“It used to be a very good company, but since they started growing it been changing a lot. Poor Management, no opportunities to expand your knowledge. A shame that such a big company is becoming so bad day by day.”
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“I had a terrible experience on my training week there. Managment and some members of staff were extremely rude and patronising, was often a lot of eye rolling and sighs and that you shouldn’t be wasting there time, when you actually need there help as there suppose to be training you. Would not recommend working there at all.”
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.
There is always a story behind a smile, and oftentimes it’s not what we expect.
Several different reviews regarding the forced “Happiness” and smiles that Pret A Manger demands from its low-paid (under the living wage) workers.
There are several article on the “emotional labour” forced on employees to maximize profit. I did a separate blog entry on >>> Emotional Labour. I was bullied during already traumatic bereavement which I share extensively on this blog and a recent interview, also mentioning the Mystery Shopper rules to get extra money or be threatened with job security. Interview found at the bottom of this page.
Several reviews regarding the forced happiness under fear management.
The Mystery Shopper’s task is to feedback if staff smile, give eye contact, make conversation, and all that in an intensely stressful work environment for 6, 8, 10+ hours straight ALL THE TIME, EVERY DAY. No matter if sick, coughing, bereaved, depressed… No mercy. If staff don’t smile, aren’t overly friendly, they risk losing the bonus for ALL the team which has the purpose for peer-pressure and creates a bullying environment, not to mention the boss whose potential big bonus is lost, as Mystery Shopper results and points count towards the biggest chunk of manager’s bonus. And the customers are fooled thinking Pret staff are so happy!
The Pret A Manger Staff Union (PAMSU) has posted a song from YouTube and pleads to end the Mystery Shopper. By the way, I retweeted his tweet but it is NOT visible on his tweet as Twitter shadow bans me and secretly cuts off connections between my and PAMSU accounts. To no avail, because PAMSU knows my website. My response tweet is before the ban, but my RT was after the last ban (29. – 31.12.2018) on 02.01.2019, and still it doesn’t show on his tweet, but on mine.
Quote: “The staff member who served me made good eye contact and greeted me with a friendly smile while remaining focused and efficient…”
Quote: “I was not greeted at the till or given a smile. The only conversation was what was necessary for the transaction. To be welcoming, the team member could have greeted me and smiled and be engage[d] and positive…”
Quote: “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 to smile that day.”
I didn’t feel cheerful to smile as well after the telling off from my line manager afterwards. You got told off in the office because you didn’t smile, and while the boss is telling you off (who by the way does not smile themselves, just as a side-note!) and then the non-smiling boss orders you to smile! You go out extremely humiliated, discouraged, with low motivation, and yet forced to smile if you don’t want to find yourself penalized or losing your job.
Task to serve within 1 minute ALWAYS with a smile, eye contact and conversation.
I was smiling for customer service days after I carried the urn of my big brother in my arms to his grave. I smiled and smiled and smiled and died while smiling, and when I didn’t smile, I got told off while my boss knew about my brother.
I was complimented countless times by customers and received good reports from Mystery Shopper, and after my shift went to the bridge … How I survived this, especially during extreme trauma under fear managemet, I can only attribute this to being on autopilot and so fogged up in my mind that I just moved on like a robot trying to come to terms and breaking down later at home. And I didn’t want to put any more grief on my mother.
You need to be a machine to qualify for a Pret A Manger smile or all you’re left with is mental illness. But if you want to be a human and keep your sanity, work somewhere else. Maybe even make your own lunch from home, would save you over £1000 a year if you usually eat out every day.
The Pret staff get pressure and trouble from ALL sides. From the line managers, from customers, from Mystery Shoppers AND from Twitter/FB users who have an expectation as if they just entered the Ritz, even naming low-paid, hardworking, exhausted staff members publicly! But because people have kids to feed they put up with a lot of abuse.
A plea to customers at Pret and at any business, if you are served by a sales assistant, waiter, customer service representative and they don’t always smile, even while giving professional service, please pause for a moment before you quickly jump to conclusions or complain to the boss or head office. Maybe even ask that staff member how their day is going or complement them on their service. You never know what that will do for them. Yes, they are paid to do a job, but they are human beings for crying out loud! Most of my customers didn’t care and I’m sure they have their own story and turmoil.
But the trend today is to force staff to smile to maximize profit, no matter how high the emotional and mental cost of staff. Because I almost lost my life and approached Pret A Manger internally for three years hitting a brick wall, that is why I write so bluntly and openly. People suffer to the point of suicide, and we need a change.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
“HR problems, employee is treated really badly, due to the constant lack of people, current employees are forced to do the duties of so called ‘specialist’ position, yet they are paid inappropriately to the responsibilities.”
I worked many times as a Team Leader doing Manager’s work while the managers were on holiday and did not get what they call a “Step Up Pay”. I didn’t even receive a thank you for doing well these two weeks while the boss was away. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Pret in a nutshell.
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.
Quote of the Day: “Stressful and dominating. People will dominate you until you feel like resigning the job. Supervisors/Team Leaders treat you like a slave.”
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.
Quote of the Day: “Bad management and not taking care about people … do not give power to irresponsible people”
Sorry to break it like this, but as Pret is expanding fast, they have no choice to take any- and everyone who wants to step up as they will need more and more “leaders” like this, I’m afraid. Good luck!
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.
A Team Leader (TL) and a Development Manager (DM) are stranded on a large island far out in the ocean. The island is inhabited by monkeys. The DM lives deep in the jungle and has learned to arrange herself with the monkeys. The TL has built her hut close to the water and provides the monkeys with fish to eat. The DM and the TL speak the same language that the monkeys don’t understand. DM and TL don’t know each other and that there is someone on this island who speaks the same language. Only the monkeys know about them.
The TL by the water is stomping on the island too much, she is too noisy because no-one understands her language and pain. She is constantly placed under monkeys who give her a hard time on top of her ordeal. The monkeys scheme and plan on how to get rid of TL, as she refuses to be like them and conform to being a monkey. TL’s bereavement is an inconvenience, or as one higher monkey complained twice in writing that TL’s situation (bereavement) was “imposed” on him. Imagine a leader complaining that a physically disabled person, or a person of another skin tone or religion or sexual orientation… is “imposed” on him. Phew! Would the monkeys go coconuts and there’d be trouble in the jungle! But all TL just wants to do is to fish and go back to her hut to come to terms and grieve in peace, after the unclear cause of death of her brother far away from the island.
But deep in the jungle there is a group called Monkey Resources (MR), and after many tricks and traps and substantiating grievance hearings a little bit here and a little bit there, to make it look like they care and to not get in trouble with the gorillas (law), MR has the ultimate brilliant foolproof idea! Never underestimate a monkey, they are clever feisty little things!
TL just won’t stop to raise issues of discrimination and unfairness by the monkeys, not realizing that MR is in the monkey business. Stupid TL! TL is alone in her struggle and keeps approaching MR for help and to raise issues of bad treatment during bereavement. TL is protecting the other Team Members from her turmoil and puts on a brave face not wanting to burden her team and not wanting to involve anyone as they would be intimidated by fear management of the monkeys anyway.
Unfortunately her approach which was informal and peaceful in the beginning turned into painful and ill approach in time, fueled by post traumatic issues and helplessness. The monkeys tried everything, from bullying and targeting, fear management, counseling after TL sent a message to King Kong of the island, trying to pay her out peanuts if she leaves the island… Nothing worked, because the immediate monkeys that were over TL kept mistreating her, often very subtle if open mistreatment was caught out. It never stopped. TL was too exhausted in grief to find another island and couldn’t afford to take a longer break away, as fishing wasn’t the most lucrative work for her. She kept being hysterical in her grief and pain. The ocean itself was hard to cross and the countless tears added to that ocean.
But monkeys have sleeves, too, where they hide their Ace. And DM was that Ace in place. They approached DM who has arranged herself well with the monkeys, and tasked her to go down to the beach where the rebel TL is rocking the boat too much. Actually she wasn’t going down to the beach, TL had to go deep into the jungle to meet DM.
When TL met DM to get a sanction for stomping the ground too much, DM started speaking the language TL understood, and silly TL started to believe that the monkeys really care now! Wow, there is a person on this island who speaks my language??!!!
What TL did not know was that DM wasn’t supposed to speak the same language (officially). DM was supposed to speak in secret with TL to calm her down. But TL kept getting confused why DM was so secretive, giving mixed messages and coming across manipulative, as DM happens to also be a Hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner, able to use those tools very well. Until six months later after MR started to investigate why TL has started to stomp the ground again, that’s when DM finally admitted to TL that she wasn’t “technically” allowed to speak the same language with TL. Aaahh! Now you’re talking! Now TL understood why she was often so confused and frustrated, even lashing out in anger when drunk in the hut!
This and TL’s father submitted into intensive care in a coma, seeing him so ill, thrust TL in a new ill behaviour rocking the boat so much. Losing the hut on the beach, TL was thrown from the island of Pret A Monkey into the ocean while TL’s father was in hospital, by that time just out of the coma across the ocean far away. TL “swam” over the ocean to her father, made peace with him for whatever was outstanding, stood by his side as best as possible. TL’s dad has died now and TL is still swimming in the ocean, but out of reach of the monkeys. At least.
TL is swimming in a pool of loss. Being introduced to a person who speaks the same language just to be given a sanction by that person, is inconceivable. And it is scary what else the monkeys are capable of.
I am sorry to be writing a third open letter to you and so bluntly, but once you have read the first two letters, you most probably won’t be going back to them after I edited some things I forgot to mention. So, I write a third letter, and it can be seen as a bottle post I have thrown into the ocean, in the hopes this reaches you well.
It is still very painful for me what your HR department under the Head of HR has done to me and how they have dealt with my trauma from the beginning. I made the mistake to stay too long and try too hard to change work conditions internally. I know you have taken some things on board, even used some of my suggestions and ideas, thank you for that. But you take the credit for it while I suffered and remained under difficult management. I know I was loud, I did everything wrong I could have done wrong. I was in a lot of pain.
All I needed was management who were confident, skilled, and plain normal while remaining respectful. At the end I found such a manager, or rather he found me! I even worked with him a few days, helping him out in his shop, or actually he was more helping me to get in more hours since my hours at my shop were radically cut to zero during the Christmas period, and me having to find a shop to get hours. And I felt for the first time in a very long time really valued and respected at work. This manager is not “Pret-entious”, he is as organic as they come. Even just having met him a few times, it was clear in my gut that he is an honest soul, respecting his staff. But again, it wasn’t meant to be! Another higher manager (OPs) snatched me away from this great GM into this OPs’ new area because of the way I work, raising the standard and with it the success of every shop I worked in.
But that aside, what was the most painful and disrespectful thing the HR department has done to me, that absolutely crossed the line, was to use the development manager, Lila Tighilt Warren, who supposedly has a very similar loss than I have. But instead of putting us in contact to support each other in our common bereavement, she was used to sanction me. I’d like to explain why I called this in my second note to you “perverse”. And again, I’m sorry to be using such a strong word, but this is the only word I can find for this. And I will continue to search for a better word to redefine how I feel. Certainly a Tribunal Judge found better words to describe the HR process of hearings when he called it “fundamentally flawed” (page 9 top). That was 8 years ago, and I can confirm that it still is this way today. And something that is “fundamentally” flawed will not change so quick, as the foundation always takes the longest to build and rebuild.
Only since recently have I learned and realised that what your HR department has done to me, especially via “DM”, wasgaslightingme. That’s why this felt so, and why I can only describe this as perverse.
I know you are busy in the background with what legal action you can take against my public outcry once that email confirmation from the Employment Tribunal has been received. And you certainly will give me a bad reference for any future employment. That is your prerogative. My prerogative is, that after I almost lost my life, certainly my mental health and job, having given so much to Pret in my 10 years even during the most excruciating bereavement while being mistreated, I will use whatever freedom I have to speak about my ordeal after having tried for three years to speak with you internally. I always played with open cards which was to my disadvantage. And I have certainly done everything wrong with all the terrible emailing to Pret and others. I will always be ashamed for this and I cannot describe the pain and trauma I was in, and still am in. I have found that I am not the only “crazy” person out there in the ocean of mental illness. And I continue to play with open cards, no matter what unfair and dishonest tricks anyone throws at me. I am willing to lose even more, but I will not stop to speak up.
How HR has dealt with my situation and ultimately how they dealt with my bereavement as explained in the metaphor above, is so painful to me, as if someone died again. This was too much and crossed a line that was better not crossed. It may sound funny to you, but I have been much more patient with Pret, than you with me. I was alone and made that mistake to put myself into the shoes of a multi million pound company, a company the same judge above calls “highly sophisticated” and shouldn’t be making errors like they have.
Being introduced to “DM” just to get a sanction from her for my emailing, who then entered into solely “electronic” communication with me, where in reality we were not allowed to openly speak with each other even though we have similar loss. The disciplinary which became not valid because of our contact and me subsequently getting dismissed for emailing, while she is safe and protected in her job. This support being taken away again, is like having to bury a person again. Do you know what emotional torture this is?
It is like holding a glass of fresh, cold water in front of a person who just crawled through a torching desert, just to take that glass away again and thrust that person back into the desert! It is unspeakably painful, and the only way I go on is to speak about it, no matter what you do against me. I am intrigued about the next tricks I am being served with after my public outcry here.
I never claimed that I’m “doing the right thing naturally”. That is your claim.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
“Cons: 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.
Advice to Management: 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.”
Quote of the Day from NYC: “Training sucks, people are treated like crap. Upper management do not care about you, will never recommend this company. Treat people with respect and appreciate their hard work. 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.”
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.
I just can’t quite articulate it as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did, but I cannot hold it in!
I experienced and witnessed modern day slavery with a smile. A Pret A Manger smile that is!
It is burning in my gut, waiting to be popped out into this world, not prematurely, but overdue.
10 years ago I started in sandwich factory. Not the kind you may think of, but a much slicker and more clever factory. Many little factories that promise fun in Jeans, initially with a cap (they scrapped since) and a clean white shirt, and always fresh ingredients with your heart on a platter, ready to be eaten…
I screamed on the inside many times. But I held it in, because I had a life, relationships, friends, hobbies, passions, bills to pay, just plain life while being fooled on the job.
And then my brother called it a day. That is a scream I wish to unscream!
But instead of being supported, included, protected in this most of human experiences of grief, I was bullied and chased like a rabbit in a fox hunt.
