’t exist! If I was trained, I was given stuff to read during my break. If I was trained by a line manager, they were in such hurry, impatient and often clueless themselves. At times I myself wrote emails to HQ departments on issues to get the info directly from them because my Managers either didn’t know, or didn’t want to train me. The only reason that I was knowledgeable was because I made the effort to get information AND much of the information I knew came from previous employment in the hospitality industry, but not from Pret.
In an unlisted video on YouTube new CEO Pano Christou even inadvertently gives away how poor the training in Pret is. He shares how when he did stock take for the first or second time, that he stayed until 4 o’clock the next morning! And that’s exactly how it is in Pret. The training is so poor and even Managers often are clueless that especially new staff have to stay long (unpaid!) hours to figure out how things work! Before I worked at Pret, I worked in many different food places, most of my life I worked in hospitality industry, in wine bars, restaurants, a canteen, a hotel. But never did I have to stay longer hours to figure out how things are done than in Pret! It was the most frustrating thing not being trained and not being given time to train others!
If people are trained there IS NO NEED to stay until 4 o’clock the next morning to know how to do a stock take and other issues!!!
Pano here doesn’t realize that he’s giving away how poor the training in Pret is! Also, as a side note, WHY is the above video “unlisted” where people can only find it if they have direct link to it! Shouldn’t Pret be proud about a new CEO etc.??? Pret also prides themselves in hiring employees according to their personality!
So, Pret is full of smiley, chatty, bouncing people, but few have SKILL that a business needs to actually do the job. And those who have skills are exploited by the smiley bouncing folk who take the credit for the work skilled people do! Former CEO Clive Schlee himself was like the Ronald McDonald of Pret. He was the clown who’s main job seemed to have been to sit at the facade of Pret fooling the public on how wonderful and caring Pret is. He made himself available as this “transparent” and approachable CEO that everyone loved!
In the meantime, customers die, staff are bullied to work like machines to increase profit etc. etc. etc.
Hiring according to personality rather than skill can be fatal!
One of my passions has always been training and informing people. Even customers would comment that I had a lot of knowledge and why I wasn’t a Manager. My colleagues, many who are from other countries, always came to me when they had questions, because 1. I had a lot of knowledge on issues, partly because I worked in the catering industry most of my life even before Pret. And 2. I took my time to give them any and all info they wanted and needed as far as I knew it. But during the shifts I was always called away from training my colleagues to serve customers. Shop Managers always want the tills manned due to chronic under-staffing to increase profit and their bonuses.
My first year of being a “shift runner” running shops, I didn’t have the First Aid course. My Manager forgot or couldn’t be bothered to put me on the First Aid course which is mandatory when running shifts. I didn’t know it either until another Manager pointed it out when I changed shops. Other times I was asked to cut corners by Management, which I declined. Most of the time we were pressured to sign the yearly training records WITHOUT being trained or re-trained etc. etc.
If you were to walk into a Pret today and ask any member of staff if they are well trained, they will tell you yes! But they will tell you this out of fear! Pret staff are fear- and micromanaged via weekly Mystery Shoppers. Mystery Shoppers can also be regular customers. When I was bullied DURING bereavement in Pret, customers NEVER knew what I went through because I never told anyone except some colleagues. I remained professional and was riddled with anxiety. I’d never dare to tell a customer how it really is. I pretended to be happy, because that was our job, and Mystery Shoppers were tasked to probe and then comment on our smile and chatty attitude including eye contact … or lack thereof. My Teams would have lost bonus if I’d spill the beans and it happened to be the Mystery Shopper I’d talked to.
Pret: “We aim to connect with every customer with eye contact, a smile and some polite remarks. Rate the engagement level of the person who served you at the till.”
Mystery Shopper: “I was not greeted at all at the till or given a smile. The only conversation was what was necessary for the transaction. To be welcoming, the team member could have greeted me and smiled and be engaged and positive, the team member could have given me a friendly remark or made small talk.”
So, I buried my brother weeks before, couldn’t smile or chat, my Manager who knew about my bereavement, wouldn’t even allow me to work in the kitchen for a few days where I wouldn’t need to smile or chat. I wasn’t placed into the kitchen because I wasn’t fast enough in making sandwiches as I wasn’t used to the kitchen. And then we got comments like this from Mystery Shoppers. Do you think we would tell customers that we were not trained properly or that we are bullied? I smiled most of the time, went home after work and headed for the bridge.
But if you knew a Team Member outside of Pret, especially those who left Pret, you would hear the real story. I could give you names of current and former staff who spoke to journalists and spilled the beans on the reality, one of which is lack of training. I won’t give you their names of course, but there is a lot of communication happening behind the scenes between staff and me, between staff and journalists, and staff leaving anonymous reviews on Glassdoor, Indeed, Twitter, Facebook etc.
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EDIT:
I want to add something I just shared with others on another platform. The reason I took health and safety, allergen, labelling, liquid spillage on the floor etc. so serious and always was on my colleagues’ case when they slacked about dangerous H&S issues, was not because Pret took it so serious or trained me well. It was because I myself made a mistake in another company before I worked at Pret. A customer ordered a SOYA frappe and stressed to me that it NEEDS to be soya as they have a dairy intolerance! I assured the customer that I will make it a soya. Due to the hectic stressful shift, I completely forgot to LEAVE OUT the dairy powder that is added to thicken the frappes & milk shakes. The customer left.
Half an hour later they returned with a rash on their throat! They asked me if the frappe was soya, I absolutely assured them it was, but then in shock remembered that I added the dairy powder. I was young and new to that company, never having had any training or experience with allergen. I admitted that I forgot to leave the powder out. Good thing the customer explained that it wasn’t life-threatening and they said “It’s ok, I just get a rash”. I reimbursed them and profusely apologized. The customer could have contacted HQ, but I’ve never heard anything from my Manager or HQ.
And because I had a VISUAL of their rash it gave me such a shock and wake-up call! I’ve NEVER EVER made that mistake again and MY MISTAKE accompanied me to Pret. And THAT IS WHY I was so uber careful and trained my teams and was on their cases about labelling, the allergen guide, spillage on the floor etc. It wasn’t because Pret trained me so well! In fact my colleagues and even some Managers and Leaders would make fun of me because I was so diligent with anything related to health and safety!
I used to be extremely annoying to my colleagues when it came to the fire exits! When rubbish bags piled up, or even a broom leaned against the exit doors, I would remind them again to please leave the door clear at ALL times! I said I don’t even want to see a dust corn in front of the emergency exit door! I lived in the USA for a few years and the constant news on mass shootings or a mad man going into a kindergarten stabbing little kids! I explained that a mad person could walk into the shop and start stabbing people, the exit doors need to be cleared all the freaking time! I explained that we always think this could never happen to us, or in London! That’s the WRONG thinking.
This soya-dairy experience was a scare that I will never forget, and this was MY fault! And I’m beyond grateful that the customer at the other company “just” had an intolerance, not a life-threatening allergy!
But Pret? From my experience, they were lapse! Any former colleague would tell you that I got on my colleagues’ nerves when it came to health and safety and the allergen guide, BECAUSE I myself made a horrible mistake in the other company. But it was a ONE-OFF mistake that I never repeated, no matter how busy it was!!! In fact, as I was a Team Leader having to multi-task, I listened out to my colleagues when I heard them order a soya frappe, I interrupted my customer service, no matter if I thought it may have been the Mystery Shopper, to inform my new colleague and their customer that there is DAIRY powder added, just for their information. At times the customer was ok, because they just liked Soya, other times they declined the frappe as they couldn’t have dairy, and then ordered another drink. I trained and re-trained my colleagues to ALWAYS mention that we add dairy powder when they ordered a plant-based frappe.
In Pret we couldn’t leave the dairy powder out like I could in the other company, because the dairy powder is already attached to the ice-cubes in the individually portioned blue bags. We couldn’t take it out as we sometimes didn’t have a separate only ice-cube machine. If we had a separate ice-cube machine, we could then just make a soya iced drink which wasn’t thick, but at least without the powder.
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Former CEO Clive Schlee himself inadvertently admitted that staff need more training and that Pret needed to take allergen more serious. As Schlee suffers from foot-in-mouth disease he responded to an open letter by an allergy sufferer back in 2015.
I made the following screenshot at the time when Natasha Ednan-Laperouse’s death became public. Alicia Turrell posted Schlee’s response to her open letter to Pret on Twitter. She closed her Twitter account now and her Tweets are gone, but I still have the screenshot. Alicia Grace Turrell is an actress and I’m sure it won’t be hard to find her and contact her for her own experience with Pret’s response. The Tweet is from 2018:
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Clive Schlee’s typical patronizing response transcribed for easier read. It’s dripping of his typical sweet-talk, “sliming” Alicia with his compliments, making sure he mentions that he, as the CEO himself, writes to her. Yet, he’s clueless on what to do, admitting that Pret did not take allergen seriously and that staff needed (better) training.
»Dear Alicia, I am sitting in Gatwick Airport waiting to board my flight and I have been reading your discursive open letter to Pret. I must say you have a charming, self deprecating writing style and it was very gracious of you to mention so many good things about Pret. I am Pret’s CEO. You also make your point about allergen information. To be honest, I am not exactly sure how to respond. I think you are telling us to train our staff better. I can’t argue with that. I think you are suggesting we treat allergens more seriously. Again, fair point. Is there anything else that you would specifically like [u]s to do? With best wishes Clive«
End of quote.
There is NO mention that staff are “fully” trained! In fact Schlee admits that he can’t argue with Alicia’s “fair points” and that he isn’t “exactly sure how to respond”! How can a CEO of an international food chain not be sure how to respond?! And Alicia Turrell wrote to Pret NOT to Clive Schlee, but Schlee in his typical self-assured way thought he’d impress a customer by responding HIMSELF. And Alicia Turrell was supposed to be smitten that the top chief himself replied. Well, she wasn’t! She was appalled at his response!
This correspondence was in 2015. And here is how Clive Schlee and Pret started to take allergen more seriously, and we staff received more training:
In 2016 a man in New York sued Pret after he had a reaction also to unlabelled sesame. Pret won. When the man learnt of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse’s death, he was devastated as he hoped his lawsuit would be a wake-up call for Pret.
In 2016 Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died. I worked between 2008 and end of December 2017 in Pret as a Team Leader. Part of my job description was Health and Safety. And I took that very seriously. But not only were we NOT informed of Natasha’s death (and later Celia Marsh), but there wasn’t even as much as a HINT to be more cautious and diligent with labelling and allergen. Nothing!
Natasha’s mum tells of her shock about Pret’s lack of action:
Pret went full steam ahead doing business as usual!
I write extensively about the lack of action, the lack of training and the relentless pressure and pace in which low-wage staff have to work. If they don’t work fast, they get fear managed with disciplinary and the threat of job loss. And working fast, rushing, being exhausted and depressed, they make unnecessary mistakes and continue to mislabel even now in 2021.
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I also write extensively about Pret having hired the prestigious and expensive Barbican Venue in the spring of 2017 (after Natasha’s death and the NY lawsuit) to do a one (or two week) seminar. Pret hired the Barbican to do a seminar on customer service for all Leaders and Managers to take back to their Teams to train them. I can’t remember if it was two weeks, but it was certainly one week all day every working day. This seminar was all about how to lure customers in and kiss butt to increase profit, and to gain and retain customers. There was NO mention whatsoever on allergen and labelling. Nothing whatsoever! It wasn’t even mentioned that a customer has died. That’s how Pret “fully” trains staff after a customer has died! Irony off!
This seminar was AFTER the open letter from Alicia Turrell, AFTER the man in New York sued Pret and most tragically AFTER Natasha died.
Pret could and should have put on the emergency brakes and reshuffle the theme of the seminar and could have easily spent the money on allergen experts to teach us on allergen.
Pret also started to implement labelling machines for expiry dates for the kitchen in 2017, back of house, BUT NOT machines for allergen labelling for shops and customers, front of house.
One reason I believe also why Pret wasn’t keen on doing ingredient labelling on the packaging is because Pret claimed that their food is “natural”. But after ASA and a lawsuit challenged Pret (there’s a new lawsuit on this now again in NY), Pret took the word “natural” off their signage and packaging. Pret’s food was found to contain the “nasty” chemicals that Pret claimed wasn’t there, including GMOs and Glyphosate for which the mighty Monsanto, now under Bayer, have been sued by thousands of people in the U.S., having to pay billions of dollars in compensation.
Again, I am writing as a former front-line shop employee with 10 years experience, most of which was as a Team Leader. Sure, I have a “vendetta” against Pret after what I survived. But I am deeply offended that Pret didn’t even tell us about customers having died. I learnt like everybody else via the press after the inquest into Natasha’s death. And I’m further offended that Pret didn’t put on the brakes and had urgency about labelling and allergen, training and re-training us! I and my colleagues continued to be the next potential “Roberto Rodriguez” where our words and actions could have endangered more customers and the blame would have been on us. And like Natasha’s father Nadim said that the food labelling laws “played Russian Roulette” with his daughter’s life.
Pret that boast themselves to be front runners and trail blazers in issues, ignored multiple warnings and subjected us staff to partake in the Russian Roulette. And I can absolutely understand Roberto Rodriguez having dived under and not letting solicitors find him. He was blamed, but my argument is, was he really fully trained or did he just sign the training records out of pressure? Roberto is in a pickle: he can’t admit that he wasn’t fully trained if he signed the training records without having been trained. It’s a lose-lose for staff.
