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.ย
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 โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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.
(Please be aware that the player shows 0:00 but just press play)
.
.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Nothing more to add … EXCEPT pointing out the spelling mistake! That reviewer wasn’t Pret perfect here!
“Oh no! Sorry about that. Could you DM us and let us know which shop this was from?”
— Pret A Merde
JavaScript required to view slideshow. May not work on mobile devices without Wifi.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Slideshow can be paused
The above slideshow is just a selection, the list goes on in โ Pret Staff Complaints.
And extensive accounts of Pret’s systemic bullying behind the facade, also witnessed by customers: โCaught in the Act at Pret.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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.
Interview:
ยฉ2020 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
The McLibel case was one of the longest cases in British history of 2 regular people against a giant company that took nearly 10 years. These people are my heroes, not just because they won half the case, but because they went further…
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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.
Interview:
ยฉ2020 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
NEW TRIAL in another allergy case regarding unlabelled sesame, after another student, Isobel Colnaghi, allegedly suffered a reaction to a Pret product.
Trial set for 02. November 2020:
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
UPDATEJuly 2020: Clive Schlee’s Twitter account was closed/deleted in the first week of July 2020. (This means that all the below links from his Twitter are deleted except the responses from staff, only screenshots exist now. Pano Christou, new CEO of Pret, closed his Twitter on 01. July 2019 after I tweeted to the press about Schlee’s โretirementโ while he remains as a Non-Executive Director in the background. Pano Christou communicates on Linkedin).
Remember Pret’s ยฃ1000 announcement to all Staff?
No, “Idee” is not a typo! Clive Schlee has a home in Austria and I like to rub it in, in German from time to time!
First of all, now former CEO Clive Schlee left a legacy behind that even a ยฃ1000 “bribe” couldn’t fix. Glassdoor and Indeed reviews by staff at the bottom of this page.
I wrote about this already on various blog entries and made an extra post, but I want to put a visual of the timing of the announcement here, and why this is important.
Pret A Manger’s now former CEO Clive Schlee made an announcement on 29. May 2018 on Twitter, welcoming the new owners of Pret, JAB Holdings under German billionaire family Reimann. The Reimann’s also own Krispy Kreme, Panera Bread and a list of other companies. The press is full recently of Reimann’s Nazi past, but that’s another story.
For my full story with Pret please scroll down to the interview in the audio player at the bottom of this post.
I started this blog and website in May 2017 under poetrasblok where I posted poetry and videos I made for my brother, who died in December 2014. I had another website before, but it was loaded with advertisement, and I wanted a clean looking homepage that didn’t distract the reader with blinking, and I mean literally blinking imagery!
After my ordeal with Pret I added the URL LateNightGirl.org to my website in May 2018, and then mid 2018 added expret.org, as Late Night Girl doesn’t make much sense for people who don’t know my story. In short, Clive Schlee labelled me his “late night girl”, so I put a “dot org” behind it! All three URLs will lead to this same site. Again, I explain in detail at the bottom of this page.
Late on 28th May 2018 I sent a link of this blog to an area manager I worked under, whom I know cannot keep a secret. I was angry still and wrote to the area manager that she can do with it what she wants. I know she can’t keep a secret because she sent my emails on after promising she wouldn’t and is in general VERY talkative, I just sent my link to her.
On 29th May I woke up before 7am and found my website statistics skyrocketed!!! Before that date I had just a handful of visitors every day, like 5 visitors one day, then 3 visitors the next, zero visitors, 10 visitors etc. Suddenly on the 29th in the morning it went into the hundreds, and to this day (4. December 2019) it is still the most visited day my blog has ever received! My website gets a lot of traffic now, but nothing like the 29th May 2018!
On 28. May 2018 late in the evening I sent my blog LateNightGirl.org to the area manager. On 29. May 2018 in the morning I could literally watch the visitors and clicks increase LIVE as they happen! From that day on my stats have increased visitors, but never as much as the 29th May 2018 to this day. (UPDATE 2021: my blog stats have increased since the writing of this post here. It’s much more visited now daily, but at the time of writing this post the 29. March 2018 was still the most visited day).
And on the 29. May 2018 Clive Schlee, then CEO of Pret, posted this tweet in the early hours:
And what do the public write? How wonderful Pret is and that the CEO is the BEST!
PR[et] at its best for sure! ๐
Now, I don’t believe that he just came up with the idea then and there to give ยฃ1000 to all staff, but I strongly believe the timing was due to him getting informed of my website late on 28th May 2018 into the 29th May, because in October 2018 staff were still waiting and going on Twitter frustrated why the bonus hasn’t been paid yet! And I know how Clive Schlee reacts when confronted with difficulties, he quickly counters with “charity” to win people over, sowing doubts that Pret ever would be harmful to people, staff as well customers.
So, I’m proud to have been part of getting all staff some extra cash, although I feel for them being fooled, as the timing of the announcement was premature and a typical panic reaction Clive Schlee does when he’s about to face difficulties or Pret is in danger of getting exposed.
A quick gesture and PR stunt was supposed to “eliminate” any doubts towards Pret, once, more people become aware of my website and exposing Pret for what they really are behind the facade. Frankly, Pret is not the ethical and caring company they portray to the public.
Weeks and months later though, staff got frustrated and confused on when the ยฃ1000 would finally be paid. And Schlee of course put responsibility downwards unto his managers, wanting staff to get away from public tweeting. I tweeted in his announcement feed, but got shadow banned at that time without realizing, as I didn’t know what shadow banning was then. But I did notice that my tweets weren’t visible when I was logged out. They are still there, but visible when one has the direct link.
So, here he is, making this announcement and when the going gets tough and staff complain on when the promise will “moneyfest” (sorry, couldn’t help it!) Schlee diverts to managers and the People Team (HR). In August, 3 months after the announcement, the first staff members started raising questions, some even started a Twitter account just to confront the CEO on his promise, as staff didn’t get any info from the shops. My response at the bottom is the only one that didn’t get shadow banned (secretly censored/hidden):
Kevin makes an important point about the timing of the announcement. What Kevin and all the others don’t know (he knows now), is WHY Clive Schlee announced it prematurely! I even posted the reason in September, but was shadow banned unbeknown to me at the time. I’m not sure if people got the message then and there. I retweeted the info a few times after that on different occasions on some of my “late night girl” shifts!
So, needless to say, “Stockholm Syndrome” is not my problem anymore, THIS is NOT my fault that he made this announcement prematurely, giving an untimely hope to all his staff! This is solely Clive Schlee’s TYPICAL panic reaction to a problem he faces!
My response to Meme was hidden as I must have been shadow banned at the time without knowing it. Meme in the USA doesn’t even know what the Pret “People Team” is, because in the U.S. many complain that they are discriminated against, British staff are preferred, they aren’t trained, HR is non-existent or a “joke” etc. My hidden/shadow banned tweet visible via my Tweets & Replies:
And the ridiculous slogan of Pret’s HR department:
One Team Member got it right, money isn’t everything, but family is!
Typo: Hay here means “employee” not employer.
Last complaint in that feed before the ยฃ1000 (ยฃ800 after tax) got finally paid out to those who worked longer than 1 year at Pret:
I am contacted by Pret staff who were warned that if they tweet or post openly on social media with any complaints, they get a disciplinary or dismissed.
But, basically the deal wasn’t finalized until September 2018. Managers and probably HR were in the air about it. Team Members thought Managers were secretive. But knowing Pret and managers, they were not secretive, they were CLUELESS because Clive Schlee made the announcement too early. On 29th May 2018 after being informed about my blog, he jumped quick to do a PR announcement, so that when the public becomes aware of my blog, they won’t believe me, but assume that Pret is so wonderful to its staff. Good one Mr. Schlee, but not good enough, because throwing money at a problem is just temporary while not working on the root issue.
It used to take 10 years service to receive ยฃ1000 and now suddenly all staff members would receive it even new employees after one year of service. If the CEO originally planned to give all staff ยฃ1000 only he knows, but staff on Facebook have complained that the 10 year ยฃ1000 reward has been cancelled.
When I worked in Pret still in 2017 Pret already cancelled the 5 year award of ยฃ500. So, it looks to me that the plan was to slowly faze out all these awards as Pret has entered the nasty business of fast-food workers exploitation even more now with the JAB take-over.
The ยฃ1000 announcement to all staff looks to me like a farewell gesture where no other awards will be given anymore as they did before.
So, the wording of the CEO “Today is a big day for Pret” … why TODAY when the sale wasn’t finalized?! Staff still waited in October for the promised cash, which by the way is around ยฃ800 after tax is deducted!
My thought: “TODAY” was the big day when Clive Schlee and Pret got confronted with my blog as I have declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal with Pret. And sadly only 2 people immediately saw through this PR stunt among all the euphoria:
Pret also suddenly became very selective in staff, even after the 3 months trial period being excellent in his work, this kitchen Team Member in the below link, who has a mental health issue did NOT get the job as Pret would have had to pay him ยฃ1000 after a year of service. Ben, the manager* of the Brixton shop even wrote the following to Hind from the Pret Foundation trust: (I added the bold but the manager wrote in capitals EVERY). *The OPs manager of the Brixton shop area is called Ben:
โPlease let him know that we were very impressed by his professionalism at work and always giving 100% in whatever he was doing. The quality of products he made were picture perfect EVERY time. Myself and the team would like to say a big thank you and we wish him luck in his new job and we hope he will pop by for a coffee on us whenever he is in Brixton as he will always be one of us.โ
In a nutshell, Sergio was only used for PR and he is oblivious to it and does what we all do when we believe nice sounding words. Sergio was treated exceptionally well, worked only Monday to Friday in the morning which is very unusual as Pret excepts staff to be flexible. Sergio was NOT pushed, and yet, even though they were impressed with him, he was excellent and his products picture perfect EVERY time, he wasn’t even taken on in the shop! They had no work for him… hello, anyone smell a rat??
He shares on this website of the Mental Health Club. I know him, because I am a member of the same Mental Health Club that Pret tries to infiltrate to fish for workers and mainly use people for PR. I cover this and the trap Sergio fell into extensively in my Open Letter to the Pret Foundation Trust. Even with this “generosity”, the recommendation on Glassdoor for Pret and the CEO in July 2019 (1 year after the ยฃ1000 announcement) speaks volumes. Clive Schlee “retired” with this legacy (while remaining in the background as a Non-Executive Director):
New CEO Pano Christou:
A recent review by a Manager which needs no addition:
For a detailed report on Pret’s systemic bullying environment with many reviews from the UK, Paris, USA from Workers, Managers and HQ Staff alike, please scroll down to the screenshot of —>Caught in the Act at Pret.
JavaScript required, may not work on mobile devices without Wifi.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Slideshow can be paused
ย DONATIONS
My blog is not monetinized & I choose not to use ads.
If you would like to donate, it would be appreciated. Thank you!
(I also take a donation of ยฃ1000 ๐ )
$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 โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post. An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret. I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review. Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
.
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited. ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
After my brother died, after we learned he was gone, dead and cremated already, just gone… and Pret being Pret, going to town trying to get rid of inconvenient, bereaved, traumatized employees…. I was holding on to Pret, to friends, to anything in sheer shock to make sense.
I lost my faith, I lost every purpose, I lost friends of course, I lost meaning, I lost my mind.
When people die a lot of things come to mind that you never thought of before. I never realized that my brother was always gone. I must have assumed because he’s my big brother with special allowances, he could stay out longer, got more pocket money, got away with bad grades etc.
After I learned he was gone for good now, I was always out, looking for him, walking and working and fighting and defending my mere existence in a company that got away with two customer deaths, staff suicides I seek investigation, having survived… No, don’t minimize me to “just” a bereaved person. Pret A Manger staff have died by suicide. And I will keep asking for independent investigation into these deaths.
I held on to a company, and to people I thought were friends.
And an old song popped up once in a while that has nothing to do with my life, but a person beyond the masses. I held on to the song as well… And I hold on to justice. And despite the song, I need to hold on.
There is a place for me Far far away On a distant moon Or on a silver screen With the perfect life Where you’ll never die You just pass me by
There is a place for me Far far away On a distant screen Or on a silver moon Stolen late one night With arms held high Screaming take me away
I could watch you 1000 timeS Row B Seat 13 Half a ticket In the silver light An entire universe between
There is a place for me Far far away Someone else’s dream Or in a magazine Postered over your bed Put your hands to your head Screaming take me away
I could watch you 1000 times Row B Seat 13 Half a ticket in the silver light An entire universe between
I’m the only one around Not a sound Just a breath of the settling In the flickering light.
There is a place for me Far far away On a distant moon Or on a silver screen In the perfect life Where you’ll never die In the perfect life Where you’ll never die In the perfect life Where you’ll never die You just pass me by
—ย “B-13” Jump, Little Children
Orchestra Version:
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
As I am busy in other areas of my life I will keep it short (hurray, you’ll say!) BUT… there are new rewiews and one I’d like to highlight…and it’s looong!
“With previous barista/ management experience I was excited to start work at Pret. I had interview and trial shift and then was offered barista job.While on the job I understood that certain management have their
favourites giving them favours and allowing them to work less then
others.
If you had any problem with work or coworker, managers encouraged you not to speak out, but if you complained they do nothing.
They like to sweep thing under the carpet. If you complain to head
office, they will promise you support, but really do nothing about it.
Pay, they pay above minimum wage but not allowing you to accept tips. They promise you bonus which is good in quieter shops, but If you work in busy place like station, you always loose the bonus as itโs too busy to
keep shop clean and immaculate at all times. So you better of working In
quieter Pret, because you work less and get paid more.
The job itself very busy and energy consuming. You make coffee non stop, and their coffee calling system is more stressful than effective. They ask
you to remember 10 drinks at the time. After few months of bashing out
the drinks non stop I have developed triggered finger. It took five months for my finger to heal after leaving this job, but in some cases it requires a surgery to get triggered finger back to normal according to NHS. They ask baristas to be very outgoing and entertaining, to create the buzz. So if you have a quieter more introverted personality you might struggle, as you are required to put on a show all day every day, they call it Pret behaviour.
Strange thing was that Pret ask you to read and sign a lot of training programmes with their standards, but in reality staff and managers donโt follow the standards (especially the hygiene standards such as washing hands), they only follow standards when area manager is around.
Managers always messed
up with the pay, mostly underpaying you. So if you work for Pret, keep
track of the hours. You end up chasing your pay afterwards. Also keep track of the pension contribution they pay you, I had to chase them to pay all the amount they deducted from my pay. They did pay in the end months later.
Some manager crossed the line by using phrase like โwork my slavesโ and on several occasions manager was casually pinching staffs bottoms as if it was ok, but it is not ok.
Another annoying thing was that they promote use of foreign languages, so if you only speak English you might struggle, as most people speak foreign languages and they donโt care that some people feel isolated and left out, since most employees are foreign. If you mentioned that to manager, you get reply โAre you paranoid that they talking about you?โ
Now the good things: you get paid break and free lunch. You also get paid, not always correct amount but at least get paid every week. And you getholiday pay, but then law requires them to pay you. Also you can take
all sandwiches home after finished work. Another good thing is that you
can have unlimited coffees, so if you like coffee like I do thatโs a bonus.
It is almost like Pret once was a great company but then became too big to keep control and order, as they have everything on the paper, but very little in reality.
Personally I would not recommend to work for Pret to a friend. But thatโs just my observation based on working in two different Pret shops.”
End Quote
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening. Interview: ยฉ2019 expret.org Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited. ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
NEW TRIAL in another allergy case regarding unlabelled sesame, after another student, Isobel Colnaghi, allegedly suffered a reaction to a Pret product.
Trial set for 02. November 2020:
I have already “introduced” the new CEO of Pret A Manger on a blog post in July 2019: Under New Management, but want to expand a little with the background of Tweets and blog entries.
UPDATE September 2023, as the below text was written in 2019:
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.
.
2019 post from here on out.
First of all, the latest review on Pret’s London Head Office from a current employee at the time of reviewing on Indeed:
Above comments and articles are only a fraction of a long list of staff reviews and complaints. For an extensive, yet not exhaustive list please visit: Pret Staff Complaints (list needs to be updated, I stopped in August 2019).
UPDATE: 28. October 2019
A very, very common occurrence in Pret by managers who bully their staff, but this time a customer witnessed this, which normally happens behind the scenes in the office, kitchen and staff rooms:
Full text:
Link to Tweet. The public is still fooled by Pret’s “ethical profile” facade.
For any new reader to my blog, at the bottom of this page is my story in an interview on a podcast based in California.
BACKGROUND
The reader may ask why I write so publicly and bluntly. Apart from having tried internally for 3 years to approach Pret, never sharing publicly what I went through and survived, Pret names, shames and blames shop managers and staff in general, when they fail or are not up to the standards Pret demands from them. Managers are called out amongst all the shops under fear management as well as upper management treating their managers and staff poorly in front of others. A recent review showed this again, and I can verify this:
Review by a Kitchen & Shop Leader in Chicago, but in London this happens as well, and shops are called out via Head Office emails across the whole company. Sure, shops that do extremely well are also mentioned, but this is about making others jealous to work harder to be on the top and not get called out. This is fear management by the book. So, it’s time for the top senior leadership to be called out after what I’ve survived.
I wrote extensively about Clive Schlee, who since September 2019 has “retired” as CEO of Pret, while remaining in the background as a non-executive Director: โ Clive Schlee’s Late Night Girl – Articles
But I want to give some background on how unprofessional Pret A Manger is.
The announcement that Clive Schlee would retire in September 2019 came on 01. July 2019 after I tweeted to the press, having read Schlee’s response to a well-wisher on Twitter the day before. The press then contacted HQ, got the confirmation and started “breaking” the news on Twitter.
Clive Schlee being all about himself again, while ignoring a Tweet a day before by a customer on excruciating work conditions (below Tweets).
I responded to the above well-wisher, and later tweeted to the press, as I told someone already months ago that Schlee would sneak out the back door quietly. I wrote about it hinting that this may happen in:
Clive Schlee, clumsy again and all being about himself, responded to the well-wisher’s Tweet on 30. June 2019, yet did NOT respond to a very serious health and safety issue of a customer Tweet on the 29. June 2019. The customer even tweeted twice. Schlee responded on the 01. July 2019 AFTER I wrote new blog entries about his retirement and after the press “broke” the retirement news from my Tweet.
This is Pret A Manger leadership:
First and Second Tweet to which Schlee responded on 01. July AFTER retirement news broke.
Customer: “It’s shocking they are not supported by decision makers.”
Don’t be shocked, that’s typical Clive Schlee and Pret A Manger!
I did an extra blog entry on the ongoing Air Conditioning issues with over-heated shops that I worked in as well. Many customers tweeted to Pret about this: Pret A Manger Staff work in Over-heated Conditions
The press then being the press, pretending to break the news with some “inside” knowledge, “broke” it after I tweeted to them. That’s why I tweet publicly and not hidden in emails or DMs.
CLIVE SCHLEE’S LEGACY:
… apart from two customer deaths (plus a third nearly fatal allergy reaction), several hospitalized, and all the ignored warnings, before AND after the deaths, he didn’t act until the deaths became public!
In fact, he was even clueless and seemed patronizingly proud to respond as the CEO to an open letter to Pret:
Large print of the patronizing, almost beguiling and self-absorbed, yet clueless response to the open letter:
ยปI 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 do have a charming, self deprecating writing style and it was very gracious of you to mention so many good things about Pret.ยซ
And then he puffs up in the typical psychological Pret style:
ยปI’m Pret’s CEO.ยซ
And Alicia Turrell is supposed to be impressed that the CEO himself responds to an open letter to Pret. Further in his response:
ยปYou also make your point about allergen information.ยซ
And here’s the bombshell from a CEO of a multi-million (now billion) pound company, that claims to be ethical and caring, and most ridiculously boasting arrogantly to be “doing the right thing naturally“:
ยปTo be honest, I’m 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.ยซ
And then he ends:
ยปIs there anything else that you would specifically like us to do?ยซ
End of quote.
I need to mention that I worked at Pret when TWO customers died, and not only were we as leaders NOT told about this, the “training” in Pret is always rushed and many have to train themselves in their private (unpaid) time. And we were not trained and there was no urgency after the deaths. We weren’t even informed nor hinted to be more diligent with allergen labelling and informing customers! Natasha Ednan-Laperouse’s mum Tanya, tells in an ITV interview of her shock that Pret did absolutely nothing, even after her daughter’s death: YouTube: โ Pret A Manger failed to change allergens policy following teenager’s death.
So, the ยฃ1000 PR bribe for staff didn’t fool the staff after all. I write about the timing of Schlee’s ยฃ1000-Announcement which came on the day when Schlee and Pret became aware of my blog: Timing of ยฃ1000 Announcement.
In mid July 2019 Pano Christou’s “clean” start on Glassdoor came after a person pointed out the poor Glassdoor scores to Pret’s Tweet of Schlee’s retirement:
Pano Christou has been with Pret longer than Clive Schlee, and apart from doing a few things differently, the staff exploitation and low pay will continue. He is no different to Schlee. It’s just a different face on the same profit driven company, now under JAB Holdings that competes with Nestlรฉ for the top spot.
Pano Christou deleted his @ChristouPano Twitter account on 01. July 2019 when I linked to it in “Clive Schlee’s Legacy“, as I had a lot of traffic on my website after having tweeted to the press, and I know that Pret periodically checks my blog and then reacts on Twitter. Christou also blocked me, while Pret and Schlee don’t block me, probably for a potential court case, should I raise a claim again. I explain in my interview at the bottom why I withdrew my Tribunal claim against Pret:
Christou’s handle then lead to a deleted page on 01. July 2019:
Since mid September 2019 a new Twitter account under the same handle @ChristouPano started. Seems to be from Canada. Someone snatched that handle, and I doubt Pret’s Pano Christou will have an official CEO account like Clive Schlee has.
So, Pano Christou deleted his Twitter account on 01. July 2019 after my blog entry on Schlee and tweeting to the press. The press then “breaking” the news, I’m certain he visited my blog that day where he saw that I linked to his Twitter account.
Mr. Christou doesn’t have a new official Twitter account as CEO, and Mr. Schlee still has his official Twitter account as CEO of Pret. This, I think is not because he’s clumsy here, I believe this is because many people don’t know that Pret has a new CEO, and knowing Pano, he will stay away from social media and always prefers to stay in the background. His former Twitter account even stated COO “@ Pret” not “@Pret”, as if to distance himself somewhat. Clive Schlee keeps his CEO status on Twitter probably so that when people tweet to him in the assumption he’s still the CEO, he can then pass on to Christou or Pret can respond. Clive doesn’t always check his own emails either and has communicated before that when he needed a break, someone trusted is checking his mail. So, I won’t be surprised if Pano is actually checking Schlee’s account as he can do, being the CEO now. It’s just that they keep fooling the public and don’t play with open cards, as usual.
Pano Christou came from McDonald’s management and started in Pret as an Assistant Manager (AM). Even though he likes to portray that he started at the bottom. Sorry, I worked with many AM’s who came from other companies, it’s not for long that they stay at the bottom. AMs work at Pret with a Team Member (TM) uniform for a few weeks or even just days, and then go straight into AM, and in a few months if they aim for it, become General Managers (GM). So, yes he started in shops, but he never was under the intense stress and low pay TMs are subjected to.
He will do things differently of course, as his personality is different, where he doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve or has “foot-in-mouth disease” like Clive Schlee has. But he will be the same in a profit-driven, exploitative company under the new owners, the German Reimann family via JAB Holdings, that aim to topple Nestlรฉ off the throne and expand their wealth.
Christou became UK Managing Director after Andrew Walker left the position and went to other companies, later becoming the CEO of sandwich chain and biggest competition, EAT. until he left in August 2019 when JAB / Pret purchased EAT.
When JAB bought Pret in late 2018, Christou became the COO of Pret, a role that didn’t exist before JAB took over. This already indicated that it was only a question of time before Christou would be CEO of Pret.
When he finally became CEO officially in September 2019, but to avoid further bad scoring for Schlee, already was placed on Glassdoor in mid July, a new UK Managing Director, Clare Clough (former Director of Food and Coffee) was announced mid September, yet no new COO. Clare Clough was also the person who was tasked to face the press in an interview on ITV. She was caught off-guard (at 1:08 minutes into the video) on the fact that if Pret would have taken allergen labelling seriously 3 – 4 years ago, Natasha Ednan-Laperouse would still be alive.
Alicia Turrell who wrote the open letter to Pret with Schlee replying makes a good point again on why Clive Schlee wasn’t interviewed:
I mention this as well because Clare Clough seems to be more courageous and effective compared to Pano Christou, when he was the UK Managing Director. Clough has already been more visible from the get go as a UK MD compared to Christou.
PANO’S STYLE
It seems that the COO role was just an interim position for Christou to step up to the CEO role. No new announcement has been made on a new COO.
When I worked at Pret, I was a Team Leader for most of the 10 years I worked there. I had access to internal Pret emails, and the main thing I saw Pano doing, apart from being the shadow of Schlee, was sending out emails that seemed to have been like death announcements. He also wrote mainly in the internal Pret magazine for staff and did other email announcements.
I received the news of my brother’s death via a short and sharp email, which among other emailing issues from work, has thrust me into an emailing spree (from my private email account at home, never from Pret’s email accounts, just to clarify that). I talk about this in below audio interview. But when I was a Team Leader and checked the emails in the office, doing the ordering, communicating with other shops and area managers etc. email would come in at times from Pano. These emails started something like, “It’s with great sadness that I have to announce…”
Every time a mail like this started, my heart dropped and I thought, who on earth has died?!
He then went on to write something like, “It’s with great sadness that I have to announce the closure of one of our shops in such-and-such a street/town…”.
Sorry, what?!!!
I remember still being shaken and wobbly reading this, then getting upset! He wrote in such dramatic way about a freaking shop closure as if someone died! None of us low-paid staff cared if Pret lost a few thousand pounds from their millions! Even all the numbers and profits Christou shared, when Pret broke another record of having taken a certain amount of millions per week, we staff plainly didn’t care. Our pay check remained the same for years, we didn’t get a pay-rise except what the Government raised. And the ยฃ10 for all staff received for this “achievement” that Pret handed out, or later even worse, ordering a cake per shop for all shops, felt more like an insult than a reward. I remember one colleague saying about the cakes, that it would be better to get nothing than to be served up with a cheap sugar cake for all our hard work. Cakes often ended up hardly eaten, stale in the fridge.
So, Pano Christou will not be on social media, especially with my public confrontation. He will have learned from Clive Schlee’s clumsy social media presence, and avoid being public as much as he can. He will communicate internally and continue to present this shiny PR[et] facade to lure in workers with a slightly higher pay and other incentives. But he will keep them at that level and brainwash them like Pret does best.
But staff will always speak bluntly in anonymity, how reality is behind the facade. And the Unions will continue to unionize employees, and others will start speaking out openly.
ยปIt’s amazing to me how many business leaders separate their employees from their customers/patrons. Your employees are your core target audience to put word-of-mouth out about your organization.ยซ— @minmilyjung on Twitter
JavaScript required to view slideshow. May not work on mobile devices without Wifi
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Slideshow can be paused
The above slideshow is just a selection, the list goes on in โ Pret Staff Complaints
Staff review: “Bad managemet, always being ‘hounded’.”
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
How to guarantee a return to the business with vibrant, consistent service and a generous approach.
As recommendations of Pret A Manger customer service has increased lately which look like recruited Tweet, with praise for the great staff who with smiles, helpfulness and generosity are impressing customers, after I spilled the beans on why staff are so “happy”, I want to put into one blog entry the secrets for this. There has been an increase of Tweets about the “great” and smiley staff in Prets, calling them by name etc. These are obviously RECRUITED Tweets as I have been exposing Pret A Manger on their bullying culture and the forced happiness.
Anyone can research and see that these Tweets started increasingly around mid October 2019 with 2 – 5 Tweets like these daily. How much did Pret pay those recruits? A free coffee? A ยฃ5/$5 gift card? Pret has no courage to respond to me, so they do their typical tricks to continue to fool the public.