I am tired to write more as I wrote so much on this on my blog. But in a nutshell, I went bonkers…
He who has ears, just listen, would you? If you have eyes, just open them. If you have arms, embrace. And if you have a heart, don’t turn away in complacency and false security.
Please wake up!
Pret A Manger is just like any other fast food chain, with one difference; they are the epitome of the first two letters of their brand: PR et.
Whatever sounds, looks, tastes and feels good must be good. Right?
Nope.
We dream and have nightmares, we love and we hate the guts of our fellow man when they question us.
The foundation and inspiration of all demonstrations was never topped again since an eloquent speech to a million+, a gathering not even “trumped” one bit since this man entered the scene in peace, with words we won’t forget.
Sir, you are missed, and we pass on the baton, not for blacks or whites, rich or poor, but for human beings.
“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. **We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: “For Whites Only.”** We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”1
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”2
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
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.
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Full Quote: (Highlights by me)
“Doesn’t Recommend
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Pros: I have arrived in the UK to study last fall, and so far it’s the best paid job I had (if you count the mystery sh bonus). Everything is extremelly clean, and the food is indeed as they say, fresh and healthy. The paid 30 mins break with free lunch is also a great nice perk. You also get 50% off on all Pret food, anywhere.
Cons:Pret seems perfect if you throw it a quick look. Great pay, great food, great team mates, everyone’s so happy and friendly all the time… did you know that we have to?The “perfect Pret” standards state that the Pret employee is happy all the time, never drepressed. Not kidding, it’s printed in our locker. Sometimes it can be challenging maintaining a natural smile on my face for 8 hours straight.
Now, I should mention I’m only two months old in this job, so my views are limited. However, I have noticed some things that I can assure you they are true.Pret will do anything not to pay you. They will bend the law and the contract in any way they can, and there is nothing you can do about it (unless smile).
1. I recently had to call in sick, and it led to 2 days off work. When I logged in online on the website, it showed me someone put two different illnesses for those 2 days, and most oddly, both very wrong. I have already spoken to the managers about it, so how could they have gotten it wrong, as they wrote it down on the form in front of me?
Intrigued, I looked into it a bit more (I have also realized, there is no one colleague of mine that bothered going into such depth researching). There is a very small subsection of a subsection on the website that states, in summary, you get paid, as a part-time worker, from the second day of illness, and as a full-time worker, from the third. I am part-time. I should have been paid for my second day. But what did Pret do?They put two different illnesses, so they don’t have to pay me (it counts as the first day of illness, for both days).
I have talked to some colleagues, they never got paid, no matter how long they have been working there for (the little subsection also states that if you’re more than 12 months older in the company, you’ll get wellness pay. For more information, please visit this website – followed by a broken link. That’s a lot of weird coincidences, isn’t it?
2. Holiday pay. I’m new, and as most things around here at Pret, holiday pay was never explained to me. At the beginning of March, a noted was posted in the locker, that you have to apply 6 weeks before the date for the holiday. After this, I quickly found out the holiday year ends on the 31st of March… in less than 4 weeks after the note appeared. How funny – this note now denied anyone in my huge team to get holiday for the remaining time, and if you don’t use the days you get, they are erased on the 31st, and you never get paid for them.
Funnily enough, I am extremely behind with uni work, and exams are fast approaching. Why am I behind, if my contract is only part-time? Mostly because for my entire employment, I hve worked many extra shifts, after my manager insisted – sometimes confirmed me for a shift during lecture time without even asking me before. Yesterday I got up at 4.30 to start my 6 am shift. After 8 hours, I was asked to stay 2 more, because the shop is, as always, not able to cope with the number of clients. After barely being able to get back home, I found my requested holiday was denied (there’s also no alarm for that, if you want to check if it’s still pending or denied, you have to constantly check).
I want to be as loud as possible here – PRET DOESN’T CARE. If you show up 1 minute late ready to work, you lose the mystery sh bonus. The 50% discount on all food? Been here for 2 months and still haven’t received my card for it, althought legally I am entitled to it from day 1. I was also told by the actually trainer that the managers hate it when you use the discount, so I should be careful using it (if I ever get it, that is). I once asked the manager if I can quickly go to the toilet, when the shop was quite empty – she stared in shock at me for a few long seconds before agreeing.
Not everyone is like that though, there are some nice people, who don’t deserve to be associated with what I wrote. I am not discontinuing my contract with them because of these things either (mostly because I just need to make rent). I just feel very strongly that the general public view of this company is very far off from the truth, and I believe in using my voice.”
Quote of the day: “The training should be more about encouraging people than shouting and shaming them. … it has been the most stressful job I have had in a couple of years.”
Dear Pret Leadership,
why are you doing this to your staff?
You need more money?!
I have a few pennies in my purse
I have some water to quench your thirst
I have more patience to help your patients
who are left behind after the grind
on a psychiatric ward
What about those who want to end their life
while you continue to thrive
in your millions and billions
and whatever …illions that are left
to strive
for what?
I survived.
Are you enjoying yourself?
I hope so.
Life is short
Be kind to yourself and to those who make it happen
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
first of all, thank you for responding to my comment on your video, unfortunately my comments and your response are hidden from the public, and I re-checked via different browsers and devises, my initial comments are not there, but it’s not important anymore. Please forgive me that I made a screenshot and am publishing it here. I do so because I suffered greatly, became ill and almost lost my life.
You seem a sensible person trying to look at business news objectively. And if I was looking from the outside in myself without my inside experience, I would even like your take on this. The problem though is, you as most people looking in from the outside seem very easily blinded by the brilliant PR that Pret is so good in.
I’d like to post your thoughts on the JAB purchase of Pret A Manger here and respond with my experience and real “insights”, having worked in Pret for close to 10 years helping with their success. I also tried to improve work conditions internally to no avail, while becoming out-of-sync after my brother died and being mistreated on top of it, making many mistakes and sliding into ill behaviour. But having spent 10 years of my life working for Pret is my biggest regret with my future unclear and my mental health in shambles.
There are many good things in Pret, but the bottom line is that the senior leadership and HR are far removed from the painful reality on the shop floor. And yet, they do know very very well how brutal it is, that’s why most staff (mainly British) are aiming for jobs in HQ, away from the “front lines” of the business. Yes, they do what they call “Buddy Days” where once a year a staff member from HQ works in a Pret shop and kitchen for a day, BUT when they do, the management and teams in the shops are well behaved like this is their dream job. When the “buddy” is gone, it’s back to business as usual. I’ve always disliked this hypocrisy. And also with the HQ staff coming in at 8 or 9am, often being late and starting their “shift” with breakfast. Whereas if I would have been the manager, I would have explained to them to start their shift at 5am sharp, or whichever time a particular shop starts the shift as this varies from shop to shop. But they would have needed to be ready in uniform on the dot! If they would have been late, I would have send them home or have a serious talk, just like shop leaders do with a new person, no mercy! Welcome to reality in a Pret shop! Now, enter the “fun”.
But unfortunately as a Team Leader the only thing I was able to do, was asking the HQ staff to do the dirty work of changing the bins, checking the toilets for cleanliness, smiling at customers non-stop, having the shop in an immaculate state at all times, stop using their mobile phones on the shop floor and putting it in the locker like the rest of the team was required to, get their fingernails dirty and cracked, and their feet hurt with their backs “broken”… I’m sure they hated my gut, but I loved and cared for my team who worked their hearts out oftentimes in pain and sometimes in tears. So, an HQ staff surely can pass a few hours a year doing just that.
I typed up a transcript on your thoughts: JAB Holdings Buys Pret A Manger and included it here word for word. Please bear with any mistakes as I am not a professional in typing transcripts, I type with 2 fingers only.
Transcript – I highlighted a few things which I am commenting on at the bottom of this open letter:
“What I wanna try today is something a little bit different, a short, sweet response to a piece of news in our industry.
Today I want to talk about JAB buying Pret A Manger, which is both interesting and incredibly, incredibly boring.
What makes it interesting? They (JAB) paid or is going to pay £1.5 Billion for Pret A Manger, which is a lot for a business that makes “only” a £100 Million in profit a year. They’re paying 15 times that, it’s a 15x multiple. Which implies there’s gonna be really, really fantastic growth coming.
Now, Pret kind of have about 500 locations, most of which are in the UK, most of which, most of that profit is actually in London. And while they’ve expanded in the U.S., that hasn’t gone quite as well as you’d think.
So, if they struggle to expand, well, why is there this huge potential?
Pret makes about £880,000,000 a year as a business, and if you work this out, this is kind of interesting: Each Pret location on average makes £1.75 million a year. Now, for the kind of business they have, where they sell questionable coffee and sad little triangles, called sandwiches, that seems like an enormous amount of money! Considering what they sell is not particularly expensive.
And this is the thing that’s interesting, this is the thing where we don’t give Pret enough credit and enough attention. Yeah, I don’t really like the product in terms of its coffee, for sure! But, they’re all about speed! Pret values their customers’ time. Perhaps in a way not many businesses do. They have a publicly stated goal of serving you within 60 seconds of you walking in the door. And I think they do a pretty good job of getting there.
And that is hugely important to an enormous number of people. That’s how they’re able to process as many people as they do. Sure, they have a lot of people on anyone time, but they’re still making good profit, they’re still making 11-12% each year in terms of Net profit. So, their business model is pretty sound. But they value people’s time.
And if you have a coffee shop and you’re looking at this deal and you’re thinking, how is that happening? Why would you buy this business? It’s because the model is actually pretty interesting. In the world of specialty we haven’t really, really valued our customers’ time. We’ve been very product focused. And as a result, I think we haven’t valued people’s time adequately. We’ve made people wait, often wait just far too long for what they’re ultimately getting. And in doing so, I think we’ve excluded a large number of people, who either value their time very highly or just aren’t willing to invest that kind of time that we ask of them. And I think if we took a little bit of that from Pret, it would allow us to access a much larger community of people who’d be interested in what we’re doing.
And right now one of the biggest challenges specialty faces is growing its audience. Right now the audience isn’t really growing but the number of Cafes is. We’re all competing for the same customers instead of finding new customers. And I think embracing a little bit of what makes Pret so incredibly valuable, a multi-billion pound company, embracing, valuing our customers’ time, will be extremely worthwhile.
So, that is a little bit of business talk for today…”
END of transcript.
——————————————————————————
Here is the screenshot of my comment and your response which I can only see when I am logged into my YouTube channel:
Close-up:
I also pointed you to another comment further below your video from a YouTuber called RPQ who left this comment in the beginning of July 2018:
My response to your thoughts from the transcript:
“What makes it interesting? They (JAB) paid or is going to pay £1.5 Billion for Pret A Manger, which is a lot for a business that makes “only” a £100 Million in profit a year. They’re paying 15 times that, it’s a 15x multiple. Which implies there’s gonna be really, really fantastic growth coming.”
Yes, it means that the shop and kitchen staff will be squeezed even worse now than they already are. They made and will make this growth happen at a high personal price with their mental and physical health. I have a roaring tinnitus myself still and can only reduce it by seeking quiet places. And the price I paid with my mental health you have already read on my blog here. I have no illusion anymore and know that my way to recovery will be a very long one. And just in case I won’t make it, you and many more people now will not be able to say that you didn’t know what and who made this “fantastic growth” happen!
…
Quote: “And this is the thing that’s interesting, this is the thing where we don’t give Pret enough credit and enough attention. Yeah, I don’t really like the product in terms of its coffee, for sure! But, they’re all about speed! Pret values their customers’ time. Perhaps in a way not many businesses do. They have a publicly stated goal of serving you within 60 seconds of you walking in the door. And I think they do a pretty good job of getting there.”
I want to give credit to my countless ex-colleagues with whom I worked shoulder to shoulder, day-in day-out, in an intensely stressful, bullying, discriminating and ungrateful work environment, all my colleagues and myself who made this success and the wealth of the few at the top happen.
Pret does not value customers’ time, Pret, as most businesses, value customers’ pockets! And it is disheartening that you and most people seem blinded by the age-old reality in business, that time is money, and the quicker you get customers in and out the store, the more money flow is happening … faster! But who makes that happen? Who pays the price? If a company has NO regard for the health and value of their staff who are human beings but driven like machines, valuable humans as much as their customers are, than I question the motif of their business.
Sure Pret pays a little more, gives more holiday, puts on elaborate parties etc. and now even giving £1000 incentive to retain and gain staff, but if Pret wouldn’t give more incentives and benefits they would hardly have anyone working for them, as the job is WAY too stressful and harsh. Even if you are bereaved, you are not safe and are tricked and trapped as you have learned my story. I used to be an enthusiastic person, working highly motivated, and I am not an old person, but I feel like I am in my 70s, ready to call it a day. My old self is gone after my brother died with the added turmoil in Pret.
Quote: “And that is hugely important to an enormous number of people. That’s how they’re able to process as many people as they do. Sure, they have a lot of people on anyone time, but they’re still making good profit, they’re still making 11-12% each year in terms of Net profit. So, their business model is pretty sound. But they value people’s time.”
Again, they value people’s money, and time IS money, as you word it perfectly: “they’re able to PROCESS as many people as they do…” Why do I have to think of cattle being lead to mass slaughter when I read the word “process”?!
Quote: “Sure, they have a lot of people on anyone time, but they’re still making good profit”
No, they don’t have “a lot of people” at anyone time, 10 years of working understaffed to maximize profits has had me never ever wanting to work fast again, not to mention not being able to work currently. You may ask, why did you stay so long? Simple, I had a life outside of Pret where I had friends and projects I was passionate about. I was healthy, strong and able to mostly leave the stress at work. My life and personal projects were overriding the stress from work. And in a nutshell I and many people are like frogs that are sitting in a pot of warm water by being lulled in by good PR and where Pret’s CEO calls the company “family”. The PR is the warm water and very slowly the heat is turned up where we don’t realize that we are being cooked alive! I certainly am well over cooked, chewy and tasteless like rubber now. And just like a used and stained Pret paper cup that is of no use anymore, I landed on a pile of rubbish! When my brother died and I was mistreated on top of it, tricked and trapped by HR, they crossed a line, and I was turning ill.
Quote: “In the world of specialty we haven’t really, really valued our customers’ time. We’ve been very product focused. And as a result, I think we haven’t valued people’s time adequately.”
Okay, here is the challenge and my plea: please could you STOP only valuing customers’ pockets and being product focus, and start valuing the staff who make all the products and who are the ones serving customers? Employees who are left behind in this cut throat greedy multi-millionaire business!