I took Health and Safety extremely seriously, and I was known to take it very serious. I got on my colleagues’ nerves as I was always on their cases, including Managers, to keep fire exits clear, to keep fire extinguishers clear for easy access, to immediately take the yellow “caution wet floor” sign when there was a spillage on the floor while we were getting the mop, FIRST put the caution sign down on top of the spillage and THEN get the mop etc.
My colleagues were always annoyed with me being on their cases, as well as telling them to NOT stretch dates of expired foods etc. etc. etc. To then learn that customers have died and been injured and NOT being informed and NOT being trained or re-trained more thoroughly is so offensive to me. Pret is micromanaging and EASILY penalize staff on even the smallest issues. And yet, they failed US as staff more than we could have ever failed them!
Ranvir Singh, ITV: “How can people trust Pret when you still don’t have full allergy labelling on every item in all your stores?”
Clare Clough: “Pret takes this incredibly seriously. We immediately put allergy alert stickers on to all of our products, so that customers would have on every single product they bought from Pret, information on how to easily find the allergen information that they needed.”
Ranvir Singh: “Immediately when?”
Clare Clough: “Following the inquest.”
Ranvir Singh: “Right, so two years after Natasha’s death. … Which doesn’t sound very immediate to me.”
Clare Clough even goes on to say:
“We were already adding allergen information to the shelves where people choose the products, when we were first made aware of Natasha’s death.”
Repeat: “We were already adding allergen information to the shelves where people choose the products, when we were first made aware of Natasha’s death.”
And YET, Roberto Rodriguez LOOKED at the labelling on the shelves to see if sesame was included in 2017 and did NOT see sesame, and thus unbeknownst to him misinformed customer Isobel Colnaghi, who then suffered an allergic reaction also to sesame, narrowly surviving!
So, either Clare Clough wasn’t truthful and product labels on the fridges were not labelled, or she didn’t know that Pret did NOT label, or Pret labelled some products and missed other products like the item that Isobel Colnaghi chose.
Pret is cleared now, and the blame is stuck on Roberto Rodriguez. A low-wage foreign worker, who has to live with the blame of a customer’s allergy reaction that would have almost been the third fatal reaction to a Pret product.
A list of my blog posts about the ongoing mislabelling, chronic under-staffing, staff reviews on lack of training, high pressure, bullying, unpaid over time, fast pace environment etc. etc.
My detailed report on HOW MESSY and chaotic Pret’s labelling system was before they started labelling in 2019: Pret’s Labelling Commitment?
Lack of training in Pret and how staff are pressured to sign training records without being trained (I also explain this in my below audio player interview from 2018 at about 1:13:00): Roberto Rodriguez – Pret Allergen Trial
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 “freshly made” is psychology, as well as not always true.
Please see customer pictures further below of mouldy food, even rat droppings on Pret food, if you want to skip my detailed text.
Also see my Freshly Made Brainwash post, on how Pret’s food is actually made. I am honestly surprised that no more people have died in Pret, unless it is hard to link to if people had food from different brands in a day, or more injuries aren’t known. But what I can say is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. And as Pret got away with fatalities and injuries, they keep full steam ahead with even worse food safety issues.
I also explain on my podcast in 4 episodes (because I kept forgetting important info) how Pret was and continue to be neglectful on food safety when customers died. In the episodes I talk about a weird Barbican seminar Pret held a year after the first customer died; also weird labeling machines Pret implemented in 2017 but NOT for ingredient labeling; the difference between Starbucks CEO and Pret’s CEO handling of crisis, the lack of training and how staff cheat on training etc. etc.
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“The more you Pret, the more you get” the chance of a mouldy sandwich with droppings from a rat!
Please watch this brief video regarding mould on bread and why we shouldn’t even eat the clean part of the bread. And then scroll down to the customer complaints, photos, videos of mouldy food and ask yourself if Pret have started to care after TWO customers died and 20+ got injured (which they ignored before it got public):
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PDATE 08. August 2024 SALMONELLA found in vegan salad in Pret Hong Kong.
I always explain to people to be extra careful with Pret food towards the end of December close to the holiday closures. Shops are racing to not have high waste and depots try to get rid of stock that expires soon. Shops then “stretch” expiry dates and now sandwiches are carried over to the next day(s).
Reports on food poisoning and customer complaints on stale/mouldy food has drastically increased.
For any food poisoning, pest or mislabelling issues people can report directly to the government site for EHOs to take a look. The more evidence like receipts,photos/videos of mouldy food etc. the better. Contacting Pret alone won’t bring much as Pret just collect data for future marketing. They may send a voucher or not. But they’re building a data base since 2018 and do everything to get customer data.
Quote from 19.12.2022 complaint: “I have only eaten food from here today and have the Deliveroo receipt to prove this. I ate the chocolate croissant for breakfast and the chicken and avocado sandwich for lunch at 2pm. By 4:30 I almost passed out and was feverish. I was nauseous and achey and had diarrhoea on and off for hours until 9pm when I was violently sick. I have spoken to 111 as I felt so ill | Symptoms: Nausea, Diarrhea, Vomiting, Fever”.
Upfront: If you DM me on Twitter or Facebook, Instagram etc. please be aware that I don’t get notified! If I don’t respond within a week, try to get my attention again or contact me via my contact form. I am blacklisted on social media, shadow banned, my posts hidden at times in censorship after Pret must have reported me etc. I am often not notified when I receive a DM or a DM request. But they can’t silence me after I declined hush money and never signed the NDA.
After Pret ignored TWO customer allergen deaths, 15 year old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse (died 2016) and mother of five, 42 year old Celia Marsh (died 2017) and over a dozen further injuries before it got public, unsafe food practices not only continue without consequences, but have gotten much, much worse in broad daylight. There was almost a third fatality of student Isobel Colnaghi, who narrowly survived in 2017. She lost her lawsuit against Pret, because Pret didn’t break a law and successfully blamed a low wage worker.
There will be an inquest coming in September 2022 into Celia Marsh’s death as her husband is not giving up to get answers. He sued Pret but nothing could be proven if Pret was at fault. He now keeps going to have an official inquest with the vegan yogurt provider Coyo that supplied Pret with vegan products, but since Mrs Marsh’s death have been booted off by Pret. They blame each other.
The press is aware of this as I tweeted them in many times and emailed this blog post to many journalists as well as the Food Standard Authority. And maybe there is an investigation we don’t know of yet, or a journalist is going undercover to see for themselves. But this can’t go on like this.
I was a team leader in Pret with one of the job description being health and safety. I took that very seriously and never cheated on stretching expiry dates etc. Cleanliness and doing things PROPERLY was extremely important and my strength. This trickled down on staff who then also worked in a clean and careful manner, no matter how much pressure Pret threw at us. I REFUSED to cheat! Needless to say, I was never promoted beyond team leader level. And I ddin’t care!
Pret is very micromanaging and overly strict, penalising and bullying staff for the slightest, even unimportant issue. So, the below is extremely upsetting and offensive to me. I wasted 10 years in this toxic company doing my job extremely well, being known for my health and safety, hygiene work and record.
But now Pret want more money with less staff and quality. Hence, see the below.
Also, mislabelling continues where vegans and vegetarians eat meat, or people of certain faiths eat pork instead of whatever was labelled on their food. I collected only a few of the many, many complaints with photos: Vegans and vegetarians eat meat at Pret.
Pret are now breaking “Natasha’s Law”.
And before I go into some of the photos of customer complaints of mould and rat droppings on food further below, here only some of many food poisoning complaints.
Pret opened in Berlin 2018, and in 2019 already food poisoning report:
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A customer complaint:
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UPDATE August 2022 right off the bat, several recent food poisoning incidences. One on 22.05.22 is from Paris. These issues I believe are a direct result of what I write and post on below.
The latest (as far as I checked) is posted on Twitter on 15.08.2022
And many, many, many, many more. This is just the tip of the iceberg as not every customer goes on social media to complain with photos.
So, here is Pret A Manger’s psychology in using terms & slogans: “freshly made”. You can “freshly make” a sandwich with expired ingredients, mouldy cheese & stale bread. It’s “freshly made” with UN-fresh ingredients!
Also, Pret staff tell me that sandwiches and other products are now “carried over” to the next day(s) making Pret’s slogan “made today gone today” also false advertising. This is why staff don’t see the mould. If they would make a sandwich today from a mouldy or stale bread, they would feel/see it. But as some food is carried over in its packaging, they don’t see the mould and other problems like rat droppings, plastic, hair etc.
The following blog posts are important to read, and please be aware that these issues were BEFORE Brexit and the pandemic, in fact since years:
Pret food is NOT natural and why the word “natural” has disappeared off Pret’s signage and packaging. I explain in detail here:Pret A Manger – Ready to (ch)eat
I mention these because I was contacted on Twitter in 2021 with the following, in part, quote: “Pret have started keeping their food overnight and selling it the next day. Considering they’ve built their entire brand on the Freshly Made slogan it’s very misleading. They’ve also slowly started removing all the freshly prepared signs from their stores hoping no one finds out.”
End of quote.
30. July 2022, that’s the worst mould sandwich so far. “Freshly made” mind you. I reckon this one is at least 2 – 4 days old sitting in fridges. Also, soups get reheated several times which is also not allowed. Hence, complaints of bitter tasting soups keep coming in.
Update 04.08.2022 a video from Pret in Berlin where you can HEAR the staleness of the bread. Just click the play button in the picture. You will also see further below complaints from Paris as this is company-wide.
Many of below customer complaints are not in this YouTube slide show:
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UPDATE: September 2021
Pret together with the TooGoodToGo app now SELL leftover food for cheaper price in bags for people to pick up from shops. The OLIO app still give free food while TGTG app sells it now! Even HOT food that has expired after the 2 hours shelf life is now sold that Pret wouldn’t even give for free before, due to safety issues with the temperature fluctuation! Pret was VERY strict about this and I was reprimanded once by my Manager for giving out-of-shelf life hot food to the charity that picked up food in the evening! More detail: Pret A Manger Health and Safety Hypocricy.
So, when it comes to money, anything goes suddenly! And Pret sells expired food under the “charity” umbrella to collect money for the Pret Foundation Trust to, quote: “alleviate poverty” while having made cuts to staff wages and benefits. Pret workers are now on minimum-wage and have to top up their pay with benefits. Pret CEO Pano Christou even has the audacity to ask his low-wage staff for donations! Pret is trying to get money at EVERY turn having installed donation devices in shops that customers mistake for payment devices and accidentally donate to Pret! Katchink!
I strongly believe Pret should get investigated on where the donations REALLY go to! More on Pret’s Foundation Trust: Pret A Manger’s Charity Projects, and WHEN they do charity events.
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I have to mention like I did in above “Stretched Dates” post, that in Pret, many Managers and Leaders have always stretched dates, especially during the Christmas period when the depot sent short-dated ingredients to get rid of stock, as the holidays approached and stock was sitting around expiring.
I won’t bother posting all the Tweets of customers who complain to Pret with and without photos that the bread is stale, or the chicken tastes off etc. Just a few so you won’t need to take my word for it. There has always been date stretching, but since the lock-downs it’s gotten worse. Below Tweets are all from DIFFERENT shops, so this is not just the odd shop here or there, it’s throughout the board. And as a side-note, Pret received a cash injection from owners JAB recently: JAB pumps £185 million into Pret via MCA-insight.com
Furthermore, Pret received an additional £100 million from shareholders to open 200 more shops within 3 years. Pret also received help from the UK government with the furlough scheme as well as bank loans. Of course the bank and shareholders want their money back, so the squeeze continues. And with “squeeze” I mean raising prices, lowering pay to minimum-wage (the payrise in April 2022 is just for PR as the government raises the minimum-wage), benefit and other cuts remain in place, customers get ripped-off which I explain in detail throughout my blog and on my YouTube playlist etc. etc. etc.
Yet, Pret refuse to pay rent and have multiple lawsuits from landlords in the USA on their neck reaching into the millions, some I listed here: Pret’s Lawsuits and Settlements. Instead of paying their bills and debts as best as possible, they go ahead and open more shops worldwide. Quality suffers, customers are p!ssed off, boycott and staff walk out. What do you do when you have problems at home? You go out and continue the bullsh!t elsewhere in hopes they will never know how Pret fudges up back in the homeland (as well as those countries they’re already open).
13.08.2021 mould on cheese (for this Italian style “Parmesan” cheese to get mouldy, it takes a very LONG time. This means, this cheese has been stored way beyond its expiry date or the fridge was not cooled appropriately, and understaffed shops have no time to get it fixed):
UPDATE May 2022, 2 mouldy products from 2 different shops in 1 day:
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A customer who seems to know that I write publicly on Pret issues posted to me on Facebook that Pret’s food isn’t freshly made. I first responded to his fair-trade question that Pret had to remove the word “natural” from signage and packaging, but my post disappeared (either got deleted by FB or hidden, I can’t find it) he responded:
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Link to FB post. Please click on “View … more replies” to see the post.