UPDATE November 2019 / February 2020
And here’s the proof that Pret recruited people to tweet! ๐
With the collections I do of staff reviews, of course Pret stole the idea to collect their own customer reviews. YET, Pret keeps missing to have genuine staff reviews on Twitter as they don’t want me to confront recruited staff Tweets.
Why are staff who earn ยฃ8.65 an hour, always seemingly so “happy”, chatty and smiley in a highly intense, noisy, hot and stressful work environment for 8 – 10 hours daily?
In short: Mystery Shopper cash incentives and fear management.
I put a YouTube slide together with some of the questions weekly Mystery Shoppers (MS) are tasked by Pret to test staff on in every shop. In the slide I concentrate on the smiley service.
A customer witnessed a bullying incident that usually happens behind closed doors! In this post, scroll down to the screenshots of reviews and Tweets on what many staff experience behind the scenes:
When the MS visit has been successful, all the staff in the shop receive their weekly bonus, which is ยฃ1 extra per hour worked that week. BUT, those who are sick that week, even just for one day, and those who come to work late, will not receive the bonus. Many Managers use this for fear management. If a Manager doesn’t like a particular Team Member, and that TM is late even just 5 minutes while usually being on time mostly, the boss cuts their bonus. No mercy. I worked with colleagues who even got their bonus cut when they came to work unshaven. Or I myself was threatened with a bonus cut when I forgot something banal. So, if a staff member received bonus and worked 40 hours that week, they get an extra ยฃ40 on top of their wages.
Additionally, if an individual staff member, including the manager do “outstanding” service and impress the MS, for example by giving free coffees or other items, this individual employee can get an extra ยฃ100 or even ยฃ200 if all the scores are perfect.
I write extensively about the free coffee “myth” in Pret and why many customers never get a free coffee in years, while others receive free items weekly, some even daily:
Managers receive their bonuses each quarter on a variety of issues like profit, how much/little waste they have, how much they managed to save on labour, cutting hours (Pret under-staffs throughout the board to maximize profit and Manager’s bonus), routine health and safety checks etc.
But the biggest chunk of Managers, upper Managers and regional Leaders bonuses is the Mystery Shopper results. That’s why staff are stressed intensely about this.
I had one Manager take me aside as I was the Team Leader and say to me: “I close my eyes to everything, but not the Mystery Shopper”. Meaning, if I made mistakes or even did dodgy things with health and safety, the cashing up, the Team etc. he would close his eyes and not get me in trouble. But if the Mystery Shopper results were poor, I would get in trouble, as part of Team Leader’s responsibility is to “engage” the Team to always smile etc. Like a cheer-leader. The above YouTube slide shows this clearly.
Not floating my own boat, but I had most of the time excellent MS results and still even kept the MS reports for my protection as one Area Manager targeted me alleging I didn’t engage the Team, while Mystery Shopper after Mystery Shopper and even regular customers said otherwise and constantly commended my Teams. Quite sad that I had to keep those reports for my protection. But for me, even if Pret would have scrapped the Mystery Shopper scheme, I would have still worked the way I worked as I love people and customers pay a lot of money for products.
I did not “push” my colleagues to smile, be friendly etc. I encouraged my Teams, I asked them how they were, I gave them extra breaks if they were exhausted, sick or depressed, I supported them and cared about them. And that reflected on their service and in interacting with each others and the customers. But the general tone in Pret is to “force” staff to smile, at times threatening them with disciplinary and even job loss. I’ve seen, heard and witnessed it all and had to console many many times Team Members crying in the staff room or on their way home.
Only two of the many Mystery Shopper comments below. The MS commented on both individual Staff Members and all the Teams as a whole in our service.
Excerpts from two different Mystery Shopper and shops/team: (Ctrl & + to zoom in)
So, shops are tested on if they have a certain amount of selection set for a certain time of the business times, are tested on cleanliness, how the overall atmosphere of the shop is, if the service doesn’t take longer than 1 (one) minute etc.etc. etc.
But the most important thing that shops are tested on is customer service. Are individual and all staff smiling, seem happy, chatty etc. The above YouTube slide goes into detail on this. Pret does not care how staff feel, if they are bereaved, depressed etc. I was traumatically bereaved and was bullied and targeted when the Mystery Shopper commented that I didn’t smile. I did smile most of the time and have that in black and white (sad to say!), but there is no mercy, no empathy as profits are more important.
An excellent article about this I found and commented on: “How Emotional Labour Harms us all” is about the increasing competition in the service industry and how low-wage workers are forced to perform emotional labour and a big hype to create the impression they are so happy in the company.
So, people seem to have been “recruited”, even on the Pret USA Twitter feed, to tweet about the smiley and great staff calling them by name and the shop. All these Tweets sound similar and seem to have been organized. It’s also easy to see that they are recruited because hardly anyone responds to my Tweets, so they know about my writings ๐ . But my response is important as new readers find these Tweets who don’t know about Pret’s Mystery Shopper scheme.
These “recruited” Tweets have massively increased since the beginning of October 2019 like I’ve never seen before, since I read Pret Tweets from 2018. These customer Tweets started at about the second week of October 2019, after I increasingly blog and tweet about the Mystery Shopper in Pret. It’s also clear they have been recruited as hardly anyone responds to my Tweets about the Emotional Labour and Mystery Shopper incentives, meaning these people who tweet know about me and my writings.
Also, knowing Pret and how they “respond” indirectly to my writings, they will NOW (compared to before) pass on these Tweets to the shops, so that staff think Pret cares. Pret has lost lots of staff, of course many apply for jobs, but my blog and others is a sore in Pret’s sight. So, the idea is now to encourage staff, which is good, but work conditions remain the same while staff continue to get brain-washed.
Of course it is better that customers go on Twitter & Co to commend staff (many wordings are similar ๐ … come on people, at least make an effort and get more creative!), than to complain about low-wage workers publicly, who in turn cannot defend themselves as they are unaware that they were just negatively called out, even by name on Twitter.
Yet, I respond as a former Team Leader having survived this abuse and fear management, that the reason why staff, some of whom are depressed, even suicidal, seem so happy, is the reality of Mystery Shopper cash incentives and fear management. People need their jobs, have kids to raise and Uni tuition to pay. And the staff reviews on Glassdoor and Co including YouTube, Twitter etc. give a grim reality how depressing it is to work like this.
One such review is THE most poignant report on behind the scenes in Pret. It’s from a kitchen worker who also had to jump in to do customer service with fake smiles, as shops are always understaffed.
The review is the one that starts with the large red letters in below slide show: “This job can annihilate every piece of humanity inside of you.”
and ends: “You will lose everything that makes you human.”
JavaScript required to view slideshow. May not work on mobile devices without Wifi
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Slideshow can be paused
The above slideshow is just a selection, the list goes on in โ Pret Staff Complaints
So, dear Pret Customer, if you have been recruited to leave recommendations of Pret staff or not, only you know, but I am writing to make people aware of WHY low-paid employees in a high intense, stressful work environment, with often bullying managers (NEW incident caught by customer), smile so much against their true emotions. I was recommended many many times by customers and Mystery Shoppers on my professional, friendly, generous and smiley service. But no-one knew that at times I left my shift headed for the bridge. My story is in the below audio player in an interview on a podcast based in California.ย
There’s a reason why CEO Clive Schlee “retired” with such poor scores on Glassdoor & Co and the general Pret staff scores, as staff dare to speak out anonymous more than on the often rigged annual Pret questionnaires.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Those are the words of the wife of Pret A Manger’s now former CEO Clive Schlee, who “retired” in September 2019! (while remaining as a non-executive director in the background pulling the strings and babysitting the new CEO).
On the question of Pret’s success and how much of it was luck or hard work, the CEO responds:
On a side note, Clive Schlee here continues to say that Pret had “natural” food, even though Pret has been successfully sued for having Glyphosate in the food and having to take the word “natural” off signage and labelling. I write about this in “Pret A Manger – Ready to (ch)eat“.
But this interview is full of @&%!… I can’t believe he keeps getting away with it, and I ask myself what does it take to face the truth away from the delusion?!
The problem with companies that have fools running it is, they may endanger their clients and employees lives. God forbid customers number 1. die, number 2. the company doesn’t do anything until these fatalities become public, and 3. get away with it!
And God forbid that this company gets away with not one, but two customer deaths, a third nearly fatal and numerous hospitalized …
And of course who would think that a CEO would sneak out quietly into early retirement, remaining a non-executive Director in the background, working on fixing his reputation with some more charity work and finally reaching out to low-paid workers?
What company would have a fool running its business and ruining a lot of people’s lives?
Good thing the facade of Pret is still in tact! Let the free coffees flow to put the public back to sleep!
That’s all that counts these days.
So, ยปany damn fool can run Pret!ยซ, and certainly any damn fool can ruin it!
Legacy of a Fool:ย
Glassdoor July 2019
One of my many articles about and to Clive Schlee, one of which I dedicate to his farewell gift:
I continue to ask for INDEPENDENT investigations into staff suicides!
I worked at Pret A Manger for almost 10 years and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
I worked at Pret A Manger for almost 10 years and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
.
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
I never expected to be carrying my big brother, his ashes in my arms to his grave. Not this early, not this soon. If at all in my 70s, but not mid-life. I never imagined not knowing for 5 weeks that he was dead! I never dreamed that they would not make enough effort to find us, my mum who lives just 70km away from my brother’s city, living at the same address for 30 years with a German ID system in place!
I still speak with the police and hear the same excuses.
I still am numb to know how to cope or survive.
It’s still a nightmare I want to wake up from.
My pain is 95% anger and I can’t recover.
I found video on YouTube where this happened to a family in the U.S.
It happened to a family in the U.S. similar as it happened to us in Germany. Different circumstances, but two same things: someone died and was cremated without finding the family first!I wonder how the family is now? What they managed to find out or reach.
Germany is known for its efficiency and thoroughness has shocked and devastated me! Carelessness, indifference and sloppy police work know no boundaries! I have lost faith in this “efficient” system.
My brother died and was found in his flat, approximate date of death six days before he was found. Police didn’t do their work properly to find us, then cremated my brother without our consent. We didn’t know for five weeks that he was dead and gone… completely gone…
A year or so later I was told by a customer who used to be a police detective after I asked him for advice, that when the police doesn’t find anything suspicious they close the case fast to avoid paper work! Of course if one of their own was found dead, they would move mountains to find the cause and family!
When I speak to the German police now, either silence or pushing responsibility away. I don’t feel I can ever recover and remain on autopilot. There is no life. And I let my brother down.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present poetrasblok.com unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
(from: Noch frรผher mal โ Text & Music: Felix Meyer – translation: poetrasblok.com)
The gate opens, it shines, it sparkles and
A man dressed in white appears โ they say he’s innocent
A corpulent blonde angel stretches out its hand in peace
And some noise abounds, but in their own sphere
Yes, it betrays itself into its deepest dreams
And can’t accept its own outward love
It despairs again in its own grief
And can’t believe to ever succeed
In the land where sunflowers shine
And old weeping willows weep
Stories are told of forget-me-nots
If they really existed long time ago
And if his fate was known by someone
But all this may never come to light
Never come to light
She says her life is like a box of chocolates:
Not unwrapped yet, but already devoured
They claim that the box is still filled
But once it’s your turn, it’s already empty
Whenever it fits, she likes to compare eyeballs to light-bulbs
Olympia is a friend she always wanted to have
To tell her what her father and TV always say,
That all that counts is love
When sunflowers shine
And weeping willows quietly weep
Then it’s summer and we forget easily
That someone’s standing next to us
Who realizes that nothing’s working anymore
And nothing comes to light at the end of the day
If someone really lived here long time ago
And if his fate found empathy
We can only speculate, but no-one knows for sure
No-one knows
– Translation of “Noch frรผher mal” from Felix Meyer by poetrasblok.com
Original German:
Noch frรผher mal
Das Tor geht auf, es glรคnzt, es blinkt und es erscheinen
Ein Herr in Weiร – es heiรt, dass er unschuldig sei
Ein dicker blonder Engel, der freundlich die Hand reicht
Und ein paar Fanfaren, doch die sind fast schon einerlei
Ja sie belรผgt sich gern bis tief in ihre Trรคume
Und kann dann selber nicht mal glauben, wenn sie liebt
Verzweifelt regelmรครig an ihrer Verzweiflung
Und kann’s nicht fassen, wenn’s was zu gewinnen gibt
In dem Land, wo Sonnenblumen scheinen
Und alte Trauerweiden weinen
Erzรคhlt man die Geschichte vom Vergissmeinnicht
Ob es wirklich frรผher mal gelebt hat
Und ob sein Leid jemandem Leid tat
Das alles kommt wohl heut bestimmt nicht mehr ans Licht
Nicht mehr ans Licht
Sie sagt, ihr Leben sei genau wie die Pralinen:
Kaum offen, machen sich die Alten drรผber her
Behaupten schmatzend, dass das immer noch halb voll sei
Doch wenn man endlich dran kommt, ist die Schachtel leer
Wenn’s passt, vergleicht sie gern Augรคpfel mit Glรผhbirnen
Dann ist Olympia die Freundin, die ihr fehlt
Um ihr zu sagen, dass es Quatsch ist, wenn ihr Vater
Und auch das Fernsehen sagt, dass nur die Liebe zรคhlt
Wenn bei uns Sonnenblumen scheinen
Und Trauerweiden leise weinen
Dann ist es Sommer und dabei vergisst man schlicht
Dass neben einem oft mal jemand steht
Der merkt, dass so nichts weitergeht
Und trotzdem kommt am Ende nichts ans Licht
Ob hier wirklich noch frรผher mal wer gelebt hat
Und ob sein Leid jemandem Leid tat
Kann man sich denken, aber wissen tut man’s nicht
Wissen tut man es nicht
Note: If you prefer to read with a green background, not white, please delete the amp/ in above url and reload. Linked from Twitter, for some reason it has white background and an addition to the url.
UPDATED July 2022.
Before I get into the detail of the ongoing issues of broken and inadequate Air Conditioning in Pret A Manger shops for YEARS with open doors, and Pret not caring about it, I want to paint a picture from the perspective of staff. I want to explain to new readers WHY Pret staff EVERYWHERE smile so much, are friendly, helpful, give freebies EVEN during excruciating 40 degrees heat in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. In short: Mystery Shopper cash incentives and if they fail, fear management. And as low-wage workers have kids to feed or uni tuition to pay, they feel stuck, exhausted, fear managed, not realizing they should join a Union and should strike.
I want to also mention that Mystery Shoppers just do their job and go down a list of questions they are suppose to test staff on. BUT I also want to mention that Mystery Shoppers don’t care either, because I worked for prolonged times in various shops in 40 degree heat, and NOT ONE Mystery Shopper made a comment on it, compared to regular customers who witnessed this for days and weeks.
I briefly explain below that staff have cash incentives via weekly Mystery Shoppers. They can earn up to an extra ยฃ200 individually ON TOP of their wages AND team bonus, if the Mystery Shopper is extra impressed with the individual Team Member’s service. If any staff member loses the bonus for the whole team because their service isn’t with a smile or whatever else the Mystery Shopper (I call them “Misery” Shopper) isn’t happy with, that Team Member and the Team get fear managed, because the MS bonus scheme counts towards the biggest chunk of Manager’s and upper Management bonuses.
Below Tweet regarding “group incentive” in reality is peer pressure and fear management, so everyONE is ALWAYS on their toes at all times. And customers are fooled, thinking staff are so happy in Pret and Pret is such a great company bla, bla… But staff who only dare to complain on review sites anonymously know better and let off their anger against Pret.
This above Tweet is from 2013, now in 2019 the hourly wage is ยฃ8.25 – 8.65, but staff have to work double for it and constantly smile etc.
etc. etc. etc.
One of many Mystery Shopper report excerpt:
Staff have to serve customers within 1 min of a person joining the queue and serve the coffee/drink within 1 minute of the customer having made the payment. Staff have to smile, make eye contact and brief conversation with EVERY customer. THAT is why they are still on this robotic autopilot even in 40ยบC+ heat. I know, I’ve work in these conditions, brain-washed, fear managed, even during bereavement!
Mystery Shopper excerpt: (Click Ctrl and + to enlarge)
What customers experience as heat and 35-40ยบC, for staff behind the counter it’s 40+ยบC. I lived in Florida for a few years and KNOW that it IS possible to have adequate air conditioning in businesses that make millions. We have just become so accustumed to being exploited and brainwashed that we have no choice but to work under such conditions.
Dear customer, imagine yourself BEHIND the counter for an 8-10 hour shift! Look at this picture from brummie_photography on Instagram from a Birmingham shop. This shop at least is very airy, looks like a station or airports are like this. But most Prets have low ceiling, cramped areas, no air-flow. If the air conditioning then is broken or inadequate, it’s literally HELL in there!
I count about 11-12 Team Members (TMs) behind the counter (and worked like this myself):
Behind that counter of about 10 Sq Meters space there are:
In the shop the fridges (called Langars in Pret) blow out hot air from the back
Behind the counter and behind Team Members 2 – 3 coffee machines with heat and hot water/coffee
To the left or right or behind TMs 1 – 2 hot toastie machines
In most shops 1 – 2 hot ovens that are at the counter area (not like here in an extra room)
In front of TMs are the black hot croissant plates under the glass counter (I often switched it off in the summer!)
From above beaming bright lights on the low ceiling burning on their heads. Years ago staff members even had to wear caps no matter how hot. In Pret USA shops they still wear caps!
Large windows without any marquee for sun protection
Open doors so that shops don’t look closed from the outside when people walk by. This has been changed recently after environmentalists increasingly raised the issues regarding waste of energy. Unfortunately the same environmentalists don’t seem to bother about the staff burning in the heat!
And from ALL AROUND hot body heat from colleagues who stand next to each other like sardines in a can! I felt my colleagues’ body heat left and right! Bad breath, sweaty smelly air, not allowed to drink water behind the counter or shop floor during work or use mints/peppermint gum!
And in many shops TMs are NOT allowed to drink water behind the counter for *irony on* “health and safety reasons” *irony off*. And are not allowed to go to the staff room to drink during the coffee and lunch time rush! I always broke that rule and went against manager’s instructions and let my team drink WATER!!
What for customers is excruciating in a few minutes, these low-paid workers endure ALL DAY every day. One TM in 2011 when I worked in one terrible shop like this, got pneumonia as she was going in and out of the walk-in fridge switching temperature between under 5 degree Celsius in the fridge and 35 – 40 degrees in the shop and kitchen.
Not to mention that the fridges are warm with food and drink stored in them. I had to throw out many times ยฃ100s worth of food and drink after having taken temperatures of food and juices, much to the dismay of my bosses! But I didn’t care about the money. As a Team Leader, Health & Safety was not only part of my job description, it was my top priority! I didn’t even eat my free meal allowances in Pret during my breaks when the food was warm! Why would I subject paying customers to that, getting them food poisoning!!
My complaining and raising the issue never got me far in a Pret career, and neither did I care!
With most shops having low ceiling, loud music, rude customers, the 1 minute Mystery Shopper rule, a stressed and often bullying manager or team leader… Welcome to the REALITY of Pret A Manger!
Apart from the hellish work conditions for staff, this also affects the food. A customer complained regarding food poisoning from a New York Pret and noticed that the shop was warm:
I link to a blog entry at the bottom on WHY staff smile ALL THE TIME come rain come shine!
I worked twice in shops with 40 degrees heat for weeks and months raising the issue. I was told if I speak to HQ my career is over. The manager who told me this and didn’t know how to make this issue urgent left Pret soon after. But we begged customers to speak to Pret on our behalf.
Below is a list of only a few customer Tweets, not everyone comments publicly. But this problem with inadequate little air cons in every Pret shop persists. Staff are surrounded by hot machines, body heat, beaming lights from above, ovens, toastie machines, hot plates where the croissants are on, large windows where the sun beams in … And the staff are still expected to do Emotional Labour, smile and pretend to be cheery so they don’t lose the Mystery Shopper bonus when they visit once a week.
I was often very disheartened that the weekly Mystery Shopper didn’t even mention the heat.
I worked at Pret for 10 years and this is an endless problem Pret knows about, but doesn’t fix unless customers go online, or staff persist. Staff became sick, one even with pneumonia because of the morning delivery check going inside the walk-in fridge back and forth between 30 degrees heat and then 3-5 degrees cold. That’s when I drew the line and asked for a transferal, not realizing many shops have this issue.
My traumatic story with Pret in the audio player interview at the bottom of this page.
I will say it loud and clear again to any new reader who does not know my and other staff story and blog: Pret A Manger does NOT care for their low-paid workers! They do NOT care!!!
Please take the time and really listen and look! Pret has been very successful with presenting an image of an “ethical” company! But having ignored customer warnings on allergen labels EVEN after two customers died, should ring massive alarm bells! But the public is lulled in again and want to believe the Pret fairy tale.
And Pret responds often with “oh dear” … “oh gosh” … “oh no” … “we are concerned to hear this” … bullshit, fooling the public as if this was a one-off. I really appreciate the anger and concern customers show for staff who suffer in this hell, while the millionaire senior leaders and Twitter staff sit in air-conditioned Head Office! Thank you for speaking up on behalf of low-paid workers!
3 of the most recent customer Tweets from days ago on the air conditioning problems in Pret. I didn’t go further beyond 2016, and even found one from 2013 … But this is forever going on!
1st Tweet — & — 2nd Tweet where Clive Schlee took a day to even respond, while on the day of the complaint he responded to another Tweet of someone wishing him farewell for his retirement (before the press got wind of it when I tweeted the press)! But the CEO was not concerned about the AC issue, even after 2 customer tweets!
Second customer Tweet 03. July, and Pret has NOT responded yet (06. July)!
25. July 2018 Whitehall. Pret here lets Teams have extra break instead of putting on the BRAKES to stop the work in these hellish conditions!
26. July 2018 Euston. Pret slimey and patronizing response they always do when someone with an official Twitter account tweets: “Oh they’re all stars aren’t they?”
I love this follow-up Tweet, and yet it’s very sad that Pret only listens to customers and let staff boil in hell! I can say again to any reader, please believe me when I say that Pret does NOT care for staff except when it is for PR or when they get caught!
13. Sep. 2016 Adwych / 182 Strand. This is one of the two shops I worked in where the AC was broken for MONTHS. That was in 2011!!!
2013 And the staff still working FAST as Pret demand the 1 minute time of service via the Mystery Shopper!
… and so on …
These days Pret keeps the doors closed, but ONLY because of the Extinction Rebellion revolution. Pret only goes with pressure from the masses and what is “trend”. If staff suffer in the heat, doesn’t matter to them. The reason why Pret usually like the doors open, winter and summer is so that the shops don’t look closed from the outside, meaning customers walk by oblivious that it’s open. And it’s true, I walked by shops that seemed to be closed, because the door was closed and it looked darker inside. So, to avoid losing money, Pret likes to keep the door open, except lately since the waste of energy and environmental activists being on Pret’s case. But concerned for staff? Don’t believe a bit of it!
So, thank you to all customers and maybe next time, start a mass petition for Pret to act FAST!! Because this is an ongoing issue and Pret has the public fooled and staff feel stuck, because they are not paid sick days the first two days!
Employees remain professional because they have to in case the Mystery Shopper comes and all the Team loses the bonus. I write about this in “How Emotional Labour Harms us all” and “The Truth behind the Pret A Manger Smile” and why staff really keep smiling even during the most excruciating heat and work conditions.
Staff speak out, even if only anonymous on review websites (below).
JavaScript required to view slideshow. May not work on mobile devices without Wifi.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Slideshow can be paused
The above slideshow is just a selection, the list goes on in โ Pret Staff Complaints
Link: >>>Two Pret Staff have DIED recently One is said to be a suicide. It’s not the first suicide in Pret. I survived. If I would have gone over the edge, to my current knowledge, mine would be #3 and it would be in connection to Pret!
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Even though putting this interview between Clive Schlee and Mario Bauer on here, I am indirectly making advertisement for Pret, and Clive Schlee and Pret like to peek here once in a while, but I want to do a reality check on this conversation from 02.07.2019.
He and Pret have announced on Monday 01.07.2019 (after I tweeted to the press and the press “broke” the news) his “retirement”, but remaining as a non-executive Director.
I find this interesting in many ways. First, when JAB took over Pret they reshuffled the top team pretty quick, including axing co-founder (or “re-founder”) of Pret Sinclair Beecham and HR Director Andrea Wareham.
Quote: “Filings show that CFO Mr Jones, former chairman Larry Billett, HR director Andrea Wareham, co-founder Sinclair Beecham and US president Joanne Brett had all been terminated as directors from parent company PAM Group Limited.” – Daily Mail
Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham re-founded Pret again in 1986 after a short run of the original Pret which was founded in 1983 by Jeffery Hyman. Funny enough, up until the two customer deaths became public, the Wikipedia entry on Pret never showed this info regarding the 1983 start. Julianย Metcalfe is also founder of Asian style fast-food chain itsu and “Metcalfe’s Food Company, in partnership with Clive Schlee.” – Wikipedia
So, JAB axing Sinclair Beecham, yet keeping Clive Schlee on board is interesting. For one, I’m sure it is to “safe face” and not let Schlee look defeated, after the poor re-action on the terrible and unnecessary deaths that happened. But also, knowing how Schlee works, he is the perfect “mascot” for Pret. I always experienced him more like the Ronald McDonald of Pret A Manger, who’s job it is with an endless smile and friendly approachable front, to keep the workforce happy slaving on low wages and the public happy with colourful, fancy food and freebies.
Pano Christou, who came from McDonald’s as a Manager having started in Pret straight away as an Assistant Manager, has a more serious approach to things. He at least blocked me and now deleted his Twitter account. He will be dealing with issues more directly and swifter, but he will do the same business of a profit-driven company.
And that’s where Schlee now will continue his “clown” role, to not only represent Pret as this oh so happy and friendly brand, but to redeem himself with more and more charitable work. This can be seen in the below interview that I’ll be taking apart like a Pret A Manger “line check”, picking ingredients apart, weighing out each item for its “correctness” and if it’s up to standard (truth).
Upfront, I doubt Clive Schlee will have a TED Talk anytime soon, but for a Teddy Talks it’s insightful enough.
Key points and my comments on just the things important to mention, not the whole interview. As Mario Bauer’s first language is not English, I will leave grammatical issues, or mistakes in general, in the transcript. I prefer to leave people’s sentences the way they are when I quote them, out of respect and to keep it in their own words like I do with all the staff reviews I collected.
PEOPLE CULTURE
Mario Bauer: at 2:44
โFor me the most fascinating thing about Pret is the People Culture. Because what you built over the years, when I talk to Head Hunters, they say you don’t even need to call somebody on Senior level or OPs Manager level, to kind of steal them from Pret. You cannot steal people from Pret, there’s a very high loyalty to you, to your management, to the brand. How do you build that loyalty, how Pret became the people company. Because at the end of the day it’s a sandwich store, how do you make it a people company?โ
Clive Schlee: at 3:16
โI think at the very early days, Julian and Sinclair recognized that to get people to get up so early in the morning, and work and make sandwiches in difficult conditions, something had to be special. And they inherently sensed that giving people a future, and giving them friendship and making a sense of family, was going to be very attractive and much more important than money. Money had to be good, but those three F’s: future, friendships and family, that was the beginning of Pret’s culture, which I hope stayed throughout, I always tried to encourage those three.
As a result of that, people get very loyal to Pret, and as you say, it’s difficult to head hunt them away, which we like that very much.โ
My comments as Clive Schlee’s patronizing and disrespectful labelling as: “Late Night Girl”
First of all, Mario Bauer asked this question regarding senior people and OPs managers who are difficult to head hunt away from Pret. The reason why they are so difficult to steal away is the immense amount of money senior leaders earn! On top of all the nick-knacks, they fly out to Dubai or if in the U.S. to Las Vegas, throw parties, even sit in pubs during lunch time, while the shop staff slave away and are pressured to work harder for profit and managers’ bonuses! But Mr. Schlee here talks about the shop people as he remains desperate for workers!