Someone please stop this modern-day slavery and stop closing your eyes to what is REALLY behind successful businesses. As a rule of thumb: if it sound too good to be true… it isn’t! Someone, somewhere is always paying the price for this business model you so admire, and it is the majority who pay for the rewards of the few on the top. And if the few only reap the rewards that the many make happen, ask yourself if you really want this kind of business model. If you are on the side of greed, this indeed is very good for you. If you are on the side of most human beings, seeking a fair share in life by contributing with an honest hard working job, this indeed is too good to be true and the cost, the bill will come later. And we all know who’s paying for it.
Quote: “And in doing so, I think we’ve excluded a large number of people, who either value their time very highly or just aren’t willing to invest that kind of time that we ask of them.”
Quote: “And right now one of the biggest challenges specialty faces is growing its audience. Right now the audience isn’t really growing but the number of Cafes is.”
Yes, unfortunately every business wants a slice of the cake, and the crumbs are dished up by those who break their backs to make that cake.
The biggest challenge is to find a way to stop the greedy ways of the few and to really make their workforce part of the success and with it really leave behind a legacy that shows that businesses can indeed go the right way. As Gandhi so poignantly said: “There is enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”
I can only say that when Pret fired me in my ill conduct out of trauma, with their HR tricks while my dad was in intensive care, just out of a coma, Pret fired me right into activism. My dad has died now and I would have preferred to write a blog on how amazing the company I worked for has treated me in my bereavement and trauma.
Mr. Hoffmann, could you look deeper, please, on what really is behind a successful business model?
Thank you for reading.
Kind regards,
———-
Edit, 22.07.2018: I can imagine that either you have been contacted by Pret or you contacted Pret for an explanation. I can tell you how Pret responds. Pret responds by sweet talking their way out of this and victimizing me into the corner of mental illness (which happened to me while working in Pret during mistreatment in bereavement).
They will lull you in with numbers and their annual staff questionnaire and awards, which is a flawed system because shops cheat by Pret-ending (pardon my word-game, couldn’t help it) to be team members, partaking in the questionnaire answering questions positive. I have declined doing the questionnaire and yet my shop’s result was a 100% participation, even though I didn’t participate in this voluntary questionnaire.
They will have advised you to not respond in the hopes this goes away.
If you or the public want to be lulled in by good PR that is your prerogative. But you and the public won’t be able to say in the future that you didn’t know about the tactics and work conditions in Pret.
I still suffer and at times hold on to mere life not trying to give up, and many others struggle, no matter how sweet the words of Pret’s leadership and HR will be trying to talk their way out of this.
Bullying, and especially bullying bereaved employees is unacceptable and dangerous to people’s lives. I will never be silent again.
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 “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
I leave the quote as is without correcting the spelling just to leave it in their own words.
“Poor and terrible management.”
“i was really looking forward to start my new job back in april this year, my first manger was ok then i had a new one start and my rotas were never correct and on many occasions i went to work to be told i wasnt working, ive just gone back to work after a holiday and after two occasions of phoning to be told i wasnt working i went into work to be told by the manger i had been sacked for not attending !!!! really disappointed and angry with the way ive been treated”
Yes, if you were a customer being treated poorly you would get a massive apology and a voucher from Pret after complaining to them. The manager would get into trouble who in turn will put the team member into trouble. Sorry that you were “only” a staff member with no value to them.
And yes, I’ve been there, too. My rota was on a certain schedule, I came in at 5am just to be told that I’m either off that day or due to start at 11am as the manager just changed the rota without first of all asking me and secondly not being bothered informing me of the rota change.
You make plans for the afternoon as you assume you start at 5am just to have to struggle with the manager to get your initial 5am shift back as you made plans for the day/week.
This is typical behaviour from managers who then pressure you to cancel your private plans or look for another shop or job. It is deeply ingrained in management who are incapable and do what they want. Very poor.
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.
Breaking up the review into sections (bold high-lights by me), the whole of this review needs to be highlighted because it is more than true! As usual I leave any mistakes in to keep it in their own words.
Before you read the below review, please sit down, take a deep breath and make sure you are not eating anything that might get stuck in your throat.
»This job can annihilate every piece of humanity inside of you.«
“You start work at 4:30 in the morning when its dark and you finish at 16:30 when its dark again in the winter and you spend your whole day in the kitchen without windows where its very very cold, 4-5 degree and you are required to wear the short sleeved uniform because they are always under staffed and you might have to run on till at any point of the day.
There is painfully loud music in the kitchen so that you dont talk with the others because this is slowing you down and you have a timer that beeps every so minutes and you have to race and assemble sandwiches as fast as you can which is like a game at first but it becomes very stressful with time and you are always late, always behind and if you somehow manage to finish for the time set the next day they give you more stuff to make in the same time. Its all about productivity.
I spend 6 months racing all day and barely spoke 3-5 words a day on my shifts if I’m not on till where you are required to have the widest fake smile on earth, highly pitched voice and again be as fast as possible, its all a race. Everywhere its very noisy and very busy and you are always behind and the stress builds up so much that me and many of my colleagues had to take pills for sleep because you hear the noise in your head when you get home after work and we had this random mental break downs where you are crying on your lunch break without any real reason, its just tears coming out of your eyes and you cant stop.
The giant corporation is making wealth from squeezing every drop of “productivity” from the employees and when people break and quit there are always more desperate poor students or immigrants willing to take their position. People work there no more than 3-6 months but there are people that are ok with being on autopilot all day and can deal with the lack of any thoughts in their head day after day after day.
There is no place for thoughts, just reflexes. You do the same stuff over and over and over as fast as possible every day and when you get home you either drink or you you act drunk because when someone asks you something you cant answer. You just stand there like a vegetable and try not to shake, humming and trying to suppress the chaotic noise in your head.”
BINGO!!! Every dot and comma of this review is 150% spot on!!
So, understandably that Pret is now desperate for staff, giving £1000 to each employee as Brexit is advancing fast. £1K that would take 10 years of service to receive, they now throw out at all employees even new staff (which is peanuts for Pret) to gain and retain staff.
Lucky Pret, they fired me 5 months short of my 10 years’ service while my father was in intensive care, just out of a coma. But lucky me I survived to talk about my ordeal!
The above will only get worse with the new take over by JAB based in tax haven Luxembourg! At current and new Pret staff, take the money and run! Good luck!
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
“I worked at Pret A Manger part-time (Less than a year)”
Well done for leaving early.
“Pros: None that I can think of.”
There must be one thing, just one?
“Cons: Too many. Lack of defined management, finger-pointing, politics and poor organisation. Honestly, does anyone working at Pret ever look happy?
Yes. I looked happy. I’ve achieved the impossible! I looked happy after my brother died. I looked so happy it made me (thr)ill(ed) beyond safety.
“Advice to Management: Spend a shift with employees.”
They do! It’s called ‘Buddy Day’ where an employee from head office spends one day annually in a Pret branch.
The problem is, they come in at 8 or 9am, often being late. The first thing they do is have breakfast, while the “foot-soldiers” in the kitchen and on the shop floor are producing the breakfast they think they’ve earned already, just by showing up.
When I was a Team Leader I made those HQ people change the bins, take out the rubbish and get their fingernails cracked! Sorry HQ, but you entered my world, you’d better be ready to leave it like I am on a daily basis.
If I would have been a manager, I would have demanded for them to start at 5am sharp, or whatever time the first person came in, as this differs from shop to shop. They would have been ready in full uniform to be shouted at and demanded to show some passion and interest early in the freaking morning! They would have been ready to be shouted at and accepted by a manipulated worn out team!
But hey, I decided to not be part of the management team. I aimed to be a leader, not a manager.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
A spot on quote: “Most so called anti-social behaviour is actually people fighting over the crumbs that are thrown from the table. The real people who are behaving anti-social, are those who control all the resources and deprive other people of what should be shared amongst us all.”
That is what I always told my teams when I worked in Pret A Manger, when team members were frustrated at the stress and pressure from the managers and customers where they started to rebuke each other. I would stop them and tell them that we are working in a highly intense and stressful environment, and that we are doing extremely well. I told them that it is head office who come up with unrealistic rules to drive us to do more and more and more …. to breaking point while we in the team eat each other up. We should rebuke the top leadership at HQ for putting this on us, not giving each other more stress.
It was moments like these when I saw the team relax again, even apologizing to each other and keep going…
Now my advise would be to not just keep working, but stand up against this “anti-social” behaviour from the top 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.
Quote of the day: “You have to complete countless duties (especially when closing) in very very short period of time and I got shouted at if I didn’t make it (for example: clean and mop the floor, bins, wash trays, clean toilet and chemical room all in HALF AN HOUR – still has to be perfectly clean)”
AND
“Bonus that you are getting could’ve be taken away for many stupid reasons so don’t be fooled into thinking that if you are qualified team member you are safe !”
Yep! I made it a point as a Team Leader to HELP my team!
I had many clashes with my line managers over time when my boss would have a go at me as the responsible manager on duty (MOD) during the previous shift, why something wasn’t cleaned or done properly. This is a typical Pret tactic where the general manager (GM) is pressuring the Team Leader, for the TL in turn to pressure the Team Members (TMs). Very hierarchical management style.
At times I was stressed and frustrated, but then I decided to not pressure my team but first of all help them finish the immense amounts of duties within a short time.
And the second thing I did was to put the pressure back on my line managers by demanding for the team to either get more PAID time or an extra TM to help finish the tasks.
At times I succeeded because first of all I had the shops in an immaculate state which the GMs were always impressed about. Secondly I coached my teams that when they cannot finish in time, we go home sharp at the time our pay finishes. No more staying longer without pay especially when it was already 10PM and most TMs had spouses and kids waiting at home!
I have no issues with staying longer at times even unpaid, but this should be the exception to the rule and not the regular occurrence as it is in Pret.
My number one priority at work was that the job gets done, but in a sensible time and expectation. Once I saw my team work their heart out with me helping them, yet still we could not finish in time, my second priority then was their family and life! Time’s up, we gave it all we’ve got, we go home now! Let the boss throw a fit the next day, bring it on!
I knew my team, I saw how hard they and I worked, I refused to sit on my butt in the office but always supported them, and yet we still weren’t able to finish, because the tactic from the top was to give them so much work in so little time, pretending they don’t work hard enough so that they work overtime unpaid.
But not on my shift! I saw my teams, and when they worked so back breaking hard I told them that when the time is up where the GM refuses to pay them overtime, we stop and go home and that I as the TL will take responsibility and explain to the boss the next day. And I did get “whacked” countless times, but I refused to bow to this bullying intimidation tactics.
It is clear that I did not make friends with my bosses, but I didn’t care for making friends with corrupt and lazy managers. Those are not in my circle of friends. So, needless to say any career path for me never existed. But I slept well at nights and I had the respect and backing from my team. That was good enough for me. And what doesn’t kill you really only makes you stronger.
When I was calm and helped them I never had issues with my team. When I was hectic and frustrated, and especially during grief and trauma it reflected on the team, and I worked hard for them not to see my pain and sometimes sheer angst. But I didn’t always succeed. I couldn’t always hide my grief and depression. But I felt their backing and support when they just did their jobs and letting me do mine.
The only thing I miss at Pret is my teams! We worked flawlessly together and the greatest compliment they gave me was when they asked me for advise or entrusted me with problems they had, or asked me if I could lend them some money until next payday etc.
The trust and respect from a team is priceless, it cannot be forced by bullying and mistreatment or bribes. Maybe I am too sentimental and too old school, but I really believe in the musketeer-ish way of “one for all and all for one”.
In today’s society and certainly in Pret it sadly is more a “me for me and only for you if you help me advance” mentality. No, that’s not for me.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
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.
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 “up there”.
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 “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
Quote: “Managers treat you poorly, they are racist and discriminating. If you want to get [a] promotion you have to sleep with someone and kiss manager’s bum.”
That is true, I know people who sadly went down that route, it’s an open secret. They eventually have put hidden cameras into the offices in the shops, not only because of potential theft, but because managers were getting “too close” in the office with a team member after a trading day, giving them some “personalized training” for promotion!
This is a Sandwich chain for crying out loud, not a law firm, a political party or the music and film industry. Yet, people lower themselves so much to think they have to do this. Even in the film industry or a law firm I wouldn’t go down that route, but you will understand my point! What people are willing to do, to get into leadership positions is very sad. And this they then pass on to their teams, who become like them if they don’t have strong principles and values on their own. Vicious circle, very, very sad.
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.
… or what would be the French term for “strike”. Pret employees most likely won’t strike because they are being bribed now with £1000 while still experiencing extremely stressful work situations on a daily basis.
I have been boycotting McDonald’s for years, in fact I only ate there two, no more than three times and only because friends wanted to go. I just joined for my friend’s sake, but I always regretted it to have wasted my money there. Apart from the terrible food which shouldn’t be called “food”, the main reason I refuse to go to McD’s (for life) has always been the way they treat their staff. I can forgive a bad dish once in a while, but I cannot accept how poorly staff are treated and it is always something I pay attention to when I am eating out in a restaurant. How is the supervisor or owner of the restaurant treating their staff.
In Germany a few years back there was a huge scandal on staff mistreatment at Lidl, where Lidl would spy on their staff with hidden cameras, bullied them, unfairly sacked or pressured them. Many news and undercover reports brought this to light. I boycotted Lidl for over a year in London, even though London’s Lidl didn’t seem affected by this. But since the news reports things have improved in Lidl and I started to shop there again.
It is relatively new and about time that fast-food workers go on strike, with Unions across the globe taking a closer look at the giants who exploit employees on every corner. I have no words except that even while Pret gives a little more here and there to staff, the experience is the same, apart from the bullying, I always felt devalued, patronized, discriminated and was held low. I was more the outspoken type of employee, so it was very clear that I was to be held low and would never grow through the ranks, nor did I want to.
I showed interest to see what my line managers would say, and it was always very patronizing, one OPs said to me as I was known for having highly organized teams and shops, saying, “Just make sure the shop looks immaculate.” That was when I knew I would not be going far in Pret. But even if I had the chance, I still could not have done it, as to grow up the ladder as a manager you would have to cut hours and take as much as possible from staff who are the backbone of the business. I can never do that.
And it is the same everywhere. Even when a company starts off well, the temptation of the potential of sick amounts of money is just too grave to resist getting corrupted. Very sad. But I sleep well at nights, and will never be remembered for a dishonest person taking advantage of people. I will be known for all the ill behaviour and craziness from my trauma, but not for being corrupt and discriminating. And that is enough for me.