07.05.2021 Mouldy Cornichons!
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Now THIS is bad, because pickled cornichons and cucumbers take months to mould! This mouldy cornichon hasn’t just gone bad within days, who knows how long it has been sitting in that Pret kitchen fridge! More detail on the times when mould forms, here: Can Pickles Go Bad?
Part of a private Facebook message with a former Pret staff who allowed me to post this on my blog. Their experience DURING the pandemic where sandwiches, products are kept over-night and expired foods are used, and to my surprise that the ready cooked factory soups that come in plastic bags now get frozen to keep them beyond their expiry dates. Their only game now is to not get caught by a surprise EHO visit:
An indicator that soup was frozen before re-heating again. Customers usually rant and rave about the Mushroom Risotto soup being their favourite soup from Pret. But here, it’s the worst, quote: “runny like soup, hardly warm and tastes odd”. I used to freeze soups I bought from the supermarket or cooked myself. With “creamy” soups it does become runny and tasteless.
About the milk, what the former staff is talking about is that when the Barista (or staff in general) have milk bottles out on the counter for 4 hours, it needs to be WASTED! Because the time for the safety of the temperature outside the fridge is 4 hours. In the morning, the counter is full of milk bottles, and they will all go by the end of the super busy morning coffee rush even within 2 hours. The morning person scribbles down the time with a black marker. So, when they put out the milk at let’s say 6am, and at 10am there are still 2 bottles left outside, they HAVE TO be wasted.
In the afternoon/evening shift, the coffee maker should usually have just 2 – 4 bottles out as it is less busy. But at times they put out too many bottles, ending up having to waste. But instead of wasting, they put the milk back into the fridge for the next day.
Thus, customers flock to Twitter complaining about bitter coffees. And I could give a gazillion other examples how there’s is cheating going on under the pressure of management. I explain it in detail here: Pret A Manger also Stretched (Expiry) Dates
And important to mention that these practices where already done for years pre-Covid, it has just gotten worse now. A Tweet from 2019:
Pret London City Airport had a poor hygiene rating by a surprise EHO visit of 2 out of 5. It was mainly on pest issues and general hygiene. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. More detail on this:Pret’s Hygiene Rating December 2021.
For other “gone off” foods, please visit pest infested Pret shops via Rat A Manger & Pret A Mice or via YouTube with some “explicit” videos (you have been warned!):
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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.
Here’s a labeling issue and Pret’s passive aggressiveness!
Remember when you were a kid and your mum or dad caught you doing sh!t?
And they reprimanded you?
And what did you do?
You sulked or threw a fit!
Of course you did!
The following is a fit that Pret A Manger threw and this is verbatim.
I’m sure I missed a thing or two!
And all so very “natural”! If anyone has NOT yet noticed that the word “natural” has disappeared off Pret’s signage and packaging, I explain why here: Pret A Manger – Ready to (ch)eat
And now: PLEASE READ THE LABEL! I have written it down below:
Black Pepper (I love black pepper on hot chocolate! Beautiful 🙂 )
THICKENER: Xanthan Gum
Flavouring, Cayenne Pepper, Basil Flavouring, Squatty Potty (I added the last one 😉 )
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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.
I hope this day will be first day of many, many days.
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Screw the moon landing!
Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton present. The old guard having lived one small step by step with Dr. Martin Luther King & many others … a small step for a man and a woman, and now a giant leap for mankind? Hopefully! Could this NOT just be a rare conviction and judgement, could this be reality for good?
I’m always contacted by frustrated Pret staff about issues I write about that they can relate to on what’s happening behind the scenes. Recent complaints are that staff get fired when they call sick more often, or they have to continue to work even while having Covid symptoms (fever, coughing etc.)
Some recent staff reviews on Glassdoor and Indeed where staff have the courage to speak out freely in anonymity. I marked some in the screenshot.
Quote: »…they say they care but they really don’t as workers forced to come to work even if they show symptoms as their jobs are on the line as apparently u can’t be sick for more 7 days a year in total or face being sacked !!«
One recent email by a current Pret front-line shop staff about the exploitation in Pret, and how difficult it is for employees to find new work during these times. Staff feel stuck, especially those who have kids to feed. Excerpt in orange, full email in the link below:
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.
In light of the horrific murder of Sarah Everard and a police officer under arrest, the police met a peaceful vigil tonight with arrests of women just holding a vigil, while not arresting one person a week ago at the Rangers game.
UPFRONT: please note that in below and current Mystery Shopper reports, Pret has completely scrapped the questions on IF staff members know about allergen. After 2 customers died and only when this became public, Pret included questions to test staff on their knowledge of allergen. But while Pret keeps all the other micromanaging questions, they have stopped testing on life-saving allergen questions.
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UPDATE May 2021:
Staff tell me that the £100 reward and some other benefits are back now, so below is out-dated, but I leave it like it is to show customers how low-wage staff are pressured for a little more peanuts and fear management. If ONE staff member makes a mistake, the WHOLE Team lose bonus.
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Update 12. May 2021 on a customer seeing the exploitation in Pret and made a short video:
This is the third blog entry or YouTube slide I post on a Pret A Manger Mystery Shopper (MS) report. This 3rd report is a recent one from December 2020. Since the pandemic and all the cuts Pret has done, there is currently not even bonus being paid to staff, YET, low-wage workers are STILL expected to be acrobatic clowns tested by weekly Mystery Shoppers.
Pret show VERY clearly where their priorities are. Pret rather pays the Mystery Shopper marketing company Hopitality Guest Experience Management (HGEM) who employ Mystery Shoppers to go to Pret shops every week for their free lunch, than paying staff the living wage AND bonus. Pret continue to fear manage staff this way instead of rewarding their hard work for carrying Pret through the pademic, risking their lives. Pret CUT wages, benefits, bonus etc. while still paying HGEM.
Little side-note. HGEM blocked me on Twitter for calling them out how Pret staff SUFFER under the Mystery Shopper scheme.
I write extensively about the Mystery Shopper on several entries and walk the reader through a MS report on: Pret A Manger Service Secrets Revealed and included 2 YouTube slides (at the bottom) for those who don’t want to read long detailed blog entries. The reason it’s so detailed is to show how micromanaging and exploitative Pret is that at least now have cut the MS questions from 32 down to 20. But not paying bonus is even worse than the previous exploitation.
And you, as the reader may think ‘why do Pret staff continue and let Pret treat them this way?’ Because they are brainwashed and fear managed. I know what I’m talking about, I suffered under this having worked at Pret.
It’s very simple, Pret wear the staff out, under-staff shops so workers have NO chance to think for themselves. I was often SO exhausted that I missed my bus or tube stop when going home. I just fell asleep at 3pm in the afternoon and woke up at the last stop on the line, having to take the next bus back the other direction. Staff feel stuck, are steeped in anxiety to think straight and find the will or courage to find a better job. Most are foreign workers, easier to manipulate. And that answers your next question why Pret don’t employ more British people in shops (apart from head office). Check this YouTube slide on how Pret abuse their staff to the max.
I write this new blog entry because several customers have complained to Pret on Twitter that they don’t want to be asked again and again if they want to buy anything extra. Unfortunately customers don’t appreciate the immense stress and the target for staff to have to up-sell or lose bonus. In below screenshots from a December 2020 MS report, people can see the perfect example of a shop that lost bonus BECAUSE the Team Member (TM) did NOT up-sell the way Pret demands and the fussy Mystery Shopper expected. This particular Mystery Shopper was especially ignorant and arrogant, expecting staff to stretch in all directions.
One of several recent customer complaints not realizing staff have no choice:
The following sheet is an example of a weekly rota or plan on which item to up-sell on which day and time of day. Pret staff send me all these pieces of information as my blog is the only “link” between their silent ordeal behind the scenes and the public (and press).
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And part of a leaked Zoom call video I was sent and passed on to the BBC that later reported on Pret’s “job situation” when it was announced that employment cuts were coming up. In this clip I cut out from the full video, UK Managing Director Clare Clough explains the “Attachment Rate” which is where customers buy extra items when they get a coffee on a subscription service, or in this case with the “20 coffees for £20” voucher. Since the pandemic and loss of profit staff HAVE TO up-sell because that’s where the money comes in.
For some reason the sound is off-sync. Not sure what happened there. I cut this part from the full Zoom call I was leaked to from a Pret employee, some technical glitch happened there. Apologies. But what Clare Clough says is clear.
Also, pay attention to the psychology in wording that Pret HQ always use. Quote “We’ve asked shops to start encouraging people to treat themselves to a croissant or cookie …”
No, Pret DEMANDS staff to upsell or they don’t get bonus as seen further below in the Mystery Shopper report where ONE staff member serving the MS did NOT upsell in a SPECIFIC way.
If the 1 staff member does not upsell specifically, the whole shop Team get penalized by not getting bonus, which in turn adds to bullying, silent treatment, shame, peer pressure etc. (And this is why I name and shame Pret millionaires so publicly and so loudly!)
It is disheartening that people do not understand how low-wage staff have to be like acrobatic clowns, kiss butt all day, smile no matter what, during bereavement, depression, illness etc. in order to get just a few extra peanuts and the shop Manager a bigger cut of the quarterly bonus. Low-wage staff don’t realize they have to go on strike to stop this exploitation and abuse by companies like Pret.
Staff get heat from all sides: customers complain, bosses bully to get more profit, Mystery Shoppers comment on the tiniest issue which I scrutinize in detail below. And staff get more depressed, disheartened, careless. It is a wonder that not more customers have died and who knows if or how many staff have caught the virus or even died that Pret keeps under the carpet. We have forgotten that TWO customers have died in Pret and Pret got away with it. Full steam ahead, business as usual. Let the exploitation and carelessness continue.
Mystery Shopper Screenshots: (I highlighted and marked in yellow or red a few things to explain the horrible expectation by multi-millionaires to squeeze the last drop out of workers to present a happy facade).
I cannot enlarge the screenshots, so please press “Ctrl & +” to enlarge the picture and “Ctrl & –” to decrease it again (Ctrl & plus / Ctrl & minus). But I quote under each screenshot what I marked to point out the micromanagement and humiliating expectations.
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Marked in yellow:
»Until further notice, Bonus and Star Team awards are not payable«
Bonus used to be £1 per hour worked. So if a TM worked 40 hours that week and the shop gets the bonus, they earn extra £40 that week. An individual TM can get extra £50 or 100 (even if the bonus for the whole team is lost) if the TM is extra nice and kisses butt extra hard. This is called an “Outstanding Card” (OC) £50. If the overall shop scores are perfect, the TM gets the “Super Outstanding Card” (SOC) = £100. Giving a freebie most likely gets the TM the £50 or £100 cash reward. An Outstanding Card is not literally a card, but just the name of the cash reward for smiling extra hard. A Star Team Award is when within a quarter a shop consistently gets outstanding cards, bonus and high scores. HQ then gives the shop a few hundred or thousands of pounds to go out to dinner or bowling or whatever. Might sound great, but the high pressure, stress and bullying environment to constantly get high scores defeats the mood to then also go out in your private time. I was always so exhausted from work and the horrible work atmosphere that I didn’t enjoy spending my private time with colleagues and the bullying boss.
So, until further notice staff still have to act like acrobatic clowns and bend in all directions with a big non-stop smile and chatty attitude, yet currently don’t get any cash rewards until further notice. If staff want to continue getting exploited like this, there’s no hope for change!
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If the reader wants to understand the full Pret blow a low-wage Team Member suffers through day in, day out, please read my extensive post on each step of above MS questions and the system behind this on: Pret A Manger Service Secrets Revealed. If even just ONE category is in the red, the whole shop Team lose bonus and get fear managed. If only ONE staff member makes a mistake or doesn’t kiss butt of the Mystery Shopper enough, the whole team can lose bonus if the Mystery Shopper wants to, as it happened in this MS report. Mystery Shoppers seem to enjoy the power they have, and I renamed them to “Misery Shopper”.
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Quote on the top left under “Outstanding Card”:
»Was any ONE member of our team very helpful,extremely charming and/or outstanding?«
No 😦
This is the question about any ONE Team Member’s service, regardless if the whole Team got the bonus or not. The added 😦 emoticons are to increase the “disappointment” and stress that staff didn’t kiss butt enough. My colleague can lose us all the bonus by their “poor” service, but I individually can get the £50 Outstanding Card reward if the Mystery Shopper notices me being extra special nice kissing butt. If the shop gets the bonus and all scores are perfect, it would double my reward to £100. But again, since the pandemic not until further notice does Pret pay any bonus or rewards while still sitting on billions. So, instead of getting cash rewards staff get brainwashed and continuously fear managed to keep performing a happy facade.
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Mystery Shoppers have to check if staff wear masks or an exemption badge. Yet, many customers on Social Media complain about the lack of wearing masks and exemption badges. Some shops have ALL staff not wearing masks. The MS is tasked to probe into this because Managers don’t enforce mask wearing.
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I highlighted this to explain to customers that staff have 60 seconds to serve a customer and 60 seconds to hand over the hot drink from the time the customer paid. Mystery Shoppers time it to the SECOND which is extremely patronizing to staff who are rushed off their feet ALL day and then customers complain that their coffee was half empty, cold, too much froth etc. and worse of all Mystery Shoppers complain about “robotic” service! The speed of service is just for ONE purpose, to get customers in and out of shops as fast as possible for fast money flow.