On a shop staff level, many people leave easily. I know several colleagues, especially leaders, who left Pret and went to EAT, the competition that is now purchased by JAB via Pret. EAT was set up very similarly and is always seen as the closest imitation of Pret. Andrew Walker, EAT’s CEO used to be Pret’s UK Managing Director before he left Pret, a role which was then taken by Pano Christou. Pano became COO of Pret when JAB took over. There was no COO role in Pret before JAB. Much of EAT’s production did come from large factories, and when they ran out of products in the afternoon, there wasn’t a high pressure to keep making sandwiches. Staff were paid less, but the work was easier, according to those that went there and told me later.
Secondly, I appreciate that Mr. Schlee acknowledges that making sandwiches in Pret is done in “difficult conditions”. Thank you for that acknowledgement!
Thirdly, the three FF’s. Uh-oh, where do I start!? This one I keep brief as the friendship and “family” culture will entangle itself as you read on! I can only say that Pret has either a big fat lying facade when it comes to the “family” environment, or Pret is a very dysfunctional family! But to me I experienced the first to be the case. Only one of many staff reviews along those lines:
MB: at 3:58
โYou have an internal promotional system, university…โ
PAUSE: If I understood that he said โuniversityโ, I think he means the Pret Academy where staff are trained. Pret doesn’t have a university! Let’s not fly too high here! In the UK, and especially in Pret, there is a lot of psychology used and slogans to sound sophisticated. The Pret Academy is just a place near HQ where leaders are trained. But the results of this โtrainingโ can be seen in the appalling way many Managers behave on the day-to-day running of the shops. Not to mention that one of the Trainers is a Development Manager who was used to gaslight me. I share this extensively in my interview at the bottom of this page in the audio-player.
MB:
โYou have an internal promotional system, university … there’s a lot of people I met over the years โฆ and you always hear the stories ‘I started as a cashier, I worked myself up to a district manager’ (OPs). What’s the structure / system behind it?โ
CS: at 4:18
โThere’s a very disciplined system behind our academy. And every step, there’s an increased pay-rate and a series of quiz. And you climb up and up and up. There are many chances to climb and that’s very important to Pret. And then we give the lessons and the practical experience so that people can move from being a Team Member Trainer to be a Team Leader to be Assistant Manager …โ
LNG: Sounds wonderful on paper, but reality is far, far from this! Maybe this was like this before the mid 2000s. But I have not been trained properly and most of my colleagues neither. Only if you were willing to make friends with management were you moved up quickly and somewhat trained. The countless staff reviews in the below slideshow indicate this problem as well.
Yes, there is a strict hierarchy and a complex system where people are micromanaged with small details that burn them out! The really important things they are not trained in: people skills, leadership skills, SKILLS in general!! Pret loves to recruit according to people’s “personality” rather than skill to portray this “happy family” business to the outside. So, you have a lot of happy bunnies bouncing around, burdening down workers who are the ones getting the job done, under intense pressure and low wages while the bunnies claim the credit for it!
Also, the internal promotion system Pret boasts about has always puzzled me! When I started in Pret I was “head hunted” by a former Caffe Nero Manager who got me into his shop. I have worked in several companies where staff were ALWAYS promoted from within! Schlee here says that it must be a world record that in Pret 40% are promoted from within! Sorry?
But what is the saddest thing about the promotion system in Pret is that with some Managers it is an open secret that they got into their position because they became a little “too close” to their boss or even a senior leader from HQ! Their career was paved in the bedroom. This is really sad, because you expect this in a law firm, in Hollywood and certainly in politics, but a sandwich chain? It’s ridiculous and staff often had no respect for management like this behind their backs.
Again, one of many reviews also on this. A recent one from NY:
And a very poignant review by a former General Manager, London.
Quote: “”As much as they “Like to promote internally” you are still just a pawn for them.”
So, Pret makes such a big deal again out of something, selling ice cubes to Eskimos! The same is true with the free food allowance for staff. EVERY restaurant or cafe business gives free lunch and coffee allowance! Yet, Pret makes it sound like they are the only ones doing this! Sure, the 50% rebate for staff when purchasing items outside of work is very generous, hands down. Many companies either give 10% or like Caffe Nero, we had to pay full price when buying in our private time, which is really unacceptable, to be honest. Same with Iceland. I stood in line behind an Iceland staff member who bought a can of coke for his break, and he paid full price! I asked him about it and they confirmed that they are paying full price. So, Pret is very generous on this front.
MB: at 4:52
โSo, basically I know when I do a good job and when I follow the plan, you already set out in two years I’ll be in that position, I’ll make that-and-that money, so people can plan with that.โ
CS: at 5:00
โThey can see a chart showing them how to climb up.โ
LNG: That’s true, there is a chart, in fact it’s a silly chart with colourful little cartoons on it, like in Kindergarten, showing how to climb the “ladder”. And that’s about it! How people REALLY climb the ladder often is not like Mario Bauer says, by “doing a good job” and follow some “plan”. No, it’s again by making friends with management, including doing all the dodgy things and short cuts many managers stop doing once they move into management. Because the higher you climb, the more you have to lose. So, they pass all the dirty work down to the Team Leaders. And if the Leaders get caught, they are easier and cheaper to replace. Simple.
It’s like wanting to join a gang, you have to prove yourself, not by doing the right and honourable thing, but by doing some scary dare to prove they are the same as the gang and mean business going all the way, whatever it takes! Many managers in Pret are very insecure, immature, often not trained properly, fluster about when the heat is on. And the worst thing that I find even โincurableโ is, many are lazy! I have learned in my many years of work in different companies, that a lot of attitude can be changed and re-trained, but laziness isn’t one of them!
So, when someone comes along who has skill, they will be burdened down with all the hard work that management takes credit AND big bonus for. And if the hard worker has integrity, they will never ever be able to join the โgangโ, as they are like a mirror to managers who don’t like secure people with skill reflecting their shortcomings. I’ve seen too many good people leave Pret or even worse, go backwards from a Team Leader back to a Barista or even an Assistant Manager went all the way back to being Team Member. I’ve never seen employees in ANY company I’ve worked before go backwards! They either climb up, stay at the position, or leave the company.
I had this thought many times in my Pret struggle, but going backwards was never an option for me. It was either: go up, stay put, or go out. But you never go backwards within the company. It might be one of my crazy ticks. But that’s how I always felt.
In 5:04 the question of how many people work for Pret, the CEO answers with over 13.000 in all the different countries. When the ยฃ1000 announcement was made a year ago, which I write about the timing of it in connection to my blog. Also, after tax the ยฃ1000 really was about ยฃ800.
Clive Schlee gives some appreciation to all the foreign workers in 5:18 which I think does need to be mentioned to be fair. He says that Pret would not be where they are without all the foreign workers. This raises the question again on why there are so few British workers. And Pret is reaching out now into all sorts of avenues to recruit especially young Birtish workers (cheaper workers under 21, indoctrinating them early, the investment is for longer and young folk are oblivious of their rights). But I appreciate that he acknowledges that without all the foreign workers Pret would not be where it is today! But words are cheap! Paying them the Living Wage and treating them with respect would make his appreciation more believable.
RISING STARS
Mario Bauer’s questions about the “Rising Stars” program at 5:37
CS: at 5:56
โPret has been involved with helping the homeles since the very early days, when we first made sandwiches in the mornings, I think Julian and Sinclair recognized they could never ever keep the sandwiches over night. So, we gave the sandwiches to the homeless. โฆ From the day we made the sandwiches in the morning, within a couple of years of Pret starting.
So we always were generous to homeless people with food. But there’s another thing that matters to homeless people a lot, which is, what they most need is a job. Simply giving them food is not enough. So, we started to work out how we could give them a job and eventually we have developed a program which is one of the successful in the world …โ
PAUSE: Did he claim to have one of the most successful project in the world of giving former homeless people a job??
CS: โ… giving people who’ve been homeless, we get them recommended to us by hostels and organizations, and ex-offenders. And they come and work in Pret for 12 weeks. We give them a Zone 1 Underground pass. And we make sure they get up and we give them a buddy, and we really train them with care. And they can get careers in Pret…โ
LNG: Sounds all very good and commendable. But this one really bugs me because of the marketing and labelling people in a patronizing way “Rising Stars”. If I was a former homeless person, this would really not sit well with me. First of all, it is really great when he takes former homeless people to his Austrian property or to other places, giving them jobs, and now accommodation etc. And maybe he gives them access to his world to give them an appetite of how to drive for more profit in the hopes to become rich. But nevertheless, it is commendable. Beautiful! Yet, in comparison to how regular staff are treated, it is disheartening to say the least on how he uses them for PR!
In the PRet CEO blog about the “Rising Stars” former homeless employment program, Schlee shares how the idea came up for these “Rising Stars” to solely work together in a Pret shop. From the manager to the kitchen sandwich makers, having all former homeless people work in one shop.
Why?
CEO Quote (I added the colour to highlight something where he’s indirectly giving himself away):
“Our shop idea lost momentum when we returned home. People pointed out that we didnโt have enough Rising Stars at a management level to actually run the shop. Others felt we might be leaving them too exposed, as we are usually careful to integrate Rising Stars into our shop teams.”
And on the 450 “Rising Stars” since the 10 years of the Pret Foundation Trust, working with former homeless people, some people finally probe deeper, also on Facebook and are just not buying it:
“Careful to integrate”?
Might be leaving them “too exposed”?
Too exposed for what?
Clive Schlee giving himself away again. The same CEO who takes former homeless people to his Austrian PRoperty for a hike in the beautiful countryside, is the same CEO who has a highly stressful workplace with bullying managers who are drilled for targets and profit, repaying the investors since private equity took over.
Facebook comment need to load a few second to see the comment, also need to be logged into FB.
JavaScript required to view slideshow. May not work on mobile devices without Wifi enabled.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Slideshow can be paused
This part really bugs me now:
MB at 7:20 asking where the “Rising Stars” live when they start working in Pret, if they still live on the streets.
CS: at 7:23
โNo, no, no, we normally get recommended. We have to choose the ‘Rising Stars’ very carefully, because they look like all the other Team Members. It’s important they blend in with the other team Members. They get selected by homeless organizations who say ‘that person has the capacity to work in Pret’ and they put them forward to us.โ
LNG: This is a tricky one because on one hand I can understand that Pret wants people to “blend in” and “be like” all the others. But this uniformity shows how discriminating Pret really is. If this company truly is free of discrimination, free of judgment towards a diversity of people, why have a “chosen few” system? A “regular” homeless person has NO chance to be “selected” to be of the “special few”.
And Pret treats former homeless people with special care. Again, this is good, but it is also damaging for the regular staff who are pushed, pressured and bullied to perform in high pace for profit. This makes regular staff mentally ill, depressed, not to mention even suicidal. THIS is why I write so blunt and loud, because my own story (interview at the bottom audio player) had me almost killed in what Pret under Clive Schlee’s leadership has put me through! I could be dead now or on the streets myself.
Former Assistant Manager was unfairly dismissed and had to sleep in his car, having lost everything:
This happened to him, my story with Pret and many many others who were treated like sh*t and God knows how many landed on the streets, became depressed and even died by suicide!
I call them and us the “Fallen Stars” of Pret A Manger that Clive Schlee burdened like donkeys for profit!
That is why I don’t buy his “Rising Stars” scheme! I even believe that he really thinks he is doing good! I often see Mr. Schlee as living in La La Land, somewhere in a bubble where he actually really believes he’s doing so much good! Now 480 “Rising Stars” in 10 years vs. 13.000 current staff that struggle! Hello?
ยปThis job can annihilate every piece of humanity inside of you.ยซ
ยปYou will loose everything that makes you human.ยซ
And these above reviews, among all the many other reviews, answer the question on why Pret is “careful to integrate” former homeless people into regular shops, not wanting to leave them “too exposed”. It would hurt Pret’s marketing and image to bully them the same way like they bully regular staff who then break and fall into the same problems some of the “Rising Stars” came out of! This is beyond hypocrisy, this is what the above former HQ IT Analyst wrote about Pret using people for PR.
I was bullied after 7 years in Pret when I became bereaved and continued for another 3 years in hell in a complete fog, emotional war-zone and confusion!
The conversation goes on about food waste, which is also not always done and I cover this in “Pret Food Waste” or about products and food development, Veggie Pret etc. Further in the interview Mario Bauer asks at 15:37 that the London landscape has changed with a Pret on almost every corner, and how the company will stay relevant with a shop on every corner. Schlee hesitates a little bit here, but answers by saying that the staff are Pret’s number one job as they are the ones that have the biggest impact and how Pret works to make things easy for them (uhm!) etc. He goes on about the food, communication on the packaging to customers (well, he doesn’t mean allergen labelling by the way!). Lastly, he talks about how the corner is “king” and when he gives advise to businesses he tells them to open on corners and that he would call Pret a “corner company”. Sounds all very lovely.
ยปVeteran private equity investor: โWe buy a business, work out how many restaurants you can get away with in an area until itโs become saturated, then try to convince a new buyer that there is plenty more runwayโ.ยซ
And JAB took over from Bridgepoint and now concentrates on the USA and other European cities, especially airports and train stations to “spread” the brand faster throughout the world! London’s landscape has indeed changed, but not for the better. It is cluttered with Prets that even long-time fans get tired of it, including above journalist Sathnam Sanghera. So, JAB expands out! And Mario Bauer touches on this when he says that “you own the high street and then you grow…”
I fast forward in this interview to what is important to me as a former long-time employee having suffered in Pret almost to the point of suicide. All the business bla-bla isn’t my concern here but staff issues. They briefly touch on the customers who died and again, Clive Schlee is talking too much about how it was for HIM instead of how he has failed to re-act on warnings, not to mention putting in “meaningful change” IMMEDIATELY when the deaths occurred rather than waiting until it became public years later.
I especially want to skip the private equity part when Bridgepoint came in and when the “squeeze” really started on workers. I don’t want to waste my time on this part of the greed of those business ventures, except to say that their definition of success is that Bridgepoint, and now JAB, bring in great riches. But it is for the top leadership on the backs of low-wage workers. Schlee says in the interview how staff turn-over has decreased. But how can this be, that while Pret is growing, the numbers of staff since 2016 has decreased and the chronic under-staffing, that employees as well as customers complain about on Twitter and other sites, not to mention my experience.
Speaking about “chronically” under-staffing, I speak a lot about this and may have started this term of “chronic” under-staffing. And it gives me hope to know that staff read my blog and Tweets. I know this from the feedback I get in emails and also just found today a brand new review on Glassdoor which sounds like I have written it, LOL!! But someone must have read my words and on reviews sites you cannot leave more than 1 review or vote more than once. I am happy to inspire staff to find words to their Pret experience!
Back to the private equity issue, the few pennies Pret pays more or the few perks they give does not cover the pain and double work people go through. One poignant review by a former GM on a blog comment in 2012 about how Bridgepoint’s 2008 entrance has hurt Pret:
That’s true, there’s no big sandwich-making machine and no big sandwich factory. There are many small, little sandwich-making human machines, working in small and cramped kitchens. The human machines are pushed and pressured to assemble items fast in factory-style conditions of fear management, loud and fast music to beat the drum of the work-pace under the facade of “fun”!
The interviewer now asks the CEO about his management style at 31:37, and Schlee answers that one has to be a happy and positive person. He goes on to give an example about the boss of Barclay’s and how he walks his dog every morning. His dog wags his tale and when a dog wags his tale, the other dogs wag their tales. Schlee teaches this to the managers he says, but again, how can a manager, or any staff at that be truly happy under such excrutiating stress on a daily basis! My only thought is that he is doing emotional labour and wants his staff to do the same, while in reality there is a lot of depression, alcoholism and anxiety. And I mean it when I say that I hope Clive Schlee himself is not suffering depression while performing a fake happiness, as this will catch up on even the most positive person in time.
I do understand that what happened with the deaths, as well as staff deaths and my situation including my blog, must be very hard on him. But the times of feeling empathy for a multi-millionaire who has access to any help, resource and support he can get, is over. He is a leader who has been entrusted with thousands of PEOPLE! It is his decision what he does with that responsibility. It is actually heartbreaking to watch him explain how if managers can wag their tale and be happy during the stressful times, because he knows my blog and by now has read all the reviews of people who are broken! So, I do hope Clive is okay, but at the same time I hope as well that he wakes up to his responsibility of the thousands of people he is over.
And I say again here what I said on Twitter, and the reason I say this so blunt is because of the tone in Pret shops. The way hard workers are spoken to, shouted at, discriminated etc. My own story that I survived and still don’t know how I did. One manager after I came out of a shop where I was openly bullied during the worst time in traumatic grief, and my new manager said to me alone in the office away from witnesses when I was completely out of my mind in trauma and grief; he said to me in a quiet tone when I was distraught and questioned his motive (he didn’t pay me for Christmas Eve!), he said: “I don’t want the area to feel sorry for me anymore”, meaning the other managers in the area felt sorry for him because I was thrust into his shop by HR! I write about this in “Discrimination: Mental vs. Physical“. I cannot describe the shock and humiliation I went through again and again and again and again…
And I say this again here like I said on Twitter, that I do respect Clive Schlee as a human being, but not as a leader. I have no respect for his leadership whatsoever and even feel extremely ashamed to have been fooled for so long about him when I worked in Pret!
The end of the interview is to me the most important part I want to cover on the reality versus the facade or delusion. At 38:10 I want to quote again. But before I quote, it’s funny how he says that having been in Pret a long time, and that “you have to be careful not to stay too long at these places” … at “these places”? ๐ Being so infaturated with Pret, I am sure it wasn’t quiet his choice to step down after all that happened!
CS: โAs I now turned 60, I’m beginning toโ
PAUSE:Beginning to? … and then he quickly changes direction!
CS: โI think there are two kinds of virtues:
your resume virtues when you’re accumulating and opening shops and increasing gross profit.And then there is your eulogy virtues, which is how people really look at you as a person. And unfortunately they won’t remember the fact that … [a company has made profit]…
They will remember how you handled thingsโ
“A young person died from eating one of their products, and the fact that they did nothing and just let things carry on exactly as they had before, is beyond believe actually!” – Tanya Ednan-Laperouse
Also, Pret was sued in New York in 2016 already after a customer went into anaphylactic shock from Sesame in an unlabelled wrap! >>>Article. So, this wasn’t a first incidence of sesame.
CS: โSo I’m kind of moving in that direction now.โ
NOW, hey!
So, he steps down, but remains as a non-executive Director. Pano Christou will take over and continue to drive the Pret machine hard for profit! Clive Schlee will concentrate on repairing his reputation as this lovely, happy CEO, ignoring all the pain and suffering that is still going on under his leadership! I still believe he needs to be taken to court on all these issues.
Clive Schlee says all the right things, but reality is very, very different, and I still cannot come to the conclusion if he is just very diluted or an ice cold business man. Or both! But one thing I am certain is, that his friendly, approachable demeanor does not fool me anymore after what I have suffered and witnessed for years.
I worked at Pret A Manger for almost 10 years and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Andrea Wareham, Pret’s Director of HR, who was present when CEO Clive Schlee labelled me his “late night girl”, has a contradicting text on her Twitter profile. It’s the typical slogan problem with Pret, they always give themselves away. And at the same time trying to cover up the true face they try to hide.
What’s wrong with this text?
It’s not a multiple choice question!
Who will spot what is wrong with this text?
“We are always on the look out for those who enjoy working hard in a fun environment.”
I worked at Pret A Manger for almost 10 years and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
I found an article on Emotional Labour that is a must-read! This and other articles are from researchers and journalists. I add my comments to their publications from the perspective of staff having experienced what they write about.
ยปHow emotional labour harms us allยซ ยปWorkers are put at high risk of anxiety and burnout, while consumers areย emboldenedย to behave aggressively.ยซ
To read the article, readers have to register, but it’s quick and worth it!
I just want to quote a few things that I underline, having survived forced Emotional Labour in Pret A Manger even during bereavement.
Quote from article: ยปAccording to the Office for National Statistics, 80 per cent of the UK labour force is now employed in the service economy. In London, itโs 91 per cent. These days, high street coffee shops and fast food chains compete for customers by trying to offer the quirkiest, bubbliest serviceยซ
Yes, in Pret they call it having a “buzz” and it always got on our nerves how we had to pretend to be buzzy, and with a smiling cramp “happy” bouncing around all day! Pret also likes to have LOUD music in shops saying this creates a buzz, in reality it is also annoying customers who then leave the shop quicker and don’t get comfortable. And that exactly is the plan, the reason for the loud music across the Pret business everywhere.
This then brings in more customers and the money flow is faster than when customers linger in a quieter, cozy atmosphere. I got in trouble many times by managers for putting the volume down after customers and staff complained, and my head was exploding! Bottom line is, the music is loud on purpose, this creates an uneasy atmosphere and “chases” customers out faster, making room for new customers and so on. My observation often was that those who sit the longest in Pret are students on laptops with earplugs in their ears to study or play games or were chatting. Younger people often have a greater tolerance, even desire, for noise and distraction.
So, buzz? Fun? Think again! It’s always about money! And reality is, we had headaches and tinnitus from the noise and stress! We had to be like cheerleaders, pushing each other to smile yet again, after just coming out of the intense busy morning coffee rush. It felt like, no it was, suppressing your true emotions (exhaustion, fatigue, depression, grief…) like perverting your inner core.
Quote from above article:
“… inย The New Republic,ย Timothy Noah observes that the sandwich shop chain Pret A Mangeraggressively monitors its employeesโ displays of enthusiasm. If any worker at any particular store seems insufficiently pleased to see their customers, he and all of his coworkers could suffer the consequences. Pret CEO Clive Schlee even monitors whether his employees are making enough affectionate physical contact with each other.”Link
Mystery Shopper excerpt: “Team members should smile at customers and may not work when ill, as team member was coughing whilst serving me and was therefore not feeling cheerful enough to smile that day.” (Staff are not paid for sick leave for the first 2 days, even with a sick-note!)
One customer even observed this cheer-leading and enjoyed it, while not realizing that staff pushed each other to not lose Mystery Shopper bonus and with it get penalized and fear managed. I write extensively about this in “The Truth Behind the Pret A Manger Smile” and talk readers through a typical day in Pret.
Quote from article: ยปIn a 2015 article for the journal Organizational Behaviour a group of psychologists presented the โmodest proposalโ that employers should abandon emotional labour requirements at work and instead focus on reforms that promote genuine well-being. The authors, led by Alicia Grandey, an expert in emotional labour based at Pennsylvania State University, wrote that โemotional labour violates basic human rights for decent workโ.ยซ
This quote gives me hope that more and more people, be it researchers, journalists, teachers … raise this issue that warps the inner core of a person:
ยปemotional labour violates basic human rights for decent workยซ
! ! !
Quote from article: ยปResearch has shown that workers in jobs that demand emotional labour are at high risk of anxiety and burnout…ยซ
Yes, and Pret even puts one question in the “return to work” interview sheet when a staff member starts work again after sick leave. The question they ask is, if the employee suffered anxiety due to work. I have never seen a question like this in any previous employment, and I have worked in the catering industry and customer service all my life. At Pret I suffered anxiety, but I never ticked the box because I thought they ask this to “sieve” out staff and replace them with “fresh blood”! I thought if I tick this, even though I have anxiety issues due to work and the bullying environment, they would find a way to get rid of me. (And they did get rid of me later, my full story in the interview player at the bottom of this page.)
Some of the many staff reviews shows this as well (more in the slideshow, also at the bottom of this page):
Link“If you want to know what Depression is work at Pret A Manger is the best place for that…Toxic environment”
One of the most poignant Pret staff reviews, where a former staff member went out of their way after giving everything they had, now almost writing a book, describing the inhumane work environment, fake smiles, having to take pills and drink to cope. They mainly share about the kitchen, but also doing customer service. Nothing needs to be added to this review, every dot and comma I underline! This person certainly cares a lot, and those people are many in Pret, but Pret doesn’t care for them, they lost immense quality and caliber of people that Pret really doesn’t deserve, and these people don’t deserve Pret and what this reviewer describes. Pret can be summed up in this one review.
It is like a film or a book that’s starts: ยปThis job can annihilate every piece of humanity inside of you.ยซ
And ends: ยปYou will lose everything that makes you human.ยซ
Another recent review from a Hot Chef (the hardest job on the shop floor) mentions, quote, “I started taking antidepressants and having to see a therapist because of this job. The stress and mental anguish is definitely not worth it.“May 2019 review on Indeed
Or another review from April 2019, quote, “Physically, emotionally and spiritually draining. I would never recommend any young person to work there. Like seriously mate, DONT DO IT! You will get sick like i did and lose valuable months of your young life“. Team Member on Indeed
A Glassdoor review, quote, “Iโm mentally sick of Pret A Manger and then I have to change to many things on my life”Glassdoor Feb. 2019
Clive Schlee leaves Pret with this overall score mid July and Pano Christou starts before the September handover, probably to avoid more negative scoring. But Christou won’t be different towards low-paid and demanding work conditions, having been longer in Pret than Schlee:
Glassdoor July 2019 overall rating.
I can recommend to everyone to register with The Stateman and read the full article. Take a closer look into Pret or any company at that, where you see staff smile ALWAYS, EVERY TIME in high stress, noisy environment. Ask yourself if low-paid workers really are happy or WHY do they smile so much under intense stress?!
Some customers’ Tweets on this can speak for itself. But it is disheartening how most are fascinated by the “mandatory” smiles by “contract”, which is enforced via weekly Mystery Shoppers in cash incentives and fear management. I explain in detail in the “The Truth behind the Pret Smile” and “Emotional Labour” articles.
Just few people look deeper:
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 the till or given a smile …”
Line Manager to the person having served the MS: “I need to see you in the office!”
JavaScript required to view slideshow. May not work on mobile devices without Wifi.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Slideshow can be paused
The above slideshow is just a selection, the list goes on in โ Pret Staff Complaints
Two Pret Staff have DIED recently One is said to be a suicide. It’s not the first suicide in Pret. I survived. If I would have gone over the edge, mine would be #3 and it would be in connection to Pret!
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
A must-see for anyone who cares about people over profits.
The anti-CEO playbook | Hamdi Ulukaya
TED / YouTube intro:
ยปProfit, money, shareholders: these are the priorities of most companies today. But at what cost? In an appeal to corporate leaders worldwide, Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya calls for an end to the business playbook of the past — and shares his vision for a new, “anti-CEO playbook” that prioritizes people over profits. “This is the difference between profit and true wealth,” he says.ยซ
One quote I want to highlight, literally having survived a profit-driven company:
“I kept wondering what is this all about? Corporate America says it’s about profits. Business says it’s about money. The CEO Playbook says it’s about shareholders. And so much is sacrificed for it, factories, communities, jobs. But not by CEOs. CEOs have their employees suffer for them. But yet, the CEOs pay goes up and up and up… and so many people are left behind. I’m here to tell you: No more! It’s not right! It’s never been right! It’s time to admit, that the playbook that guided businesses and CEOs for the last forty years is broken.”
There’s hope with CEOs like Hamdi Ulukaya and Guy Singh-Watson from employee-owned Riverford… Times they are a-changin’… again!
“To sell my business, this thing that I created, that I poured my life, 30 years of work in; to sell it to one of those bastards (venture capitalists), it would feel like selling one of my children into prostitution. And I was never gonna do it” – Guy Singh-Watson
TWO Pret staff died recently, one is said to be a suicide.
It’s not the first suicide in Pret.
JavaScript required to view slideshow. May not work on mobile devices without Wifi.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Slideshow can be paused
The above slideshow is just a selection, the list goes on in โ Pret Staff Complaints
I worked at Pret A Manger for almost 10 years and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Note: If you prefer to read with a green background, not white, please delete the amp/ in above url and reload. Linked from Twitter, for some reason it has white background and an addition to the url.