And like these employees who went down the right route of raising grievances, doing everything according to procedure, they were ignored. I was tricked and trapped by the HR dept. It’s just the same story, just masked differently.
The only way are Unions. If you are not in a Union yet, join one, without it you have no chance. I had to learn this the hard way. Big corporations do not understand fair-play, open cards and integrity, they laugh at it. Take it from me, in my illness I received the nickname “late night girl” from Pret’s CEO who just had a laugh about my illness.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
I worked at Pret A Manger full-time (More than 10 years)
Pros: Pret was the best company 10 years ago, they were more about the people and it was best place to work
Cons: 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.
Advice to Management: 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.”
Quote of the Day:“the team member are over worked and managers are always working with fear, the way the company is going it will not last long. … be open and get rid of some top management who are so corrupt.”
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.
“Pros Here’s my list of pros during my long tenure at Pret A Manger: Co-workers, Customers, Free Food, Compensation, Mystery shopper bonus, and 2 galas Yearly!……..The C.E.O and his partners has always been Pleasant to me.
Cons: In Spite of the wonderful Pros of this company, Your subjected to emotional blackmail and serious labor issues with Most shops being run by Unprofessional and Bias Managerial staff backed by a corrupted HR Dept.
Advice to Management: The Core Values you instill in your Employees are Virtuous , And is the the secret to your success!…..On the Contrary, I strongly suggest a Labor Union!, so employees that are treated unfair have a platform for their voice to be heard without resentment or the sinuous backlash from your Inadequate Managerial staff & Flout HR Dept.!!!! who support them.”
Quote of the Day:“On the Contrary, I strongly suggest a Labor Union!, so employees that are treated unfair have a platform for their voice to be heard without resentment or the sinuous backlash from your Inadequate Managerial staff & Flout HR Dept.!!!! who support them.”
It is true that the CEO is pleasant to people, speaking informally, courteously etc. But what use is this when the majority of “leaders” and line managers are rude, disrespectful, discriminatory and bullying towards the teams they have been entrusted with. And this on a daily basis. “Leaders” who are no leaders at all. When I was a team leader I never saw the shop and the team as my property! I didn’t own them. I was entrusted with a team and a job and didn’t take that lightly. Maybe I’m just too old school, but I do believe that a leader is what is says in the word, they “lead”. They lead by example which unfortunately includes bad example. And the team member that they lead learn from this and want to climb up the leadership ladder very quick to escape from the bad leadership. Then they become leaders themselves following the bad example and just choose the easy road by loading it over their team. Very very sad.
Hardly anyone understands what true leadership means. That the Captain of the ship jumps ship as the last person, not the first! A true leader does not blame downwards, but takes responsibility, and like a Captain steers the ship away from danger and safely to its destination. A bad leader will crumble as soon as a little wind blows, not to mention a storm.
If the CEO of Pret, or of any company at that, closes his eyes to mistreatment like I have experienced to the point of becoming suicidal and what many others have shared, then what is really behind this “pleasantness”? In fact if a CEO does not change this system that he has the power to change and set the tone, than I really question the “niceness” and pleasantness of this CEO.
The CEO of Pret is very in-tuned with what is happening on the shop floor and in HQ. He is not like the “Undercover Boss” in the TV show who goes “down” to the workers undercover to see and learn where the problems are and how he can change it. Pret’s CEO regularly visits shops, speaks with the team members, and maybe that is his job, to lull the staff, making them believe that Pret is so wonderful and caring for them. Then he leaves the shops again, and the turmoil continues. He knows exactly what is going on but does not change the atmosphere and the terrible behaviour of his line managers.
That is why I am so outspoken because he isn’t sitting in a high-rise building, locked away in an office all day, holding meetings and being out of touch. Pret’s CEO is very aware of how his managers behave. He is not able to say that he doesn’t know what’s going on at the “front-lines” of the business. He knows very well and is with this even enabling and encouraging poor management and repeated mistreatment. And as the reviewer mentioned, which in my 10 years in Pret, I have also experienced that this is happening in most shops! These are not isolated incidences or black sheep, this is a system. There are exceptions where there are good managers, but they don’t hold out long as they are not “cut throat” business people, they refuse to mistreat their staff for more profit. Employees suffer. As the saying goes that “the fish stinks from its head” and many managers confirm this, of course privately. Don’t worry current GM, I wont tell on you!
It used to extremely annoy me when I saw my line manager’s hypocrisy when senior leaders walked in the door, how nice the managers suddenly were, and then when the “big guns” left again, the poor management went back to their business as usual. The majority of team members I’ve worked with have no respect for their line managers. They just have kids to feed and bills to pay, so they just keep their heads down and dare not speak up except anonymously.
To me the bottom line is, if there are multiple issues with line managers, one has to follow the thread right up to the very top and ask some questions. As a CEO, being nice and pleasant to staff is to me just a very good mask to facade the deeper problems people experience on a daily basis. It is a very clever strategy to get staff on the side of the CEO and with it the company. It is like the “good cop / bad cop” situation. The CEO is the good cop, and the line manager is the bad cop, but both cops have one goal: get as much money in as possible no matter of the cost of staff’s mental health. Just run with it. And the middle man, HR, is cleaning up the mess.
The nice CEO of Pret A Manger gave me the nickname I am writing under: Late Night Girl, after my ill emailing to Pret and others late at night. To be having a laugh about my trauma and mental illness while I had a disciplinary for it. A disciplinary which I received from a Development Manager, who supposedly lost her brother similarly to me, but then entered into (unallowed but cleverly planned) personal contact. This confused and distressed me further and increased my ill behaviour. I was subsequently unfairly dismissed three days after Christmas 2017 while my father was in intensive care, just having woken out from his three week coma.
This is how pleasant the CEO of Pret A Manger and his (quoting the reviewer) “corrupt” HR department are.
I certainly feel like a throw-away cup dumped into the bin among all the other “useless” cups that are an inconvenient for them, sick and broken. After giving their service and help this business thrive, they are of no use anymore. Pret, you don’t deserve the caliber of people who work for you, you take them for granted, they are nothing to you.
Pret and CEO, you have more than let me down. You are letting your staff down, those who give of their time, skills and energy, those who make your business happen, you let them down.
But dear Pret, what you don’t realize is, I am in the recycling process. And like a rough diamond that has been through the fire and is being painfully but carefully polished, I hate to think of it in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s accent, but “I’ll be back!” … on track and speak of my ordeal for the rest of my life, and help some people along the way!
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
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.
When my brother died I went into extreme darkness, shock and trauma, and at the same time straight into autopilot. Apart from all the errands I had to run and things I had to do, I kept working because I had no choice. I lost all my savings for all the bills that came up, flights, living costs etc. I was forced to keep working.
During that time the bullying in Pret did not stop, it even gotten worse where they tried to cut me out of my leadership position. One incidence I just came back from a two week holiday in warm Florida and Virginia having visited with friends, one of whom I share my birthday with, and our combined friends gave us a trip on a boat to watch dolphins further out on the ocean. I didn’t enjoy the holiday as I usually do, but I relaxed and enjoyed my friends. In hindsight this was the darkest time, the whole year and the following was, but this time even while the sun was beaming and my friends were so lovely, it was so dark for me.
My guard was somewhat down, just having returned from a warm climate, warm in weather and in people, to then returning to the cold early December weather in London. When I returned to work my then line manager was tense and as usual would tell me off in front of my team. As an employee to be told off repeatedly in front of your colleagues is already wrong and hard enough, but as a team leader being told off again in front of my team I couldn’t bear anymore.
After just starting work again, with my guard down and this having been two days before the first anniversary of my brother’s death, I couldn’t take the telling off anymore and I just broke down right then and their in front of everyone. I cried and shouted uncontrollably, tried to take my jacket and pushed a tall colleague a little to the side who was just standing behind me. Shocked at him standing there, because I didn’t realize someone was behind me, I just pushed him out of shock, crying, trying to grab my jacket to leave the shop.
The line manager kept telling me to get out on the shop floor to serve customers. I was extremely in shock, afraid I would lose my job if I take my jacket and leave. The guy I pushed (not purposely, but in shock) just said to me “Don’t push me!” When he said that I just wept and repeatedly said “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
NO ONE tried to calm me down or console me, absolutely no one!
The line manager flung the office door to the shop floor open and with a delegating pointing finger towards the shop floor ordered me out. In tears and immense shock I served customers, and not even customers asked me what happened. My colleagues outside did, who didn’t witness what happened in the office. They asked what’s going on, but I couldn’t tell them.
I raised a grievance, which at first HR didn’t want to do. I then contacted the CEO and only then did they conduct a hearing. The hearing manager in a nutshell rejected everything, rejected that it was bullying and even flipped it around putting the blame on me for being aggressive (breakdown!!)! Shock after shock after shock after shock after shock….
I appealed the outcome and in a 4.5 hour appeal’s hearing the hearing manager and HR note taker played dumb and pretended (Pret-ended!) to not understand what my problem is. The hearing manager in fact than asked me another shocking question:
“What is your definition of bullying?”
I remember just starring at her… Did she really just asked me that??!
To make it short, the appeal was partially substantiated, but not that it was bullying, but only that the line manager after I broke down did not show “compassion”. I understand only in hindsight that they tried to avoid admitting that bullying of a bereaved employee not only happened, but kept continuing. In fact I was put into the role of the bully then because I became loud and in tears crying out irrationally.
In hindsight I would answer the question of what my definition of bullying is, with the question of what this OPs manager’s definition of bullshit is?!
As you read you would ask why on earth I didn’t go to Tribunal then. I cannot explain this, I cannot explain the irrational fear I was in, the intense trauma and fog. I entered into self-blame which was perfect for Pret, because I suffered from sibling survivor guilt. I felt, and still feel somewhat that I let my brother down. Why did I survive my big brother?! What have I done to deserve to live!?
In later grievance appeal’s hearing I raised against an HR People Business Partner who kept sending me away when I asked for support, I explained the background of my turmoil up until my communications with this PBP, when I came to the point about being rebuked again, breaking down and in my broken down state being send out to do customer service, the hearing manager asked me if my GP can verify that I had a breakdown! I cannot explain the Twilight Zone I was in with incident after incident of systemic bullying in a work environment.
So, the bullying felt more like I was just imagining wrong doing because I already am suffering on the inside, lost over 35kg (while having free food around me every day!), couldn’t eat, was in physical pain, tinnitus, a complete and utter mess inside. I gave everybody the benefit of a doubt, except myself. How sick I have become and how wrong I was to let them step all over me, but I was in a different world, traumatized and on autopilot.
I became suicidal and had several close calls and am moving on to tell my story, no matter what they’ll throw at me!
So, to the OPs manager who did the appeal’s hearing asking me my definition of bullying, and to Pret, I have a question: Would the below count as definition of bullying?
(New York)
This one maybe?
(NYC)
Or this one?
How about this!
(Chicago)
This?
(London)
(NYC)
For the sake of my wrist trying to avoid carpal tunnel, a long but not exhaustive list can be found here:
Would the above answer your question dear OPs manager? If you don’t think that bullying a bereaved employee and in their trauma send them out to do customer service, in a company that prides itself in customer service does not look like bullying to you, then I really feel for your lack of emotional intelligence and you conspiring with a toxic HR department like this!
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
A review from a Team Member who couldn’t stay beyond two weeks:
“I have worked there just 2 weeks and left. Horrible place they shout at you all the time for any little mistake. Also the working time is crazy from 5 am which mean you have to wake up 3am, all the time push you to be more and more quickly treat you like a robot not a human being, the kitchens are very small also, everybody grab ingredients and nobody answer if you ask so when you open new box again you are in mistake.Dumb and bossy staff members.If you are not in surviving situation as I was when worked there better don’t start, only if you have to survive and this is the only one option for week or two .”
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.
This is a General Manager’s review with over 10 years of service.
“Great company in risk of ruin!
I have been working at Pret A Manger full-time (More than 10 years)
Pros: Worked with some of the most amazing people ever! Fun culture (although this is becoming less) fantastic training
Cons: Forced to work without pay, expected to work during annual holiday, pressure on profit leading to unsafe food practices, bullying tactics used by Heads, unfair salaries, descrimination…….
Advice to Management: 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!”
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.
“Problem Analysis:
– …
– Bridgepoint has set a challenging expansion goal of increasing the number of shops by 15 about 15% each year.
– But for doing so, they need to open more and more ‘twin stores’ where there will be no kitchen and hence, they will go against what Pet A Manger is known for.
In order to achieve its expansion target of 15%, Pret a Manger would necessarily have to twin. However, this could potentially damage the reputation of the brand, whose Unique Value Proposition is that it sells freshly-made sandwiches.”
This doesn’t really damage the reputation as much as mistreating staff to work even more under intense pressure with a bullying tactic to get more money into the business to achieve the 15% target.
Just the thought that I “helped” for 10 years to make these numbers happen, while being mistreated and seeing my colleagues been mistreated makes me sick to my stomach!!
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 “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather starve and speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
I also tell my story for the first time verbally in this >>> podcast interview based in California, 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 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.
“- Staff can be unfriendly
– Always messing up pay
– If you’re even 2mins late, ITS A BIG ISSUE! (& you will miss out on weekly bonus)
– Expect too much from you (work you like a slave)
– Everyone speaks their own languages
– Be more understand to staff needs
– Train managers regularly (especially with confidentiality)
– Employ more staff”
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.
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I received a disciplinary from a Development Manager (Lila Tighilt Warren) in Pret for my mentally ill emailing after the bullying and trauma, the tricks and traps of the HR department in the middle of going through traumatic bereavement already.
I don’t know how I survived.
They put her on my case because she supposedly also had a brother who died similarity to mine. But instead of having a recommendation for her to speak with me outside the disciplinary and let another manager do the disciplinary, they took advantage of her tragedy using her against me in my tragedy, knowing that she may have better access to me, as I was irrational and traumatized from the bullying of several line managers.
The disciplinary would have been valid even, but it became void because she entered into un-allowed / secret contact with me because of our brothers. But her secrecy and weird communications where she would ask me strange things at times put further stress, confusion and frustration on me. I lashed out at her in a drunken stupor at times because I was confused about her secrecy, not wanting me to tell others that we talked.
The sick and abusive thing in this apart from her using my story for her psychological studies as she was in University at the time to additionally become a Psychotherapist, she gave me a disciplinary for my electronic communication (emailing) but then entered into solely electronic communication with me, mainly text messages and some emailing!