Quote: “I was served in 32 seconds and was happy with this.” “I received my coffee in 36 seconds and was happy with this.”
But later in their last comments (at the bottom) complain that, quote: “there was a lot of coffee grounds in my drink“. (Idiot!)
Pret wants fast service with a smile, but not robotic!
Pret wants perfect products, but within seconds!
I am not a fan of Whetherspoon or Tim Martin the boss, but I apprentice that he does NOT demand his bar staff to smile. I put an excerpt on Soundcloud of the Desert Island Interview from years ago with Kirsty Young where Martin mentioned this. He even adds that some of his best bar staff are quite grumpy making Kirtsy Young giggle. I appreciate his approach here:
I always told my colleagues that the best way to describe Pret A Manger’s work expectations and conditions is, that they bind the feet of staff and then demand them to run. And if they fall, they get penalized. I keep saying again and again to join a Union and strike. If McDonald’s and Amazon workers and maybe soon NHS workers can do it, Pret staff can. They just need to find the strength and courage to look beyond the brainwash and fear management. But maybe they’re not angry enough yet.
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Here is where the up-sell question comes and where this particular shop lost the bonus because ONE Team Member was probably too exhausted to up-sell a specific item. Quote:
»How did the team member suggest a product to complement your purchase?«
No product suggested (1) “The team member asked me if I would like anything else in a robotic manner but didn’t suggest a particular product.”
Staff are expected for low wage, NO bonus, fear management and brainwash to bend themselves over day after day and then get reprimanded for being robotic. This is one of the worst types of abuses in the workplace that employees suffer.
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Quote:
»How well did your server or any member of the team end the transaction by thank you and/or giving apleasant parting comment?«
Parting Comment/Thank You Given (3) “The team member said thank you but didn’t say anything else. I felt that she could have said enjoy or have a nice day.”
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These kinds of comments I have read hundreds of time in my years in Pret. Extremely patronizing, unemphatic, and the power that Mystery Shoppers enjoy to want to have a conversation with and attention of a low-wage staff member who is burnt out. Depending on the business of a particular shop, but from my experience, a Team Member EASILY serves 300 – 500 people per day. And Pret expects them to smile, chat, give eye contact, kiss butt all day every day, and now even for no extra money. If staff don’t join Unions and go on strike they will continue to be degraded like this.
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And these are non-scoring comments by the Mystery Shopper. The yellow highlighted I have quoted in red below. Dear Reader, please tell me how you would feel reading those comments after you have sweated day in day out for low wage, now no bonus, no rewards, just humiliating comments! And please don’t make it too easy on yourself by saying that staff can just find another job! Read this email a current Pret staff sent me: Pret don’t Care About Anyone.
Remember, the Barista or Coffee Maker has 60 seconds to get the drink ready into the customer’s hand or risk losing the WHOLE Team their bonus! This Misery Shopper was happy to be given his coffee in 36 seconds and then complains that it wasn’t well made! I wish I knew this particular MS, I would slap this Misery Shopper the report at his feet (I say “his” because the photo he took with the receipt in his hands clearly showed a male hand. Sounds like an arrogant, entitled, power-loving fathermucker!
Only one of many customer complaints on Twitter regarding long queues and only 1 or 2 staff members behind the counter:
The MOST poignant staff review that painfully explains a day in Pret. I can underline every dot and comma of this review. I highlighted a view things and put the link underneath.
I still don’t know how I survived this stress! And even without having become suicidal, the pure stress and anxiety feels like can kill you! But I will never ever work in these kinds of conditions again! I’d rather be poor for the rest of my life and work in silence somewhere than in this exploitation:
Dear Reader, put yourself into the shoes of this particular Team Member (or any TM!) who served this Misery Shopper as the TM’s name will appear on the report.
You worked for hours that day, your Manager shouted at you in the office for little things and threatened you with a disciplinary because you aren’t fast enough making sandwiches, while being called from the kitchen to the tills constantly to serve customers as shops are ALWAYS under-staffed. You lost a loved one recently and have no choice but to work.
You worked already 8 days straight without a day off as there aren’t enough staff members and you feel manipulated to come to work on your day off. You feel too vulnerable to say no. You started at 5am everyday and this day until 3 or 4pm, now with unpaid breaks. So you cut your break short to not lose money and hope to get home as soon as possible.
You went through an intense morning coffee rush, and are now (after 1pm) in the middle of the extremely busy lunchtime rush. You are sweating, tinnitus screaming in your head, trying to concentrate, holding back the tears when thinking of the loved one you just buried a few weeks ago … you serve the Misery Shopper but don’t know it. You know you won’t get bonus or anything extra and ESPECIALLY no positive feedback whatsoever from your Manager or Team Leader. In fact, you(collaborative as a Team) are told to leave your problems at home and are expected to “wear a smile like you wear your uniform” (true story, actual words by a Manager I had!) …
And then you read comments like this after this particular Misery Shopper was “happy” that his coffee was ready in 36 seconds that he even timed on his stop-watch (phone) from burnt out low-wage staff:
“I would recommend based on the food only as the service was just average and the coffee wasn’t well made. I didn’t think the coffee had been properly prepared, because as I got to the last half of it, there was a lot of coffee grounds in my drink and I was unable to continue drinking it.”
You leave your shift going home. You head for the bridge.
Further reading on the Emotional Labour practices of large companies, please go to: The Dangers of Emotional Labour (how it harms service workers’ mental health). There I’ve listed some excellent articles by journalists and former service workers who became journalists.
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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.
For more reviews of shop managers, OPs managers and HQ staff (and it’s not good!) on Pret’s leadership between 2020 – September 2023, please see Pano Christou’s Reputation post. And even those are just the tip of the iceberg.
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2021 text from here on out.
Pano Christou has his own story in how he applied for a job at Pret 20 odd years ago and was rejected. Some time later he reapplied and was accepted. He climbed up the “ladder” and was the shadow of Clive Schlee for a few years. As Schlee’s time was coming to an end after two customers died and the new owners JAB took over, Pano as UK Managing Director briefly stepped into a new role of COO that was created as a stepping stone to become the new CEO. The role of COO didn’t exist before that and doesn’t currently exist in Pret.
What Pano Christou is not telling people immediately is that he started in Pret as an Assistant Manager, having come from McDonald’s as a Manager. Managers from other companies always start as Assistant Managers in Pret. Never as a Team Member from the bottom and not as a shop Manager.
What people who have never worked at Pret don’t understand is that the structure in Pret is extremely complex and micromanaging. Pret advertises that 95% of Pret Managers have started at the bottom in Pret. Funny, because a few years ago the numbers were 80-something %. And yet, it should be normal that most, if not all Managers grow from within the company.
Pret’s career path is super complex.
If you REALLY start at the bottom on the shop floor or kitchen, you start at a little over minimum wage, but have to work for it 3 times over and have to wait YEARS to get a pay-rise.
It takes THREE position to even reach the Assistant Manager role that Pano Christou started with.
Team Member (and after 10-ish days Team Member Star – ignore that one, it’s just psychology!)
NEXT Level:
Barista or Hot Chef or Kitchen Team Member Trainer (in my time Pret had the role of Shift Runner between 2008-ish and 2015)
NEXT Level:
Team Leader (either Kitchen Leader or Floor Leader)
NEXT Level:
And THEEENN when you went through those “hurdles” you might have had a chance to become an Assistant Manager (mostly of the Kitchen, sometimes of the Floor).
Mind you, these positions, especially from Assistant Manager (AM) onward are very coveted of course! Staff get their elbows out and screw each other over for this position like in every job. Some even rise up the ranks via the bedroom. This you’ll expect in a law firm, and certainly politics and Hollywood, but a sandwich chain? Really? Alright!
What makes the AM position so attractive is that they delegate to the Team Leaders, who really do the hard work and run the shops, bossing the Team Leaders around and blaming them for everything. The AM is the filling of the sandwich between General Manager (GM) and Team Leader (TL) bossing Team Members around and yet not being responsible. The AM isn’t as responsible as the General Manager (GM) is. Perfect spot to be in. Bossing people around, yet not being responsible. Pret within the company is known for having too many “leaders” who struggle for the top position while Pret top leadership enjoy throwing crumbs to them to fight over.
To better see the text in the below screenshots, please click “ctrl and +” (ctrl and plus) and to decrease again “ctrl and -” (ctrl and minus) or click on the links underneath the screenshots.
After Assistant Manager comes the General Manager (GM), then Group Manager responsible for about 4 – 5 shops in an area, then Operations (Area) Manager (or OPs) of about 10 -14 shops in an area, and then you just fly so high you forget where you came from! And here’s where it’s ALL about the money.
What is so attractive to the AM role is that this is where the money starts to flow and where people will have to “prove” if they belong to the ELITE of the top Management who reap all the harvest that the “slaves” below them labour for. And yet again, even the AM and GM still have to prove if they belong to the ELITE of the top leadership of Pret. And yet, GMs and AMs increasingly complain on Glassdoor and Indeed that their contracted hours (used to be 42.5 per week) now 35 hours p/w on the payroll, but they work at least 60 hours as unpaid overtime. GMs and AMs are as exploited as TMs are.
When a staff becomes an AM, at least in my time and Pano Christou’s time, they got £500 from Pret to go shopping for business attire. Then they got £50 a month for the dry cleaning bill of their business attire, insurance, extra holidays, more quarterly bonus, SICK PAY (that’s a big one!), executive parties, a loan from Pret for annual travel which costs 10 months for a 12 month annual ticket … and a host of other benefits. This is pre-Covid of course. But I’m painting a picture of Pano Christou’s “rags to riches” (shop floor) beginnings in Pret.
Pano did not start on minimum wage plus a few pennies and working triple for it with a Team Leader or AM down his neck. He surely wore a Pret uniform for a month plus / minus to “experience” how it is to REALLY start at the bottom.
A £500 wardrobe and £50 a month to dry clean it, sick pay … and all the stuff they showered on you until you realized, you’d better get higher because the shop floor sucks!
In a nutshell, Pano Christou started at position number 4 on the shop floor, NOT at the bottom!
#4 Assistant Manager (the real benefits and money start here 🏆🏆🏆 )
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A GM review, quote:
»Amazing in the beginning – showered with benefits and entitlements and opportunities to advance. Terrible once you see how horribly mismanaged and micromanaged the company is. Zero care for human beings and nothing but boosting sales and company growth.«
And here again, yes Pret pays a little more than the competition, also because Pret has the kitchen production that are mini sandwich factories, and staff have to slave double and triple for it and don’t get a pay-rise in years! Pret has no choice to pay a little more because if they would pay McDonald’s wages NO-ONE would work at Pret as it is too micro managing, back breaking work, a bullying environment and very complex!
And it’s a dead give-away that it took Pano 23 years to reach CEO level! I pressured former CEO and Pano’s mentor Clive Schlee on Twitter to step down after he and Pano (when UK Managing Director) ignored two customer deaths and 20+ injuries before it got public. Reluctantly Schlee “retired” to spare him the embarrassment of a resignation. He is on the board and own half of itsu with his body Pret RE-founder Julian Metcalfe.I wrote a small exposé on Metcalfe, his connection to the Royal Family and how I chased him off Twitter.
If the mounting pressure to step down would not have happened from several on social media, Schlee would still be CEO. And Pano now is stuck in the old Pret-way and is not at all inventive, but bows to the pressure to expand fast to the ongoing detriment of quality and safety.
Pret is very good in making simple things very complicated! So, the little higher wage is the carrot on the stick. It’s a trap to lure people into working at Pret and then they get stuck believing and hoping that “one day” it may get better … And when the carrot has shriveled up, staff are too exhausted to recognize the bullsh!t for what it is.
Pano’s “popularity” on review sites and the legacy Clive Schlee leaves behind:
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UPDATE 2026 (5 years later!): Scores for Pano Christou and Pret, more than double the amount of reviews, but not much improvement:
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From Rags to Riches, the Pret A Manger “Love Treatment”
“Lovingly” handmade … (… and brainwashed)
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Bonus: Pano Christou putting his Emotional Labour into effect to spill some numbers after the first lock-down in a leaked video I received from a Pret staff and have passed on to the BBC:
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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.
Here’s my take on Nero and Pret stretching dates which is a huge problem. The press and mainstream media in general know my blog and story with Pret but love to ignore it. I can only implore any journalist again and again to go undercover into Pret, but not only working in the afternoon/evening, but also in the morning in the kitchen and shop for at least 4 weeks to get a good glimpse.
Amy Sharpe from the Sunday Mirror contacted me shortly after the deaths of Pret customers became public as she found my blog. At the time I was still extremely traumatized and paranoid that Pret sent a “spy” again, so I asked Amy to go undercover into Pret and see for herself. Unfortunately she only went for a week and worked in the shop in the evenings. But new staff who work in the evening are not bothered by Managers and Team Leaders and they don’t see the cheating that’s going on. Amy did a good start, but for a thorough investigation a Journalist would need to go undercover for at least a month and work in both kitchen and shop in the mornings to experience the full Pret blow and catch cheating going on.
I worked at both Caffè Nero and Pret. In Nero, mostly the cakes are being “stretched” as the Sandwiches, Paninis etc. come with a date label from the factory.