I have spent over a year writing my hands into a carpal tunnel (not really, just using a metaphor!) on what I’ve been through in Pret A Manger. I described how systemic and toxic Pret’s bullying is behind the smiley facade!
I can wrap up my whole experience and website in this one text I came across on Twitter:
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2020 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Please don’t just go away to some new company, sneaking out of there.
Please don’t.
Own up to the mess you left behind, having demanded so much of your staff! Not to mention customer deaths and the lack of action until it became public. THIS is YOUR legacy, Clive Schlee!
I worked at Pret A Manger for almost 10 years and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
The light, humorous tone of this blog entry is to continue a serious issue in Pret A Manger including recent staff deaths.
JavaScript required to view slideshow. May not work on mobile devices. Wifi may need to be switched on.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Slideshow can be paused
The above slideshow is just a selection, the list goes on in —> Pret Staff Complaints
@preth8ers on Facebook
I worked at Pret A Manger for almost 10 years and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Love flows out of these luminous places
Love lies down in the deep of the sea
Falls out of the sky in millions of pieces on me
I’ve been over these highways for years in the dark
Crisscrossing the land like a stitch on the wound
Rolling through the night while millions were sleeping
Under every phase of the moon
Under every phase of the moon
And the wind blows down hard in the night
With the ghosts of the brave and the damned
Howling their song, locked in their fight
Over every inch of this land
Over every inch of this land
And they say what is lost will be what is won
What is done will be done and undone again
They say don’t think for a second that you won’t become
One more voice on the wind
One more voice on the wind
All that I am is a dream that I had
One morning so early and blue
It flew over the river and the freezing bus stops
On a song that I sang to you
On a song that I sang to you
Love flows out of these luminous places
Love lies down in the deep of the sea
Falls out of the sky in millions of pieces on me
I was leaked an email from people in Pret that was sent from Pret’s Director of HR Andrea Wareham to all Pret shops about TWO staff members, one from Brighton and one from Gatwick, having died.
I am told that one has died by suicide.
I have contacted the press and Pret needs to be investigated again.
I confronted Pret on a suicide of an Assistant Manager in 2017.
I worked at Pret A Manger for almost 10 years and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
…and set off a chain reaction that still makes me chuckle, knowing how Clive Schlee works.
Late on the 28th of May 2018 I sent my website which mainly ran under LateNightGirl.org to a Pret A Manger Operations Manager, who used to be my OPs and whom I know cannot keep a secret. She has been working for Pret for close to 20 years now and doesn’t know any other company. She knows everyone in Pret. I sent it via Facebook and still have the message if anyone doubts this!
Up until the 28th / 29th May 2018 my site had about 5 – 10 visitors each day, sometimes 3, sometimes 0.
After having sent my website link to this OPs manager late on the 28th May 2018, early on the 29th May 2018, I checked my site and my statistics went through the roof into the 3-digid numbers!
To this day (29th May 2019) my website stats still show the 29th May 2018 as the most visited date! To date!
Even today!
And early in the night on the 29th May 2018, Clive Schlee, CEO of Pret tweeted this:
Kevin makes an important point about the timing of the announcement. What Kevin and all the others don’t know (he knows now) is WHY Clive Schlee announced it “pret-maturely”! I even posted the reason in September, but was shadow banned unbeknown to me at the time. So, not sure if people got the message then and there. I retweeted the info a few times after that on different occasions in some of my “late night girl” shifts!
This is Clive Schlee’s TYPICAL panic reaction to a problem he faces!
My response to Meme but it is hidden as I must have been shadow banned at the time without knowing it. Meme in the USA doesn’t even know what the Pret People Team is because in the U.S. many complaints from staff that they are discriminated against, British staff are preferred, they aren’t trained, HR is non-existent etc.
My hidden/shadow banned tweet visible via my Tweets & Replies:
And slogan of Pret’s HR department:
One Team Member got it right, money isn’t everything, but family is!
Typo: Hay here means “employee” not employer.
Last complaint in that feed:
So, my website has lots of visitors since the 29th May 2018, but nothing like that day still.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ยฃ1000 Announcement!! ๐
What many other current and former staff say …
JavaScript required to view slideshow. May not work on mobile devices.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Slideshow can be paused
The above slideshow is just a selection, the list goes on in —> Pret Staff Complaints
I worked at Pret A Manger for almost 10 years and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
So, here I am, after a year of writing, blogging, tweeting, surviving, recuperating and yet knowing I still disintegrate with “age” until the final crescendo that awaits us all, I do a stock-take on my life, my writings, my exposing Pret, my investigating deaths and lives of loved ones…
I want to thank those who cared, those who retweeted my bold writings, those in the background reading in silence, those who don’t know what to do with all this.
Many are investigating in the background, some are writing books and will take the credit for their “knowledge” on Pret, as we live in a copy & paste, 140 character society. We don’t know how to spell Encyclopedia, let alone know what it is or want to put in the work to learn, investigate, expose and risk a reputation that caters to fast-food, fast-thought. They will be fast forgotten.
No other writings, book, website (apart from Pret’s website = facade itself) exists that gives insight into Pret like my expret.org site, after what I suffered. (Interview with my story at the bottom of this page).
I have presented Pret on a silver platter and learned a lot about people, this society and the attitudes that many on Twitter lament as #FirstWorldProblems.
People’s lives are ruined because their Vegan cookie has been withdrawn by Pret with the reason that Pret’s food team are “improving the recipe”. Other people aren’t so naive and the rumor floats around that the cookie wasn’t even vegan in the first place. My experience in Pret and their “imrpoving recipes” was that when items like the brownie disappeared for a while we where instructed to say to customers that the recipe is being improved. And when the cookie returned and I stocked up the displays, I suddenly was able to fill the counter with 4 in a row compared to 3 in a row before. That “improvement” means to shrink in size, okay, it certainly improved the bank account size of Pret.
Other people’s lives in this First World are literally ruined after having lost their daughter and mother to hidden (unlabelled) allergens in Pret products.
My story should be known by now, if not, again, start with the interview at the bottom of this page.
My website is getting hacked regularly where “someone” from a certain hemisphere is trying to find ANYTHING on my site to get it shut down or via different ways get me penalized. Can the hacker at least come from the First World as well and get paid proper wages, or does the intruder have to be low paid as well as the regular frontline shop staff!? Please, do better whoever employs the geeks via different “middle-men”. WordPress finds excuses of course. Sometimes I sit at my computer at a quiet time of the day and only one visitor from a certain country is visiting my site, no other country is present, apart from myself, but WordPress doesn’t count my visit from my IP address. And I can watch LIVE as it happens where they mess with my site and pictures disappear, like Tweets that expose CEO Clive Schlee’s negligence etc. Sometimes I watch it as it happens and am in the live chat with the WordPress staff, pointing out what is happening as we speak…
The tricks and traps that Pret has dealt me with (I explain in my interview also on the Shadow Banning on Twitter…), just because they didn’t want to have a strong policy in place that protects bereaved employees, let alone people with disabilities. Then they tried everything to get rid of me. I still debate in my mind if my story is stuff for a thriller or a comedy. Probably both.
No matter how hard I worked and how successful I made shop after shop after shop, with my written track record on my work, if you become bereaved, disabled in any way, you are simply an inconvenience for a multi-million, by now multi-billion pound company.
Anyone who calls a company “ethical” because they give some left-over food to charity, or buy a house (after learning of Social Bite’s project) to have former short-term and young homeless people live in and work for Pret… and other “charity” Pret boasts about, anyone who calls this company ethical while CEO Clive Schlee, who also partly owns itsu and other businesses, gets ยฃ30 million in bonus while frontline staff barely reach ยฃ10 an hour… they need to do their own stock take on what ethical really means.
Mahatma Gandhi is attributed to have said the famous, and unfortunately true words: “There’s enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”
The moment you turn from a robot into a human is the moment you die.
And the one thing I can say is, that there is nothing more liberating than becoming human.
THAT gives me the power and freedom to write…
เคงเคจเฅเคฏเคตเคพเคฆเฅ
I worked at Pret A Manger for almost 10 years and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
One AMK (Assistant Manager Kitchen) died by suicide. I almost did.
How many more?
Clive Schlee is an Angel of Light, who smiles and is approachable, but he sold his workers to McDonald’s, then Bridgepoint, and now JAB / Reimann family.
What’s next, Pret?
Please do stop hurting people.
Most people, including journos only care if they feel a “sorry story” is worth the masses.
My brother died and I was bullied in Pret on top of that.
Masses.
Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse lost their daughter to masses of sesame
Masses.
5 daughters lost a mother to a non-dairy dairy wrap
Masses.
Employees in this slavery company suffer
Masses.
Yes, I am bereaved. I lost my brother and fight for answers.
But Pret A Manger is a graveyard for hardworking people.
With a smile.
JavaScript required to view slideshow. May not work on mobile devices.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Slideshow can be paused
The above slideshow is just a selection, the list goes on in —> Pret Staff Complaints
I worked at Pret A Manger for almost 10 years and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
who is “visiting” from a specific country in the Northern and Eastern Hemisphere, every time this country is represented on my stats, some pictures on my blog get messed up, meaning they disappear and I have to re-upload again. It happens mainly with the same pictures and this just happened again with this royalty free picture suddenly having its own URL:
This happened many times when they click on a picture, isolating it, and soon thereafter I had to re-upload. This happens especially with Tweet pictures I publish that give nitty-gritty details on Pret, Lawsuits against Pret, anything to do with Clive Schlee etc. As these are very visual they sometimes disappear and I have to re-upload. It also seems like the person who make the pictures disappear is looking for copyrighted pictures as Pret may be looking for ways to get to me. I use only royalty free pictures that don’t need to be credited as it says on the sites and have them all catalogued and logged for easy find. Other pictures I use are my own.
Also, my stats suddenly skyrocket within minutes by this ONE country, but no-one can read that fast where I make very long blog entries. One night this happened while I was watching the stats change AND was in live chat with a WordPress staff who looked into it during the same time.
This is how it looks like when an uploaded picture disappears. Only the file name, in this case > 2018-10-12-wrong-label.jpg is there.
And this is how it looks like when the picture is uploaded again like it was before:
I observed this many times now since months, especially late at night and past midnight, when this particular country was the only country visiting my site in the early hours of a new day in my Hemisphere!
The only hint I give away about this country apart from the hemisphere is that people in this country are very technologically savvy and many international companies have call centers in that country.
If you have been employed by “someone” or a specific “organization” that is looking for something to get at me, and for you to hack into WordPress (and WordPress has confirmed after my inquiry into this, that they have a huge problem with bots etc.) to mess with certain pictures and stats, you may get paid to do a sorry job, but let your “employer” know that this is futile and be sure that WordPress is aware and keeps looking into this.
Best regards.
expret.org – Former Pret A Manger Employee
having survived workplace bullying under Clive Schlee’s leadership.
UPDATE 19.04.2019
This picture in the screenshot I’ve just made today keeps disappearing and I had to upload about 3 -4 times already. It’s a Tweet screenshot about Pret CEO Clive Schlee who responded to an open letter regarding labelling products for people with allergies and him admitting that he didn’t know how to respond:
Disappeared Picture for the 3. or 4. time with only the file name visible:
I re-uploaded AGAIN:
Link to the page the picture disappeared from, but I had to upload again.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
A guide I have passed on to Pret A Manger since May 2015 when I first approached HR to make suggestions after my then line manager had me on prolonged 5 months late shifts and refused to rotate my shifts like it was before I became bereaved.
I approached HR, not to raise grievances or complain but to just bring ideas and suggestions. I never imagined that approaching HR would put a target on my back.
I speak extensively about my ordeal with Pret on my blog and podcast interview.
I passed the ACAS Guide to Bereavement at the Workplace to HR and several different managers, area managers and anyone in a responsible position between 2015 and 2017. But of course apart from sweet-talk and the horrendous treatment that followed, lead from the very top, this guide was not taken into consideration. If this is now in Pret’s sight, than certainly after I left Pret.
NOTE: ACAS deleted their 24 page PDF document now from their website, but I re-uploaded.
I will keep it short as people who are really interested in this can read the guide and download the PDF file that ACAS has posted in partnership with Cruse Bereavement Care, the largest bereavement short-term support charity in the UK that I visited early on in my bereavement as well.
I just want to point out some things concerning bullying during bereavement and how my situation became 10 times worse than I could have ever anticipated even could happen to people who go through grief and trauma.
This will always be on Pret’s resume as well as how they dealt, or rather how they did NOT deal with TWO customer deaths, and why in this profit driven Western society there is such a strong resistance and refusal to supporting people in grief and tragedy. Once tragedy hits an employee they frankly become an inconvenience as companies want “robots” that function non-stop for the millions the top is gaining.
That’s why I have come to start disliking the term “workforce” as this sounds like an army, a factory of robots having to function in a modern-day slavery setting, under the pretense of “productivity” and “buzz” and “fun”.
Employers should ensure their employees who are likely to be affected by the disability are able to recognise it, especially when performance or absence of a bereaved employee becomes unacceptable over the longer term for no other apparent reason.ยซ
~~~~~~~~~~
This versus my experience of being targeted and penalized for not smiling during customer service even when I asked, almost begged to work in the kitchen for a while when I started to tear up on the shop floor. More on the Emotional Labour in this blog entry and the “brutality” of what Pret expects, no matter what.
Bullying is defined as unwanted behaviour or conduct which has the purpose or effect of violating an individualโs dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual. If the bullying is related to a protected characteristic then it is harassment.
Managing bereavement in the workplace
Employers should be alert to inappropriate behaviour following bereavement. Absence through bereavement can place burdens on co-workers and line managers alike who may pressurise (inadvertently or otherwise) or bully a bereaved employee into returning to work or performing their duties to the same level as they did before the death. The intentions of the bully do not matter โ what is important is the impact that the behaviour has on the employee who is being bullied.
For example: Rouji works on a telephone helpline and recently lost her mother. On her return from bereavement leave she is finding it hard to cope at work: she is struggling to reach her targets for calls answered and sometimes leaves the room visibly upset. Brandon, the manager, notices that the staff are unhappy at what they see as โcarrying Roujiโ, an attitude reinforced by the vocal views of her supervisor who has been overheard saying โshe should get a grip, when my mother died, I found work a relief, look at the problems she is causing us.โRouji has noticed the shaking heads of colleagues and their โtutsโ when she leaves the room and this is adding to her distress. Although Brandon recognises the burden on the team, the company has a policy of not tolerating bullying and harassment. Brandon tells the supervisor to stop this behaviour and let it be known that staff may face disciplinary action if this unwanted behaviour continues. At the same time he sees if a temporary worker can be deployed until Rouji is able to reach her performance targets.ยซ
~~~~~~~~~~
The guide goes on to cover a variety of issues regarding paid leave, long-term or reoccurring effects of grief etc. I just concentrate mainly on the subject of bullying here as this involved even Pret’s HR, Head Quarters, Clive Schlee CEO as this is systemic and no surprise anymore, why I went from management to management that had no policy in place to protect me or bereaved employees in general.
A People Business Partner (PBP) from HR in a grievance appeal’s hearing that I raised even admitted that there was another employee, an assistant manager who was bereaved and also mistreated at work, but that she was “bitter”. He foolishly compared me with her as if we were bitter because we raised grievances of wrongdoing. I emailed this PBP later that day in anger saying that this AM is not bitter, but in a lot of pain, as I related to her nightmare.
A few months after this hearing and what the PBP told me in that hearing, I learned that an AM died by suicide. I cannot proof that this is the same person, but I do not believe in coincidences anymore with Pret, especially after they involved a Development Manager from HQ who supposedly also had a brother who died in his flat, like my brother died in his flat… But I don’t believe this anymore. Weeks later after our contact I learned that she is also a Hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner, and the more hidnsight I have and keep talking about this, the more I don’t believe that she had a brother, even while I see some posts on her facebook page regarding her brother in 2016 before I knew her.
I tell my story verbally for the first time on a podcast here below in the audio player. I also collected many staff reviews from outside pages like Glassdoor, Indeed, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook etc. and combined them unto one page as Pret Staff Complaints.
I am so loud because I almost lost my life and if I alsmost ended my life, an assistant manager did, how many more are there. If Pret can hide two customer deaths under the carpet, how many work-related staff suicides or attempted suicides are there?
I can only urge any company, large or small to please have a look at this guide from ACAS. It is only a guide to which companies can draft their own policy from this blueprint that ACAS provides in partnership with Cruse. I survived systemic workplace bullying in a company that is very efficient in marketing and PR portraying themselves to be an ethical and caring company.
I have a different story…
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Below the interview section I made a slideshow of Pret Staff Complaints / Reviews from Review sites, YouTube, Twitter and other sites. The Interview can play in the background while the Slideshow just rolls.
I tell my full story with Pret A Manger, having survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement which involved HR, even CEO Clive Schlee and a Development Manager from HQ who has the SAME loss I have, but was used to gaslight me instead of mutual support. This is my story with Pret and why they don’t respond, as I have evidence and this would open up a can of worms for them. They instead report me to Twitter to get “shadow banned”.
Full story in my interview and see slideshow below.
Adams introduction on hispodcast pagein March 2019:
“Today’s podcast hosts a special guest Late Night Girl. Due to the hardships in her personal life, work became another source of hardship to what was already a difficult time. You will learn exactly what bullying in the workplace looks like from her story and how you can overcome and deal with these troubling matters. After interviewing LNG, her thoughts and the way she spoke was with complete sincerity. I first learned most from her blog and chatted with her via email for a few days and couldn’t wait to hear more. Let’s just say that despite all the blogs, the emotion and compassion doesn’t quite convey itself in text alone. You have to hear it from her yourself. If you are going through workplace bullying and feel you are alone in this, then listen to this. You will no longer feel alone! Late Night Girl can be found on Twitter and other social media and more specifically her blog listed here —————–>https://expret.org/blog…”
JavaScript required to view slideshow. May not work on mobile devices without Wifi enabled.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Slideshow can be paused
The above slideshow is just a selection, the list goes on in —>Pret Staff Complaints
If you are a current Pret employee, join a Union. Contact BFAWU or IWGB both very very active Unions and the BFAWU were instrumental in the first ever McDonald’s strikes in the UK. Or join any other Union of your choice. But don’t stay alone as Pret does not play fair.
Also leave reviews on Glassdoor, Indeed and anywhere you can use your voice.
Also, check Pret A Manger Staff Union (@__PAMSU__) who got fired for starting a Union and “I Hate Pret” group on Facebook.com/preth8ers
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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.
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.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
is behind the heart
that beats
carelessly
on repeat
Amazon seems to be the new “Hitler” these days
Just without the MUSTache
No-one’s ready to quit that account.
I am tired of Pret, Amazon, Multiplaces, Podcasts, lions, cats and dogs, ants, dust…
If you are a grown up, just beware to not grow over people.
Just stay put, don’t reach for the stars and you’ll be ok.
xxx
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Above interview is with Adam from The Adam Paradox podcast on my experience in Pret A Manger.
We spoke about gaslighting, “shadow banning” and censorship on social media, as well as bereavement, trauma and mental health in general. I further talked about the significant timing of Pret CEO’s announcement of the ยฃ1000 Tweet for all staff. I also talked about a regular day in Pret and how staff have to cut corners, in order to fulfill the immense workload under constant pressure.
It is hard to squeeze my traumatic experience into a podcast segment, but we covered enough to get a good picture of today’s systemic stress environment for profit driven global companies.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org, LateNightGirl.page.tl unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org, LateNightGirl.page.tl and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org, LateNightGirl.page.tl unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2018 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
I grew up with this. On every “Silvester”, a New Year’s Eve tradition where the family gathers around the TV hours before midnight and watch “Dinner For One” without subtitles… and not needing it.
Don’t ask me why this is a German tradition! I have no idea how this became so ingrined into the New Year’s Eve TV program, and when I ask my friends outside of Germany about this tradition, they respond with “Dinner for what?” I’m sure Wiki knows, but for the sake of the “good old days” I’d like to remain in bliss.
I did get bored with this already as a kid watching it every year, but I miss my brother and this reminds me of us being allowed to stay up beyond midnight, sitting and munching away in front of the TV, hours before the fireworks went off.
I also miss our New Year’s text messages, even when we didn’t text New Year’s greeting every year, which didn’t alarm me on 31.12.2014 when I didn’t get a text from him.
I can only say to anyone, keep phoning or texting, or calling or emailing, whichever is your usual means to communicate. Leave a message, no matter if it’s normal that the person on the other side doesn’t immediately reply or not. Do it anyway. You never know if they need to hear, read, see you.
I don’t pray for peace, happiness or success, I just take one day at a time.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2019 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org, LateNightGirl.page.tl unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
The mails of Pret employees who don’t want to be outed for fear of their jobs. I won’t out you, I just out the top leadership for letting you down!
Clive Schlee, you did your buddy day now, but you cheated. You know how much they pretended to be nice while you were there. And you pret-ended to be nice to them while you were gone in business.
You called me your โlate night girlโ to your Director of HR in October 2017. You patronized me, thinking you are too big too fail.
I am too small to care, sir.
You were at a cross road when you decided and handed your people over to Bridepoint & Co thereafter โฆ and you took your turn at that cross road. I speak so bluntly because I was shouted at, avoided, disrespected, stepped upon after I buried my brother.
Burying my brother’s ashes was something I cannot survive. I’m sure you’ll be happy when I’m quiet.
Maybe you can go back to the beginnings and stop the PR.
Pret A Manger was the worst company I’ve ever worked in.
Her name is Emily.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2019 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org, LateNightGirl.page.tl unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
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 writings of my trauma with Pret.
If above link doesn’t open, please copy & paste the following link into a new window:ย
click on the – minus sign bottom left to decrease and get a full overview of the mapย
hover over and click the “attachment” sign (red circled below) on a particular title to see the link underneath and click to go straight to the article
hold the mouse clicked, “grabbing” it to move map around as you would with Google map
.
.
.
.
Twitter “shadow banned” some of my Tweets, please google what shadow banning means. I responded to Twitter’s right-out lie about it, and even then can’t find my Tweet when logged out, and one example of many where Twitter shadow banned my Tweets Regarding the first Pret customer death.
.
Please note, I changed my Twitter handle from @LateNightGirlMe to @expretDOTorg
When you click on this Twitter link you will see “Tweet unavailable” BUT it IS there when I am logged into my @LateNightGirlMe account (now changed to expretDOTorg). Here’s the screenshot:
ending with: 1045671338260787201 but when logged in I see my tweets, when logged out ALL my tweets are gone / hidden from everyone else, making me think everything is ok. I assume my tweets are tweeted, my likes are done etc. but only I see it. My followers are NOT notified of new tweets or DMs and can only see my tweets, what I write in DMs when they go straight to my Twitter feed or their DM inbox which most won’t as they are not notified while I am shadow banned … It’s a secret censorship Twitter denies doing on behalf of those with money and power.
I will do an extra blog entry in detail on what exactly shadow banning is with my own Tweet examples, and that many people are affected on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review. Thank you for reading/listening.
ยฉ2018 expret.org Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
.
DONATIONS
I fully fund my blog and choose not to use ads
If you would like to donate, it would be appreciated. Thank you!
I created this^ video yesterday to help get the word out about Ben.
It is set to two songs we loved and all sang together a lot, โWheel in the Skyโ and โLightsโ both by Journey. I used photos from his life, from age -3 months when I was pregnant with him in Kenosha, WI, to the last photo of him I took and the last place he was seen.
It includes many photos he shared with me for under1000skies.
Another song I play often when I think of him that helps is โDonโt Stop Believing.โ I wonโt.
Please share with your social media if you like or friends.
I appreciate every single person who has shared Benโs poster, sent prayers and good thoughts, and kind notes of encouragement over the years.
Iโll never be able to repay you, but I promise to continue to pay your kindnessโฆ
I want to respond to your invitation to give feedback on the good the bad and the ugly. As you anticipate my responses, not blocking me so you can collect my Tweets and writings (also through automated bookmarking from my blog) in case for court and other reasons I won’t speculate upon, I continue to share for the sake of the public. I used to never do these kinds of communications. I used to always be discreet and professional giving the benefit of the doubt, communicating one to one, and not calling out wrongdoing in public.
Yet as you know, with what your management and HR department has put me through under your guidance and leadership, especially managers telling me off in front of my teams and my repeated requests to be spoken to in private regarding mistakes, I was given the poor explanation that I am being corrected for the benefit of the team so they can learn from my mistakes.
Apart from this being very poor management and a lame excuse for bullying, I do like to take the opportunity and use this leadership “style” to communicate to you openly again for the benefit of the public and other companies to learn from your “mistakes”.
As there are always new readers who do not know my story and what staff in Pret go through, here again my feedback on Pret A Manger’s work-conditions. Starting with an employee review on Pret in New York City:
I used to be a very giving person, quick to forgive, patient in difficult times, very loyal come rain come shine, hard working with integrity and passion, deeply caring for my teams… and I am still these things with measure and with all the shortcomings I have. And if there is one good thing I take away from my experience in Pret, it is the lesson and freedom to say the small yet heavy word starting with “n” and ending with “o”.
Like the above review from 30. October 2018 of a former Pret employee in NYC, I can only underline this review as I have also never worked in such a toxic, abusive and bullying workplace that hides behind a smiley facade. And it took extreme trauma, being bullied during bereavement and gaslighted under a corrupt HR department to finally come to the conclusion that Pret is absolutely not what it gives itself to the public and staff.
From another review appropriately even titled “The good and the bad”, quote: “I just feel very strongly that the general public view of this company is very far off from the truth…”Link
The only good I took away from Pret is my freedom to say “no”, no matter if this will result in unfavourable positions, exclusion, less finances etc. It doesn’t matter. The most precious things I am left with is my integrity, my principles, my values that cannot be prostituted for money or bought for silence or crushed by incapable and poorly trained “leadership”.
No!
The Bad
Unfortunately Pret has drawn the bad out of me. Where I used to be discreet, professional and quick to forgive, I went so out-of-sync in my communication, and yet I am still learning with the support or others to not be hard on myself.
Tomorrow 09.12.2018 will be the fourth anniversary of my brother’s death, and that date is only estimated, we “adopted” that date just to have a reference. But I was not to learn for five weeks after he was found that he was dead and cremated, completely gone. All the circumstances, the mess and surroundings of it was to turn my life unto a halt while going ahead on autopilot with no choice but to keep working.
To then be bullied by Pret’s management and my aim to bring suggestions to HR and “help” a multi-million pound company improve work-conditions to have a clear policy for bereaved employees in place, was in hindsight not only a waste of time, but not my responsibility. Clive Schlee, you certainly had a good laugh on the account of my dignity and health. My grief was postponed while going through this ordeal in Pret. My grief has turned complicated as it already was. I can never be silent about what you put me through with this incapable, careless and manipulative management style.
The true employee reviews where staff are “overstretched” as undercover reporter Amy Sharpe from the Sunday Mirror experienced; where staff are being treated in a way that a GM felt no other option than to walk out; and in my own and many other experiences where workers are stressed, pushed and bullied to breaking point even during bereavement will always rise to the surface of the facade you worked so hard on to maintain.
The slogan of “doing the right thing” and with your HR department taking it to more lofty heights by claiming to be “doing the right thing naturally” is unbelievable in its arrogance!
Review: “This job can annihilate every piece of humanity inside of you. … You will lose everything that makes you human.”Link
You try to compensate this “leadership” style by treating former homeless people (whom you patronizingly call “Rising Stars”) with kindness and more consideration, and in your own words are “careful to integrate” them into regular shops, as the work environment is brutal and may catapult them back unto the streets giving your PR a true face.
While this is a great thing to do, helping people back into work, giving them an beautiful break by flying them out to your Austrian home, or hike in the English countryside etc., I question the motive behind this kindness. Many staff in the main “population” of your workforce are treated horrendously bad. People are fired unnecessarily and unfairly, staff become depressed and suicidal. I was bullied during grief under your watch and you even being part of my ordeal calling me your “late night girl” two months before I was fired while my dad was in intensive care just out of a coma!