This re-started, and even intensified my emailing again. I was then very mercilessly fired three days after Christmas 2017 and while my father was in hospital, just out of a coma.
I repeat myself here, because new readers will visit the blog and it would take ages to read through everything. Pret’s HR of course rejected my appeal of the dismissal, as even a Tribunal Judged called Pret’s HR hearings as well as appeal’s hearings fundamentally flawed. I still appealed even though I knew it wouldn’t help as I have been through the flawed hearings several times, but I appealed in order to be able to go to court. Without appealing the Judge will reject the case as I didn’t appeal, so it was just an appeal to go through the motions. And I based my appeal on the two main things: The Development Manager being in contact with me, confusing me; and the CEO of Pret just two months before I was dismissed calling me his “late night girl” (late night emails to Pret and others), making light of my ill conduct where I tried so hard to stop. He had a laugh, minimizing the seriousness of it.
So, just as a sore in Pret sight I named my website and blog “Late Night Girl” and speak openly about my trauma in Pret which has almost cost me my life.
I filed a Tribunal claim while going back and forth to visit my dad in hospital, then rehab and later dementia ward, but as I don’t have legal aid or a Union Representative, unlike this lady who was also fired from an NHS service for inappropriate emails but won her case, I knew, even if I would win, I wouldn’t be able to mentally see through to a complex and time consuming court case.
My dad died two-and-half months after I got fired and I became unable to work collapsing under one after another tragedy.
What is so scary and a very poor testament for Pret is, that this Development Manager (DM) also is a Hypnotherapist and an NLP Practitioner and studying to be a Psychotherapist. When looking closer into these, especially NLP, those give tools on how to manipulate people. And in hindsight it makes sense now all the weird questions she asked and she didn’t want to speak on the phone and canceled meeting up, as if she wanted everything in writing. She also wanted to get my input as she was writing an essay on anger for university, which I declined as I didn’t know her well. Later she declined showing me her essay when I was interested in what she wrote with the reason that she wanted to protect her volunteers whom she interviewed.
But first of all I don’t know any of the volunteers, and secondly an essay is not that long, a few pages, she could have quickly blacked out the names. And essays are always written with volunteers’ names being pseudonyms, not their real names. So, what most likely happened was that she wrote about my intense anger for her University essay, despite that I declined to partake in it. So, here I am writing openly about her and what Pret has done to me.
“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should’ve behaved better.” Anne Lamott
I know of three high up managers in Pret, including her, who are NLP Practitioners. I only know those three, but this seems to be a trend in Pret and there must be more.
But these three people, two of which are well educated behaving so dishonest, manipulative and unprofessional.
From the times the DM gave me the disciplinary and immediately entering into contact, to the time I was dismissed were 6 months. When I lashed out at the DM a times I apologized many times and was distressed myself why on earth I had a go at her at times. I know in hindsight that it was because of her confusing roles (Manager giving the sanction / Therapist / Friend due to our brothers).
But after about three months into our contact, she sent me the following screenshot in a text message one morning without any explanation. She must have been reading and studying for University and texted me what she was studying without any explanation whatsoever. She sent this screenshot with some sentences highlighted and with the words:
“I was reading this and it made me think of you.”
Further confused and plainly angry that she was implying I would “die sad and alone”, and then for her not to further explain why she sent this to me was another reason for further distress in the middle of trauma already. Even in the first assessment with a Psychologist weeks before I got fired, the Psychologist called the DM’s conduct abusive, in the least already because this was a trust relationship, even if we did not enter into a contract for official therapy sessions.
It was abuse of power (Manager giving disciplinary), abuse of trust (like a friend due to our brothers) and abuse of boundaries and for her own gain in therapy studies and for personal advancement (Therapist). She should know better than anyone about boundaries and professionalism. But even my last therapist when he heard the story said that she is not behaving as a therapist should. She crossed boundaries that turned out to be very damaging to me and Pret wanted me to sign a settlement where I also would not be able to go to court against her in the future.
This is Pret “doing the right thing naturally”.
I have filed a complaint with the Hypnotherapy governing body that is over her, but they are also just sweet talking not really wanting to investigate. I have left it at that and can only warn to be cautious regarding Hypnotherapy and NLP and certainly Pret A Manger.
I hope one day she will understand what damage she has done in allowing Pret to use her like this and for her to abuse my vulnerability in trauma. She is not fit to be any type of therapist.
I have no confidence in much of the therapists anymore and certainly in no way Hypnotherapy and NLP which I never trusted in the first place anyway. But her conduct just sealed my mistrust.
Pret has lost more than I have. I just lost a job and will find a new one, no matter what reference they will give me.
But Pret not only has lost a very skilled team leader who has integrity, passion and love for people, I survived and live to tell my story and will never be silent 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 “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
“The brainwash is real … The coffee calling system is broken. During busy times it is nearly impossible to keep up with the orders without hating everyone around you. … managers/team leaders are not properly trained when it comes to simple communication. Especially towards female staff members. A lot of people cry in the staff room especially in their entry period. Advice to Management: Get some proper training regarding real people skills.”
Link “Never in my life I have seen so many different coworkers cry in the job. Avoid! … Give more training to your managers, and hire better people, don’t allow them to abuse the staff, it is appalling.
Link “My typical work day consist of Ops Manager yelling and cursing at my manager. … Managers cry in their offices because of how stressed they are.”
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather starve and speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review: 1. “Late Night Girl’s” Story with Pret and 2. Pushing Back Against Pret.
Thank you for reading/listening.
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.
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When customers who are so impressed with Pret because they only see the outside, the facade through the PR[et] machine, they ask Pret about these complaints and then are too easily sweet-talked into believing that this is just an unfortunate exception. But the truth will always come to the surface, no matter how long it takes.
I have chosen to do this public because I suffered so much and almost lost my life. I do this publicly for my own protection.
I wasted close to 10 years of my life in Pret! It is my biggest regret.
If you want to skip this long intro, scroll down until the redwriting, and below it click on any of the many staff complaints I linked from outside Employment Review websites.
This is one major reason, but not the only one why there are so many complaints: Bridgepoint Capital. With the new JAB takeover, it will get even worse unless Pret radically changes their approach to the work conditions, and a £1000 fix won’t do it in the long-run, it is just an incentive to lure new workers in and retain current staff.
In the end, when nothing worked to make me resign because my grief was in the way of Pret’s business and my suggestions to improve work conditions was an inconvenience. When nothing worked (bullying, threats, file notes…) Pret used a Development Manager from HQ who also is a Hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner, both that can be very dangerous tools in manipulating people, and they used it well. This development manager supposedly lost her brother similarly to how I lost mine and that way they used her to get to me, stepping on her as well as my dignity.
On a side note, she is governed under this therapy body who have a commitment right on their front page that I have not seen on other therapy sites: “Our accredited Register status helps to ensure the safety and protection of the public.” I find this odd, as if they have therapists who are not working for the safety and protection of the public. This Development Manager who is also a Hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner certainly is not adhering to safety and protection.
I became suicidal and ill. I was tricked and trapped again and again by management and HR, and my ill emailing out of trauma, having started to drink, I was fired while my father was in intensive care just out of a coma. I declined 4 settlement offers not signing anything and survived to speak of the ordeal I went through. This is Pret “doing the right thing naturally” as their HR department, and Pret in general claims.
I want to “let” others speak as well, complaints from even recently on employment review websites, YouTube, Twitter and other sites in the long list below.
Complaints from current and former staff members and managers, you can “blindly” click on ANY link below at RANDOM and it will read the SAME in a nutshell, at different times/years, from different positions: Discrimination, horrible, biased and incapable management, overworked, not paid for overtime, favouritism shown to own country-men etc…. Pret has extremely good PR in place and is sweet-talking their way out of this or post their “good deeds” online to cover up what really goes on behind the scenes, when customers contact Pret regarding these Staff Complaints.
The first person ever to stand up publicly against Pret’s terrible work-conditions wasAndrej Stopa. I am the second, and in time more people will stand up.
In my own way to cope with this be it sarcastically or with humour to get away from the seriousness and pain, I take a complaint from below’s list and put them daily as “Quotes of the Day” on my blog and collect them HERE, to stress the point how toxic Pret’s work environment is, and how it is hurting people hidden behind the shiny PR(et) facade.
NOTE:
Since I compiled all the staff complaints there seem to be quite a lot more “positive” reviews appearing, especially regarding “good” management and work environment. If there are fake news, I am not alleging anything, but there may be fake reviews! And also the Pret website as well as the CEO’s has as the main pinned Tweets the “good” deeds Pret & the CEO are doing, again excellent PR. There are good managers and good shops of course, but the management style in Pret to pressure for more profit, is poisoned throughout the company. And in time the truth will always come out. Knowing how Pret and their corrupt HR dept. manipulate, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone is tasked to write these reviews. In my 10 years in Pret I worked with over a dozen managers, and only 2 were decent, fair and caring, not to mention hard working. The majority I worked with are immature, discriminating, bullying, insecure, complacent and oftentimes incapable due to lack of training.
True reviews will always continue be written on the same lines of horrible and bullying management until this changes. Pret does annual staff questionnaires that are at times manipulated by management. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if some are leaving fake reviews.
One quote from a former barista in Pret NYC mentions that every shop they have worked in, it is the same story re: bad management, favouritism etc. And it really is, also in London, UK: “I worked in 4 different shops and the song and dance was the same in each one.”
Another review also from NY: “Every manager I have worked with – I have worked with 6 – will immediately try to belittle you. Not sure exactly why this is such a common practice among managers but it is an intrinsic behavior within the company …” And I can verify this even in London, and I have worked with more than a dozen managers! Only 2 of them were exceptional and good, but it is the sad exception even now in 2018 as my experience and the below reviews show.
On the subject of missing pay and overtime not being paid as I have experienced as well in 10 years countless times that I had to chase missing pay from managers. This was draining and a job in itself.
Pret staff in the UK and elsewhere should do the same as Pret staff in the USA have done, go to court to reclaim missing pay: Pret A Manger settles overtime wage claims of 4000 employees!
You can click on ANY of the below reviews and read the same in a nutshell: bullying, discriminating management, over worked, missing pay, discrimination etc.
I did not correct any mistakes in the below reviews to keep it in their own words.
Start of the long list of staff complaints / reviews:
Get ready to lick so many a***es to advance 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.
NEW 01. Nov. 2018 NY “horrible management … management is disrespectful, they fire people when they are having rough times in life even if they talk to a manager about it , i was penalized for calling out for a funeral.”
NEW 30. Oct. 2018 NY “Go back to the UK, Pret … I have never worked in such a toxic, unprofessional corporate environment. Employees relocating from UK were given preferential treatment, better salaries for equal experience…
Review on YouTube towards the bottom beginning of July 2018 from RPQ who now changed the name to Branzinotito, quote: “I used to work for Pret. What a truly brutal nightmare is was. Horrible company.”
Same comment, new name:
“I am an ex GM. I walked out last yearas I couldn’t take the way we had to treat TMs to achieve ever increasing demands for profit and efficiencies.” (Full review in the picture below.)
The “certain venture capitalist firm” this Ex-GM is talking about is Bridgepoint who set the immense target since the 2008 purchase of increasing shops by 15% per year and were set to make a seven times return on their investment in 2018. It is “deal hungry” JAB’s turn now to take the baton from Bridgepoint and squeeze even further the life out of staff. Good luck Pret employees!
My initial comments to James Hoffmann’s video and his response, which are still not released but only visible when I am logged in to my YT account. I wrote an Open Letter to James Hoffmann because my comments weren’t visible, otherwise I wouldn’t have written one. He still hasn’t responded and just briefly recognized it via Twitter, as I have a hunch that he might have contacted or has been contacted by Pret who may have sweet-talked their way out of this again, as “PR”et is very efficient for the outside facade:
Unfairly dismissed Worker was unfairly dismissed, became homeless, lost his relationship, slept in his car for a few weeks.
A review regarding Pret’s Head Office from a former IT ANALYST!
Quote: “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.”
“One of the oddest work experiences. Worked their during a transition period – so company going in one direction and then the opposite.”
Quote: “Every manager I have worked with – I have worked with 6 – will immediately try to belittle you. Not sure exactly why this is such a common practice among managers but it is an intrinsic behavior within the company…”
This, dear New York Employee, is because like you already mentioned that there is no training in leadership and employee relations. I have had over a dozen managers, and even more managers I’ve worked with when I helped out in other branches for a few days. In my 10 years in Pret there were only 2 of them that had people and leadership skills, one of which is this wonderful person, who’s also proven that a manager can be nice, hard working and still be really successful, as she was often at the top (#1, 2 etc.) out of all the shops.
Also, Pret pays a little more than the competition and gives incentives, more holiday, bits and pieces here and there, because if they won’t give more they would have no one wanting to work in Pret as Pret is just way too stressful and hard work. To me, the hard work was not so much the issue, the issue was the UNNECESSARY bullshit = bullying and discrimination. And for Pret to dare bully me while I was going through extreme trauma with the loss of my brother and all the tricks and traps I could not clearly see until later, you bet I will speak about this openly no matter what they come up with next.
A former Manager’s review:
“I am an ex GM [General Manager] … I walked out last year as I couldn’t take the way we had to treat TMs [Team Members] to achieve ever increasing demands for profit and efficiencies.”
From YouTube 2008 this was before Pret became increasingly and intensely bullying But it has always been difficult, but since the 2008 Bridgepoint takeover, it became more systemic bullying as Pret was tasked and pressured to open more and more shops fast on almost every corner in London at least. I won’t point out who, but in the video is one person I later worked with, who became a GM later (I worked with them when they were AM) and is one of the rare people/GMs being good to their TMs.
“The idea of proper training is also rediculous – Most people are taken in under promises (including being a front of house or kitchen person but then dumped where they are needed and not where they were promised) but find that often by day 2 or 3 are thrown on a bench on their own in the kitchen and nagged at due to not being fast enough and expected to reach TM* productivity levels within the first few weeks with hardly any proper training.”
Throughout all my time in Pret I have mentioned the lack of training again and again and again and did my utmost best to train my teams even though many of my managers tried to stop me because I was investing time in my teams, but managers wanted me and teams to just be busy on the tills and in the kitchen… Training hardly exists in Pret. Development Managers are just doing their 9-5, Mon – Fri job, not being bothered if what they train is even implemented in the shops! There is a huge chasm between HQ and shops, no matter how much “PR”et is trying to convince otherwise!