The cakes come in frozen and take about 4 hours to defrost. I often just defrosted half a cake first thing in the morning for it to be ready for the afternoon, instead of the full cake to avoid wastage. My Managers always defrosted the whole cake to safe time, but then days later “stretched” the dates. Managers mostly worked in the morning, but me working in the afternoon closing the shops had to hear the constant complaints by customers that the cakes were too dry.
I never stretched the dates as it was not worth losing my job if caught. One afternoon before my Manager left their shift, knowing that I did not stretch the dates for their bonus, the Manger herself stretched the cake dates with the date gun (same device where products are priced with labels). When she left her shift, I took the date gun and reversed the stretch back to its original expiry date, and wasted any cakes that expired.
Needless to say, I was never promoted.
Same with Pret. The labelling of products works differently. Pret use “product labels”. It used to be sticky labels that were hand written, but since 2017 Pret implemented date labelling machines in kitchens (while at the time AFTER a customer died not implementing labelling for products in shops to save lives!). I write about the date labelling machines extensively on: “Pret’s Labelling Comittment?“
Either way, if handwritten or via machine, the principle is when a Team Member opens, let’s say a tub of Crayfish today 06.03.2021 and the factory expiry date is let’s say in 6 days 12.03.2021, the NEW expiry date for the opened Crayfish is 2 days from today on (today being day 1, tomorrow being day 2). So, by tomorrow the Crayfish has to be used in products to sell or has to be transferred (sold) to another Pret shop near-by that may need extra Crayfish THAT day. Or by the end of tomorrow’s business-day the Crayfish has to be wasted.
The Staff Member writes down the Product: Crayfish on the label, writes down the factory expiry date (12.03.21), today’s date (06.03.21), and then the NEW expiry date once opened (07.03.21). If done by the printing machine, the machine calculates the correct date with which it’s been programmed to print. Then the Staff Member is supposed to let a Team Leader or Manager double check the correctness of the date and sign (initial). Often for lack of time the Staff Member initials the label themselves. Again, when I was on shift I told the Team to NOT used my initials to sign a product label but do it properly and let ME initial MY name as my neck would be on the line!
The way Pret staff cheat is then when the product expires today from the NEW expiry date handwritten on the product label, but the factory date is let’s say in 2 days which cannot be fiddled with, because it’s printed on the tub or factory label, not able to be removed, the staff member then peels off the new Pret product label, writes or prints a new product label with another new date for the next 2 days. This is often repeated until the REAL factory expire date which cannot be extended.
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SIDENOTE:
After I published this blog post and tweeted to people incl. The Times and also The Daily Mirror, BOTH Times & Mirror hid my Tweets! No other Twitter user I tweeted to hid my Tweets about this blog entry. My website indeed is the Elephant in the room for the press who can’t handle own experience of a former Pret employee and true investigative journalism. I will post the hidden Tweets later, but check the following for now where another person can’t see my Tweet to the Times, they can only see my direct link to my Tweet, but not my Tweet within the Times feed:
In 2019 a customer posted a Pret Crayfish product from a Paris Pret shop that is visibly off, and these are only some customers who post publicly, I didn’t even bother collecting Instagram, Facebook etc. One can see the gray part that shows that it’s off. Just looking at the photo made me feel sick (Ctrl & + to enlarge):
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Yes, this is against company policy, and anyone caught is immediately fired. Here comes the hairy but(t): Pret knows how stretched staff are, OPs Manager push and pressure Managers to the extend that Managers cheat. Most Managers don’t do the stretching of dates themselves but ask the Team Leader to do it. If they want to avoid to blatantly ask the Leader or Team Member to do it, they manipulate and fear manage them so that the Leader or Staff Member do it for fear of not getting promoted or get dis-favorable treatment. Most Managers let the Leaders and Team Members do the dirty work to avoid getting fired. Needless to say that I got never promoted and was known for wasting humongous amounts of food or drinks if they were unsafe due to warm fridges, expiration etc.
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One email that was sent by an OPs Manager to my area was because I wasted a huge amount of vegetable from a shop where I was sent to help out with their health and safety issues. It was a 5-day shop, closed on the weekends. On Friday the Team Member closing the kitchen was washing the vegetables which is normal in shops for the next morning to use. But the shelf life once washed is 2 days, meaning it would expire on the weekend. The TM came to me to initial the product label but I had to refuse. I called texted the OPs Manager that I needed to waste all the washed Veg.
On that day all OPs Managers, Shop Manager and Assistant Managers were in the Quarter Brief. Only Team Leaders and Team Members were in shops that afternoon. As I didn’t have a cart or vehicle to transfer all the vegetabes out to surrounding shops and the Team Leaders I called were unsure if they should take some of the veg. I wasted it all. When I texted the OPs Manager, she just passed the buck back to me and just said “do the right thing”, cowardly leaving me to make a decision. So, I did! I wasted dozen kilograms of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and onions!
The week following I saw an email come through by the OPs who double checked with the saftey team in HQ. The reason I kept this email was because I was in the middle of being targeted and bullied by another OPs Manager for the tiniest things. And I feared that they may target me again for wasting so much vegetable. This email I kept for my protection. Sad, but true.
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This shop was already under scrutiny by HQ for having very poor health and safety scores, so there was no way I would even dream of risking any issues. What’s so vile is that this OPs KNEW I did right! But she was looking via approval or disapproval from HQ to penalize me AFTER she put the responsibility on me for “do the right thing”! This incident then led to 5-day shops washing their veg. early morning on Mondays which also helped to be used on Tuesday. If you did the right thing you could prove that your shop can still be successful WITHOUT cheating. I worked in shops as a Team Leader helping to bring the shops to number 1, 2 etc. in Pret’s “Premier League” being top shop out of ALL 450+ shops in the company. It IS possible with organization, work and care.
I was not perfect, but I did the right thing and regret having given Pret years of time, skill, sweat, blood and tears, just to be bullied during bereavement etc.
Just a few of the many staff reviews about cheating and expired foods:
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MANAGER review:
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Or recently 2 customer complaints from 2 different shops within 1 week of berry compote with mould:
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Another customer complained of chicken that was off. Especially since lockdown and Pret losing money, the problem has increased:
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Etc. etc. etc. These are only few and those customers bother to go on Social Media with.
Some of the many staff reviews with an email by a current Pret shop staff I’ve put on YouTube as my blog is censored on Facebook and Instagram, I use YouTube and all other media to spread the word how Pret really is behind that “happy” facade:
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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 who has been appointed CEO of itsu in 2024. 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 and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou. 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 as well as mentioned by the BBC.
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.
I wrote already about the YourPretBarista subscription rip-off Pret started in 2020 and the many customer complaints on the excuses why most shops don’t do the free and “endless” (for Pret expensive) frappes and smoothies. Common excuses are: they run out of ice, ice machine broken, smoothie machine broken, no apple juice, the shop doesn’t know it’s included in the subscription etc. etc.
UPDATE June 2021: Pret now presents also technical issues when people try to subscribe. But knowing Pret and their tricks, they may have created that problem in case they get slapped by a consumer watchdog about the cancellation and other rip-offs Pret does, so Pret can say “Well, we have technical issues even when customers try to subscribe!” These “new” issues started after many customers complained about the lack of iced drinks or not being able to cancel, not getting their QR code, QR code not being read in stores etc. etc., forcing them to pay for their coffee while having the subscription!
A company the size of Pret should NOT have THAT MANY “technical” issues and for SO LONG (since the subscription started)!!!
The coffee subscription issues continue with daily Tweets and Insta/FB posts on customers either not able to cancel before the new month starts, wrong expiration dates which forces customers to another month of subscription, or even worse they DID cancel in time and they even received a confirmation email that they’ve successfully cancelled, but Pret keeps withdrawing money from people’s bank accounts the following months. Pret doesn’t respond to emails or customers suddenly get cut off when they DO manage to get through on the phone etc. etc. etc. So, people flock to public feeds on social media and only THEN does Pret respond luring them into DM … A news article covered this after I kept RT’ing and posting about the rip-off (below YouTube slide).
Most customers assume this is a one-off glitch only they experience. But few are taking the complaint further, yet no-one seems to contact a consumer watchdog to look into this further. I mainly post Twitter comments as I am heavily censored on Instagram & Facebook which are now under FB. But there are complaints on there as well as on Twitter.
One customer posted a visual of the loop where Pret sends people around in circles and the customer for once is not willing to keep being lured into DM by Pret social media staff.
Quote from the Tweets:
»It’s just a feedback loop! You log in, hit ‘cancel’ then it asks for your email again and then emails you a ‘one time password’. You enter the number, navigate to ‘cancel my subscription’ and it starts all over again«
A customer cancelled her subscription in August 2021 and realized now that Pret continued to charge her, altogether £210. From all the complaints I’ve seen on social media, there have been several who were charged 3, 6+ months after cancellation, but this is the longest, almost 9 months. And not all customers complain publicly, only Pret know how many complain via email/DM or even try to get through via phone where Pret seldom pick up.
If people have enough or a lot of money in their bank account, it will take a long time to notice that the odd £20 goes missing every month, except if they check their accounts regularly like I do, as I have been overcharged on several occasions. Clever thieves who steal credit card details often don’t wipe the bank account out of all its funds, but they withdraw or make purchases of small amounts over a long period of time until the account holder realizes.
Same with Pret. Take a little here and there from MANY customers over a long period of time, that’s how they make profit. Pret should seriously get investigated by financial standard and trading standard bodies.
One recent DM exchange between the Pret social media staff and a customer has me speechless. Pret offers “endless” coffees, even though the limit is 5 per day in 30 minute intervals. There’s already false advertisement. And here Pret is accusing a customer of fraud and after promising “endless” coffee, making an extremely rude statement that crosses boundaries: “double endless coffee isn’t a good idea for anyone”:
UPDATE July 2021 Pret STILL makes it hard to cancel and continues to take money! No company can have THAT MANY issues for SO LONG! Just a few only from Twitter, I didn’t bother to screenshot any more from Instagram and Facebook:
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… etc. etc. etc. etc. … and many, many, many more with new complaints of being sent in a loop for the One Time Code etc. Some more in below YouTube slide since the subscription started last year.
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.
This is two years ago, but the wage theft in Pret is rampant. I had to chase my money countless times, even my last pay. In the UK workers hardly go to court because the legal system is very different and the rewards very low.
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A 2019 staff review from New York, from an all-rounder employee doing different tasks as Pret chronically under-staffs to maximize profit:
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.
Wednesday 29th April 1992 Los Angeles, I didn’t realize I was about to enter several days in war zone.
Four weeks into a three month trip, me and my 2 friends just moved from Santa Monica beach to Long Beach after having been invited by a family we met in a church. It was a typical American family, with 5 cute kiddies between 5 and 10+. We gladly accepted the invitation and the family was glad to get a crazy bunch of German travelers to stay with them for a few weeks. We stood out like a sore thumb in the church we visited and in the community our hosts lived in. They loved our German accents that we were embarrassed about. And we had fun hearing them pronounce our strange names.
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Santa Monica Beach view from the Motel, March 1992
What was unusual, but I didn’t know how unusual it was, not knowing the U.S. at the time, was that this family’s house was behind a closed up gate and tucked in compared to the neighbouring houses. Most houses had the typical green front yard without a fence and a few bushes. But this house had a large gate and was “locked” in. It would later serve as our refuge.
In hindsight, understanding American communities more later, with this neighbourhood more on the rough side, it was good that they had a closed up front yard where the kids could freely play without wandering off in the area or being targeted by gangs etc. No-one from the outside was able to look into the yard or the house. We had BBQs there with the family’s friends and relatives. The fencing later shielded us white girls from what was about to happen.
A brief experience here I thought worth mentioning was our first hotel straight after arriving from Germany at LAX. A shuttle driver suggested this hotel to us and I recently found out that it doesn’t exist anymore. We stayed near Inglewood in the now iconic Cockatoo Inn, that unbeknown to us was a well known hotel. Unfortunately it was shut down in 1994, just 2 years after we stayed there and remained closed for a few years. Director Quentin Tarantino filmed scenes inside in 1995 of “Jackie Brown” while the hotel was shut. It completely brought me back inside the beautiful bar/restaurant area. The Cockatoo has been demolished around 2004 and was replaced with a chain hotel that completely lost its charm.
Scene inside Cockatoo bar and restaurant
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One evening the event in the bar/restaurant was karaoke and one of my friends had a go. One man was sitting near us pretending to be Eddie Murphy. He told us to repeat after him: “I am Eddie Murphy”. I was the only one who did not repeat! He did look very similar to Murphy, and now in hindsight, maybe it was even him because I learnt recently that this iconic hotel had politicians, actors, even members of the Mafia stay. So, it might have even been Eddie Murphy. A website dedicated to to this hotel keeps its memory alive with former staff and guests posts: CockatooInn.com
CockatooInn.com published part of my story on their site with the photos I submitted. Great way to collect former guests’ experiences of the hotel: Visiting the Cockatoo during the 1992 LA Riots. Thank you for the feature.
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Cockatoo Inn, April 1992
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Cockatoo Inn entrance (the boy is the son of one of my friends)
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Visiting another church, West Angeles Church, we assumed it’s a normal Sunday service where a Caucasian blonde preacher held a sermon in the predominantly black congregation. But I didn’t understand why several serious looking guys in black suits stood to the left and right side on and off stage, which I’ve never seen in any church before. The friend who invited us to this church turned to us and said that if he succeeds, we can say that we saw the president. The blonde “preacher” was Bill Clinton who spoke in this church. We only realized later that this was a political rally rather than a normal Sunday service.