This contrast to your “Rising Stars” program should make anyone question the true intention of your “kindness” as I pointed out in my open letter to the Pret Foundation Trust. It is like what one reviewer compared Pret to a “Mafia” organization I posted in Pret A M*ffin. No, of course Pret is not a mafia organization, but what does a mafia organization do best? They rule in every corner of a region, give money to the city and charities, to school projects and hospitals, and of course to the police and politicians, and even the press, while getting free range and their backs covered to build their organization and destroy lives. So, I can empathize with this reviewers comparison.
Quote from your (now former) blog about the Rising Star program and the idea for them to run a shop entirely by former homeless people:
โOur shop idea lost momentum when we returned home. People pointed out that we didnโt have enough Rising Stars at a management level to actually run the shop. Others felt we might be leaving them too exposed, as we are usually careful to integrate Rising Stars into our shop teams.โ
It doesn’t matter how many “fake” reviewers are employed for Glassdoor, Indeed and other sites. True reviews on horrible work-conditions, naming and shaming shops when they don’t do well, overworked and underpaid workers, all these reviews will always continue unless real change happens for ALL employees, not only for a few selected “Rising Stars” for PR. Regular hardworking staff are being bullied, thrown on the streets, into mental illness, depression and suicidal thoughts!
The Ugly
The ugly part in my work in Pret has topped everything that I ever imagined could have happened in an already traumatic workplace experience. It has shown how toxic, disgraceful, disrespectful and scheming the leadership and HR really is.
I could tell you the estimated date of a man who died in his flat alone and was not discovered until days later when his corpse was already disintegrated to the degree that it wasn’t recommended to view his remains.
I could tell you about a woman who had to learn days later in another country that her brother has died, not knowing at the time what he died of.
I could tell you about a staff member who kept working in Pret, on autopilot, traumatized and trying to come to terms of the untimely loss of a loved one.
I could tell you about that employee and the details of the death, family circumstances, upbringing etc.
I could tell you about this person, but I won’t because this won’t be my story. This is the story of your Development Manager whose dignity you stepped upon by using her to sanction me for my emailing. She then entered into emailing and text messaging, even though she sanctioned me for it. We entered into personal communication because our brothers’ deaths were like a twin story.
But the ugly and frankly perverse part in this is, that she was not asked to get in contact with me for mutual support in our common grief. No, her tragedy was used against my tragedy for your toxic, corrupt and disregarding leadership style to avoid truly caring for your employees.
Unfortunately her conduct was equally abusive as she is also a Hypnotherapist under this governing body and she wanted to use my experience in grief for her psychology studies. And maybe she felt without a choice, with her back against the wall to please HR, maybe out of fear to not be treated favourably or have a career. I don’t know. But it was her choice and problem, and it is not my concern to figure out her motives for playing along with this disgraceful scheme.
The offense upon offense, grief upon grief, loss upon loss I have experienced since my brother died I am still coming to terms with. To be introduced to a colleague who has such a similar loss, to only be tricked and trapped is beyond me. The opportunity Pret A Manger has had, was not only lost, but it was kicked with disregard to truly make an impact that would have led me to write incredibly positive reports, instead of putting a crack into your facade, no amount of trips with the “Rising Stars” will keep your white washed facade in tact.
Your new bosses have now employed the specialists company Headland to help you in how to conduct in public affairs where your previous PR just doesn’t cut it anymore. They were added to help properly communicate without putting the foot in the mouth with sweet-talk and patronizing labels! Yet, what Pret really needs is not another firm to show them how to best keep the facade polished while it is rotten behind it, what Pret truly needs is real leadership that doesn’t have slogans but true ethics and care in place. True leadership that take responsibility, away from all the blaming game Pret is so entrenched in.
The crack in the facade will be fixed again, but there will always be new cracks appearing where the stench of staff mistreatment, toxic work-conditions, a corrupt HR department will ooze out unless the core, the heart of the business is truly changed from the top down.
I cannot bring my brother back, and I certainly will never work in a toxic company again, but I can keep taking my life back and live the freedom to share what happened to me and how many others are struggling to the point of suicide. And I am proud of what I was able to contribute, even while you, Clive Schlee won’t ever admit this. You don’t need to.
โYou own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.โ โ Anne Lamott
When I made this “video” below earlier this year, I was still in a mental storm of trauma, loss, guilt to have let my brother down, guilt to have been a “burden” to a multi-million pound company still giving the benefit of the doubt and blaming myself. When I made this “video” I just buried my dad around that time and still coming to terms about my brother.
I wrote in grief and blaming myself, where I shouldn’t have. Pret leadership, you are the ones that have all the resources and manpower to support staff that worked for you so long. And I wrote at the end of this video, “I know you have a good heart”, but I take that back, Pret and Clive Schlee because there is no good in the center, at the top leadership levels that allow and enable such pain and disrespect towards hardworking people as well as in the dealings with customers deaths.
Pret needs a heart transplant with a truly good heart at the center of the company to not just aim for profits at the loss of so many. And yet I doubt JAB Holdings will have their heart in the right place. It’s just another profit driven business based in tax-haven Luxembourg and some journalists have woken up.
But I decided to leave my wrong conclusions without deleting the video as you need to be reminded what could have been written from a bereaved former employee who survived your company unlike some others.
Thank you for reading.
.
.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Dear Ms. Sister, unfortunately I have to bring you sad news. Mr. Thomas Brother was found dead in his apartment in X-City on 15.12.2014. From his paper work no next of kin could be determined so that I was appointed as curator for your deceased brother’s estate. โฆ Your brother has been cremated under order of the city council. Copy of order attached. His urn has not been buried yet and you can decide where to bury the urn. Unfortunately I have to also inform you that his estate is in debt and have to therefore advise you to reject the inheritance. Please inform me of any other family and addresses. The contact details of the morgue are… With kind regards, Mrs. Ice Cold Curator
โฆ.
Dear Thomas,
I’m sorry I didn’t reply to your last email, I don’t even know why I didn’t reply. Maybe I expected to see you, but then life just keeps happening and we always assume next time, next time… And maybe I was upset that you couldn’t come to the concert I invited you to. Apart from being busy you were also honest enough to say that this wasn’t your type of music. But I got us on the guest list, with backstage meeting the artist I worked with. I wanted you to be proud of me.
But I have no right to be cross. I didn’t pay much attention to your 20 page business plan you sent me, maybe you wanted me to be proud of you. And I was, but it didn’t cross my mind to say something. I just replied that your business plan looks impressive but reads like Chinese to me as I don’t understand business language. I’m sorry I never told you how impressed I was, how proud that you had the courage to start a business. I could never do that, I’m too cowardly to start something like that. It takes a lot of courage, strength and determination to start a business. I always played it safe, just being employed and do my real passions and hobbies in my private life. You went further and gave it a go. But being employed did me no good after all. And now I don’t even have the courage for regular employment.
Can you believe the email this woman sent? She didn’t try to find out my phone number or mum’s address she lived at for 30+ years, in a country with a high sophisticated ID system where everyone is registered under law. She didn’t email and ask me to phone her or give my phone number and warn or prepare me that I urgently need to get in contact as she had to inform me about you. She just wrote a few sentences in a typical German efficient and straightforward way. No-nonsense, not wasting time, tell it like it is, no mercy. And she made sure she covered everything in one email. I cannot describe the hell, I cannot describe it. A huge hand of a monster thrust inside my gut and ripped it out in one fast move.
Do you know that the next day when I flew over to tell mum that you were gone, I called this woman but she didn’t want to give any more info. She sounded nervous, was upset that I called her at 9pm and said that she had no further information and that her husband is getting impatient in the background.
Do you know why? Why was she so short-cut and angry that I called? I kept calling the police, but they had no answer either. I am still confused. Why did the police handle this so poorly, why could they not give me a clear cause of death and couldn’t answer my list of questions? The only explanation the police guy gave me of why they didn’t do an autopsy was that they ruled out fowl play and suicide, and once they ruled out especially murder, they hand the case back to the coroner and close it on their file. Just like that. They have many cases to work on. A former police detective who was a customer of mine confirmed that if they don’t find anything suspicious, they just close the case as it would otherwise involve too much paper work. He told me that deaths in flats happen more often than we think. I’m sure if one of their family members was found like this, they’d go to town to find the cause. But there weren’t able to tell me what you died of. And they frankly didn’t care.
Everyone since then keeps telling me to not pursue any legal action as this would just add to the turmoil and the police always covers themselves. I had to put puzzle pieces together, with bits and pieces of information from your neighbours, your ex-girl friend C. etc. If you could hear me, I wouldn’t tell you that they sent your urn from your city to mum’s village council via post! Via post, Thomas. I’m sorry, I didn’t know they’d do that in Germany. If I’d knew they send urns via post, I’d made arrangements with the funeral service who arranged the funeral later, to bring it over in a dignified way. No one told me they send urns via post. I didn’t know so many things they’d do. I’m sorry, everything was a mess. Everything. Your three cats survived and they were able to catch two, but the third slipped through the door. I don’t know which one, but your neighbour said that she sees the cat outside sometimes, but it won’t let anyone catch it. I’m sorry your cats went through the six days seeing you lie there.
The police said that they rampaged your apartment. I know how clean you liked it, we had to take our shoes off, like in my place as well. But after you died, the cats just rampaged. They must have been distressed, the mum and her two kitties. The mum-cat in this picture you sent me before she had kittens, I wish I knew where she is. I’m sorry.
I dislike this country of ours. And if it wasn’t for mum, I’d never return. I buried dad in March, near you.
I saw an amazing play yesterday, Bury the Dead in which six soldiers who fell in a war refused to be buried. They got up from the ground where soldiers were digging out graves, but they just stood up and refused to be buried because they died too young. They died under the lies of the leaders who brainwashed them to fight and die for “honour”.
But they were too young to die and haven’t seen the world yet, or haven’t had the chance to start a family, or couldn’t finish that university degree they started before getting drafted. I wept through half the play and imagined you to refuse to be cremated until we got the news that your corpse was in the cold chamber. But then I thought if they would have found us before cremating you, mum may have wanted to see you. But what does a six day old corpse look like? Once an image is ingrained in the mind, it will never leave.
I wanted her to keep you in memory of this last photo she took of you a year before you died.
You looked annoyed as usual of her taking photos all the time. I had to forbid mum to go to the police station as they spoke about photos they took when they found you. The way they handled your death and case, I panicked they would show her the photos. Mum was extremely angry that you didn’t have her address and phone number in your flat. I had to explain to her that I don’t have that either as we live in the Internet age and we know her address and number by heart, as she lives there since over 30 years. She slowly accepted that.
I’ve written you many emails since until your account was shut for lack of you logging in and sending emails. I kept writing though and my emails bounced back as if you replied. But getting “Mailer-Daemon” responses wore me out.
Remember when you visited me in London and I showed you around? We took the tube to Tower Bridge and as we walked towards the bridge that was hidden behind the trees you asked me what “castle” this was. I said that this is the Tower Bridge. You asked, “Yes, but what castle is this?” It is the Tower Bridge I repeated. “Yeah, but what’s that castle?” Thomas, this is the Tower Bridge!!! And as we came closer where you could see the full bridge you laughed and looked at me embarrassed “Ah, yeah!”
It was one of the rare occasions that I knew something more than you did, as you were always too smart for me! I beat you on this one! Stupid, I know. I have to think of this every time I am at the Bridge.
And remember when we sat in the cafรฉ by Piccadilly Circus and you called mum from your mobile pretending to be in your home? You chatted for a while with her and then just handed the phone over to me to say hi to mum! That surprise surely worked! I asked her several times since you’re gone if she can remember you calling her from London to prank her to think you were calling from your home, but she can’t remember. I don’t know if she blocked it out or if her dementia is getting worse. She’s more forgetful now, you know? But she’s doing okay. We went through rough waters these last four years. It’s normal they say.
All I know now is that I let you down.
And I don’t know how to forgive myself.
Knowing you, I know you’d forgive me, but I can’t forgive myself, Thomas.
I made this silly “video” for you, one of many, but this is the only one with a German artist. He sings about his best friend, Michael, who was like a brother to him. But his friend died. I mixed in another song of a Swiss artist and wrote my text to it. I’m not sure if these would be your taste of music, as our tastes was often very different. I am not into German much but I wanted to use German speaking artists. But you can’t see it, I know. I did it to cope. I messed up in so many ways, Thomas. I can’t forgive myself.
As Anti-Bullying week has come to an end last Friday I remembered an older blog entry I made. I wrote the below post in May 2016 on another blog site where I mainly posted poems for/about my brother and just scratched on what I went through in Pret, without naming Pret at the time as I do now on this site. But when I was going through the mixed horror of my brother’s death added with the bullying in Pret, this particular time was like a transition period where my trauma worsened, but I didn’t realize it then.
At that time I rather felt that everything in Pret would settle for me and I could concentrate on coming to terms about my brother’s death. I always felt that my situation wasn’t dealt with properly, but I didn’t realize how much I was played and manipulated via dodgy grievance hearings. One area manager who was very slick held a grievance appeals hearing against a line manager who openly bullied me (shouting, blaming, excluding etc.) under the main catalyst who was his boss and the guidance of HR.
In the hearing she held she asked me what my “definition of bullying is”. At that time I was utterly distraught and fell for this trap to think I wasn’t bullied. In hindsight I’d answer this “question” with a question of what her definition of bullshit is! It was also the time when I applied for and received my file, but at the time I just briefly looked through it vaguely until months later when I meticulously sieved through every word on every page and went into deeper turmoil that I explain in “Not Quite a Beautiful Mind“.
Now, looking back, having been in deep darkness, confused, traumatized, holding on and trying to escape through writing, I am grateful to have given Pret the benefit of the doubt so much to be able to say, what a corrupt and toxic company behind a friendly facade and under the current leadership of Clive Schlee and HR Pret A Manger is.
May 2016 Blog post (I added the links from the old blog entry):
Definition of Bullying
Once on a school trip to the seaside of Western France, six of us girls planned to share a room in the youth hostel we were booked in. On the first night after dinner and having settled in, I found myself alone with one of the girls in the big room, while the other four girls spontaneously moved out again and into a vacant 4-bedded room together.
It didn’t take me long to understand what was happening. The girl who was โstuckโ with me (or I with her) in the 6-bedded room was the typical person to not have been cool enough to share a room with. There was even talk about her already back home at a school-BBQ before the trip and how they would give her the trip of her life. She was typically uncool, by the book at that time; ginger hair, thick glasses, long front teeth, not wearing the trendiest clothes… The perfect uncool kid to be “avoided with” or not be around.
She (I’ll give her the name “Ginger”) was someone who didn’t fit into the norm, nothing more, nothing less. The usual stuff. I didn’t fit in either, not for “temperature” reasons, but because I was in a sphere of my own.
So, we just had more space and more peace. I didn’t like the situation because I wasn’t invitedย by the four “cool” girls, but I didn’t mind either because I never liked this kind of group dynamic. Nothing against groups as long as they are inclusive, accepting, supportive, more than just tolerant/tolerating. But tolerance would have been the bare minimum anyone could ask for if individuals in a group have neither strength nor courage for anything beyond that.
“The soul selects her own society, then shuts the door to divine majority. Present no more.”
— Emily Dickinson
Not having been particularly “cool” myself, and not really bothered if I was or not, I didn’t care to impress a group or be intimidated by a “mob” of freezers. I tend to select my own society.
The first of the five or six mornings we were there, I woke up turning around in my bed towards the door. From the sun beams that were shining through the windows, I could see something shimmering on the floor in front of the bed of my room mate. I got up, went to see what it was and saw it was a puddle of fluid, it was obvious from the stench that it was urine left there close to Ginger’s bed, with her still asleep. If she would have had to get up at night for the toilet, she most certainly would have stepped into it.
I pondered over this “pond” and was just perplexed on how it got there or worse, why someone would do this and how we both didn’t wake up noticing this invasion of our dignity. We cleaned it up later, pretending something weird spilled here somehow. I don’t know, I didn’t know what to think or say. Whatever we were thinking, not sure. To this day I don’t know why I didn’t get a teacher immediately and clean it up before she woke up. Maybe I was too perplexed, offended, embarrassed… Hopefully she thought I was the target or us both together; wishful thinking on my part. She was just always very quiet. I will never know if or what she realized was going on.
I didn’t know what to do, if I should go to a teacher or ask around why someone would do this. But going to a teacher or trying to find out who the “donor” of this mess was, might have just encouraged more of this. So I left it, assuming it was a one-off, never having seen any “pranks” like this on previous school trips.
As the days of the trip went on, we took a bus ride through the region. I was sitting in the back of the bus, one or two rows in front of the group of girls, now joined by the boys, and overheard them speak about how they want to cut Ginger’s hair at night. I remember freezing in my seat and feeling my blood disappear from my head with a tingling sensation in my face, going into panic-mode. I had two seats to myself since the bus was roughly half filled, as not the whole class went on this trip but just about two dozen of us. Everyone, except for the group and some couples, would sit generously in two seats, getting a little privacy away from the shared rooms in the hostel.
My thoughts started racing on what to do, since the “pee” situation I knew they would go through with whatever they planned. They must have felt secure that I was just a dumb bystander who’s “job”ย it was to console Ginger in the aftermath of whatever would happen to her. As if it was some kind of calling in life for her to be bullied and my calling was to just stroke her head, comforting her, oh well poor poor Ginger, c’est la vie.
My heart and my mind went into overdrive with the dilemma of not wanting to get into trouble with the cool crew, but also not wanting to allow something disgusting like this to happen to a girl, who’s only fault it was to not fit in.
Society-selecting time again!
Later that day before dinner time at the hostel, I couldn’t think straight, never mentioning any of this to Ginger or anyone. I was nervous before the meal, heart pouncing, thoughts pacing back and forth when I decided to speak up. I approached the room where the group always huddled together, prayed under my breath, knocked on the door and was invited in. I went straight to the ring leader girl and said sharply (with my limbs like jelly and my heart beating to my throat!) โIf anything happens to Ginger, you will be the first to regret it!โ. She looked perplexed, starring at me and then around the room, and laughing with the group asked if I was insane or what!? I repeated the sentence and just left the room shaking inside. I went straight to the room of one of the teachers, telling the whole story to just get this sorted. I guess some would call me a “Drama Queen”, but bullying is not just a drama, it’s a cowardly disgrace and a shame. The next dayGinger had her birthday, and the majority of the kids congratulated her, even if half-hearted by most, including some of the cool, โstrongโ and marvelous group. Nothing ever happened to the uncool girl anymore. And on the eve of our return back home, Ginger and I sat outside for a smoke while there was an improvised โDiscoโ going on inside for our last night of the trip.
To this day it’s just a guess if Ginger knew what was going on, or if she repressed the situation to just avoid the pain of it. We never spoke about it and she never seemed at a shock, just rather quiet and speaking about nothing really. Deep down I felt of course she knows. But my pretense might have matched hers equally, just so we can make that day. We just had a good smoke and a meaningless chat, but worth our while.
Nothing further happened as the teachers had an eye on it now, after my shivering confrontation with the group’s leader. But I meant what I said, even while shaking inside my boots. And I rather took the risk of being bullied myself, suffering the consequences, than having to watch in silence how a person is being targeted just because she didn’t fit in to whatever the majority felt was the(ir) norm, or to release the burden of their own meaningless existence.
Even with the threat of any more nightly “adventures” in our room, I slept well at nights. I’d rather be bullied or be with those who are, then being cozy with a bully.
I wondered at times throughout the years, and even now, what has become of Ginger. While writing this experience down, I looked up a digitalized photo of her with some of the bullies on the France trip. I do hope this wallflower became a bouquet, no matter if it fits into anyone’s perception of cool or beauty, but whom those bullies would not recognize today, because they are too busy and messed up in their own journey to fit in.
I never thought I would write this story down and after having scanned over a thousand photos recently into my computer from all the years of my life, even before I was born, then shredding the majority of it to get rid of clutter in my flat. I never scanned in the photos of the bullies, except when “Ginger” was on them, but just threw them away without digitalizing them. Don’t know if I’d regret it one day since even the bad stuff is part of our lives, but I have no room for those bullies on my computer. No more “beds” available.
I have not been bullied as a kid, except the typical teasing we all go through. But I cannot remember ever having been bullied as a kid in school. But I never would have imagined that I would be bullied as an adult.
What was my weakness? The thought that our lives are final on this earth? The inconvenience of my grief? That I didn’t “function” at times as expected? That I didn’t kiss anyone’s association or agenda? That I looked strong, but in reality was completely broken while on autopilot? That I spoiled someone’s perception of strength? That I reminded them of their own mortality and weakness?
In hindsight, please, someone tell me?
All I know is that I have been bullied! No more formal grievances needed. If the catalyst, the main bully is in leadership above you, you have no chance unless you have the strength to see it through. I’m sorry my brother’s death got in their way. He won’t do that again!
Sometimes people are bullied not because they are uncool in the perception of a mob, but because they may come across too strong. Anything that does not fit into the โnormโ of the (insecure) majority might just be the perfect target. I don’t know. People in a group, in a mob do things that they would never do when alone. But unfortunately 1 single person, who is in the position of power or leadership, can influence a group who wants to please their leader/boss, and pull the carpet from under someone else’s feet.
It takes only 1 person, 1 leader to influence their sub-ordinance to either pull that carpet or provide a safe place for an individual or minority. Everything stands and falls with leadership. If a leader won’t allow bullying to happen, it won’t! If a leader closes their eyes, or worse, is the main catalyst of bullying, then God help us.
I understood this in my late teens/early 20s already, that’s why I went straight to the leader to make clear that she is responsible to set the tone of the group. But I was too scared and got backup by the teacher, the higher “leader” of the group. If telling on others is what it takes, then that’s what it takes.
It is horrendously easy to be within a group siding against one person, than to stand up within that group, reaching out against the decision of the majority and their leader for the protection and support of that one person. If we realize it or not, we constantly “select our own society”, depending on how strong we feel towards moral issues, health, justice, principles. We constantly make our choices and will choose until our last day. I have chosen wrong and right many times myself in different situations, but if I make up my mind that one person or a minority needs to be protected, especially while going through tragedy, than I hope my mind is made up regardless of the consequences. And after a while, if I manage to make it through in one piece, I sleep well at nights.
this question might really be asking how to avoid being made corporately responsible for those who are in the group they themself represent.
It is beyond me that a powerful group of professionals still try to protect each other without realizing how โsmallโ I am and how simple I am reached without trickery. If we โmanageโ by fear, that’s all we do: fear!
All I hoped for was just for someone to not be afraid of me, for someone to just have a coffee with me asking how my day was and complain about the weather or whatever. The way my former boss “Cat” did briefly before leaving too soon. I am nobody, just broken, scared, loud, angry, nothing more to be afraid of, and nothing less to be stepped upon. I would have wished for some protection. But better late than never.
Now, I like to leave each day on a positive note. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with depression, other times I’m exhausted from the day, another time just chilled and content. I don’t dare to aim for happiness, I’m not there yet. But I don’t want to end a day on a negative note. And yet I still do it so often.
A dear friend recently said to me, “Forgiveness is a powerful thing”, something I did not want to hear, but know she is right. To “for – give”, to give away an experience, a painful event, letting go, is liberating. Even if or because it takes time and pain; falling, getting up, falling again, getting up again… as if I haven’t got enough pain to work through already. But bitterness won’t be the thing I will fall asleep with. And the only shimmering puddle I will wake up to is the dew of a new day, with new chances to look out for those who need a new society to lend them a hand to heal.
One thing I often did early on after my brother died, was to walk for hours through London, especially through the busy tourist areas I would usually avoid. There I sought and saw happy faces, little kids eating ice cream and being jolly, and when they cried it was because they didn’t get their ice cream right then and there. Very valid tears for a child; I envied the reason for their tears. And after five minutes the only thing that was crying was the melting ice cream dripping down on their chin, and life was sweet again.
There were glimpses of life in the midst of loss and blackness. I sought the smiles of kids, or the naรฏve curiosity of tourists, or the clumsy effort of new lovers… All I did was starring at life as it kept moving on and passing by me. There was life in the midst of trauma. At least I was an observer of it, like watching a movie passively, just “existing” without living the scenes I watched, looking for meaning, never mind a happy end. There’s none.
The Trafalgar and the Leicester Square areas and the Southbank have been my home away from home in the early weeks and months of making sense of my brother’s passing. I miss him. And I keep looking for him in my walks.
Life is good I want to enjoy it when it comes around.
The smile of a child; the glance of a lover; a little dog licking your face not caring if you’re happy or sad, just caring that you’re there; the courage of your boss; the neighbour’s lending hand; the shoulder of a friend …
May 2016
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
UPDATED November 2018 – Undercover report sparked by my blog (at the bottom of this post).
UPDATE March 2019 – For the first time I share my story verbally on a podcast based in California.
Letter to the Pret Foundation Trust
To whom it may concern at the PFT,
I want to start this open letter with one of your former assistant managers who became homeless after being unfairly dismissed. And he is just one who is public. How many more underpaid and for overtime unpaid employees went from the kitchen and shops to the streets? Only you know … I certainly almost did!
And as your “labelling commitment” has been placed again under the carpet and replaced by, what I find a patronizing slogan, to call former homeless people “Rising Stars” is to me again typical for Pret and the facade of your company.
The Pret staff on the left in the photo with the white shirt, Hind, has been to my shop several times when one particular FL was difficult for the whole team and I was going through trauma. The FL was later transferred to another shop. But Hind in the photo came to my shop several times, and was obviously briefed about what I was going through at the time with my personal loss and the grievances that were raised due to the bullying I went through in a previous shop. She came to speak with the FL who was challenging for the team.
But not one time did she speak to me, not even hello or bye. Nothing! I didn’t know who she was, but it was clear that she was involved with the apprentices as she came by also for catch-ups with a young apprentice.
This post links to a member of the Mosaic Clubhouse in Brixton who worked for 3 months under your Rising Star scheme. But he wasn’t taken on after three months and explains that his experience was positive. Quote: “I was very slow and so they didnโt offer me a continuation of job after the three months trial. … In the end the experience was very good and worthy. ”
It was positive for him as he was treated differently, not shouted at; placed in a branch that Pret knows can be used as an example compared to the usual atmosphere in shops; he worked steady and stable morning hours, Monday to Friday with weekends off etc. Ben, the manager of the Brixton shop wrote this to Hind: โPlease let him know that we were very impressed by his professionalism at work and always giving 100% in whatever he was doing. The quality of products he made were picture perfect EVERY time. Myself and the team would like to say a big thank you and we wish him luck in his new job and we hope he will pop by for a coffee on us whenever he is in Brixton as he will always be one of us.โ
So, his sandwiches were picture perfect (a requirement in Pret) EVERY time, and yet he wasn’t employed beyond the three months trial period. He isn’t even completely clear why he didn’t get the job beyond his trial period, quote: “For what I understood I did my job very well but I was very slow and so they didnโt offer me a continuation of job after the three months trial.” He was not even taken in the shop front on the tills or any other place in the business, regardless of his 100% professional attitude AND picture perfect sandwiches!It urges the question if “slow” people, even while working with 100% excellence but with mental health conditions have a chance in Pret! Sergio certainly was treated really well but to me it looks like it was a show for him to give the positive report. If he would have stayed on, he would have eventually seen and be treated differently as Pret demands a high pace and a smiley front at all times.
One staff review makes this paradox and contradiction very clear. The expectation is to make picture perfect products, but super fast. Yet, Team Members are confused and frustrated because they want to work well, do their jobs with care and passion, but are pushed and pressed for speed: โThey expect you to follow six key points of production and have passion in making items. When you follow this they then moan that you are to slow and need to hurry up as everyone in a Pret kitchen says choppy choppy which is the worst thing because it only makes you less motivated.โ
And from experience I know how quick managers are to letting staff go, as a Team Leader I had the lucky position to be able many times to save a Team Member’s job when I learned that the manager wanted to let them go. I would put in a word for them asking for them to be under my wing in the shop. Fortunately at times managers listened and the TM bloomed in the shop where they struggled in the kitchen, or they did better in the kitchen after having struggled in the shop.