“I’ve learned a Lot!…” “Cons: In Spite of the wonderful Pros of this company, Your subjected to emotional blackmail and serious labor issues with Most shops being run by Unprofessional and Bias Managerial staff backed by a corrupted HR Dept. Advice to Management: The Core Values you instill in your Employees are Virtuous , And is the the secret to your success!…..On the Contrary, I strongly suggest a Labor Union! so employees that are treated unfair have a platform for their voice to be heard without resentment or the sinuous backlash from your Inadequate Managerial staff & Flout HR Dept.!!!! who support them.”
Pret A Manger Logo “If you want to work in a happy enviroment without being bullied then whatever you do DON’T work for Pret” “Being made to feel incompetent. Worked into the ground without empathy. Managers treat staff like idiots. The image of the happy enviroment is a joke. It would be good for the BBC or Dispatches to go under cover and work in a shop for a week to show the world what really goes on behind the scenes.” – Welcome to the Club and my website! You are not even safe when you grief the loss of a brother!
and replace them with more educating indiviuals and ones that dont discriminate … Nothing but aggravation and a discriminating HR” <– (This review is as recent as 12. June 2018! I have my own extensive experience with the Pret HR dept. as the Head of HR said that I “Exhausted the HR department”. Sorry about that @ Head of HR, but as a Tribunal Judge already ruled that your hearings are “fundamentally flawed” I can more than verify this after raising grievance after grievance that were NOT conducted fairly and impartially).
“Interesting comments. My husband now works for pret and is being treated so badly by his area manager. I am astounded that they can get away with it. It seemed like such a nice place to work but it’s like some kind of sect… ”
My response: they get away with it because it is systemic and they are trained to treat staff like this, for more and more profit.
— 4 months later: —
“Further to my previous comment [scrolling up above this review] about my husband having problems with his area manager. They stitched him up good and proper and fired him…this was done in such a way that they found a couple of things to hang him on which wouldn’t normally result in him being sacked. They clearly did all of this because he was going to put in a grievance against his area manager for bullying (he was talked out of this and thought it had all smoothed over) and then wham! The company disgusts me – how they could treat an employee with a wife and 2 small children like that I don’t know. The management of this company are pure evil.”
“Regarding the area manager, yeah they just sit on their fat bums all day, and email on their phones or look at stupid graphs. End of the day its about increasing sales, meeting targets and reducing labour. They will always cover there own backs first, to watch there bonuses, and not care about the workers.
Alot of managers i have met, are complete arrogant snobs, that know nothing about even running a store, yet alone trying to explain things to you, they sit on there high throne, and blah blah blah things.”
“Please get the bullies out” “Forced to work without pay, … bullying tactics used by Heads, unfair salaries, descrimination …
“The brainwash is real” “The coffee calling system is broken. During busy times it is nearly impossible to keep up with the orders without hating everyone around you. … managers/team leaders are not properly trained when it comes to simple communication. Especially towards female staff members. A lot of people cry in the staff room especially in their entry period. Advice to Management: Get some proper training regarding real people skills.” (Absolutely true!)
“… Team Leader … Every shop has less people than required as this affects shops profitability” True about the Mystery Shopper! But even if you do well with the Misery Shopper (yes MISERY Shopper!) as I did again and again for years, I never gotten rewarded other than the usual bonus, even during bereavement doing really well, no mention. But the moment a few points are lost, hell breaks loose!
“Very demanding … Nothing you do there is appreciated“ “… Horrible atmosphere and you feel too much pressure all the time. Advice to Management: Please treat employees as humans not as robots! It seems like you enjoy making people unhappy.“
“Not kitchen, food factory”“Not everybody has to be a leader who works long enough for Pret and shouts loud enough. Management should assess the personality, the leadership skills and the interpersonal skills before making someone a leader.”
“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. Advice to Management: 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.”
“Worst place..” “Advice to Management: Absolutely less stress and please cut the roles because looks to work like slaves. Terrible experience.”
“Worst first day experience” “Pros: Nothing at all….. Not even a 0.0005 star. …Lies about family team vibes… They don’t recruit you for your work ethic…”
“Worst company to work for” … managers are always working with fear … Advice to Management: 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.” (And I thought I was tough with my critique!)
“The worst job I’ve had in London”“the good payment is not enough for getting worse my health (my back and my heart). l am with anxiety all the time, working in a tiny kitchen in a HORRIBLE atmosphere!!” (Yes, I was bullied during bereavement and tricked and trapped via HR, high five!)
“I have asked for several transfers to other shopsdue to management. Either a manager was extremely “lazy”, un-supportive, but gave the team a hard time when things didn’t go well, or another manager was like a tyrant, constantly threatening the team & individuals with & giving file notes for the smallest things. Ops Managers either aren’t aware of it, mostly being concerned with mystery shopper results for their own bonuses or not bothering about how the team is “motivated”.”
“You are of course right, hiring happy people is only a part of the solution. If an employee is unhappy, and its affecting their work, ask them what’s up (gently).”
My response: I lost my brother and in my bereavement was NOT asked “gently” what’s up, I was bullied, targeted, tricked and trapped by Pret’s HR dept. to get me out and ultimately fired while my father was in intensive care, just out of a coma. So, here I am again having survived to tell my story as “gently” as possible collecting all these reviews from other sites.
Pret A M*ffin “…team member are over worked and managers are always working with fear … listen to the little people, also be open and get rid of some top management who are so corrupt”
Pret A Robot “People are treated inhuman way in terms of sickness and work load. Employees are being treated more like robots than human beings”
Pret A Joke “You have a limited time to do your job everyday but this time limit is a joke. they give me the next rota just the day before the week starts.”
Pret A Nothing “didn’t learn nothing as i have things to give to that shop as i came with lots of experience and skills.”
Red A Manager “their [managers] personality only is good for business, but not for the people that work under.”
Pret A Scream “One of the things that I absolutely hated about working at pret, was the fact that management wanted you to act like you were having fun and smile at all times.”
Pret A Manager “the staff are great the guys who do the real work. The management suck”
Pret A No Respetar “Los managers son penosos“, “un horror!!” “desastrosa” and “todo… no tiempo libre, no respeto..”
NOTE: I don’t agree with the racism here! But the trend of complaints about management and leadership should be clear.
“Hot Chef Advice to Management: Be human. It’s not your own business.”
My response: That’s what I said once to a line manager who told us leaders that if we don’t like it in “his” shop to f*** off, I replied that he is also only employed by Pret, he does not own “his” shop!
“Brain wash, Control, Never stop…” “Cons: Aggressive and mortify management, brainwashing, mobbing, after working hours NON PAID, if you don’t finish YOUR DUTIES you stay after the working hours non paid… Advice to Management: Respect people that work hard! Don’t exploit them!”
“Assistant Manager Respect yourself don’t let managers to overload you.”
My response: easily said when they immediately threaten with Note of Concerns, disciplinary and job security!
“…also has a motto: FIFO or Fit In or Fu*k Off. I always got the impression that Pret was actually a free-thinking company…but perhaps they are becoming too large too and need to do the conforming thing.”
“Overworked, High expectations, No recognition” “Manager at my shop treated everyone really poorly. Expect you to stay longer to complete your job for free when not enough time is given. Constantly missing hours from extra shifts taken. Have to ask every week to see if they have repaid those hours and in some cases takes months to chase back.”
“I regret working there (don’t go)” “Team Leader who was working with me during the weekends (I was a part timer) was very rude to me , calling me stupid etc. … And I also ”love” how the company itself tries so hard to create this friendly enviroment for the employers by putting these sweet posters around etc. etc. when in reality it is very miserable and stressfull place to work for ! … People working in your company are not robots with smiles on their faces 24/7 !!!”
“Good first job … as foreigner” “Often happen to work “unpaid” overtime to finish daily duties … Limited progression career if you’re not in the state of grace of the Head of your working Area … In many cases I’ve weighed up a big incompetence and lack of skills between Team Leader and Assistant Manager’s position.”
“Demanding. Can be fun” “High demands not in line with pay, lack of support, inconsistent training, stressful/poor work life balance”
“horrible management, super biased” “super biased managers most of the girls in my store are from the same place even the assistant manager and FOH so they tend to group together against people they don’t like even if they don’t know them. … make sure the store isn’t just a bunch of biased friends that if you aren’t part of their group they’ll make your life hell”
“Horrible experience” “Lack of communication b/t managers and staff. – Immature workers – Slave-like environment – Biased behavior – Too strict on simple task. Advice to Management: Work on communication and stop treating co-workers like robots.”
“Team Member” “my location had a rude manager who cleaned up her act after I tried relocating. There is no HR, just a recruitment team who will give you phone numbers to where you wanna go. Overworked for sure; management expects perfection for their weekly shopper. You’ll be running from the basement to the first floor, between tons of customers, and up to the second … ”
————————————————————————————————-
“The one thing that did frustrate me and ultimately caused me to leave was the way it dealt with the enthusiasm troughs. In fairness to Pret, I left 8 years ago; so this may have improved since but in my experience the company was not good at dealing with people’s frustrations. There was a strong message for people who were frustrated with something and couldn’t get it resolved – leave! I saw a number of people become shunned and passed over if they had feedback which wasn’t entirely positive. Often people left disgruntled having started out as the desirable happy employees. I suppose in someways it was a useful self selection process – when I became frustrated with a few things and felt threatened that my feedback would fall on highly judgemental ears I knew it was time to leave – leaving the happy people behind me. ”
My response to this review: This person left in 2008 out of frustration, I started in Pret in 2008 and can only say in all fairness to Pret, that it gotten worse.
“Great company, but will take advantage” “Rude young team members and too many managers in 1 store. Advice to Management: Cut back on all the chiefs we need more indians” – My speech for 10 years!
“Team Member” “Multiple Supervisor – Confusing Leadership … Lack of leadership … Add some structure & look for ways to encourage workers to work hard and have fun without risking their jobs”
“General Manager” “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. Advice 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.”
“cashier / hot chef” “Some managers are very anal! The customer is more important then workers. Advice to Management: Listen to your employers suggestions!!” – (I think they meant “employees”)
“Great things preacherd, not always practiced” ” If you are a Pret Person, quirky, and in with the right crowd, you’re golden. If not….good luck. Pompous and thinks too highly of itself.”
“Pressure is crazy especially if you work in the kitchen. … Paperwork is excessive at times. Advice to Management: Reward those who work hard for you and give them a raise. Catch them doing the right thing and praise, and dont just discipline the bad”
“team member” “stressful environment, too many people trying to overpower others. Advice to Management: think like a team member and your key roles to understand success of the team”
“just terrible” “Discriminatory management. Unprofessional atmosphere … Abusive staff. Don’t just promote the people that you like, promote the people that are the most qualified.”
“working at pret” “Lack of accountability … poor management.” (Absolutely!!!)
“Long hours, unrealistic expectations…” “Unrealistic targets, little support, long hours. Advice to Management: Stop changing everything all the time with poor execution”
“Terrible experience…”“Cons: Pretty much everything is a con: -lots of stress -under payed -long hours/ short brakes -terrible management -really unflexible schedule.”
“Spoiled, selfish upper management…” “upper management thinks they are better than everyone else. They spend (waste) lots of money on dinners for themselves and “leadership conferences” that are really just excuses to party in Orlando or Vegas. “Business” trips to Boston and Chicago are really expensed vacations for their families. The Brits have taken over NYC. Pret has brought over many managers and leaders form the UK and ‘beheaded’ many of the US employees who built the brand to make room for them. Advice to Management:get over yourselves.”
I will shorten the comments now as this is never ending… Links can just be clicked and read….
In an Imaginary but Honest Interview with Pret I made up the acronym of what Pret stands for: PRET is a four letter F-Word spelled F E A R which stands for: Fire Early At Request. Or one can say Fret.
@Pret, at any company, please treat your people right, as a team leader I have shown you that when you treat your team right, you will still be successful and the money comes in and the team feels truly respected. You don’t want people like me who raise the standard while still treating the team good. I was too loud for you, and yet, if you would have protected me in the darkest time instead of continuing to put me under suppressive management, I would be writing a completely different blog now.
Thank you for reading.
Kind regards,
I take back what I wrote at the end of this “video” that Pret has a “good” heart after what I’ve been through and the customers’ deaths, but I leave the “video” as a reminder of Pret’s “legacy” with what I went through and the above list of 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 “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
That never wrote to me,–
The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty.
Her message is committed
To hands I cannot see;
For love of her, sweet countrymen,
Judge tenderly of me”
— Emily Dickinson
Dear World,
if you read through this weird and crazy blog and website, I am still in the period of “peace before the storm”, as a powerful company will try one last time to crush me.
I wish I could say that I am healed and moved on, and my blog here isn’t as much with “tender majesty” as I would have hoped to write. But the pain and trauma I still go through seems too grave to recover from. I had often had two choices for my life, I either end my life or openly write down my story, or both.
But I have abandoned the thought of suicide, as this would not help anyone. Half my family is gone, I don’t need to put more grief on whoever is left. And my friends who helped and supported me as best as they could, I couldn’t do that to them. That wouldn’t be fair on them. And I decided no matter what they do to me, no matter how huge the pain and panic attacks and hopelessness, my life is in God’s hands and I want to learn to let him judge and have the final word. I’m not there yet, but my suicidal days are over.
And anyone who struggles or knows someone who struggles with suicidal thoughts and lives in or around London, check out this amazing charity that was started by 2 Samaritans: The Listening Place, their non-judgemental and patient approach takes the sting out of this taboo subject. And also Maytree. Add your own from your own city and don’t struggle or let others struggle alone.
Thank you for reading.
Kind regards,
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.
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The second year into my bereavement after my brother died, I went on my usual walks that I started since learning of the news. I used to not like to walk much, as I was on my feet between 8 to 10 hours a day at work in a stressful fast pace environment. But I just started to walk and walk and walk like a “walkaholic”. I would often walk on my days off and even after work for another 2, 4 or even 6 hours straight, being on my feet between 10 and 14 hours a day. One day I walked about 30 miles without stopping. It took a while for the blisters to heal, and my black and blue toenails to grow out again.