West Angeles Church of God in Christ, March 1992
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Soon after we moved to Long Beach, I started to develop horrendous tooth aches that lasted all night. I took several pain killers that didn’t help. I had tooth aches already while still in Germany, but as they didn’t last, I didn’t pay much attention to it. But this time, the pain increased and persisted. I was given advise where to go for examination. On the 28th April 1992 I took the bus for about one and a half hours to a hospital. Like so many things in a different country, this was new to me, because in Germany we go to the dentist, not to a hospital for dental issues. But I was grateful that we took out travel insurance and were covered.
Another unusual experience was that I had to wait 5 hours before I was seen. But since everything was new, TVs everywhere, I had plenty to watch and new impressions to take in. I got a medical ID card and after the X-ray I was told that a wisdom tooth needed to be pulled. The doctors decided that it would be good to pull all the wisdom teeth while they’d be at it. But I needed to take some antibiotics for a few days before they could pull the teeth. So, I left hospital again, not realizing that I needed to pick up the pills in that very hospital! I went back “home” to Long Beach, assuming I just go to a pharmacy with the prescription, and was again explained by our host that I needed to return to the hospital for the pills.
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So, on Wed. 29.04.1992 I went back with the bus on another 1.5 hour journey to collect the pills from hospital. I waited again, around an hour or so this time in the lobby of the hospital.
I was watching the TV in the large lobby where about another dozen people where waiting and scattered throughout the lobby. Again, intrigued that they showed real court cases which was new to me as well, it was obvious that something important was happening as everybody was glued to the TV that live-streamed a court session. I watched on not knowing what this was about. I kept hearing “…. not guilty” … ” not guilty…” … “not guilty” …
The non-guilty verdicts where of 4 white LA police officers who brutally beat a black man they stopped. A person from his house or balcony was filming it with his camcorder. Now, this was 1991 when the beatings happened, it’s not like today where it has become normal to film incidences everywhere, the very recent one of George Floyd who was brutally murdered while the world looked on!
It was a break through in 1991 when a man just started to film the beating of Rodney King. People were hopeful that THIS TIME the jury and court will serve justice. But, no. Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty …
A commotion started to happen in the hospital lobby waiting area, and one after the other, people started leaving the hospital, looking upset. Some people mumbled something under their breath, others visibly angry, throwing their arms up in the air. What I didn’t pay attention to nor understood the significance at the time, was that all those who were leaving were African Americans while all the Caucasian patients remained seated or standing in the lobby. I was completely green and oblivious on what was happening. Later after I received my pills, I was on the bus back home and was perplexed why a black man kept staring at me. Still not realizing what was going on.
In hindsight I think ignorance was bliss because my demeanor was completely neutral, innocent, looking out the window minding my own business. If I had known then and there what was going on and that there was imminent “tension” coming up, my body language and facial expression would have been one of caution, fear, mistrust, nervousness, alert etc.
I arrived home and my friends with some of our host’s family were sitting in front of the TV. The first pictures I saw was from a helicopter’s view. It became engraved in my mind because it was the first “point of contact” of making sense to a reality, an image of what happened to Rodney King before and the non-guilty verdicts that sparked the riots. Slowly and with explanation of our hosts, we started to understand what was unfolding via TV in the city.
I remember just arriving in the house when the first thing I saw was a Caucasian truck driver being pulled out of his truck and beaten by a mob. Later a black man helped him back into the truck. I literally just arrived at the house when the riots started.
Viewer discretion advised:
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When I saw this live on TV and slowly started to understand what was going on, I remembered the man in the bus staring at me … The riots haven’t started yet, at least not where I was traveling from the UCLA Medical Center back to Long Beach. It took me a few days to grasp that I was lucky? Or blessed? Certainly completely oblivious on what it was that I saw on TV streamed from the court room … and what it was about … and what was about to happen for the next 5 to 6 days.
I can’t even write down in detail everything, because I pushed it away now for a long time. My friends and I were guests of an African American family who protected us, who literally ordered us to not go out to the shops after curfew without them. They assured us that as long as either or both of them were with us, that we were protected. These hosts and new friends suddenly became our protection, our “body guards”, our angels. I still feel ambivalent about it because here is my race, my pale colour hurting again and again and again and again … anyone of darker skin. And here we were with them protecting us, feeding us, giving us water, a roof!
The huge closed-up fence to the street and surrounding most of the front property was like a fortress, perfect in this time, compared to neighbours who had open yards.
Helicopters by day and all night. Curfew from 6pm to 6am and gun shots, even automatic weapons during the night. Boom, boom, boom, boom ratttatttaatttaaatttaa boom boom ratta ratttatttattattta boom boom boom boom …
The warning was: if you are out during curfew, you WILL get shot, either by police, gangs, shop owners protecting their livelihood and as the days went on, the military. I loved the fence, and strangely I was never afraid one bit. Again, for one, because of our hosts, they were super calm, and also because I was young and came from a protected country? Completely naive about any danger, even while seeing and hearing a war outside.
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Our hosts, our angels, our refuge and friends
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But I also was young and had a naive believe in a god, who I felt protected us. Well, I don’t believe that anymore, because why didn’t he protect Rodney King and all the people who suffer yet again under white police brutality. And the corrupt police getting off again and again. So, it’s ok, have your belief, live and let live, it’s all ok.
The rest of our stay with this lovely family is a blur to me. I left Long Beach with less teeth and a mind full of questions and experiences. Only through some photos and the many long letters that I wrote to my mum and brother, can I roughly reconstruct our journey.
One of us friends returned to Germany soon after. I and the other friend remained. We moved on to Culver City, West Hollywood, met further people, slept in a car, in motels, drew from what we saved up, stayed with people who invited us, then back to Santa Monica … all the while digesting what happened in a city that lives off drama and fairy tales.
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I walked through a street once, days after the riots, where almost every house left and right was burnt to the ground. I never took pictures of the devastation because I had such respect and felt invasive and dishonoring. I don’t know, I’m weird like that! I would not make a good journalist, certainly not a good photo journo. I regret that now. I only took photos of Santa Monica Beach, Venice Beach, Malibu, Hollywood and places like that, and all the beautiful people we’ve met along our criss-crossing LA.
Around June, we returned to Germany, still in daze …
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LAX June 1992, another friend seeing us off back to Germany
Unfortunately Rodney King’s life was cut way too short 20 years after the brutal attack and consequently the riots. Trauma and the aftermath of it is a debilitating condition. He leaves a legacy of grace and love, and needs to be remembered!
»I just want to say, can we all get along? Can we get along?«
Two of the four police men were later convicted in a 2nd lawsuit for violating the civil rights of Rodney King and received short prison sentences.
Sadly, Rodney King passed away far too young in 2012 from accidental drowning in his pool, having struggled with alcohol and drug use. He still suffered nightmares 20 years after the racist police violence. He relived it in this 2011 interview. He forgave the police, which is beyond me. Forgiving such a crime where the insult went further by the cops getting off the hook, and King suffering for the rest of his life … I have huge respect for his courage!
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Black Lives Matter protests London 2020 in memory of George Floyd and so many people who died under police violence:
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.
Granted, a PRovocative title! But here’s a crash-course on the PR[et] stunt and how companies PRostitute themselves.
»To sell my business, this thing that I created, that I poured 30 years of work into, to sell it to one of those bastards [venture capitalists] would feel like selling one of my children into prostitution.« – Guy Singh–Watson
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PRet’s
PRactices in
PRocrastinating
PRoper labelling when
PResented with concerns to
PRotect people and
PReventing
PRemature deaths from
PRepared
PRoducts, taking
PRecedence by being
PReoccupied in
PRioritizing and
PReferring
PRosperity, while being
PRetentious, but not
PRoactive,
PRactical,
PRagmatic,
PRimarily
PRofessional,
PRincipled and with
PRide
PRoviding all ingredients by
PRinting labels to
PReserve and
PRolong life … is so out of
PRoportion!
The PRefabricated
PRemeditated and
PRedictable
PRopaganda,
PRoclaiming
PRomising and
PRofessing that “nothing is more important right now” after an Inquest
PRobing into a death, public
PRostests and
PRessure from the
PRess is typical for the
PR[et] machine with
PRofits over
PRivate lives
PRoving their negligence.
PRoblem remains: no
PRocecution, no
PRison sentence, and no
PRoposed new leadership
Pret A Manger
PRovokes anger,
PRevails and regains
PRominence by hiring and
PRomoting
PR firm
Headland, Tovera Consulting and former FSA Chief Tim Smith to fix the mess and repaint the facade, like colouring a rotten egg after having ignored multiple warnings.
PRecious lives paid the
PRice, financially
PReyed and
PRowled upon by greedy
PRicks!
If Public Relation is not for the sake of both, the company AND the public; if a company cannot relate to families having lost loved ones, due to the company’s negligence, going full steam ahead with business as usual, then Public Ramifications won’t fix lost Reputation.
PRaying for the families, especially this Christmas time.
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.
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.
UPDATE July 2024 at the very bottom about Pret’s board shake-up.
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A very clever Pret A Manger marketing strategy with the help of mainstream media.
The best translation for “Tränendrüse” I can find is “tear jerker”, but I’d rather go with “crocodile tears”. It’s a word that came to me when I pondered on the recent Pret A Manger articles in the New York Times and The Guardian regarding Pret’s dealing with the Covid 19 crisis. Mainstream media journalists play into Pret’s pocket as usual. What I found particularly interesting are the photos that were shot and used for these articles, especially in the Guardian article.
In the German when someone tries to get pity in order to gain or get advantage of something, we say “der drückt auf die Tränendrüse”, loosely translated “someone’s squeezing out tears” … or best translated: producing crocodile tears.
Pret A Manger has always been smart in their marketing strategy, giving free coffees to look generous while it’s been the main marketing strategy to get people into shops spending more money. I write about the freebie marketing in detail on my blog: Pret A Manger Free Coffees.
Another clever move has always been to give vouchers and freebies after customers complain. Pret customer service staff call this to “kill people with kindness”. That way they stop complaints going further, getting people off their backs and winning them over, plus new customers, as people do free advertisement on social media and beyond on Pret’s “kindness” and “generosity”. And also since 2018 the new endeavor to collect customer data via social media DMs and now subscriptions for future marketing.
The first “Tränendrüse” article came from The Guardian and how new CEO Pano Christou is approaching this rather “positive”, seeing Covid as a chance. Never mind hundreds of thousands having lost their lives, their loved ones, their health, their jobs, their livelihoods … The tragedy turned into a strategy for Pano Christou. A tragedy that now hit millions of people worldwide is being used by Christou as a “strategy” for business. He even takes it further and puts on a sorry, but determined face, to persuade the loyal British higher middle class customer to feel sorry for Pret and risk their own lives to “save Pret”.
By the way, the term as in Pret having become the “Symbol of the Highstreet” came from me on Twitter after some people wondered why Pret is being mentioned constantly to save the economy.
Journalists took that and wrote their own articles on it. My blog has become the source for lazy journalism’s copy & paste writing. Nothing new under the sun.
Link to 31. August 2020 Tweet … and many more on Twitter before Journos took that term from September 2020 onward.
The reader can go through the Guardian and New York Times articles to scrutinize the marketing strategy here. I want to draw the attention to the photos being used for Pret’s subtle and gentle, smiley “propaganda” to get customers to spend money.
From The Guardian, photo by David Yeo:
Pano Christou sitting in the shadow in front of half empty shelves … alone … looking out somewhere into uncertainty … his Tränendrüse about to burst, yet looking with hope like a puppy trusting to get what those who hold the treats in their pockets are ready to give.
Aw! Cute puppy!
The puppy’s promise behind to his right, with the false advertisement of “endless” drinks on the monthly coffee subscription (I write about the false advertisement in detail on “Smoothie Operator“). And the intense shadow of his (seemingly) sorry self behind him with a high wall overwhelming him with the shadow of challenge-turned-opportunity … Puppy Christou looks hopeful. After all, smiling is Pret’s main marketing strategy. Smile through the crisis, smile through grief, smile through mental health issues, smile through Pret customers having died, smile through it all … and keep smiling to the bank.
Link to The Guardian article and photos by David Yeo.
Link to NY Times article and photo by Tom Jamieson.
No shadows here, just a look of getting hit by the pandemic, but determined somehow, yet disappointed and clueless what to do like a little puppy that’s still waiting for its treat and strokes. Mixed view here, left open for interpretation.
The NY Times article is titled as “Pret A Manger Will Try Anything to Survive”
Yet, what exactly is Pret doing? Anything? How is Pret turning a deadly virus into opportunity?
Sacking 3000+ people is one opportunity where Pret does anything to survive, while owners JAB in tax-haven Luxembourg via second richest secretive German family Reimann, sit on billions. Sure, they lost a few billions as well. A recent German article in the Handelsblatt dishes out the numbers.
Some more numbers in bullet points:
Pret A Manger front-line employee under £10 per hour, below the Living Wage, not paid for sickness the first 2-3 days depending on age and length of service no matter if having a GP sick-note.