Sergio was treated differently, he worked Monday to Friday with the weekends off which is very unusual, unless you are a parent and stand up for your rights in regards to flexible working hours protected by law. But every staff member that I worked with, including myself, HAD TO be flexible and work on weekend, except if they really fought it through to be off on weekends. Even getting rotating shifts every other weekend off was often a struggle as managers are not disciplined in the rota setting and just want staff to be available non-stop.
I have a feeling that he would have eventually realized a different Pret than he experienced and there was no room for him there, no matter how well he worked. Not fast enough despite his excellent working ethics. It was a perfect way for Pret to show a front for him to share how wonderful Pret is. And then they add insult to injury by calling him “one of our own”. His contract was discontinued after his trial period, and yet they call him of their own. A typical “sweet-talk” in Pret of how they fool people into believing Pret cares, while not caring in reality, except when people play their games and for PR. And he certainly receives free coffees as a customer to keep him sharing “happy” moments with Pret.
Thus Pret indirectly, with sweet-talk and free products (and probably a big donation for Mosaic Clubhouse) shows that there is NO room for people with mental or physical disabilities in shops, as they cannot keep up the horrendous pace in shops. There is no room for people who suffer or struggle in any way that would hinder Pret to pressure them into high productivity. Pret being “careful to integrate” former homeless people into shops as Clive Schlee worded it, as they won’t last under the burden of management. Regular staff are bullied and pressured that after a while they break and either leave or get fired, putting them into mental health issues.ย
I keep linking to the staff complaints that I collected unto one page, as this shows again and again how pressured and stressful it is and if staff are not fast enough, they don’t have much of a chance. One example that I know only too well about messed up pays and other issues I am sure Sergio did not experience as Pret was careful to treat him different for PR:
Also, Sergio didn’t get taken on after the 3 months trial as Pret would have had to pay him the ยฃ1000 that the CEO promised via Twitter. This would be paid after already one year of service.
And Pret announced that they will bring a report on the Rising Stars soon, and of course as I have confronted them with my “Fallen Stars” post, knowing Pret they like to counter this with slick videos and interview those who have had a great experience being invited to the CEO’s PRivate PRoperty in Austria and other places. As they are not pressured like the mainstream staff to cover up how horrible working there is. I responded with a Tweet myself, even though this is silly.
Being involved with the PFT and working with former homeless people, who have their story and reason why they were homeless, looks good from the outside and I’m sure a lot is meant well and fun. Oftentimes homeless people have lost someone, couldn’t cope with the trauma, and through various events ended up on the street. At the time I worked in Pret 7+ years and was bereaved and on top of that I was bullied during this horrific time. OPs managers who did the grievance hearings pretended that I wasn’t bullied. Grievances were not substantiated and in the appeals were partially substantiated, but just for tiny unimportant issues to keep up appearances. I was denied that I was bullied, and yet your lawyers mentioned that I was bullied in their reply to the Tribunal.
Everyone who knows my blog knows the story, and I will not go into further detail again. As a Team Leader I performed very well, helped bring success to every single shop I worked in, and then having lost my brother and on top of it being bullied from line managers under the watchful eye and guidance of HR. I approached HR early on since May 2015, but they ignored my efforts to bring suggestions in how to support bereaved employees, and just “sweet-talked” while behind the scenes pulling the strings as I could see in my file later.
And yet, all this time there was the Pret Foundation Trust that helps former homeless people back into work.
In a recent Tweet your PFT Director speaks about how she is supportive of people with mental health issues, and yet I was bereaved, bullied, became ill and you had no concerns whatsoever about staff whose “stars” are starting to fall right in front of you! I also keep confronting Pret on a suicide of an AMK last year. Of course you would want this under the carpet as well. But the person in the photo even came to my shop several times, but never ever even gave as little as a hello or good bye, let alone “How are you, my name is so-and-so I work with PFT and we care for people with mental health issues, bereavement and help them find back into work…”
To see how former (mainly young) homeless people are being used for PR while regular staff suffer in bereavement, a bullying work environment, and become an inconvenience, turns my stomach!
One of the rare persons on Facebook was thinking further than just from 12 to noon and asked Pret underneath their Promo video about the Christmas Ads on the “Rising Stars” program, quote:
“this is great, but 450 in 10 years in really not much given pret have 12k staff this year alone? why so few?”
Link (to be able to read, need to be logged into FB)
Screenshot in case her comment will be deleted, as mine disappear regularly:
In the 10 years since the Rising Stars program exists, out of 12K employees only 450 came through the program. It does not take much to use people for PR, that is all I can say, dear Pret Foundation Trust. And the public falls for it, and only very few take a closer look.
I wrote extensively in “Pret Being Careful to Integrate” why Pret is careful to integrate former homeless people into regular shops, and that the idea came for them to run an entire shop by themselves. Clive Schlee wrote in his blog, quote: “People pointed out that we didnโt have enough Rising Stars at a management level to actually run the shop. Others felt we might be leaving them too exposed, as we are usually careful to integrate Rising Stars into our shop teams.โ”
And this is the big give away that Clive Schlee is very very aware and as the CEO indeed the leading force behind how shop staff are treated. I explain in my blog entry as to why they would be “too exposed” and therefore great care is being taken to not integrate them into regular shops. They would be too exposed to the harsh treatment of managers who are tasked by this same CEO for targets and profits. Rarely does a GM step back from that for the sake of the teams:
So, in order for the Mosaic Clubhouse member to not see the reality, he was not taken on as he was too slow, not even taken on in the shop as he would see reality after a while and that wouldn’t be good for PR[et]!
And just one of the press reports where journalists are starting to wake up. Everything this article says I could have told him years and months ago incl. the class suit by staff in the U.S. on unpaid wages! Once the public started to see how appalling Pret’s senior leadership dealt with two customer deaths and kept it quiet until it became public, only then does the press wake up to how it really is behind the facade. And at least plenty of people, Unions etc. have an eye on you now! Don’t be fooled by the few followers I have. I keep it low on purpose! And I know you have people keeping an eye on my posts and automated bookmarking systems are used to register every blog post I publish. Be my guest!
Link to the article where the reader needs to register to read, but I gave my two cents to it in “Sliced Pret“. Sathnam Sanghera woke up so clearly that he even liked a Tweet I posted, one of many on his article that I linked to on Twitter:
So, you bet your former homeless people would be too exposed and you want to be careful to integrate them into regular shops as they may not last long like the above Mosaic Clubhouse member, who despite being such a good asset didn’t get the job! You let “Rising Stars” work together in one shop incl. management, make it easier on them and thus you show to the public what a lovely company you are, while your regular shop staff are suffering greatly. Instead of making it easier across the company, you create clusters of shops for PR. Again, my stomach turns.
The Head of HR and Recruitment who was tasked to speak with me once I contacted the CEO after being bullied and sent away by your toxic HR department for almost a year, he could have very easily placed me in another area of the business or introduced me to the PFT to help me recuperate from my trauma. But the plan was to place and keep me under suppressive management in the hopes I resign. Thus this whole PFT is not just hypocritical, it’s a scheme for marketing.
Well I didn’t. I rejected 4 settlement offers that were peanuts anyway if I resign. You don’t understand that a person who becomes bereaved has no interest in money nor do you realize that to mess with a bereaved person, you don’t know what you are getting yourself into! I wouldn’t budge because I have strong principles and values that cannot be polluted with money. Money comes and goes, but I don’t prostitute my values and convictions.
I kept going and then your company fired me while my dad was in intensive care, just out of a coma. You used your Development Manager who supposedly also lost her brother and didn’t know for days that he was dead like my brother. You stepped on her and my dignity by using her personal tragedy against mine to sanction me, instead of supporting me and her in our common grief. How perverse and corrupt does it get, Pret?!
I buried my dad a few months after losing my job, but I never told him that I was fired. In and out of dementia and being clear at times, surprised to see me again so soon, where I just left him a week before. I lied to him and said that my company gave me extra time off to be with him, while in reality I was fired three days after Christmas 2017, no job in sight, my father just out of a coma, money running out, a complete breakdown and suicidal. My dad was pleased that I seemed to work for such a great company. And thus I have the opportunity now to tell the public what a careless and corrupt company Pret A Manger is, that just likes to cater to PR.
It hurts me for people who continue to suffer under this greed-ridden corporate bully, disguised behind sweet-talk and fake smiles. And as a former IT Analyst reviewed the company and Head Office:
Even the ยฃ1000 announcement to all staff came in the night from 28th to 29th May 2018 when Pret became aware of my blog here. Quick PR RE-action, while not being bothered at all that customers died until this also became public.
I’ve written many times on Twitter and here in my blog that it is my biggest regret to have wasted 10 years of my life on a company that wasn’t worth my while at all. I struggled so much but kept giving Pret the benefit of the doubt while deeply traumatized and becoming ill. I never worked in such a hurtful place and had to learn my lesson hard.
You use former homeless people for your PR, giving them patronizing labels of “Rising Stars”, which is your CEO’s “trademark” suffering from “foot-in-mouth disease” to give people patronizing and disrespectful labels, like calling me his “late night girl” while pretending that my emails were wrong. Yes, take disadvantaged people to Austria and all over the world, I would even donate to that, treat them well, but to not soften the approach to all staff across the board, some of whose lives have been and are being destroyed by your company, THAT is my disgust of your lies, tricks and exploitation of hard working people. Once they become bereaved, unwell mentally they become an inconvenience for you.
And my experience that Pret never cared for bereaved staff, have absolutely nothing in place to protect and support them, and worse even bully bereaved staff that I have survived under a discriminating HR department. It is still going on and will not change unless the law here also changes and protects bereaved employees from bullying and toxic management and companies.
To end this “letter” that you don’t care about anyway, Pret you step on people, including from HQ. I regret not having reached out to the AMK I was told about who later ended her life. And someday, someone, somewhere will pick this and other things up again.
I am a member of the Mosaic Clubhouse that you try to insinuate fishing for staff as Brexit is close. I am seriously considering cancelling my membership at the Clubhouse. I cannot be in a mental health facility that just cares for support from toxic companies who put people in mental ill-health in the first place.
I am proud to have made many Unions and other important people aware of you, and more and more people as well as your staff will rise and tell their story.
My tribute to the “Fallen Stars” who were trampled upon, some who became homeless, and God knows how many more suicides are under the carpet, when Pret can hide two customer deaths, a third nearly fatal, several hospitalized… how many staff found no way out then to go over the edge, as I almost did as well.
Pret, you are dangerous to people’s lives and health!
Sparked by my blog Amy Sharpe from the Sunday Mirror went undercover in Pret. I added some comments to her findings in more detail from my 10 years in Pret in “Undercover Under Pressure“.
Other example on the “Rising Stars” Tweet where my Tweets are hidden from the public:
Tweet visible to me only while logged in:
My Tweet NOT visible to the public when I’m logged out:
JavaScript required to view slideshow. May not work on mobile devices.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Slideshow can be paused
The above slideshow is just a selection, the list goes on in —> Pret Staff Complaints
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2019 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Five weeks before he died he replied to my email inviting him to a gig close to his town. An artist I knew for a long time and had the privilege to work together would play there. I invited him, backstage and stuff, I wanted to make my big brother proud. But he couldn’t make it and I never responded back.
5 weeks after he died I found out that he is dead, cremated, gone.
I want to shorten some reviews here from the “Pret Poets Society” post to only link to Assistant Managers, General Managers and HQ Staff reviews.
The poor management style that so many Team Members complain about in Pret is enabled from the very top senior leadership and HR, who know exactly how their leaders are. If there is no clear leadership strategy in place, a zero tolerance on bullying and when a large part of Managers are poorly trained, discriminating and especially profit driven, than it becomes very clear that the fish stinks from its head. No company’s top boss can close their eyes and play innocent.
CEO Clive Schlee prides himself on how well he knows his people in this video, and that is why he has no excuse on how the Team Members, as well as Managers are treated!He is not able to say that he doesn’t know as he also visits shops regularly and makes himself approachable to TMs, who often complain directly to him or via his Twitter, risking getting fired for publicly outing their distress. But he does not change the terrible culture as the money keeps pouring in and he pockets ยฃ30 Million from the JAB take-over.
Because Pret’s CEO presents himself as this approachable top boss which impresses many, especially young shop based staff, it is like Clive Schlee plays the “good cop” while Managers are the “bad cop”. But both have one goal, make as much money as possible that they can squeeze out of their workers.
When I was going through the darkest, most hellish time in grief and on top being bullied by superiors, I was continuously being placed under bullying managers who supposedly cared. When the shouting didn’t work, they turned their bullying more subtle, by withholding information that I needed as a leader, not inviting me to leaders’ meetings and even Christmas dinner, holding me low with menial tasks, giving me the minimum hours even though I asked for more hours etc. In my traumatic state it took me many months to realize that this was on purpose.Clive Schlee and HR know their managers and placed me accordingly in hopes I would resign, as I was offered four settlements if I resign.There was no care nor interest to have me under empathetic or skilled leadership.
This leadership style is then continued, trickling down through the ranks. So, TMs try to rise up the ladder to escape the horrendous pressure and stress, because they see how managers and even Team Leaders sit in the office. And the incentive of managers getting huge bonuses paid while stressing their staff.
I have seen it countless times how good TMs who were very passionate, kind and hard working changed and got corrupted, once they started moving into management levels and attached themselves to this crowd of “leaders”.
I never wanted to be a manager even though I applied for Assistant Manager roles, but only to escape the bullying culture in shops. I was often asked through the years by many TMs why I wasn’t a manager, as I worked professionally, with skill and knowledge, and many customers often approached me with a query thinking that I was the manager until I pointed them to the plain clothes GM or AM. But I answered the question of why I was not a manager, very simple because I could not do what managers are pressured to do, cut hours and squeeze everything out of teams to maximize profit. And my TMs agreed and understood, as I was always helping my teams, encouraging them, supporting them, even when I was hectic myself at times.
I am glad to not be under such toxic “leadership” anymore!
The worst management often are Managers who come from the outside, from other places like Costa or Nero. They then start straight away as Assistant Managers for a few weeks before being “graduated” as GMs. They work a few weeks or months in the kitchen and do various jobs, but this does not help as they have not been at the very bottom level as a Team Member. But even Managers who started as TMs often turn very sour as I worked with two GMs who were some of the most difficult Managers I had.
The different job roles and how to progress on the ladder I cover in detail in the Pret Poets Society post. But as a short cut briefly:
The hierarchic order to rise up
Starting as TM
then HFC, Barista or TMT (or any other new job role Pret comes up with)
then as FL or KL
then as AMF or AMK
and finally on shop level as the GM.
Beyond this and outside of the shop it goes into area management levels / Operations Manager (OPs).
There are two types of Assistant Managers, as the shop in itself is like a business, and so is the kitchen. In larger busy shops there is the Assistant Manager for the shop floor (AMF), and the Assistant Manager for the kitchen (AMK). Smaller, less busy shops don’t have an AMF and sometimes not even an AMK to save on payroll costs. But this burdens down the Team Leaders as GMs often don’t care, are incapable to even do the ordering. When I returned from holiday many times, the shop stock room was a complete mess, over-ordered or missing stock because the GM filled in for my role and couldn’t do the ordering properly. Initially this was very shocking but also seems the norm. But when I as the Team Leader made a mistake on the ordering, there was immediate trouble from the Manager. No mercy while they themselves couldn’t even do the ordering.
Regarding the Operations Managers (OPs) for the areas, I am not concerned with them whose job it is to pressure the shop GMs, to pressure the FLs/KLs, to pressure the Teams. The typical pyramid of hierarchy trickling down with this “leadership” of fear management to reach higher โproductivityโ and profit. OPs like to sit in the pub during lunch time, visit some shops here and there to intimidate the hard working teams. They fly out to Dubai or if in the USA to Las Vegas, and throw their parties and receive their immense bonuses. So, I am not concerned with OPs managers who mostly don’t give a toss.
The following Reviews are just those who outed themselves as Assistant Manager, GM, HQ staff and who give an insight into upper and senior management from OPs to HQ.
The Reviews / Complaints
Leaving all mistakes in the reviews to keep it in their own words
and starting with the most recent reviews.
In each job role I highlight a few reviews that really hit the nail on the head.
AMF / AMK
20. Dec. 2017 London “Avoid working there – Too much pressure working there , company expects you to do all your job within the time you are schedule but it is impossible , you will end up working hours for free, no work life balance at all , they have he mistery shipper but it is all a fake thing you can not control , the standards are so high the only thing it will drive is you stress everyday . Don’t work there . Cons: Extra hours not paid”
26. May 2017 NYC “Pure Misery – The kitchen staff is treated like slaves. They are expected to do the impossible. The upper management is a bunch of heartless, evil British monsters that take credit for all the positives and assign blame for all the negatives. Quit your jobs and go back to England and stay there.”
11. Dec. 2013 NYC “Promotions bases on politics, inconsistency In polices , long hours”
09. Oct 2012 London“Too much pressure and managers with poor interpersonal skills. Respect your team, be patient and keep cool under pressure. Be fair to your team members.”
Highlighted Review:
19. Nov. 2014 London “Worst company to work for – Pret was the best company 10 years ago, they were more about the people and it was beat place to work. now the company is just about the profit also it is run like mafia organisation where it is about who you know, the team member are over worked and managers are always working with fear, the way the company is going it will not last long.
Get back to basic, care about the team and always listen to the little people, also be open and get rid of some top management who are so corrupt.”
GM
07. Juny 2018 A former Senior Manager’s response to my review:
03. Feb. 2018 “High demands not in line with pay, lack of support, inconsistent training, stressful/poor work life balance”
Highlighted Review:
11. Mar. 2017 “Pret A Manger Reality – Long hours, inexperience Operation Managers.
Companhy values have been lost along do way, bonus scheme not very fair.
Pay raises no fair either, You don’t get reward for results and work ethic, just if you have a close relationship with your Operation Manager, you are the new hot of the month.
Listen to your people more closely, massive turnover on Pret Managers at the moment and everyone just ignoring the reality, huge unhappiness amoung the managers.
Create and fair and competive process for development.
Opportunity Network for Pret employees, just another flawless (meant flawed) tool at pret, most of the vacancies have people already for them, they want to create an illusion you can develop yourself.
Focus on team members it’s essential, but managers dictated the success on your shops, and drive passion to the team.
HR doesn’t protect the managers.
PIP, pret Partners only people, whom have friends already in, not related if you can contribute to the company, just based on relationships.”
(NOTE: HR doesn’t protect anyone unless it suits Pret’s business.)
15. Nov. 2016 NYC “Toxic, low class, unprofessional culture – Racist, non-inclusive environment that upper management and hr are fully aware of but ignore.” (NOTE: worth reading this review in full!)
Highlighted Review:
25. May 2016 USAย “Very racist upper management. They make you work 60 hours per week and they don’t pay you for it (just basic salary). They don’t appreciate your work no matter how good you are. Tendency to promote british managers than american ones.
Advise to Management: Open your mind towards american managers. stop racism that is happening to workers. Get involved with the employees and don’t let the operational managers act as they own the people.”
Highlighted Review:
31. Oct. 2015 NYC “Horrible training, too many lies. Training sucks, people are treated like crap. Upper management do not care about you, will never recommend this company. Bottom line as a British company they treat employees as machines, they don’t care about how they feel, expect too much for too little. Horrible environment. Treat people with respect and appreciate their hard work. Stop using your British mentality when it comes to deal with people. You’re people are horrible at this.”
20. Apr. 2015 Chicago, IL “Manager- horrible upper management, unrealistic goals, promotions based on politics. Favoritism with management – Hiring is based on looks – All push with no support – No integrityย – A lot of show and dance for support center and president/ceo Your employees will respect you if you offer genuine support. It is all about what your shop looks like when the CEO is in town. Stop favoriting managers, no one respects you for it.”
01. Feb. 2014 “Great company in risk of ruin! Please get the bullies out and revive Pret to its former glory. Used to be the most amazing company to work for, a job to be proud of. Now your people work in fear…..its time to listen!”
19. Dec. 2017 London Former IT Analyst: “Manipulative and exploitative approach to employees as owners and senior management concerned about profit margin only. People are taken into account only if it makes a good PR. Genuinely fake and dishonest company.”
28. Feb. 2017 NYC Former Purchasing Director: “One of the oddest work experiences. Worked their during a transition period – so company going in one direction and then the opposite.”
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2018 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
The second quote also from NY crushes me, as I have been through this and it almost ended my life. My regular readers know my story, but for new readers the below review of a former NY employee from days ago does not surprise me, even while I tear up when reading this review as it brings back traumatic memories. I was bullied during bereavement, and even while completely traumatized I was still trying to bring suggestions via HR for Pret to have support for bereaved employees in place. But unbeknown to me at the time, and in a complete fogged up state on autopilot, my approaching HR put a target on my back, which I write on my blog extensively.
As I tried to come to terms about my brother’s death and on top of that the turmoil at work, I applied for my file as I wanted to understand what was happening and why? I didn’t realize when I applied for my file under the Data Protection Act 1998, that this also involved emails between HR and managers about me. I assumed my employee file just involved regular notes that a line manager might have made about employees, to pass information on to another line manager when the employee gets transferred or promoted. I had a very difficult manager before my brother died, who would even sabotage me when I tried to transfer away from her shop. I had this thought that she may have written something detrimental about me that made the following managers dis-favourable towards me.
But that wasn’t the case and what I was confronted with, apart from the sheer size of approximately over 1000 pages, which included many repeats, were emails between HR and managers who were stumbling around without clear direction, no steady leadership, no policy on how to support bereaved employees. One email that struck me was from a People Business Partner (PBP) who responded to an email from an HR advisor who was the note taker of my first grievance appeal’s hearing against a line manager who bullied me openly. The HR advisor brought my concerns forward and the PBP even agreed that Pret could improve on supporting bereaved employees. This and other emails often were written to just have a paper trail of supposedly being supportive, anything else was communicated on the phone or in person.
But this HR advisor was the most professional HR person I have come across in Pret. In the hearing she was completely quiet and just took the notes, but I could see in her face that she cared when I described my turmoil with the line manager who bullied me. She cared enough to pass my concerns on to this PBP and in all her dealings with me after the hearing I felt she was extremely professional and cared. I learned later that she left Pret, and I was crushed that all the good people seemed to be leaving. Of course people move on, but with the top leadership of HR I constantly felt with my back against the wall and like in a Twilight Zone.
The email, I added the pink description on who’s who and underlined in yellow:
This PBP (#2) several months later was the note taker of an appeal’s hearing I raised against another PBP (#1) who was in the background advising the area manager who targeted me. I raised the grievance based on the evidence of the emails from my file. Of course raising a grievance against anyone from HR, especially a PBP is a waste of time, but I was just out-of-sync trying to go through the right channels to not only improve my situation, but that of all employees. In the appeal’s hearing I confronted this PBP (#2) about the above email, where he agreed that Pret could improve on supporting employees who suffer loss, but he then said that in hindsight he could have made a mistake! For the sake of his colleague PBP (#1), he changed his mind and the game continued… I wrote an open letter to him as well, which was a waste of time as well of course, but this needs to be in the open.
Today’s 2nd quote of the day from a former NY employee makes it clear to me again that Pret not only doesn’t learn its lessons, but Pret does not care whatsoever about employees, unless it serves PR. And even while I am not surprised anymore, this review has me in tears and my heart racing from remembering my ordeal.
I confronted Clive Schlee, CEO again on this with a tweet where he tweeted about plastic issues another Twitter person raised. But the CEO then deleted his tweet minutes after I tweeted. I know I tweet a lot, but people suffer and become suicidal and Pret under the leadership of Clive Schlee does business as usual and goes full steam ahead.
“management is disrespectful, they fire people when they are having rough times in life even if they talk to manager about it , i was penalized for calling out for a funeral people who were stealing still work there but call out & youre fired”
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2018 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
This has NOTHING to do with love and education, but has everything to do with fear, powerlessness, and a failing government and police system that only revert to ads!?!
I saw this film in the U.S. when I lived in Florida in the Noughties. I remember so well that I strolled into the living room where my house mates were watching a film, and I just joined them. The film was already quite a bit in, at least 30 minutes or so. And as the theme of the movie was very familiar to me, I just watched.
I grew up with documentaries on Hitler, Nazis, the Holocaust, crimes that humanity will not forget. So, seeing the familiar pictures just let me sit and watch if there was any new thing unfolding.
And it was.
The fictional, yet beautiful story of a father who promised his little son a tank when he wins a game they were playing.
The catch was, the son had to play-pretend a hide and seek game during WWII after being captured by the Nazis. In order to win, the main rule of the “game” was that he had to hid and be silent. What the son didn’t know was that he had to play being silent in order to survive. And if he won the game of being the most silent player, he’d see a tank as a reward!
He lost his dad, though, but as the writer and director (main character) wanted, the little kid at least saw a tank.
For all of you who are reading this, you go like wtf…
I got it…
So, I spare you with explaining my education in history in front of a TV watching what Germany’s crime was and why the world keeps using this as an example of evil, and how all the other nations closed their eyes to it. And I’m proud that my dad forced us to watch the atrocities and not close our eyes.
But rewinding back to the movie “Life is Beautiful” … there is one scene that I always think of when I think of this movie. Before being captured, the father tried to get a job in a nightmare situation during occupation, he was being trained as a waiter, and his superior who trained him said an unforgettable thing about humility, dignity, self-respect and strength: “God serves men but he’s not a servant to men“.
This is what I always tried to portrait to my teams when I was a team leader in Pret and saw their frustration with customers that at times were rude and disrespectful. I’d remember this scene and also told my team that they serve customers but they are not their servants when my colleagues felt humiliated by them.
When hard-working people are called the C-word, the loud music makes a customer tweet instead of asking the shop staff politely to turn down the volume, a customer who wants a fuzzy warm feeling and staff to smile to all customers … and Pret does the thing they do, “prostituting” their values while claiming of “doing the right thing naturally“.
In the service industry, people serve people, but they are not their servants.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2018 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
A very warm Thank You to Paul for nominating me. Your poems make my brain cells think around several corners! And your tireless support puts a smile in my heart… and then I think what’s wrong with you!? ๐ — Thank you.
Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
Write a post to show your Award.
Give a brief story of how your blog started.
Give two pieces of advice for new bloggers.
Select 15 or more bloggers for this award.
Let each nominee know that you have nominated them and leave a link to your post.
Brief Story How My Blog Started
I limit myself to a 99 word challenge, because I cannot keep it short. I don’t see myself as a blogger, because I never felt I had anything to say each day. I love to write, it was in my dreams at nights for years, just as a passion. Those who know my story, I initially started this as poetrasblok.com as I wanted to create a platform for my brother who died almost 4 years ago. But this turned into LateNightGirl.org because I was bullied during bereavement at work in Pret A Manger. I survived to tell my story.
My 2 Pieces of Advice for new Bloggers:
1. Stand up for what you are passionate about; it may be a cause, an injustice, a love for unpopular art, rescuing cats in Istanbul, creating an unforgettable vegan recipe on a high street in America surrounded by fast food giants, holding the hand of a dying patient in a hospice, standing in the streets with fellow demonstrators for what you believe needs to change, collecting metal lunch boxes … whatever. And then write your heart out about it! Whatever it may be, stand your ground no matter how little support you’ll have initially. And maybe you will never have the support that you wish for or need, and silence often is the loudest motivator to keep going.
Just know who you are, and stand.
2. Don’t follow rules if they are damaging, flawed or limit creativity. Reinvent, even if your knees are shaking, as long as you don’t hurt people or break the law.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2018 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Since Twitter is limited in the amount of words that can be used and on Facebook Pret tends to delete my comments, I’d just like to expand my questions here and just link to it.