I lost a lot of my “body”, tears and sweat on the streets of London. In one of those walks on my way back home I was close to home, about 15 minutes away where I walked through the rain with my umbrella and hooded coat. I was well wrapped up and warm, with only my face uncovered. The rain has stopped, the umbrella dangling on my arm, it was dark as it was winter. I don’t know if it was because I was wearing dark clothes, hard to see me, or if the driver had a laugh when he/she drove fast through the huge water puddle that didn’t drain by the pedestrian walk, showering me from head to toe. I had to spit muddy water out of my mouth. I just stood there frozen in shock for a while in the dark, thinking, what else now?! Can it get any “better” than this! Can someone please throw some more shit at me?!! Is this “Pick-On-Me-Day” never stopping? I was too numb to even get mad at the driver, and in a slow pace just kept moving towards home, tears mixing with the muddy water and a long hot shower later.
But on one of those walks in this second year of grief, I passed by under a bridge close to home on a sunny Saturday afternoon. I was shocked to see what later brought me great regret. Under that bridge on the pavement a pigeon was sitting bleeding, not able to move and about 4 or 5 other pigeons stood around that injured pigeon literally picking on it. I understood suddenly where the term “picking on somebody” came from. Here was a vulnerable, broken, injured creature and the strong, healthy creatures of its own “race” so-to-speak, were picking on it while it couldn’t fend for itself. I chased the pigeons away and stood by the bird for a while trying to figure out how to help it.
I had no bags or extra clothing with me to pick it up and bring it somewhere. Where could I bring it? The vet I know is too far away, and having this pigeon in my hands in the bus, would I even be allowed on the bus? And which vet would do something for a wild injured pigeon? I didn’t have the funds for an injection to put it down, as these are quite expensive from my experience with pets years ago. How selfish of me to think about money! What a hypocrite I was!
If I had a bag I could have placed it inside, and if the pigeon was too injured to recover, I could have just “smashed” it with one hard blow, to put it out of its misery. But doing that, I would have gotten into trouble as London is plastered with cameras. There was a newspaper article all over the press years ago of a woman in a residential street walking by a cat that sat on a little wall of a front yard of a house. The woman stopped, petted the cat for a while and than put the cat in the rubbish bin! The outcry was huge of course. What on earth was with that woman?! So, I saw the headline in the Daily Mail already in my minds eye: “Evil woman smashes poor pigeon against the wall” of course completely taking my “charity” out of context.
I’m sure my own ill behaviour can fill enough sitcoms! But I was too “OCD” to pick up the pigeon with my bare hands. I had no jacket or extra layer of clothing as it was warm that day. I stood there for a while protecting it while it just sat there starring, probably completely traumatized, in front of itself.
I thought about how my superiors at work picked on me in groups, as I figuratively speaking was lying injured on the ground in grief and trauma, and no one was doing anything about it. No one chased those pigeons away and picked me up to go to the doctor. This time was the darkest and most fogged up period. And later when some support did come in after having involved the CEO, I’d never dreamed to be even writing to the top leadership, not even in a good way, I was always holding my head down, slow to complain to leaders, dealing with challenges by myself as long as possible.
And all the HQ people that got involved, each for their own gain or ego boost or studies picking bits and pieces off me, whatever suited them and they could use. The Head of HR wanted me on a scale from 1-10 to give feedback how it is meeting him, where I needed to meet with my line managers! The development manager who was used at the end “helped” herself to material for her essay. An OPs manager snatched me away from a manger I finally felt had integrity and hard work, just to be in that OPs managers area to raise the standard of one of his shops again. The previous OPs before that being happy for me to bring pages of ideas for improving the Mystery Shopper, promising me incentives if my shop improved, even though we had almost always perfect scores. And then not living up to the promises. … Person after person chipping away from my contributions and using my talents, vulnerability, skills, insights like I was a supermarket! The only thing though, they all forgot to pay! Taking their pick off my table leaving me stranded again. Well, you’re welcome, I survived to write about it.
With the pigeon I did a terrible thing, and any animal rights activist should condemn me. But after standing guard by the pigeon for a while, with my brother’s broken body on my mind, I left the pigeon and am sure the other pigeons returned later to finish it off. How angry I got at myself while I walked away. Why didn’t I just use my bare hands to bring it somewhere?
My heart wasn’t as big as Robert Burns’ heart when he accidentally disturbed a field mouse that was running away from him, while he was ploughing the field when he couldn’t afford to solely live off his poetry which he did from time to time. But back to farming he ploughed right through the “house” of the mouse. He later wrote one of my favourite poems “To A Mouse”, apologizing for having ruined the dwelling place of that little creature. I still cannot write my apology to a pigeon who needed help desperately! I can’t find words that “rhyme” with my hypocrisy.
When I checked back the next day, because I condemned my cowardliness, I couldn’t live with myself, there was no pigeon anymore, not even a dead one or feathers or blood around the area, nothing. And in fooling myself with wishful thinking I thought, maybe someone else was more heroic than I was, and picked it up before the other pigeons continued their picking on a weak one of theirs. Unlike with elephants who come together when one of their own is injured or has died. They grieve in a circle around the injured or dead. A lot can be learned from those gentle giants.
Since then, when I see an animal, certainly a human in trouble, I aim to find a way to see how they can get help. I always tried to protect humans from bullying, back in school, at work, but that day I was frozen again in shock that a metaphor of “picking on someone” was unfolding right in front of me, not as a metaphor anymore, but a real torturous event happening.
Pigeons that I grew up with in my city as a kid, that were raised in pigeon breeding clubs famous in the area in the deep West of Germany. Pigeons I saw flying in huge groups, dancing in the sky, being trained to fly to places and then return again.
I was in awe how humans can train birds who are free to fly where-ever they want to, without borders or cages. And yet, they always returned.
But I lost my awe for pigeons that day. And respect for myself. Trying still to forgive myself.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
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.
Pret minus Bridgepoint + the German JAB Holding Company + Luxembourg = No tax.
Pret has arrived in tax haven!
Forget VAT Eat in or Take Away.
As a side-note at the start, Pret became aware of my blog and website here late on the 28th to the 29th May. The CEO of Pret tweeted the below at night on the 29. May probably as a reaction to my blog? Maybe not. As I don’t believe in coincidence anymore I see tricks and traps on many a corner.
I almost lost my life working in Pret, having been bullied during bereavement and with all the tricks and traps HR dealt me with. I wasted my sweat, blood and tears for close to 10 years in this company. It is my biggest regret in life.
Pret’s slogan is “Doing the right thing naturally”. But THIS is what Pret does “naturally” behind their shiny facade: Pret Staff Complaints on various Employment Review websites and YouTube and my traumatic experience.
The CEO working the PR(et) machine:
It used to take 10 years of service in Pret to receive £1000. If Pret is giving all their staff £1000 it means they are desperate to recruit.
The CEO pockets £30 million, giving £1000 to each employee as Brexit is at the door and many, especially Eastern European workers return to their home countries or move on to other opportunities. Several of my ex-colleagues already told me of their plans to return home. Usually Pret gives cheap cakes to their shops when another financial milestone was reached, tasteless and over-sugared cakes that end up half-eaten, stale in the shop fridges. But this generosity means Brexit is advancing fast, new recruits are needed and my blog is a sore in their sight. Also, to announce the £1000 ahead of the deal being finalized, as usually rewards are given after a deal or a milestone has been reached, not before is nothing short of interesting.
When I was a Team Leader I raised standards in every shop I worked, encouraging my teams, not bullying them, helping shops to more success but never receiving any rewards. When the bullying started, or rather increased during grief adding to my trauma, I became ill. There were no appraisals where I could learn where I was strong or where I can improve, never a reward, no feedback, absolutely nothing. Only targeting, bullying and manipulation was standard. One later GM’s tactic was to hold me low while I was going through the worst time, being vulnerable. This kind of “leadership” is common in Pret. This GM, who didn’t want “the area to feel sorry for him anymore” because I was thrust in his shop in the middle of trauma, grievance hearings and under shock.
Wasting 10 years of my life on a company who are only profit and target oriented with extreme good PR in place and a smiling, approachable CEO who is fully aware of what’s going on in his company as he visits the shop floor regularly, Pret-ending everything is jolly good while fooling the public and staff. When my brother died I was bullied and targeted on top of my traumatic bereavement by several superiors under the watchful eye of HR. Grievance hearing after grievance hearing that I raised in my traumatic state were conducted in tricky ways, not impartial.
For three years I approached HR and managers with suggestions and ideas on how to improve support for bereaved staff. I had a target on my back from the moment I approached HR informally to bring suggestions in May 2015. I was so naive. Unbeknown to me at the time, it was the beginning of the end for me. It is no wonder that hardly anyone approaches HR in this systemic and toxic work environment in society today.
Pret has become like the majority of multinational corporations mistreating their workforce. Being bullied during bereavement and all the mistreatment from superiors towards workers, Pret is moving more and more towards the jungle and swamp of Amazon that is notorious for their brutal bullying tactics. The only difference is that Pret is excellent in PR and still relatively small in this corporate world of greed, lulling the public and staff in with sweet-talk.
In-between they throw in a £1000 carrot for each employee making them look like a lovely company to work for. Let’s look deeper!
I became ill and wrote countless emails which I explain in detail here. One of my last line managers just laughed about it with the leadership team, the CEO labeled me his “late night girl” to the Director of HR, the Head of HR tried 4 times to pay me out (peanuts) if I resign and the peak came when the gaslight really took on full swing as described below… There is no protection against the discrimination of the bereaved and mentally ill in Pret A Manger.
But the worst thing they’ve done was to “introduce” me to a development manager who supposedly had a similar loss with her brother, but our introduction was not to support me (or her), it was for her to give me a disciplinary for all my emailing (electronic communication) and then entering into secret solely electronic communication (text and email), confusing and frustrating me further that my ill emailing behaviour intensified again. This was gaslighting in a nutshell.
I was then unfairly dismissed just 5 months short of my 10 year’s service where I also would have received £1000, the development manager of course is safe in her job as she served them well. Pret went all the way in “doing the right thing naturally” again by firing me three days after Christmas 2017 while my father was in intensive care just out of a coma! Again, “doing the right thing naturally”.
When you read that all staff now receive £1000, whereas before it would take 10 years to receive £1K it shows how desperate Pret is to gain and retain staff. I was never after money and have declined 4 offers of settlement, not only because of the peanuts they offered, not even a million pounds would have done it, but I don’t prostitute my values or sign my rights away for money.
@Pret, too many people suffer, become depressed, even suicidal that someone needs to stand up and tell their story!
I was ONE, you were and are many, you have all the resources, sophistication (bottom page), manpower, money and whatever you can come up with. You still refuse to acknowledge how out of proportion this was and is. No amount of money could have fixed this.
To be entrenched in this system that you probably don’t even realize how wrong so much of how you, as a GROUP of influential professionals have acted towards ONE single person, and indeed everyone on the “front-lines” of the business, who are the ones making you all this wealth. Sure, you seem desperate to recruit now being suddenly so generous to all staff. Don’t turn too socialistic now, though, it doesn’t come across genuine!
Do you know the hope I felt when I met a person of similar loss, as my grief became so complicated, and still is? And then to just find out after a while that this was yet another trick!? Again?!! I think I have written enough for anyone to understand, if they truly take inventory of their conscience, that this absolutely crossed the line! You stepped one too many times on my dignity. And that one nailed it!
My anger I have to overcome again and hope to not get bitter and stuck. And that I still, or rather am again angry after the whirlwind of my father’s illness and death, being fired right in the middle of it. I am someone who usually goes out of my way to brag on people, encourage them and let everyone know how amazing they are. The story might have gone like: “I was bereaved traumatically and Pret really helped me”. But this I will never be able to write, and some of the support you gave AFTER I involved the CEO, that was for show and the Tribunal just to cover your backs. This missed opportunity from Pret is forever lost on your end. You did not deserve my work, my skills, my talents and my passion. You did not deserve it at all. And I certainly did not “deserve” you. I survived to speak about it openly and I will never be silent, no matter what you come up with out of your trick-box from a corrupt and discriminatingHR department.
It would be good to heed this reviewers advice to management from June 2018: Fire the HR staff because a £1000 quick fix won’t do it, the reviews from Pret staff on Employment Review websites and other online platforms will continue on these lines and crack the PR(et) machine until Pret truly lives up to its slogans and words. The annual staff questionnaire Pret holds won’t help as they are tweaked at times by shop management. The truth will always come to light sooner or later.
“The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
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.
Don’t have a manager hold the grievance hearing raised against a colleague from his immediate neighbouring area, as this will compromise a truly impartial investigation and decision.
Don’t have the hearing manager patronize and hold the person raising the grievance for an idiot, by asking if 40 or 50 out-of-date items were left by an MOD over night, while the grievance raiser left only 1 item out and was about to get penalized for it by the manager who targeted her. You may look more absurd in the long run for a poor try like this.
Don’t remove the HR advisor from the hearing process, who raised the grievance in the first place on behalf of the bereaved and bullied employee, giving hope to that traumatized staff member. Doing so would cause the crushing of hope again, starting a series of events that could have been avoided early on if everything was conducted fairly, impartially and respectfully.
Do’s:
Do have a truly impartial Manager and HR Note Taker to do the hearing.
Do indeed hold a truly impartial grievance hearing.
Appeal’s Hearing 1.0
Dont’s:
Don’t have a manager hold the appeal’s hearing who is not only a known colleague, but a close friend of the first grievance hearing manager. As it would be difficult going against the decision of a friend, this will compromise a truly impartial investigation and decision.
Don’t speak to the colleague the grievance is raised against before you hear all the allegations raised first, as you won’t be impartial and would have already pre-judged the case more or less.
Don’t instruct the person who raised the grievance to go to the person the grievance is against, to inform them what was spoken about in the appeal’s hearing to prepare the one who grieved the employee that the grievance is about to be partially substantiated against them. Be a manager of integrity and courage, and do that job yourself, not sending the grievance raiser like a sheep to the wolf, if you don’t have the stamina to do that yourself!
Do’s:
Do have a truly impartial Manager and HR Note Taker to do the hearing.
Do indeed hold a truly impartial grievance hearing.
————————————————————————————
Grievance Hearing 2.0
Dont’s:
Don’t have a manager doing the hearing who was already involved in the case by having been copied in on emails sent to managers and HR previously.
Don’t have a manager hold the hearing, who has no problem whatsoever that a bereaved and traumatized team leader is repeatedly rebuked by her line manager in front of the team, the team leader then having a nervous breakdown two days before the first anniversary of the death of her brother, and being further bullied by having to do customer service while in the middle of that breakdown in tears. If you as the hearing manager have no problems with this, you should not only not be the hearing manager, you should resign and rethink your ethical values and emotional intelligence.