JAB/Reimann pay former CEO Clive Schlee £30 million on BONUS upon acquisition of Pret. And here it’s clear where their priorities lie. £10m in “repairs” to Jewish charity versus £30m for ONE man alone in Bonus! Well, Pret is doing ANYTHING to survive.
The “few” millions Pret loses and the billions JAB loses hardly crack any teeth in their unsatisfied, hungry jaws! They can EASILY afford to keep their workers and INVEST by doing ANYTHING they can to “survive”.
Yet, Pret will not only survive, Pret will thrive again. And in order to thrive and keep accumulating millions and billions, Pret needs to cut at the bottom and “sacrifice” those who already lose everything anyway.
Hardly is JAB/Reimann nor Pret struggling. Pret even was one of THE FIRST companies to try and cut hours of low-wage workers back in March 2020 at the outset of the pandemic. What was so vile was that Pret announced the cuts a day after starting the NHS coffee freebie and 50% food rebate to NHS workers to divert away from the cuts. Pret used NHS staff two-fold, PR of course and as a smoke screen to hide how Pret really treat their own employees DURING a pandemic, let alone in general. And this was pre-lockdown and at the start of the pandemic becoming obvious to us all. I also write about this extensively in “To NHS Employees” after I was contacted by Pret employees with the news of Pano Christou’s email to all shops about the cuts. I then immediately tweeted to the press and all hell broke loose resulting in Pret to revert the cut decision for a while until the big job cuts were announced in July 2020 after I was leaked a video by a Pret staff … and so it keeps continuing with doing “anything” to survive.
Pret has also been one of THE FIRST businesses to open shops DURING lock-down and was THE ONLY business open at Stansted airport in July 2020 when ALL food outlets (apart from Boots and WH Smiths) remained closed.
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Another clever strategy Pret seems to be using is to close 6 more shops now (October 2020) after the 30 shops they closed already. Now laying off 400 more employees (400 staff of 6 shops?). This puts pressure on the Tränendrüse of loyal customers who feel extra sorry for Pret now. Yet, many fail to see the strategy behind this. Pret CAN afford to stay open! Pret CAN afford to keep people employed! And mark my words (today 17. October 2020) that in a short while Pret WILL OPEN shops again. It takes just a few days for Pret to set-up a new shop! Even on Twitter the Job-center is advertising for new Barista etc. opportunities in Pret. Closing 6 shops is nothing for Pret. They will open in a heartbeat when grass has grown over this drama of pushing on the tears of customers’ purses.
Pre-pandemic, the average low-wage worker earned £8.65 an hour. If the shops did well with Mystery Shoppers, they earned an extra £1 but all still BELOW the Living Wage.
Now Pret has cut jobs, hours, benefits, bonus and even paid break. I’m sure Pano has lost count on his millions sitting in his bank account, being busy putting people out of jobs, some of whom will lose everything.
Pret always prides itself to pay a little more than the competition with the brainwashing psychology and their slogan of: “Pay people what you can afford, not what you can get away with”. And yet, Pret fails to mention that 1. staff have to work DOUBLE for it and 2. it takes YEARS to get a pay-rise in Pret! It is Pret luring low-wage workers in with a few pennies more from the start of employment, and then they have to labour for years to earn a few more peanuts. Staff chase that carrot just to be left high and dry. The backbreaking work that I have done and witnessed hardworking colleagues, is not worth the peanuts that Pret claims to be what they can afford. By the time a regular Pret worker is ready for promotion or a pay-rise, they are so exhausted and disheartened, they don’t even have the strength to look nor find a new job.
Staff get so worn out, they stay in Pret for years because they have no strength to move on. I write extensively about the reality of Pret A Manger behind the smiley facade in “Caught in the Act at Pret A Manger” with its systemic bullying culture that Pret top leadership were involved in my own ordeal.
So while former CEO Clive Schlee is in the background as a non-executive Director, quietly being Pano Christou’s mentor, puppy Pano pushes on the Tränendrüse with the help of big newspapers to squeeze even more pity and money out of customers who fail yet again to support the small independent businesses that really suffer to the point of losing their livelihoods.
So, you mainstream journalists from the New York Times, The Guardian and others, keep sucking up to Pret and wipe their crocodile tears. Nothing new under the sun.
God help us if we aren’t screwed enough yet, we love to get screwed some more by multinational private equity leeches.
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Just a few of the countless reviews by Pret employees on various sites.
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Here’s a visual of Puppy Christou howling on the belly of mainstream media with a shadow and all the pity he needs. DO feel sorry for this multi-millionaire puppy, they need money:
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UPDATE July 2024:
Pret have brought back RE-co-founder Sinclair Beecham to fix the mess in Pret that is the £700 million debt, increased customer complaints, lowered quality etc. while the other RE-co-founder Julain Metcalfe threw Pret under the bus recently in the press.
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 and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou. 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 as well as mentioned by the BBC.
On 24. November 2020 someone did a word-for-word search on this blog post “life isnt worth living” (screenshot yellow) and this blog entry was clicked:
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People usually do an exact word-for-word search when they know a blog post already exists.
You can call me paranoid or whatever, that’s fine. But I want to communicate again, that if I choose to end my life I will make this very very clear via different channels that people know me from! In my darkest days I had a suicide note ready in my drafts folder with several people in the CC list. All I needed to do was to click “send” when the time came that I quit. I deleted that email now, but if I choose to end my life I would make this unmistakably clear.
I write this for the following reasons. We live in terrible times where people snap, where there is so much hostility, selfishness, anger. My own anger I channeled via my blog and unfortunately I lashed out at people, also at the wrong people who have been nothing but supportive to me! Yes, I am in the process of getting therapy, but this has been a long road as the UK mental health system is broken and of no priority to this current government. Only NOW after 5 years has the NHS mental health team agreed to diagnose me, AFTER I filed a formal complaint for not getting help and being sent around circles.
In the fall of 2017 I had a brief conversation with Lila Warren, the Development Manager who was put on my case by Pret’s HR dept. (her not even being HR personnel) and who gaslighted me. For those who read this for the first time, my full story with Pret is at the audio player at the very bottom of this post. Because I was so broken, writing crazy emails to countless people incl. Pret, Lila said to me, quote: “You are making enemies”. In Dec. 2017 I was fired from Pret, and since May 2018 I tell my story on this website and on social media.
I have publicly exposed former CEO Clive Schlee, current CEO Pano Christou, David Carter HR, Lila Warren, many others and as of recently Julian Metcalfe. Links to them are below.
I am not making allegations towards anyone, and I suffer with general anxiety. Especially after the various forms of bullying DURING bereavement from Pret leaders. One experience that sticks with me is when I was shouted at by a line manager 2 days before the first anniversary of my brother’s death. I broke down, cried uncontrollably, but was sent out to do customer service in a company that boasts of “happy” teams and smiley customer service. I was paralyzed emotionally and on auto pilot. The team who witnessed this were silent, no support, no word, nothing. Pret twisted it around that I was “aggressive”. That’s one of the sickest forms of gaslighting and manipulation. And many other incidences which has me in hindsight understand that Pret tried to get me out of the company in hopes I resign. If I had resigned, I could never ever write publicly like I do now, because Pret would have twisted it again, probably saying something like: “We were happy with her work, but SHE chose to resign…we did “everything” bla bla”. David Carter certainly pulled out a few tricks!
Only after I contacted then CEO Clive Schlee after a year of trying to get help from the HR dept. did Pret start some support like paying for counselling sessions to make it appear that they’re helpful. But the turmoil in the shops continued with the various and subtle forms of bullying.
And as lunatic as I may sound, but after the tricks and traps from Pret, how they bullied me while I was broken in grief; the fact that TWO customers can die without Pret having acted on whatsoever until it became public, and Pret getting away with it; after the ‘eugenicist’ comments recently by Julian Metcalfe, the toxic environment of Pret etc. etc. … Lila Warren said to me that I am making enemies.
If anyone is doing a word-for-word search on a suicidal blog entry and then thinks that “something” can happen to me masqueraded as a suicide or accident, because I speak out publicly and then it can just be linked to a suicidal blog post … And again, I make NO allegations towards anyone. But if people can die without any consequences, staff being bullied during the worst time of their lives … anything can happen. I write publicly not just to expose, but also to protect myself. Silence kills. And how was it again? “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
Do I call Pret A Manger evil? I leave that to your imagination. Pret certainly is toxic, careless, cowardly and highly overrated. You can quote me on that.
I speak openly about my struggle with mental health, suicidal thoughts and other subjects to take the power out of it! The #1 cause of death in men in their 40s in Britain is suicide. Speaking about struggle takes the sting out and strips it of its power. But if anyone is having thoughts to hurt me in any way because I speak out. A friend asked me last year if I’m not nervous and looking over my shoulder because I write so publicly. No, I’m not. I’m looking straight ahead at my computer screen and keep writing. I almost even deleted above blog entry about life not worth living, for fear someone may take this in their own interpretation. Again, I am NOT making allegations, but I am taking power out of fear and my life is my life. My blog is my blog. My voice is my voice!
Again, I make no allegations towards anyone, but I suffer anxiety and I cannot suffer in silence.
I have sent this blog entry update to friends, journalists, former Pret colleagues, the Union and even to Pret’s current CEO Pano Christou, Pret’s press and HR departments, and itsu. Pret has been silent since I started writing publicly in May 2018. Pret has only played their usual PR tricks, some Pret people have contacted me or started following me whom I know are WITH Pret, but Pret have not responded publicly. To me, when someone is silent, it worries me more than when they right out fire back.
I may be unwell and struggle with life, but I am not stupid. And if anything happens to me, I want this to be investigated. It is disheartening that Pret has no courage to address what I write. But I am also thankful for writing and working through this nightmare.
I am proud, honoured and privileged beyond words to have put Pret A Manger on a wider map for people to see how and who they really are!
And Pret, when will you stop bullying, patronizing, victimizing and exploiting your hardworking employees? When will you accept a Union and stop firing people for joining or starting one? When will you stop being so greedy and cater to billionaire companies like Bridgepoint, JAB / Reimann and Co. Even hooking up early in the 2000s with McDonald’s. it was clear then where your “values” lie.
Yes, I may be crazy, but it takes crazy people to do what I do and stop caring what people think, especially those who don’t care about people in the first place. To those who support me and to those who withdrew: I’m sorry I hurt you. To Pret: I’m not sorry one bit!
And I keep writing.
Stay safe, wear a mask, share with, support and help those who are vulnerable. Comfort those who grieve and don’t let them suffer alone.
Also JAB Holdings under secretive 2nd richest German family Reimann with their Nazi past.
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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.
Al Sharpton’s eulogy has so many amazing metaphors that will have you discover things in time to come.
Let’s hope Lady Justice is colorblind!
“He died because there has not been the corrective behavior that has taught this country that if you commit a crime, it does not matter if you wear blue jeans or a blue uniform you must pay for the crime you commit.”
I pondered a lot about Emily Dickinson’s grief poems, especially one particular phrase: “grief is a thief”.
But to me grief is not a thief.
Premature death is.
Grief is just breathing out what death breathed in.
Grief is a gift, that helps unclutter the traumatic mess I find myself in.
Grief is no thief, it gives ground to the bottomless pit I keep dropping in, even though the ground is murky and dark, slippery slopes as far and wide as your eyes can see.
I keep sinking in, swallowed by tangible mud, being pulled down and I FEEL it and the darkness and the resistance to drown, and I fight this nonsense. No sense to taking life like that.
I’m an alien in a human land. I lost my way. But I grieve.
I grieve because I’m alive.
Life is no thief. Death is.
Grief is just breathing in and out a breathless life.
Grief is a gift because it tells me I’m alive.
Death is the thief that stole life!
Grief is that gift that let’s me feel the suffocating mud. Just about.
Life IS unfair
Good people DO die
Young people DO die
Bad people DO absolutely live long and die peacefully in their sleep … where’s the thief here?!
Grief sucks, but it is just a result of life breathing out what death took in.
Yeah death, you won again.
You came and took.
You didn’t ask permission
And guess what, now I won’t answer your non-asked permission to thieve!
But one thing you can’t do, you can’t steal my grief, because that’s mine un-apologetically, you fucker!
Grief is a Mouse —
And chooses the Wainscot in the Breast
For His Shy House —
And baffles quest—
Grief is a Thief — quick startled —
Pricks His Ear — report to hear
Of that Vast Dark —
That swept His Being — back—
Grief is a Juggler — boldest at the Play —
Lest if He flinch — the eye that way
Pounce on His Bruises — One — say — or Three —
Grief is a Gourmand — spare His luxury —
Best Grief is Tongueless — before He’ll tell —
Burn Him in the Public Square —
His Ashes — will
Possibly — if they refuse — How then know —
Since a Rack couldn’t coax a syllable — now.
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.
This link My Pret A Manger Ordeal is a simple and easier overview to link straight to some of the most important blog entries, summarizing my trauma with Pret A Manger. There is much more writing on my website / blog, but the links on the map are the main articles to narrow down, pointing to the main issues of my trauma with Pret.
On the “map”:
click on the – minus bottom right to decrease and get an overview of the whole map
click on the dots to expand or close menu.
click on the -> arrow on a particular title to link straight to the article
hold the mouse clicked, “grabbing” it to move map around as you would with Google map
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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.