I used to get told off and “corrected” from line managers in front of colleagues, one GM in particular would repeatedly do this, to which I kept asking to please give me feedback in person not in front of my team. This particular GM would say that he “feed-backs” me in front of the team for their benefit, so that they learn from my mistakes. Apart from this being complete nonsense, incapable management and plain wrong, I understood his bullying mentality and insecurity.
And I am sure Pret is not keen on answering my questions, certainly not directly, I’d like to take this “example” be it poor as it is, and do the same thing. For the sake of the public, so they learn from your mistakes, I’d like to ask you publicly again a few questions.
After I was bullied during bereavement in all its forms, shouted at, excluded from leader’s meetings as well as a leaders Christmas dinner (when my dad just woke from his coma and I returned to work and was put on late shifts to cover for them to have their dinner), information withheld that I needed in order to do my job, held low in jobs where I could not grow and thrive, hours cut to zero during Christmas time even though I was on a 35 hour contract needing money to visit my dad again, hours not paid that I had to chase, the patronizing approach from Clive Schlee, CEO who labelled me his “late night girl”, the lies and dodgy grievance hearings, after all this bullying under the guidance of HR and the Head of HR & Recruitment, after all this mistreatment you tasked one of your Development Managers to sanction me supposedly because of my emailing, for which your CEO labelled me his “late night girl” two months before you dismissed me.
Your Development Manager, who also is a Hypnotherapist, NLP Practitioner (as several of your leaders are) and in 2017 studied to become a Psychotherapist, was put on my case because she had a brother who died in his flat and was not discovered after days later, just like my brother died and was in his flat for days before his corpse was found.
She was put into contact with me, not so we could support each other in our common grief, but so that I would be able to receive the disciplinary as I would be more receptive since we have the same loss. This which I already put forward to your Director of HR, I called “perversion” for lack of a better word. I had to learn later that this was gaslight in its most primitive form.
Your Development Manger, who is governed under this therapy body, then entered into personal communication with me right from the next day onward which was secret, even though you all knew about it of course. This confused me further. Not only did she enter into unallowed contact, but she solely communicated with me via text messages and email, for which she sanctioned me in the first place!
Fasting forward a few months, I of course got dismissed (with my dad in intensive care just out of a coma) while she is safe in her job as she served HR well. She even at times sounded like the Head of HR, saying things only the Head of HR knew and vice versa.
Now my question is, as I am not sure anymore what to believe because there were so many lies from you from the top down, did she really have a brother who died very similar to how my brother died and the delay in her learning about his passing, like in my case as well?
If she did have a brother and all she told me about him and the situation, why did you step on her dignity by using her against me, instead of for me and her being able to have open, not in secret, support in our grief. Her brother (supposedly) died 2 months before my brother died, in his flat, alone, for days undiscovered… like a twin story. And yet your core value of “doing the right thing naturally” … NATURALLY … I still have to let that word melt on my tongue… is such a disgrace and arrogance I have rarely come across.
If she did not have a brother and made up this story to really fuel the gaslight, than she is a bad person.
But if she did have a brother and everything she told me was like it was, than she is even worse than a bad person, because she should and could have declined the task of sanctioning me to protect her as well as my dignity.
I certainly would have declined and offered instead to be available for support and open contact with respect and integrity.
What this also particularly bad is how manipulative she was. Right from the start of our secret contact she wanted to meet me to interview me for an assignment she was writing for university as she was studying to be a Psychotherapist. She was writing an essay on anger and wanted my input as I was very angry with everything surrounding my brother’s death and being bullied on top of it.
I declined being interviewed as I didn’t know her, no matter how similar our losses were, but I also didn’t want to feel like a guinea pig for someone’s projects and from the get go I was confused about her role. A friend even warned me that Pret may be using her to “spy” on me to see how best to fire me. But I was so blinded from grief and all that happened at work that I fell for this trap that sounded too good to be true that someone with such an identical loss could be even in the same company.
She later declined showing me her essay as I was interested what her take on anger was. Her reasons for not showing it to me was supposedly because she wanted to protect the volunteers who participated in the interviews. And yet, an essay or book is usually written with changed names and even if the first names were real, I wouldn’t know anyone anyway. So, from all the lies and manipulations I reckon she used my story anyway against my permission.
My aim since May 2015, when I approached HR informally to make suggestions on how to support bereaved staff not only put a target on my back. I would enter further and further into troubled waters from superiors in the years to come, but Pret’s non-existent bereavement support program involves using one bereaved employee against another in the most disgraceful way! Perhaps they bribed the Development Manager either with immunity if any future disciplinary against her would come up, or she got that promotion she had an eye on for some time, as she worked in Pret’s HQ since over 15 years. She certainly got the personal protection from the Head of HR who would manipulate and tweak my situation on several occasions, leaving me like a lamb up for slaughter under incapable management. Only she knows why she not only allowed HR to use her, and even went further to take advantage of my story in her university studies.
And that is what makes Pret, Pret:
… and HR takes this to even more lofty heights:
PR, slogans, lies, dishonesty, tricks and traps, disrespect of dignity, lack of integrity behind a facade…
So, those are my questions regarding the Development Manager, did she really have a brother whose story in death was so similar to my brother’s, and if so why did you step on her and my dignity as well as her allowing this.
As you know you got away with it from reaching court as I cannot deal with this mentally without a lawyer and having buried my dad in March. I finally completely broke down. But I can write and ask and expose and share…
The other question that keeps burning in my heart which I already addressed you while working in Pret, was the incident one of your People Business Partners told me in an appeals hearing where I raised a grievance against another PBP, which of course was a waste of time, but at least I gave it my best. The PBP in the hearing told me about an assistant manager who was bereaved and mistreated on top of this at work and raised grievances, just like I was. He had the audacity to not only compare me with her, but judging her as well as me to be bitter, because we raised grievances.
I later emailed him as I was speechless in the hearing when he told me this, and wrote that she is not bitter, but in a lot of pain as I could relate to that. I deeply regret not having tried to get in contact with her to support her. But you know, Pret, I was so traumatized, not ready to give any help or assistance to anyone, I was so lost myself, whereas you have all the money, resource and manpower including your Development Manager who is a therapist… I had no strength nor mental capacity to help.
And my question again that I raised before, is this AM the same AM who a few months later ended her life in suicide?
Dear Pret, you take former homeless staff hiking, at times your CEO is taking them to his home in Austria and this serves your PR very well as one of your former IT Analyst’s reviewed your Head Office. And yet you put people on the streets through unfair dismissals. I certainly also could have ended up on the streets and was on my way downhill. You drive hardworking staff to suicidal thoughts maybe even successfully, you bully them during bereavement and then try to get rid of them with all kinds of tricks and traps under the umbrella of “doing the right thing… naturally”.
My public outcry, no matter how creative I write to try to heal, my ordeal with your company remains traumatic and it will never go away, no matter what you try next. And having a former team leader colleague of mine whom I used to highly respect and work well together, for him to call and then text me a few weeks ago, after not having heard from him for three years doesn’t work. He lied during an investigation in favour of a line manager who bullied me. He never expected that I’d read his lies later on after I applied for my file. I immediately told him to not contact me again. Your trick-box should have been exhausted by now.
I know you are collecting and waiting for me to do the “right” wrong thing for you to take action and certainly keep my public outcry should this reach court, and I wholeheartedly tell you that I neither care nor am afraid of you. Your systemic disregard for decent and hardworking people with integrity, your lack of compassion for people who give their sweat, blood and tears so that you can count your millions, your PR that gotten more cracks in its facade after your appalling dealings with two deaths becoming public… your carelessness will not be hidden forever, no matter how many hikes you take and use former homeless people for PR and step on even their dignity.
These questions remain, and the truth will always come to light… how many more have died, be it customers from allergen reactions or staff by suicide, some even after having left Pret so that no connections can be made. And how many more keep suffering, slide into depression and suicidal thoughts, as the true staff reviews reveal on the same lines of mistreatment again and again?
The truth will always come out, no matter how long it takes.
Kind regards,
Clive Schlee’s Late Night Girl
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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 an article in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2018 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org
Interview:
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.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
“If someone can’t finish job on time has to stay longer, for free. Common practise is to give someone job to do, just a couple of minutes before end of shift and after telling that “you couldn’t finish on time, because you are to slow””
Oh yes, this is absolutely a common practice. The amount of times I was given a job 15 minutes before my shift ended, a job that would take at least 30 – 45 minutes and longer. I changed this “habit” then, and left on the dot when my shift ended and also told my teams or individuals when they were given jobs by the line manager minutes before their shift ended, that I will pay them via the system, as I was authorized to do as part of my team leader responsibilities, for the extra time. When the manager objected, which happened many times, then I advised my TMs that they should leave on the dot. I let my team go home precisely when their shift ended.
This did not make me friends with my line- and OPs managers, but these kind of people are not my desired friends!
If you are a current Pret Employee, especially in the shop and / or kitchen, I advise you to not waste your time trying to change work conditions, nor “fight” this internally. Before I worked in Pret I never had any problems with a company or bosses. Of course I had the usual stresses any job brings, especially the food industry, and a boss here and there would get on our nerves from time to time, but nothing like the hell and trauma I survived in Pret! Nothing came even close!
That’s why I made the mistake to give Pret the benefit of the doubt one too many times, as this was a first, and trying to figure out why this was happening to me. In my darkest time during bereavement, when I was so traumatized I couldn’t see left from right and just went on autopilot, I was even bullied on top of this! From my experience with this company, Pret A Manger, and especially their toxic HR department, I can only urge you to join a Union! Keep on writing reviews on Employment Review and other websites, but safe yourself unnecessary pain and time, and join a Union.
In fact any employee should be a member of a Union. Period.
For Pret workers and food workers in general, I can highly recommend the Bakers Food and Allied Workers’ Union. The BFAWU was instrumental in the first ever McDonald’s workers’ strikes (McStrike) in the UK that already took place in the USA, but in the UK they are a vital force in organizing workers who suffer financially, physically and mentally.
But understand, that when you join a Union and Pret knows about it, that they will find anything against you to get rid of you. Andrej who founded the Pret A Manger Staff Union (PAMSU) was fired under the “pret”ense of allegedly having made homophobic remarks 10 months prior to getting dismissed.
Andrej confronting Pret on the real reason of dismissal.
So, join a Union but understand that once Pret knows that you joined any Union, your days in Pret are numbered. But you won’t be alone. I am recommending the BFAWU because they are very active and supportive of all workers.
President of the BFAWU, Ian Hodson’s much needed words for employees and employers alike:
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org
Interview:
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.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
This happened to a family in the U.S. similar as it happened to us in Germany. Different circumstances but two same things: someone died and was cremated without finding the family first! Germany that is known for its efficiency and thoroughness has shocked me. Carelessness, indifference and sloppy police work know no boundaries.
My brother died and was found in his flat, approximate date of death six days before he was found. Police didn’t do their work properly to find us, then cremated my brother without our consent. We didn’t know for five weeks that he was dead and gone… completely gone…
A year or so later I was told by a customer who used to be a police detective after I asked him for advice, that when the police doesn’t find anything suspicious they close the case fast to avoid paper work! Of course if one of their own was found dead, they would move mountains to find the cause and family!
My life is one complete mess since then…
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
First gig this year after being tired of concerts after my dad died, the whole Pret thing, three years of survival, life in general, coming to terms, cutting out all the bs. But a friend sold some bands to me……
I went home speechless and deaf! But well worth it, also for the cause of the gig!
Full song:
Chopped parts on the drums:
Strange Cages
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2018 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
After a conversation with someone, I just remembered something that I experienced a few years ago.
In 2013 I visited some friends in the U.S. having lived in Florida a few years before, I usually visit every couple of years doing a little tour through the States where friends are scattered all over. I traveled mainly on the East Coast and going mostly by coach, train and car. I flew into JFK, stayed a night, then took a coach to New Jersey to visit friends for a few days. After that I took a train to Virginia for another set of friends and another train back to NYC for a couple more days by myself, seeing some favourite bands and music events that happened to play while I was there. I then took another bus to my favourite City in the U.S., Philadelphia, stayed a couple of days, and ended my U.S. โtourโ by flying out to North Dakota for another set of friends before returning back to London.
I meticulously planned my trip from London, booked almost all tickets, hotels where I stayed alone in parts of the journey. I booked almost all train and bus tickets, where I was able to book online. I researched on cultural events and bands that I love who rarely play in Europe, and even found one of my favourite bands Over The Rhine due to play in NYC just when I planned my trip there! Perfect! I even managed to book a helicopter ride over NYC. I booked almost every journey, accommodation where needed, and cultural events. I only needed spending money and whatever else came up with trips I couldn’t book from London or anything spontaneous I decided to do. So, I was able to plan my trip around some of the events as well as how my friends where at home in their states / towns.
The only ticket I couldn’t book from London was the bus ride from NYC to New Jersey. As I had most all other things booked and paid for I didn’t worry and just planned to go straight to the coach station and buy a bus fare right then and there. I already did my homework from London on which station to go to, and as I visited NYC before, I knew roughly where to stay over night and just book accommodation in walking distance from Port Authority Bus Terminal.
So, at the second day of the trip I did exactly that. I took a nice little walk from the hotel to the Terminal, found the right bus pretty fast and started to book a one-way ticket to Atlantic City which my friends recommended me to book to, as they would pick me up from there living about one hour away.
A one way fare would have been $20 which is super cheap for a roughly 2 โ 3 hour ride. I can’t remember exactly how long it took. But for some reason the salesperson at the desk would not let me book a one-way ticket and insisted that this journey can only be booked as a return ticket and that I would get my return fare back on the other side. I had a little debate as this didn’t make sense. Why should I pay $40 if I planned to only do a one-way journey? What I didn’t tell the clerk was that I did indeed plan to return to NYC about two weeks later, but wanted to take the train as I would be coming from Virginia. The one-way Amtrak journey, which I also already booked while still in London as I planned to catch the Over The Rhine concert, takes 8 hours from Blacksburg, VA to NYC. With a bus it would have been longer and much more uncomfortable. The back and forth seems complicated, but I had to book also according to how my friends were available. And as I don’t mind train journeys and traveling in general, the zik-zaking was okay for me as this also relaxes me as long as no rush is involved. And this trip was perfect in timing from beginning to end.
But I wanted to spare all the details and just wanted a blinking ONE-WAY ticket from New York City to flipping Atlantic City! Capiche?! Nopes! She wouldn’t have it. She insisted that they ONLY sell return tickets and that passengers WILL get the return fare back in Atlantic City. Annoyed, and yet needing to take the next coach as my friends would be at the other side in a few hours to pick me up, I paid the fare and soon after left for Atlantic City.
Hours later I arrived in Atlantic City in a parking area. I texted my friends roughly 30 minutes beforehand that my coach was approaching the city, and when the bus turned into the parking area they texted back that they were also already waiting on another parking lot nearby. Fantastic, I can just grab my luggage, get my return fare back and off we go.
Nopes!
I asked the bus driver to reimburse me my return fare that I didn’t need, but he directed me with my paper ticket into a building. Now guess what building it was? Yep, it was the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino! I go in, and by now quite agitated, and was directed to an automate and thought ok, finally I can put the ticket in and get my $20 back.
Nopes!
Instead of my money, a credit-card sized plastic card dropped out of the machine! By now I’m really p*ssed off! A security guard who was standing nearby, observing my frantic aim to figure out how to get my money back, chuckled and asked me where I was from as my accent gave me away again! The mix of British English with a German tone can never have me go under cover! He happened to speak some decent German as he used to be stationed with the U.S. military in Germany in the 80s. Amused, but still helpful, he pointed me where I needed to go to the cashier place to get my money back.
So, I walked through the CASINO and a maze of slot machines, but instead of coins you just needed to use your plastic card, in my case that was loaded with MY $20. Aaaahhh, now the plastic penny dropped!
Luring passengers travelling from New York and other places into the Casino for you to get tempted to use your card (your already purchased return fare that you didn’t need!) to spend it in Trump’s casino. On the initial bus fare purchase in NYC I was very naรฏve why all this happened. Now it all made “cents”!
By now I am really outraged, as the audacity of trying to use my money but being forced to โlendโ it to them before getting it back, for me to only be tempted to leave it at the casino, and worse even to get into gambling!
Now, I don’t gamble and am not tempted at all to use any of the machines or tables, and I don’t know anyone in my circles who does and would support anyone who struggles with gambling without judgment. But apart from the waste of time debating with the sales person in New York to have to pay a double fare, and then trying to get MY money back with my friends waiting outside in the parking lot who already drove for an hour to pick me up, I was unsettled by the lure they use to FORCE you to go through the casino. If I was a person with a gambling addiction, be it active or recovering, this could have pulled me right back in. This โevilโ, and I call it evil, so outraged me that I ranted in the car to my friends almost all the journey to their house!
The length these greedy hordes go through to get you to spend your hard-earned money felt like an old-school Nintendo Mario game. You purchase a one-way ticket but are forced to get a return ticket. Then the bus driver who can’t give you the money sends you into the Casino. There you somehow need to find an automate where instead of your money, you get a plastic card as they didn’t allow to get the money via the paper ticket, you NEED the plastic card, which serves like a chip for card games or roulette! With this card you then have to go through the Casino surrounded by slot machines, just like passengers in airports are lured through the luxury items of the duty-free section to reach their gates… It takes a long journey through the colourful and warm atmosphere of the slot machine area, drizzled on with soft music and a sweet smell in the air, before you find the cashier booth to finally exchange the card with your money! At least FOUR levels from purchasing the ticket to getting back your money and in-between trap after trap after trap after trap…
I should have complained to the NYC bus company or whoever is responsible regarding the ticketing for wasting my time and trying to lure customers to gamble. And of course Trump being a king in New York, he must have made many dodgy deals like this. But it’s incredible what length they go through not only to pull money out of your pocket, but what made me even more angry is, that they want people to get or remain hooked to gambling. I felt for gamblers who try to stay away from these destructive businesses that destroy lives. A recovering gambling addict could have fallen straight into their trap, and the only thing that person did was just to buy a BUS FARE!! That is the audacious and sneaky Trump trap and the money hungry deals between companies!
ยฉ2018 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
The more people learn about my story with Pret the more the question comes up if I went to court against Pret.
Yes I did. But I withdrew.
If you are a new reader to my ordeal with Pret A Manger, you will be confused and overwhelmed as my story is very complex and long. Those who have been following since the beginning when I started to publish on my blog in May 2018 have a good picture on what I went through.
This will eventually turn into a chronological book of events.
But to briefly answer the repeated and valid question if I sued Pret or if not, then why not, which I was just asked today again on Facebook, I decided to write this in a blog and just link to it.
When I was dismissed after being bullied, manipulated, gaslighted, held low, lied to by Pret’s toxic HR department, and continuously patronized by Pret’s CEO, Clive Schlee, who is not willing to label products for allergen information but was willing to label me his โlate night girlโ after the ordeal I went through… when I was dismissed three days after Christmas 2017 with my dad in intensive care just woken out of a coma, I filed a Tribunal claim as soon as I was able to in February 2018 as you have 3 months minus 1 day to file a claim.
In the meantime I was flying back and forth again between London and Germany to be with my dad (who was in hospital since 10.11.2017) as best I could on his bed side and then later in rehab. In the middle of all this I started to prepare for the Tribunal claim which would have happened in September 2018 with the first preliminary hearing in April 2018.
But I had no legal aid as I cannot afford lawyer fees. I scrapped all legal information together as best as I could, going from Citizen Advise Bureau to other free legal advisors to online researching back and forth, while also flying back and forth between London and my father’s bed side.
For people in the USA to understand, the legal system in the UK or in Europe in general is very different to the USA. Since 2015 on and off I contacted various law firms including pro-Bono, no-win no-fee firms, I even had a lawyer for a while who advised me for free. But I had to find out later again that he only wanted to make a quick buck by settling with Pret and get his 30%+ fee from the settlement. He didn’t really advise me properly anyway and even gave me some false advise at times which I later found out when I continued to do my โhomeworkโ researching online. I rejected four settlement offers from Pret, three while still working in Pret, and the fourth one via negotiating with the ACAS conciliator while withdrawing the Tribunal claim I raised and then closed. I dropped the โcharitableโ lawyer as soon as I found he was just looking for fast money himself.
In the USA lawyers would line up like vultures wanting to sue Pret on my behalf as the compensation can be ridiculously huge. In the UK the compensation would have maybe be maximum ยฃ10.000, maybe even more and mostly around ยฃ8000.
One former assistant manager who became homeless after being unfairly dismissed from Pret has gotten under ยฃ10K.
But 33% for the lawyer is peanuts for them to go all the way through with days and days of preliminary and then the main hearings. The free lawyer I had for a while also kept saying to me that it takes months before the hearings take place. In the UK they don’t bother for this โlittleโ amount, while the Millions that can be won in the USA has lawyers drooling for cases like mine.
My father then died in March this year, and again I found myself crumbled under the weight of what life has thrown at me since I learned of my brother’s death in January 2015 (but he died in December 2014) and all I went through in Pret. Autopilot kicked in again, but I couldn’t cope anymore. Enough is enough. I want to die, but I want to live. I need a break.
I withdrew my claim against Pret as my father died in the middle of preparing for the court case with scraps of legal advise I stumbled through, and my mental health taking another nose dive beyond basement level. But I did my homework and asked the Tribunal for the right to file a second claim later should I decide to file again. And I was granted this request.
If I will raise a second claim or if the time limit will be over, I don’t want to talk about.
But this is the reason why I withdrew my case, as it is so complex which involved the heart of Pret, the CEO, HQ, Head of HR, a Development Manager who was used to gaslight me etc. etc. etc. Unwillingly and unprecedented I poked into the heart of Pret, and for me to go all the way through to court without a lawyer going all the way with me would be suicide, as I cannot handle even small stress mentally at this time.
So, lucky for Pret I withdrew, but lucky for me I didn’t sign my rights away for peanuts. And even if Pret had offered me a huge amount, I don’t prostitute my values nor sign my rights away for life. So, I published now.
What happened to Natasha Ednan-Laperouse and her family has utterly devastated and shaken me. I wrote it before I have learned of her death, that having worked in Pret is my biggest regret in life. And now having learned of her tragedy, I am deeply ashamed to have ever given my time, effort and skill to this company, and having tried to improve work conditions from within while extremely traumatized myself. A company’s facade that does not care for people’s lives and health will get more and more cracks in time, with a glimpse behind the scenes of their carelessness.
My heart and prayers go out to Natasha’s family and friends; her brother Alex, her mum and dad Tanya and Nadim Ednan-Laperouse.
I hope in time more people will come forward, especially on the issue of suicide in Pret as well as work conditions, bullying and customer injuries. On work conditions this former employee was the first to go public, I am the second and in time I hope more will follow. And I hope Natasha’s family pursue Pret in court as they have the finances for legal aid and the public behind them now with many warnings Pret ignored.
Thank you for reading and please open your eyes to Pret and take a closer look behind the facade, as indeed take a closer look at ANY company or organization that looks too good to be true in this profit driven society today.
If you don’t take anything away from my publications, ask yourself if anyone can really smile and be “happy” for 8+ hours DAILY in an intensely high stressed work environment out of true “happiness” or if there is anything else behind this!
And my question to Pret A Manger remains: If an assistant manager died by suicide in 2017, I almost did as well after my turmoil at work, and now Natasha’s death in 2016 is revealed, HOW MANY MORE people died and/or suffered hospitalization, depression, mental health issues, physical and mental injuries in relation to Pret.
Link to Tweet (please not that my Twitter handle was first @LateNightGirlMe, but I changed it to @expretDOTorg later).
The only way I cope is to write, and to write creatively of my ordeal. I said it to Pret while I still worked there that it is a mistake to mistreat someone who suffered loss and is a writer, as that person has nothing to lose anymore. And as Madeleine Peyroux wrote so poignantly in her song “Don’t Pick A Fight With A Poet“, Pret in their arrogance and feeling invincible, #toobigtofail, again did not heed yet another warning.
Some blog entries that give a good glance behind the shiny PR(et) facade:
Selected “Quotes of the Day“ from substantial, but not exhaustive list of Pret Staff Complaints.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited. ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Link (Update 2020: Alicia Turrell has deleted her Twitter account, so the link is void).
Clive Schlee’s appalling response, apart from the patronizing and self-assured tone: “I must say you do 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.” … and she’s supposed to be impressed that the CEO responded to an open letter addressed to Pret, while not having a clue what to do:
“You also make your point about the 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 still shake my head when reading this, and I read this many times now in disbelief! I worked at Pret when 2 customers died, and yet we were NEVER trained any more than a basic quick run down of things. I explain in DETAIL the chaos and mess of Pret’s labelling issues and Pret’s inability to step on the brakes to implement truly “meaningful change”: Pret’s Labelling Commitement?
with this much money cannot realize the responsibility it has to people who are making a life or death decision every time they go into that shop, because these allergies can take your life, and it can take them in a couple of hours or in minutes.โ
— Susanna Reid, Good Morning Britain 01.10.2018
Also Piers Morgan has some much needed words for Clive Schlee at the end of the interview.
Putting this again into “perspective” how Clive Schlee’s patronizing and self-assured response was to an open letter regarding allergen and labeling in 2015.
Not only resignation, but prosecution needs to happen here:
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 do 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?
Wish best wishes
Clive Schlee”
The more I read this response the more my head doesn’t stop shaking!
Is it just arrogance, feeling invincible, carelessness, what is this??! His response to me even looks stupid and foolish, like an apprentice who is trying to figure out an assignment…
The patronizing and self-assured tone of: “I must say you do 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.”
Alicia is supposed to get excited that THE CEO responded?
I could pick apart the whole response, but this sentence could be the end for him: “To be honest, I am not exactly sure how to respond.”
Hence, this second “Quote of the Day”:
“It is INEXCUSABLE that a food company of this magnitudewith this much money cannot realize the responsibility it has to people who are making a life or death decision every time they go into that shop, because these allergies can take your life, and it can take them in a couple of hours or in minutes.”
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2018 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Ok, the nervous but calculated posture of Clive Schlee versus the relaxed hands-in-pockets “Director of Risk” (whatever that means!) Jonathan Perkins (in the background) who quickly changed his posture…
Just judge for yourselves if this is truly being sorry about a person’s death (from 2 years ago) or Pret doing the PR(et) thing once again… naturally…
After the patronizing, self-assured response to an open letter in 2015:
Hands-in-pocket Director of whatever, sugar-coating…
ยฉ2018 LateNightGirl.org
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. 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.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org
Interview:
.
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. ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
I recently discovered this super talented, smart, funny, much needed comedian. Don’t know why I am always so slow discovering these brilliant people, but I can’t watch enough of his brain-stimulating wordplay set to familiar songs and musicals with facial expressions that tops it all! He does the whole production, writing, even the editing, everything, best comedian at least that I have seen in a long time! Brightens up my day after a few years of a loveless and laugh-less life!
I hope he’ll do a piece on the greedy corporate business world and the modern-day slavery type of organizations like Amazon & Co one of these days.
FNN (Fake News Network) correspondence Randy Rainbow, take it away!
A very stable genius
Randy Rainbow interviews the First Family (Rarely enjoyed pukes so much!)
Rudy and the Beast(LOVE THIS!!!)
If you ever got impeached (“For 30-40 years I’ve been watching Flippers” – Such a good show!)
Ivanka Trump (Interview from the See B.S. Broadcast)
Obama (Beautiful interview with “Daddy”)
BUTTONS! (โDo you think the president should be committed?โ ๐ )
I do have those tiles in my bathroom! ๐
Commander of Cheese (Interview with Kellyanne Conartist)
How do you solve a problem like Korea (aka Rocketman)
Those were the good old days (“I gladly trade in Jared Kush for just one more Bush”)
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 are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Okay, this is my first challenge I am participating in with the kind encouragement of fellow blogger calmkate via her own 99 words entry. I hope I got it right.
In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about what happens next to a stranded suitcase. Go where the prompt leads you, but consider the different perspectives you can take to tell the tale.
My 99 word entry:
The Case
————————————————————————
This is the case of a man who walks the tracks, burdened with a bundle that life over time has loaded on his shoulders. He loves the stillness and the protective feel of the walls. He carries his suitcase and the load on his shoulders as he reaches the threshold of a tunnel, not the light at the end of the tunnel, but the darkness at the end of his life. He leaves his case on the tracks as he doesn’t need it anymore and walks into the tunnel. This is the case of a man who once lived.
ยฉ2018 PoetrasBlok.com
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2019 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
“I ain’t gonna drink your dirty water no more!” – LNG
Buddy and Julie Miller ยปDirty Waterยซ
One of my favourite songs co-written by my all time favourite artist, singer-songwriter, poet and humane being, Julie Miller, whose songs have pulled me out of dark pits many times! I saw her in concert a few times in the 90s and had a brief encounter with her backstage at a London gig, which was a lovely little highlight.
Julie has been scarce for health-related reasons for many years now, but is still active in writing songs with and for her husband Buddy Miller, whose unmistakable guitar riffs is a unique signature in Julie’s songs and who calls her one of his favourite writers. She is a rare kick-butt artist with a huge heart and voice, whom too few know in the music and art world. I hope she plays live once more and to be able to see her in a gig again.
I think I’ll make “Dirty Water” my theme song for my 10 years Pret A Manger experience. It has certainly become my anti-PR or my PRotest song regarding slick slogans and sweet-talk.
Well I donโt need you hanginโ round my door
Trying to drag me back down to the shore
And I ainโt gonna drink your dirty water no more
Well I got wet from my head down to my legs
And I drank dirty water down to the dregs
But I wonโt do it again I donโt care who begs
Dirty water now whatโs that for
Dirty water I ainโt drinking no more
Youโve got a lie underneath your tongue where it canโt be seen
And you wanna put the truth on a guillotine
But you might as well put out a fire with gasoline
Well you can serve up dirty water from a golden cup
You can try to lock up the truth but the door wonโt shut
Cause the truth just keeps coming out like blood from a cut
Well it sparkles and it shines but it’s just a trick
So you wash it down with a kiss just to get a kick
But that dirty water is about to make me sick
You can try to sweeten dirty water up with grenadine
But I can still read you just like a magazine
And I ainโt gonna drink no more till the water runs clean
Baby you got the kind of love that I canโt afford
And I donโt have a taste for whatโs in that glass you poured
No I ainโt gonna drink that dirty water no more
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2019 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
2nd Quote of the Day: ยปI’m doing what I can to save a person’s life … I’m trying to change my country’s rules …So, the security is coming, I don’t know what they gonna do with me, but whatever!ยซ — Elin Ersson
Click anywhere on this video to start:
“A Swedish student activist has stopped the deportation of a man to Afghanistan after she mounted a protest onboard a plane. Elin Ersson refused to sit down until the man was removed from the flight. Visibly upset, and facing anger from fellow passengers, she said: ‘I am not going to sit down until the person is off the plane.'”
Amazing how the lame attempt of a man trying to stop this hero lady from standing up, just serves as a “case study” for cowardliness.
1:08 Man to Elin Ersson: “I don’t care what you think … I don’t care… What about all those children that you, YOU are frightening!”
Emphasizing “YOU”. LOL!!! The only “courage” this man had is to rip off Elin’s phone out of her hands! My my, how will he explain his actions to his family and friends!
The man thought he’d off pull the trick using children on a young woman with guts and heart.
Always using children to try and shut down an uncomfortable mirror held up to the face of indifference. What cowardliness! Well, he bit his teeth out on a strong woman! Good on you Elin Ersson for defying cowardliness!
What’s so beautiful as well is, that Elin is not letting go and wants to exit at the back where the man who they wanted to deport is supposed to exit the plane. She says she wants to see him get off the plane!
Amazing determination as a staff member is trying to bull**** Elin when he aims to deter her from exiting at the same door the man will exit.
Staff member from 2:20, quote: “… Both you and that person (that person?) will leave the flight, okay?”
Elin: “Okay, can I go at the back to see him go down? Can I go out that side [where the man is exiting, not the opposite side where she can’t see him leave the plane]?”
If I understand it right the staff member wants her to leave at the “opposite” exit away from the view of the man exiting the plane, as the staff member is supposedly waiting to see what the procedure is. Ha Ha!
Elin persists: “I want to see him go out, can I go back [back exit]?”
Staff member stalling and trying to appeal to reason: “I understand what you want to do, but the important thing is the rules, right?” [Yeah right!]
Elin doesn’t let go: “Can I go out on that side and go down on that side [not the opposite exit as suggested by the staff member]?”
Staff member mumbling…
The Nobel Peace Prize should be taken a good look at again.
A Jewish saying from the film “Schindler’s List” that is debated where exactly this is written, but it fits Elin’s deed perfectly:
โHe who saves a single life, saves the world entire.โ
Hopefully they look at their plans for this man’s deportation again carefully.
Elin’s Facebook account is either deleted or on private mode. Hope she is okay and the news that she is supposedly facing jail just a media stunt! But you’re never too small or outnumbered to make a difference! You can stand alone if there is no one to back you up, but eventually they will back you up like a Turkish passenger Elin is pointing out and a football team at the back of the plane!
Weird, I don’t know why this video is dragged vertically so long here, but just click on the above link “FULL VIDEO” to see the normal sized version on YouTube.
ยปI’m doing what I can to save a person’s life … I’m trying to change my country’s rules …So, the security is coming, I don’t know what they gonna do with me, but whatever!ยซ — Elin Ersson
“You always know the mark of a coward. A coward hides behind freedom. A brave person stands in front of freedom and defends it for others.” — Henry Rollins
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2018 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2019 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
So, here I am wanting to read a little bit of an article on Times.co.uk when I find myself forced AGAIN to have to sign up with my email in order to be able to read the rest of the story.
So far so good. Well not really, but I just go with their flow.
I try to sign up using my “junk” email which I use to sign up for stuff where I then receive unwanted junk mail. Since it’s not my main email address, I am not bothered as I never check that junk email address anyway, apart from verifying the (in)voluntary forced subscription.
As my eagle eyes often spot things before I click or miss to click on something, I find Times.co.uk doing something really really naughty! And I wonder how long The Times UK will get away with this one under the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws.
They certainly tick all the right boxes to qualify themselves for trouble!
Here’s the naughty bit:
First box:
“We’ll send you information on products and services from The Times and The Sunday Times that you may be interested in. If you would prefer not to receive these then click here. ”
The little word “not” is here.
Second box:
“We would like to send you exclusive promotions, competitions, and content from selected partners. If you would like to receive these then please click here.”
The little word “not” is NOT here.
Taking these little things apart again, sorry I have to!
This is really cheeky, as they know that the reader often is either in a hurry, or rather impatient, to get to the “desired” product via being forced to sign up, and/or as our brain works in structures, we assume the first is similar or the same to the second.
So, for example, I tick the first box to which they ask me to tick (without saying “please” btw ๐ ), if I do NOT want to receive information on The Times products etc.
By the time I see the second box I would automatically click it, not realizing that I give consent to third parties because I “assume” that they ask the same to click if I do “not” want to receive infos etc. Companies use this psychology in how our brains work brilliantly! But it reeeeaaaallllyyyy TICKS ME OFF!!!
Of course in the first box they WILL send info unless I tick the box. In the second box they WOULD LIKE TO and ask me to “please” tick the box if I like to receive the junk mail.
Logical is, if I wish to not receive any information on products from the Times UK, why would I wish to receive content from third parties!
So, when signing up I ALWAYS slow down and read EVERY dot and comma carefully, and tick or abstain from ticking a box.
And today I flicked it!
I regret not having kept a screenshot I made years ago, and sent it as a warning tip to my friends after I tried for the longest time to find the un-tick button for a travel insurance Ryan Air tried to force on me. Now, it is common knowledge that they are notorious for these stunts on their website. But that travel insurance thing really topped it. Even after years I haven’t found anything coming close to their audacity in using the trick described below.
I am no fan of Ryan Air and always felt bad to use their service as their staff is not making enough to live on and they even have to pay for their own uniform, unless that has been changed since the last time I saw an appalling documentary on their staff treatment. I only use Ryan Air as an “emergency” air line when I have to fly within a day’s notice for family emergencies etc. as no other airline offers a next day deal should I have to fly out fast. In normal circumstances I use other airlines even if I pay much more, but I pay for a better service and feel more secure and don’t feel like I am in a sale that’s on where people dive into cheap products and being pestered for raffles (sorry Ryan Air!). But most importantly the airline staff have to live as well, and I rather invest in that than get a cheap flight with all the downsides in connection with “cheap” services.
One of those bookings had me really angry at the tricks they use. I found a flight and saw that the travel insurance was automatically selected, so I wanted to deselect it, and by the life of me I could not find where to un-tick (or as the Americans say “uncheck”) a box. I clicked on everything I could click on. I went on Internet search where I typed the question “how to deselect Ryan Air insurance” and found some tips, but they were already outdated and Ryan Air found new ways to force products unto customers, knowing many customers are in a hurry to book that cheap flight before someone else takes the seat and fills the plane.
So I came to my end of patience and was about to cancel that flight altogether as I hate being forced to buy a product I don’t want to buy! When I then finally clicked on one last thing I ignored all this time and could not believe Ryan Air’s bold and disrespectful impertinence!
I clicked on a scroll-down menu of the list of countries which I was supposed to choose from for the insurance to cover me in that country, should I have WISHED to purchase Ryan Air’s insurance in the first place! I never clicked on it, kept ignoring it as I did NOT want travel insurance and therefor didn’t see the need to select a country! Daah! And these clever buggers know that psychology and that time is pressing the customer to then compromise and purchase a product they don’t want to buy! So, I slowly scrolled down the alphabetical list of countries. When I reached the letter “D”, I could not believe my eyes, under “D” the option appeared: “Don’t want insurance”! I clicked it and like out of nowhere I deselected the travel insurance! Tadaaaa!!!
Needless to say that Ryan Air will remain only my emergency choice of airlines, unless I become filthy rich to be able to pay a sick amount of money for a next or same day flight!
And The Times UK, tztztz, naughty, too. I have to say that I signed up for the Times, but ended up not finishing to read the article. I lost my appetite to read it, and instead wrote my own little rant here tweaking a jpg image and flicking away The Times UK that has ticked me off!
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2019 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Quote of the day: “Manipulative and exploitative approach to employees as owners and senior management concerned about profit margin only. People are taken into account only if it makes good PR. Genuinely fake and dishonest company.”
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2019 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Some jobs are not for the faint of heart. But a job that is just in a coffee & sandwich place, sucking the life out of you because most managers are insecure, selfish, greedy, power-hungry, being placed into management positions they don’t belong in (yet). Managers who are not trained in people and leadership skills; managers who misunderstand leadership, mistaking it for being taskmasters, assuming they own the staff; managers with their agenda to cover up their own inadequacies and insecurities by suppressing and bullying staff, these managers in the long-run gain no respect.
They are mislead by upper management who fool them that their so-called “hard work” got them into management positions, while in reality it was their willingness to bow to any and all of the expectations that whatever is needed, whatever the cost, they do anything to advance up the ladder, no matter if right or wrong. Their blind obedience to wrong doing and a corrupt system gets them up the carrier ladder fast. It is easy to climb up fast, the real challenge is to keep it up โup thereโ.
It took me years in my naivety and giving people the benefit of the doubt to understand this, where I always asked myself frustrated why there are too many managers being harsh or indifferent, complacent, unfair… The fish stinks from its head, if the majority of “leaders” are like this, it always comes from the top, enabled and welcomed by a system put in place that takes advantage of good people for the sake of gain. Like Gandhi said, “There is enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”
I have experienced myself and seen managers mistreat me and staff for prolonged times, and myself and others complaining and raising grievances, but to no avail. It makes perfect sense then that even bereavement at the workplace is an inconvenience, I survived to speak about it. And yet, the moment that manager does something that might hurt the company, that the company doesn’t approve of, they very quickly find whatever even smallest thing against that manager to fire them.
A corrupt system will produce and welcome corrupt management, because this kind of system needs those kind of managers to do their bidding. If you are a person of integrity and principles, you won’t make it far in a corrupt system, unless you wiggle your way through, quietly not creating any waves. But is that integrity? How goes the saying,
While it is good to wiggle your way through the mine field of elbows and a cut throat mentality with tricks and traps on many a corner, it might even be smart to rise to the top and then be able to change things. This is in no way to attempt a comparison, but a simple example of Oskar Schindler, business man and member of the Nazi party, who cleverly and courageously used his position to save over a thousand Jews, by pretending he needed them for production in his factory. He just found and created jobs for them.
This is an extreme example, but every principle starts small. To just watch how employees are mistreated, held low, bullied, driven and pushed to work until breaking point, has nothing to do with integrity, but has rather more to do with cowardliness. And it worries and scares me that when governments become oppressive, it will be far easier to go along and “obey orders” in a suppressing government, when our principles are already compromised and not even present in the day-to-day workplace!
Yes, I’m being very blunt again, but I have to, because I almost lost my life while many good people just watched and kept their heads down.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2018 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Don’t underestimate a petite voice with a great appetite for justice!
Joan Baez is not just one my favourite artists (alright, she’s on many people’s playlist!), but she knows a prison cell from the inside for all the right reasons!
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2019 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Very bad management. They treat you like a slave. You have zero value for them. They don’t recognize your effort. They threa[t] us and show the door if we don’t work very fast. So many people are not happy. I wonder what kind of manager training they give that manager treats people like crap. She is new manager, she is trying to get self satisfaction in this way.
Advice to Management
If they [don’t] give value to people, they will lose so many good worker. Worker circulation costs much more than bonus that should be given for motivation. They need to design kitchen ergonomicly if they want team work faster.”
there is no management training, even an OPs manager confirmed this to me when I asked this same perplexed question you are wondering about.
There is only one motivator: Money! Lots and lots of money! And to get more of it the “training” they are under is “fear management”.
Makes sense?! You’re welcome.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2019 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
I was tempted to pluck it out from its hostile environment, but then I thought that every hostile environment needs a sore in their sight!
Keep blooming, outsider!
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2019 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Dear Lord, protect me from ever need to work for Pret a Manger ever again. Amen.
For this company you are numbers, robots, machines, you are no humans.”
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ 2019 poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Note: If you see this page on white background, but prefer to read on a green background, please delete amp/ in above url and reload. On green background comments at the very bottom will be visible compared to the white background page.
Before you approach your company’s HR department, CEO and/or any senior leadership after unsuccessfully having tried to solve issues with your direct line manager, you need to be aware of a few things. First of all it is sad but understandable that only 2% of employees have the courage or care to approach HR.
Before you approach HR you need to understand your company. You need to know the atmosphere, and you need to understand the system. I certainly understand in hindsight how futile my efforts were, because I was like a boxer just hitting a stone wall trying to break out of a harsh work environment. I approached that โwallโ (HR) first very normally, knocking at the door to make suggestions and then wait patiently to be asked in. But instead of being asked in, I was chased away with sweet-talk, later bullying and indifference. Looking back I am certain my approaching HR was the catalyst for all the turmoil I went through. I often blamed my line managers, and surely they also have a responsibility. Only ONE line manager was extremely supportive and stood out from among the crowd by not jumping on that bandwagon of targeting me. I will never forget that! And yet this shouldn’t surprise anyone, as most people just go with the flow, as this is much easier than swimming against a certain trend, even if it hurts people. Thinking only about #1 is the only “legacy” they leave behind. Only very few managers act on problems of mistreatment in whatever way seems best for them.
But we all have always one of three choices, to either be like the three monkeys where we don’t see, hear and say anything (standing on the sidelines passively watching wrong being done); or we are active on the front-lines and even in the background pulling the strings in mistreating people; or we get active in a helpful way by speaking up for and on behalf of the person who at the time of mistreatment cannot constructively speak up for themselves.
Bullying at the workplace is very real and epidemic, especially the subtle kind where it is hard to prove. In bullet-points, or let me use the term โBullying-Pointsโ, subtle bullying in my own experience and own words for example is:
excluding an employee
backbiting
spreading rumors and lies about the employee
blaming the employee for other people’s mistakes
giving the employee unreasonable work where it is clear form the outset that they will fail
giving the employee too much work or working hours to exhaust them
or even not giving the employee more working hours knowing they need money desperately, holding them low financially
patronizing and holding the employee low with small tasks, while he/she can do much more, declining them to thrive in their work and prevent them to grow in their position
withholding information for the employee to do their job properly, but instead setting them up to fail again โฆ
etc. etc.
The list can go on and on, but the subtle type of bullying is rampant in companies, because it is hard to prove. People often feel odd and that something is wrong, but they cannot put their finger on it at first, until it is too late and in hindsight they understand what hit them. And also in my case I am blamed as someone who is a victim being looked at as the villain because of my open and loud outspokenness. Yes, I definitely wished that my tone and emailing wouldn’t have been so terrible, but anyone who went through what I went through and walked through this in a “sweet” way, please use the contact form on my site, I always wanted to meet a real life Super Hero! And dear Super Hero, bear with my anger a little longer as I struggle to pay the bills at the moment. Give me time to bounce back with sweetness and a new will to keep going.
So, before you approach HR, as in my case I approached them to make suggestions in supporting bereaved employees, you need to understand the trend and atmosphere in your company. In the company where I worked I always understood that when the majority of line managers are harsh and use fear management to โmotivateโ their teams, it is a no-brainer that this comes from the top, as “the fish stinks from its head”.
I was bullied in the midst of traumatic grief by several line managers lead by their boss under the watchful eye of HR, after I approached them with my suggestions. I struggled for about 12 months from the time I received the news about my brother, with the first 5 months being put on prolonged late shifts with few exceptions. This then led me to ask for a transferal to a different branch to have a fair share of rotating shifts, so I would be able to see my friends who were off in the evenings while I was working all the time until late. At the beginning of my bereavement it was okay to be on late shifts since I could not sleep until 4 or 5 in the morning, tormented by the unexplained loss of my brother. But after a while it became unbearable to be alone in the darkest time not able to see friends for vital support.
In the rare occasions I saw friends during the initial bereavement, whereas before I saw them regularly for birthdays, Christmas, New Year’s, concerts, dinners etc., but it was on an occasion at a dinner with about 8 friends in a restaurant. Some of them were talking about a film they watched, a film I was planning to see as well. So, I said to them that next time they watch a movie in the cinema if they could please let me know, as I wanted to see this film as well and would have loved to watch it with them. A longtime friend just replied, “I don’t even call you anymore, because you are always working!” It was a proper and sober wake-up call to change my working times, and yet, it was a struggle to get support from work with this. No one sat me down to inquire what would help me, like they sit down with a pregnant woman to do a risk assessment and if she needs adjustments to her working hours and tasks (because there are laws to protect the pregnant and parents in general for flexible working hours).
I approached HR about this, even mentioning a risk assessment for physical situations like pregnancy. But unbeknown to me this was the catalyst of targeting me for the months to come. After about 12 months with line manager after line manager (except this ONE of course) mistreating and targeting me under the guidance of HR, and me being sent away, I emailed the CEO for help. I think the plan of HR and those who targeted me was to grind me down so much that I leave. But this hard nut wouldn’t break and kept bouncing back! So, another plan had to be drafted.
Months after I literally cried out for help involving the CEO, I applied for my employee file under the Data Protection Act 1998, thinking that maybe a former line manager from years ago wrote something detrimental about me that led the current line managers to see it fit to mistreat me. What I didn’t realize, and in hindsight I just have to chuckle, that my file was to contain a lot of emails from and to HR and managers about me! I was suddenly like a fly on the wall peeking into some conversation where they usually try so hard to avoid anything in writing that could come back later and bite them in the butt!
The file was a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I could really see the confirmation of my gut instinct that I was mistreated, it was right in front of me, black on white. I always doubted myself in the midst of this ordeal because I mixed up the pain with my bereavement. When I felt odd about a situation with my line manager, I blamed myself, I blamed my grief. But I can only say to everyone, do trust your gut, you know yourself best.
And the file was a curse, apart from the sheer volume of it but also because my mental illness really got into full swing then, whereas before I was โjustโ bereaved and traumatized. But the bullying and then reading about the tricks and traps spiraled me into illness and I also started to drink then which added to my miscommunication. This subsequently thrust me into thousands of ill emailing to the company, friends, counselors, anyone I had an email address from.
In the file I read things like the โnice-soundingโ email from the CEO. After I emailed him he wrote only in the subject line to the Head of HR: โDid you meet that poor girl P. from Spitalfields? I promised to visit her before Christmas…โHe did visit me briefly and I appreciated his care then. But what bothered me reading his email to HR is several things, for one the patronizing tone of โpoor girlโ.
Secondly, emails are always written to collect written evidence to show how much they care (supposedly) while in reality I was placed in a shop under yet another line manager who has “strong people skills” as the boss of my former line manager said. Well, his “strong people skills” were his ability to get team members under control. He was very suppressive, held me low and even wouldn’t want to let me go after I raised a grievance against him for not informing me of important things I needed to know and other reasons. Right from the start he even said to me regarding my traumatic behaviour that he didn’t want “the area to feel sorry” for him anymore. With area he meant his colleagues, the other managers who had a laugh about my turmoil. Strong people skills right there! *irony off*
The third thing that bothered me was that it is clear that the CEO knew how harsh the managers are with people, hence โ… that poor girl…โ because I was whirled around during my trauma like on a spinning program of a washing machine.
There was no mercy from my line managers and their superiors and HR, and the CEO knows how harsh that workplace is! And fast forward 3 years later, he calls me his “late night girl”, minimizing my ill behaviour (late night emails to the Pret work emails), which I tried so hard to stop regardless if I get fired or not.
And the fourth thing that made me realize that this email is not an email of a responsible reaction to a real problem in the company, I would have loved to read in the text body of the email something that would have shown that the CEO has a zero tolerance on bullying, especially bullying a bereaved employee. The example of a text like the following would have shown true care to me:
Subject line: ‘Did you meet this team leader P. from Spitalfields? I promised to visit her before Christmas…’
Body of email: ‘I want a full investigation on what happened to her and a report back to me ASAP.’ … and then a review of any anti-bullying policy or the lack of a policy should have happened, not to mention some heads to be rolling. But hey, dream on little naive late night girl!
The reply from the Head of HR was a typical response to mistreatment, he blamed downwards by replying: โ… I met her on Monday, she is in a bad way. We are helping her with counselling, a shop move and a sabbatical. She’s had a terrible year. Her manager could of been more empathetic, we have a plan for that.โ
Reading this email was like an insult to me, again for several reasons. Firstly, a sabbatical was MY “plan”, again coming up with suggestions and solutions, and also:
Counselling was THEN offered after my constant approach to HR with suggestions and also with asking for advise and help. Nothing happened until I emailed the CEO. I was only given a form to give my consent to the company’s insurer to have access to my medical file. This was “offered” me without explanation while I was bereaved, NOT mentally ill yet, while at the same time before the CEO’s involvement, no one, no line manager sat down with me, except here we go again this wonderful person.
Suddenly the Head of HR knew about my terrible โyearโ, but didn’t seem concerned to help me except once the CEO got involved. I also knew from an email the HR advisor who took the notes in the informal meeting in May 2015 (the notes that later got “lost”), emailing me after the meeting, saying that he will put forward my suggestions to the Head of HR the following week after the meeting (May 2015). So, the Head of HR was aware of my turmoil all this time.
He also then did the typical Pret thing to blame downwards, blaming my line manager whom he correctly stated, as not having been empathetic. But this line manager was under the guidance of his boss (who targeted me for 6 months with the help of a group of managers), and this boss who was under the guidance of the HR People Business Partner who was present in the May 2015 informal meeting. In fact this PBP was aware of my ordeal after I had a breakdown when my line manager rebuked me again in front of my team, and then forced me out in my broken down state in tears to do customer service. He was informed about my breakdown before I even emailed HR about it. I emailed the general HR email address, not directing to any specific person, but addressed HR as a department. I explained that I had a breakdown at work and this time want to raise a grievance myself against this line manager (where before the first grievance was raised by an HR advisor on my behalf after she heard my side of the story for a change). This HR PBP picked it up as I read his email to the HR team saying that he would pick it up. And his response to my breakdown was just to say the typical generic thing, “I’m sorry to hear that you had a breakdown… yada yada yada…” He never asked what happened or if I am okay or need anything… He went on to blah blah some more and sent me back to the boss who started the whole bullying. This then lead me to email the CEO the next day which was the day of the first anniversary of my brother, wasting this important day on work. Months later I read an email in my file from this PBP to the boss of my line manager who inquired if she should respond with a formal hearing against my break down, figure that. My breakdown involved me sobbing and being loud and distressed. His advise was another slap in my face when he wrote: “… I’d suggest dealing with this informally to start with, as this time it is no doubt a difficult time for her….” The “no doubt difficult time” was because my breakdown came after being rebuked again in front of my team as this was also two days before the first anniversary of my brother’s death and I was already on the edge. But for him to acknowledge only THEN that I had no kiddin’ a difficult time, and that “to start with” the boss should deal with my breakdown “informally”, basically before going to the next step to deal with this formally. This was such a hard lump that went down my throat when I read this! And again, this email was part of me then raising a grievance against this PBP, but of course to no avail where only the part where he sent me back to the boss was partially substantiated, to keep me stopping to raise my voice against this systemic bullying. I also have no space for him on my website. There is no open letter to him here, as everything I said to him has been said.
There was no โplanโ. In fact the plan was to get rid of me as the line manager wrote in an email to his boss, who sent it on to this PBP, writing twice that my โsituation (bereavement) was imposed on them.โ Imposed? Blatant discrimination like this was of no concern to the PBP who only worried about the length of the email from the line manager. I raised a grievance against this PBP later based on the emails, but of course I didn’t get far, as this is systemic. The only plan they had was Plan B and C and D โฆ until F for Firing me after I became so ill, writing countless and inappropriate emails out of this trauma. I always owned up to my conduct and tried to stop this illness. But they topped everything with involving yet another “Ace” in their sleeve, and that crossed a line that went too far. And then firing me while my dad was in intensive care, just out of a coma was another typical way to deal with problems in the company. For a company with the size, resources and finances like Pret, it really is no excuse to be doing what they did.
So before you approach HR or senior leaders, do know your company, know what is in place regarding bullying, mistreatment, true support or the lack thereof. And the best advice if you experience your workplace as being toxic, join a Union, don’t start one like this fellow did, it only backfired on him fast. Don’t start one, just join one that has already the manpower and resources in place. But good on Andrej for having tried and at least having done something, just something as best as he could. You can only fail if you risk something, and you can then learn and grow. Also, start doing your homework on how to get legal help. I was too traumatized to think straight.
As life keeps throwing me curve balls and we all will come to the end of our lives eventually, I am more than determined to not be silent again. I always played with open cards which was to my disadvantage. So, I am playing my cards so openly now, that everyone who passes by my little spot on the Internet can read what I have been through and what others go through.
Please don’t be a bully and please don’t be like the three monkeys. A friend of mine said that in this life we walk through a mine field, we never know when it will hit us. And we all get hit, some of us survive to tell their story, others don’t make it. I certainly walked right into the mine field and an ambush from behind, into an HR department I tried helping to help me. So, only 2%? Yep, understandable.
But whatever happens in the mine field, do not be silent, don’t look away, give a helping hand, will you.
They will sue me and I have nothing to lose. Go ahead Pret, do what you do best. I’m sure you have another trick up your sleeve.
Kind regards,
Your
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now โretiredโ 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 โMy Ordeal with Pret A Mangerโ. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Interview:
ยฉ2018 expret.org
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission is prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present: expret.org, poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Unless otherwise stated or linked to, this website and all writings within this site are the property of poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Reproduction and distribution of my writings without written permission are prohibited.
ยฉ2017 โ Present poetrasblok.com, LateNightGirl.org, LateNightGirl.page.tl unless otherwise stated. All Rights reserved. Disclaimer.
You must be logged in to post a comment.