I re-blog this because it is important. I have been on the UK mental health waiting list for therapy for 3 years now and haven’t even been diagnosed yet. But I believe I suffer PTSD or even C-PTSD with the double trauma of my brother’s complicated death AND having been bullied in Pret.
I sabotage myself now in pain and not wanting to go on.
I’ve lost hope, and now with the worldwide trauma of the virus how can anyone find help?
The podcast talks about what it is like to live with PTSD and constantly believe that something bad may happen. It also talks about coping skills one can develop to get out of the vulnerable state.
I re-blog this because it is important. I have been on the UK mental health waiting list for therapy for 3 years now and haven’t even been diagnosed yet. But I believe I suffer PTSD or even C-PTSD with the double trauma of my brother’s complicated death AND having been bullied in Pret.
I sabotage myself now in pain and not wanting to go on.
I’ve lost hope, and now with the worldwide trauma of the virus. I keep holding on to my mum’s survival.
The podcast talks about what it is like to live with PTSD and constantly believe that something bad may happen. It also talks about coping skills one can develop to get out of the vulnerable state.
My lashing out at people when drunk and the continued aim to not do that, apologizing, seeking professional help etc.
One person, I call XXXX, kept saying that there’s no need to apologize, it’s all healing etc.
And then, I lashed out within a group, and suddenly it wasn’t okay anymore because, the person felt their reputation was at stake but used another reason.
Double meaning, mixed messages, support only as long as they look good …
Only a few examples in private mails with the person. I sent these examples to the person and they supposedly do not read it. So, I speak out again publicly because people need to know how messed up I am, and how people play with it.
Me:
… And now, 2 years later I SCREAM online and Pret doesn’t do a thing!!!!!
And I lash out at people, in pain. … Nov. 2019 XXXX: It’s all good. Part of healing. Nov. 2019
Me:
… I’m sorry … I always let people down because I’m not what they think I am. … You people who have a lot to lose, fight for yourself. … I am still waiting for therapy abd a professional to tell me why I write this BS and lash out at people who mean well. … Nov. 2019 XXXX: You lash out because you are angry and hurt and speaking out helps you heal and understand what is going on with you and also helps release some of the inner stress… it’s not a bad thing, it’s a cry for help & a sign of healing… which is slow & painful and you need to allow yourself grace & heal in your own time and not scold yourself for the time it takes… Dec. 2019
Me:
… I know most of “you” (meaning people in general) are fed up with my rants and nothing happens. … All I want is peace, but I’m struggling with the German police as well. I’m sorry … Dec. 2019 XXXX: You have NOTHING to be sorry for! … Hugs Dec. 2019 (Struggling with the German police because I am still investigating why they did not find us and just cremated my brother without our knowledge and consent).
Me:
… I’m so sorry. I’m so terribly angry at the moment and letting it out on he wrong people while … I hate what I’ve become. … I don’t want to apologize anymore. It’s pretentious I think. I am very angry at myself. The therapy waiting list has gone for 2 years now. … Dec. 2019 XXXX: You were always going to have forward then some backward days. You’ll never know what’s going to trigger you next. It’s quite the process to heal. But you are healing. You are better than you were. And you can’t argue with me on that! … Dec. 2019
Me:
I am sorry for being such a disrespecting asshole. I have no excuse. Feb. 2020 You: Nothing to be sorry about. Feb. 2020
Me:
Please don’t say that. I appreciate your patience and kindness, but I am out of line!
etc. etc.
Here I was, lashing out at the person, apologizing, and being devastated at myself for having messed up again, and then always being told: “nothing to be sorry about” … “it’s ok” … “you are healing…” etc. etc. etc.
And once I lashed out in a group, this person suddenly called it “insults” and “venom”, because their reputation was at stake. I am really sorry I did that and disappointed them. Though, if people don’t take responsibility for their own words, and it’s always thrown back at the person who’s already in a mess, that’s very easy. People who have a lot to lose, will always put the blame 100% on the other person who’s the mess already. That’s human nature.
This is why “love bombings” and “sweet-talk” and what some call “toxic positivity” is pretentious and fake, and humiliating beyond words. It’s irresponsible and unprofessional as the person is a person of position, influence and authority. This person witnessed many times when I lashed out drunk (later deleting my Tweets in shock myself) as I copied them and others in, not ONE TIME did the person speak to me to work on this or stop this. Instead, always “nothing to be sorry about” … “you are healing” … etc.
It also reminds me of the gaslighting Pret A Manger put me through with Lila Warren, the Pret Development Manager who was tasked to sanction me. I share this in the audio player interview at the bottom of this page. Lila Warren told me in a FORMAL disciplinary meeting she held, that she also had a brother who died alone in his apartment and wasn’t found for days. Like my brother did. After extensive research with the name she gave me of her “brother”, her story is not all how she presented.
I am tired of people who play games in private, and then want to protect themselves in public. I am always suspicious when people are too positive and say nice things all of the time!
From a regular person without influence, I can understand, but not from this person. This person also never asked me any questions. Questions like, what kind of support or professional help I received to date or am still receiving, if any. What other support I may need. What the person itself could do to support etc etc. No questions. Just love-bombing and assuming I’ll be okay.
I am well worded, and this often keeps me from getting help as even mental health services think I’m okay. My medical file is long now and I want to put a stop to it.
I will keep lashing out, I cannot recover, I cannot and don’t want to have people close anymore.
To the person who wrote all these things for me to not be sorry etc. I know you meant well. I still and always will know you meant well. I know it when I see it! But you are a person of position, influence and authority, even power. You knew my trauma from the get go. I am the vulnerable person. You need to be responsible when you communicate. You know people from all walks of life, especially professionals, Psychologists, Police, Doctors etc. You could have asked anyone how to deal with a person like me. You could and should have told me in private that I should work on not lashing out instead of telling me continually that I have nothing to apologize for and that I am “healing”. I felt I even was healing, but then had a huge backlash that I didn’t see coming myself. It shocked me myself. You are used to making decisions that affect people’s lives. You are used to be “celebrated” and have people around you who agree on everything you do. That’s not healthy. You will be told that you did nothing wrong by the people who gather around you. I speak out because people need to know that you cannot trust people who say big words in private, to just drop you in a group. Maybe you need to be needed and then spread yourself too thin. I know you care and cared! But you should know better with your immense occupational and life experience. It makes me feel in hindsight that you just use vulnerable people to fill your own void or your need to be needed. I am truly sorry for the pain I caused. I never portrayed myself as a person who has it altogether. You care a lot, please seek help when dealing with traumatized people in private. Your words have weight!
They have weight. Please have more care and professionalism when dealing with vulnerable people. You cross boundaries when you are neither aware nor know of your responsibility in your private communications, as vulnerable people look up to you and make the mistake to trust you quicker with the influence you have. But you are just a human being who makes mistakes. But you don’t own up to it. You were irresponsible. I will not be used again or gaslit by people of influence. I seek peace and to forgive.
Anyone who thinks I need professional help: Please see the bullsh!t I’ve been through in the UK Mental Health service for years: Anger Management Classes for the Bereaved
“We are looking for volunteers who want to do the right thing and help society.”
HAHA!!! Good one Pret!
Below post I wrote on 31. March 2020 after being informed by a Pret staff about Pret wanting some staff to work in kitchens again DURING furlough under pretense of giving freebies to NHS and homeless people. In reality, apart from the typical PR stunt, Pret wants staff to be in place once the Government lifts the ban of closed businesses. And after first trying to cut hours/pay of all staff WHILE giving freebies in March, Pret now becomes “generous” to some staff.
UPDATE:17. April 2020 on Instagram, Twitter and I’m sure on other social media channels. Critical voices about Pret opening 10 shops:
Pret is sneaking into the kitchen and being caught with the hand in the cookie jar!
Let me translate the bullshit that Pret is doing now while Boris Johnson is in quarantine (having shaken hands with corona-virus patients!)
UPFRONT: Apart from the typical Pret A Manger PR, using NHS staff and now homeless people by wanting staff to work in Pret kitchens doing sandwiches for NHS & homeless people, Pret is VERY cheeky by wanting staff in place NOW during furlough, so when the government gives the green light for businesses to open again, Pret has already staff in place to get back to business FAST!
And after having tried to cut hours/pay by 25% DURING the first NHS freebies while the Covid-19 pandemic is in full swing, Pret NOW shows how “generous” they can be, selling this as “doing the right thing” while in reality putting their staff – who may be infected – in danger yet again! (My PLEA to NHS staff →LINK)
To Clive Schlee and Pano Christou,
how about YOU coming down from your arrogant, snobby, spoiled little hill, and do a “Buddy Day” for at least a week to fulfill the below “suggestions” from your Clare.
Part of the “Daily Pret” info from Pret HQ to staff on 30th March 2020:
My comments are in Italics below as a former Pret A Manger employee knowing this company’s bullshit inside out!
Here she is, Clare, on behalf of dwarfs Clive and Pano, quote:
I hope you have all been keeping safe and well since I last wrote to you. (since YOU last wrote?)
Since we closed our shops’ doors last Saturday, (after being forced via Government orders)
I have been very proud of the work that teams all across Pret have done to continue to support those in need. (while you use the NHS to cover up for not caring for your own workers’ needs…)
We made multiple donations of excess food and ingredients (multiple self-idolizing and self-promotion)
to charities and over 2000 cases of smoothies and snacks to NHS staff working at over 25 different hospitals. (yawn… the numbers… let’s talk numbers: Pret turnover 2019 = £710 Million Clive Schlee bonus 2018 = £30 Million JAB Holdings / Reimann worth £28 Billion Pret frontline staff £8.65 an hour Any more numbers, Clive Schlee and Pano Christou?!)
UPDATE 2024: Pret DEBT £700 Million
In recent days, we have started to think about how we might become part of the growing efforts to help the NHS frontline staff further whilst our shops remain closed. (In recent days – since being exposed by the Guardian via expret.org and my people the front-line Pret staff, we have started to think about how we might become part of the growing worry to keep our staff calm and away from the Unions and the press.)
We have been contacted by individuals as well as by NHS leaders and the project team for NHS Nightingale. (aw! cute! Social Media is something else, isn’t it?)
Today, we have started work planning to open a small number of kitchens from the 6th April. (have you now?)
These kitchens will start by producing a small range of products for delivery to NHS hospitals or staff quarters as well as enabling us to restart product donations to the homeless through our Pret Foundation charity partners. (That’s a mouthful! [and this sounds like an addict to greed – listen up!]
Let’s take this apart:
“kitchens will start by producing” – in need labour “delivery to NHS hospitals” – in need of business in the future “restart product donations to the homeless through our Pret Foundation charity partners” – “restart” … in need of reputation
Once open, (once open! There you go!)
we will be able to think about extending the number of kitchens and products (we will be able to sneak more shops in while the Government has announced closures and Boris Johnson has tested positive for Covid-19 – positive = meaning he has the virus y’all … or did he just call sick!).
and start working with 3rd party delivery partners to get Pret food to more people who need it. (Yeah right 😀 Good one!)
I am writing today to ask whether there are any members of our Pret family who would like to volunteer to return to a shop kitchen from the end of this week in order to support this effort. ( 😀 !!! I am writing to ask Clive Schlee and Pano Christou to do a “Buddy Day” to fulfill Clare’s request. Kindly. Please. Unless you are hiking the Austrian mountains in the snow!)
If you would like to volunteer, please email us at volunteers@pret.com by midday on Wednesday 1st April so we can get a sense of numbers.
(Yeah, I might email you on April Fool’s Day!)
Once we have identified volunteers, we will be in contact as soon as possible to confirm. (You do that, but I have to inform you that your workforce … uhm … volunteers are busy signing up for the Unions)
It goes without saying that the safety of our people remains paramount and I want to let potential volunteers know that we will be implementing new standards in our shops to support social distancing. The first day back in a shop will involve training on these new safety standards. (Oh Clare, please do try harder than this!)
Thank you in advance to those of you that will volunteer. I hope that by exploring this initiative we can play our part in continuing to support society, something we have always taken pride in. (Yeah! 😀 )
With love, (Big word, Pret, big word!)
Clare (with sh!t in their pants)
To Clive Schlee and Pano Christou,
how about YOU coming down from your arrogant, snobby, spoiled home, and do a “Buddy Day” for a week to fulfill the above appeal?
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The above slideshow is just a selection, the list goes on in → Pret Staff Complaints.
And extensive accounts of Pret’s systemic bullying behind the facade, also witnessed by customers: Caught in the Act at Pret.
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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 starve and 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.
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 starve and 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.
In December 2019 ITV screened a 3-part miniseries on workplace bullying. This is THE best production I’ve ever seen on bullying in the workplace.
For anyone who wants to understand how subtle bullying is, how seemingly harmless it starts, how it escalates, how vicious it is, how it breaks down a person and how it damages, please watch this. All the actors portrayed their role amazingly! So, amazingly convincing it will affect you.
But if you have been bullied this may trigger you because it is so well done! It is very intense, but very important to understand, spot and stop workplace bullying.
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. Schlee has been appointed CEO of itsu in 2024 by Julian Metcalfe who gave him the CEO spot at Pret many years ago.
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 and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou.
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 as well as mentioned by the BBC.
Please also see the MEDIA page for more on my work with the press.
Bullied during bereavement in Pret A Manger 
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