Do’s:
Do have a truly impartial Manager and HR Note Taker to do the hearing.
Do indeed hold a truly impartial grievance hearing.
Appeal’s Hearing 2.0
Dont’s:
Don’t have a manager doing the hearing who has also already been informed prior to the hearing of being asked to sit down informally to calm down the bereaved and traumatized employee who kept losing her mind. Even if you are one of the more empathetic hearing managers compared to the others, you would still not be impartial.
Don’t be double-faced by saying that it is okay to email but then behind the scenes sending on the emails to HR who later penalized the person for having sent the emails.
Do’s:
Do have a truly impartial Manager and HR Note Taker to do the hearing.
Do indeed hold a truly impartial grievance hearing.
————————————————————————————
Grievance Hearing 3.0
Dont’s:
Don’t have a manager doing the hearing who already finds answers and reasons of misbehaviour before having fully heard and investigated the case.
Don’t let the hearing manager just substantiate bits and pieces to silence the grievance raiser, while the people business partner the grievance is against, is waiting outside in plain view pretending to be on the phone, winking at the HR advisor accompanying the grievance raiser out of the hearing.
Do’s:
Do have a truly impartial Manager and HR Note Taker to do the hearing.
Do indeed hold a truly impartial grievance hearing.
Grievance Appeal 3.0
Dont’s:
Don’t have a manager hold the hearing who is brand new to the company having to prove herself in her trial period, after another hearing manager who was indeed not impartial as having been informed throughout, was removed from the process upon request by the grievance raiser.
Don’t have that hearing manager who is a head of a department have a laugh during a very serious hearing process.
Don’t have a note taker who compares the traumatized bereaved with another traumatized bereaved employee, judging both as being “bitter” because they keep raising grievances due to mistreatment during bereavement. Not taking their issues serious may hurt their lives irrevocably.
Don’t have that note taker say, that in hindsight he made a mistake by agreeing that the company can indeed improve on the supporting of the bereaved employee.
Do’s:
Do have a truly impartial Manager and HR Note Taker to do the hearing.
Do indeed hold a truly impartial grievance hearing.
————————————————————————————
Disciplinary Hearing 1.0
Dont’s:
Don’t have a manager hold the hearing who has personal conflict due to very similar bereavement.
Don’t have that hearing manager enter into secret and solely electronic communication after giving a disciplinary for electronic communication.
Don’t have that hearing manager take personal advantage of the vulnerable and traumatised grievance raiser, by abusing their position in using tools of Hypnotherapy and NLP for their own studies, and personal as well as occupational advantages.
Do’s:
Do have a truly impartial Manager and HR Note Taker to do the hearing.
Do indeed hold a truly impartial grievance hearing.
Appeal’s Hearing 0.0
No Appeal raised due to naivety and plain stupidity of having believed to be truly supported by the company now.
Dont’s:
Traumatized Bereaved Grievance Raiser, don’t trust an HR department and company who repeatedly hold flawed hearings.
Do’s:
Do regret not having raised an appeal and gone to court early on due to repeated lack of impartiality and “fundamentally flawed” hearings.
Do learn from this that if this happens again to raise a grievance against the hearing manager abusing their position for personal gain.
————————————————————————————
Grievance Hearing 5.0
Dont’s:
Don’t have a manager and HR advisor hold the hearing where you have to start the formal procedure as they kept starring at you, not knowing how to start.
Don’t have a manager hold the hearing who is at first empathetic, even sharing personal information in an informal moment, confirming that the grievance raiser has “been wronged” and then later be completely the opposite, as HR is really behind the decisions.
Don’t have a manager hold the hearing who does not investigate and interviews witnesses named.
Do’s:
Do have a truly impartial Manager and HR Note Taker to do the hearing.
Do indeed hold a truly impartial grievance hearing.
No Appeal raised as it was useless and ridiculous to keep going on in this flawed system. But one gets the point!
————————————————————————————
Dismissal Hearing 1.0
Dont’s:
Don’t have a manager hold the hearing to patronize the grievance raiser by being the OPs manager of the manager the grievance raiser loved to work with. Another clever “retaliation” by HR choosing “impartial” hearing managers.
Do’s:
Do have a truly impartial Manager and HR Note Taker to do the hearing.
Do indeed hold a truly impartial grievance hearing.
Dismissal Appeal 1.0
Dont’s:
Don’t have a manager hold the hearing who just sits there purposefully not saying anything to avoid to truly investigate impartially by asking questions.
Don’t have a note taker who is so slow in taking notes, not attentive enough to follow what is being said, unless there is no other note taker anymore, due to the grievance raiser having exhausted the largest department of the company.
Do’s:
Do have a truly impartial Manager and HR Note Taker to do the hearing.
Do indeed hold a truly impartial grievance hearing.
———————————————————————————— .
How To’s and Tips for a Formal Hearing:
Dont’s:
Don’t discriminate by just using mainly women to hold the hearings (17 women/3 men).
Do’s
Be truly equal opportunity by giving male managers a chance to hold a hearing for / against a female employee. Unless, of course, the challenge is too grave for them.
Do rethink your HR department and if the methods of hearings are so steeped in dishonesty and trickery, that it is hard to break that habit and open new windows to bring in fresh air and clean a toxic environment.
Do remember that you are dealing with people, with human beings who go through personal and professional issues that can make them ill and even take their lives. Do remember the name and mission of your department: Human Resources.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
LNG: Thank you for your time and agreeing to do an imaginary but honest and transparent interview, this has been a long time in the making and I am grateful you finally agree to give us an unprecedented look into your business, especially staff treatment, and what makes you stand out on the high street.
PAM: Oh, no problem at all. Sorry it took so long to agree to an imaginary yet open and honest interview, but we’ve been really busy with our success as you know.
LNG: Yes, well done! May I call you Pret?
PAM: Sure, we love to be on first name basis here. We are family.
LNG: Thank you, you can call me what your CEO calls me.
PAM: Great! Okay Late Night Girl, what do you want to know about our company?
LNG: My first question….
PAM:(interrupts) Oh, would you like a coffee? On the house? The first hit is always free! 😉
LNG: No, thank you, I brew my own! 🙂
LNG: So, my first question is, what is the secret ingredient to your success?
PAM: Well, if we stay on the first name we have a secret spelling system here, we love to work with acronyms to really emphasize that we mean business when it comes to motivating our staff. Pret is French for “ready”, so, Pret A Manger means “ready to eat”. Fast food, but made in the kitchens on the premises. But it is not just food ready to eat, we want our staff to always be “ready to work” come rain come shine, in good days and in bad days, till FS do us part.
L: What’s FS?
P: That’s another meaning, “FS” is the Firing Squad, but officially they are called “HR”, meaning Human Resources, of course. Our HR department have a really great slogan to sell their mission as, “Doing the right thing naturally”, and people buy into this slogan without questioning it, as PC is too common. It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? HR don’t do the dismissing themselves, no, they like others to execute this nitty-gritty muddy business. They…
L:(interrupts) What’s PC now?
P: Oh, common’?!
L: Ah, yeah, right. Sorry.
P: Tztz, you didn’t do your homework when preparing for this interview?! You don’t know our 6 P’s?!
L: No, no, yes, uhm, I know them all! (nods) It’s just a lot to remember what you give your staff to memorize.
P: Yes, that is how brainwashing works, repeated bombardment of silly word games.
L: Sure.
P: So, where were we?
L: With HR not doing the dirty work.
P: Ah yeah, so they fire indirectly using their operational side of the business, managers who are tasked to hold hearings that are “fundamentally flawed” as one Tribunal Judge called it, they are unfair and only impartial if we need to cover ourselves.
L: Ah! So, it’s a lot to do with fear management?
P: You got it.
L: And how does the fear management work exactly? Talk me through a typical day in a Pret shop.
P: No problem. First of all, we don’t like to be known as a sandwich “factory”, even though we are hundreds of little sandwich factories. So, we put intensive incentives in place, pay a little bit more here, give a little more holidays there, put on elaborate parties, let the kitchens play loud and fast music to speed up their work pace and avoid them talking too much with each other wasting our precious time, no matter if they get a head ache or a tinnitus etc. etc.
But our real main ingredient and the real spelling behind our acronym as already hinted early on is, Pret really is a four letter F-word spelled F E A R. It means Fire Early As Requested or with the nickname of “Fret” to make it more appealing. Fear management is the main motivator for our lovely and hard working people, but we facade this in the perfect packaging of “Good Jobs for Good People”. We have a lot of good people, but after a while they get so burned out, feel devalued and dehumanized that they are not “good” anymore, and there are plenty of young people lining up for the job. We give out disciplinaries like napkins, we make sure that our staff always worry about their job security, and we don’t tolerate people being vulnerable (takes a sip from the organic coffee).
L: What do you mean by “vulnerable”?
P: Well, simply inconvenient occasions like bereavement or even mental illness of our staff. We feel that especially bereavement is “imposed” on us. That’s not nice.
L:(looking confused) So, it would be best to not be vulnerable, as staff wouldn’t be safe in their jobs?
P: That’s right.
L: So, if staff are bereaved, or suffer from a mental illness or disability that might affect their day-to-day work, and even if they work still really good while in bereavement, there is no policy in place to protect them from potentially being bullied by superiors?
P: Yes, something like that. We have a large HR department, larger than the IT or even food team. But it isn’t large enough yet, as one of our former employees has exhausted our HR department after being bullied during bereavement and being held low in shops. So we want to expand our HR staff to not let this happen again.
L: Wow! Must have been hard work. But at least you learned from this and won’t let the bullying happen again. That’s great.
P: No, we won’t let it happen again that anyone approaches HR with their concern about bereavement and bullying like this anymore, even though we advised that person (whom the CEO called his “late night girl”) to raise grievances, as we didn’t want to interfere with how the managers were mistreating her. As we don’t have an anti-bullying policy in place to protect the bereaved, we aim to divert to the grievance procedure as we don’t want to admit that we have a huge problem. A grievance procedure often deters the employee to raise the issue formally, as this is quite stressful to have to come up with all the evidence, not to mention becoming a target after speaking up.
For other issues like sexual orientation, pregnant women, physical disabilities, religious beliefs, equal opportunities etc. we have a strong and clear zero tolerance policy on discrimination, because there are laws in place and we would get into trouble if we’d let those groups be bullied. Sometimes we even use any of the above groups in discrimination to get rid of other inconvenient employees, the laws for the protection of the above groups really come in handy here, even if we have to tweak our reason for dismissal a little.
And our luck is that there are no laws to protect the bereaved, we can openly and even in writing express that this is “imposed” on us without any problems. We just don’t really want to bother with grief and mental issues, even while we know that we all will die, and 1 in 4 of us will at one point or another suffer from a mental health condition. Death and illness can happen to any person at any time for any reason. But we don’t want to think about it and want to just concentrate on the material world with all the money that can be made. If you work for us, your mind needs to be of steel and you better have “Metal” Health.
P: So, to finish the thought, we pride ourselves in our HR department. They are super busy with all the grievances raised and disciplinaries issued, and of course the firing squad, ready to fire anytime for any and no reason (checking the phone as a text message comes in).
L: Sounds quite efficient. I’m impressed.
P: Thank you. Yes, could we speed this up a little? I have to attend to some business.
L: Sure, just finally I’d like to throw some questions out that you cannot skip, but have to answer honestly.
P: Uuuh, I’m intrigued, fire away!
L: Who was the first one you ever kissed?
P: Oh, I’ll never forget my first kiss! It was McDonald’s. We even got married so I can get a green card to the U.S. But we are divorced now, as I gotten my green card and dual citizenship now and won’t need McD anymore. But we are still friends.
L: Any kids?
P: Naa, we were always married more to our jobs, and our different tastes in food finally split us up! Career is more important, and as soon as I had my foot in the door to the U.S. our divorce was imminent.
L: It was a “marriage of convenience” then?
P: You got it!
L: I see. Okay, while on the subject of super mergers, what super powers would you like to have?
P: To fire all the shop staff in one go and exchange them with perfect smiley robots that are so real looking to customers unlike the current prototypes, fooling them, and so increase our profits even more. That way we won’t have to deal with staff not being as productive when they go through personal issues like bereavement or illness. We also won’t have to deal with any human being thinking for themselves. But mostly that way we can truly “man” all the tills at all times and have enough staff, almost more than customers. We could even place a human looking robot with each and every customer, raising sales going through the roof. We would also scrap the Misery Shopper, as we won’t need them anymore since we have perfect robots. Can you imaging the amount this would slice off our labour costs and bring out the maximum? (sigh, what a dream!) But it also means that we would need to rethink the HR department, maybe turning them into mechanics fixing the robots when they break. (ponder ponder)
L: Sorry, what did you say, the what? The “Misery” Shopper?? What’s that?
P: Did I say that??
L: Uhm, that’s what I heard.
P: Sorry, I meant the Mystery Shopper *smile*
L: Maybe I just misheard as I had a miserable coffee this morning! The competition hey. Should have gone to Pret instead!
P: Yes, that’s it, it’s all your fault! You misheard, it was your mistake, not mine! It’s one of our important Pret attributes, always blame downwards, never take responsibility.
L: Okay back to my questions. What time period would you like to visit, past, present or future?
P: The future, always the future as the present is a blur and the past is done with and not worth keeping fond memories of. We move on quickly, whoever can’t keep up with the pace will be left behind.
L: No regrets then, huh?
P: Hello? We are Pret we don’t regret!
L: I see. Who would you like to collaborate with in business?
P: Anyone and No one. Anyone who could pour more money into us, so that we can squeeze even more out of our workers to repay the investors. We don’t like to share the spoils except only with our HQ people and high up leaders. But if we do have a moment of generosity with our shops, it is mainly to try and keep them before they leave or our aim to win new ones (whispers: Brexit’s advancing fast now).
L: What is your greatest accomplishment?
P: Okay, that’s another tough one, as we have so many. But I would say… (looking up at the ceiling, tapping with the fingers on the coffee cup) I’d say it really is our HR department with that ever impressive slogan of “Doing the right thing naturally”.
L: What do you value so much that you would put your money where your mouth is, so-to-speak?
P: Again, investing in our HR department, making them bigger, even though they are already bigger than any of the other departments. We’d like them to give more disciplinaries, neglecting the bereaved and mentally ill, and fire faster. Any support that is in place, most are just Pret-ense for our own fear of the Tribunal, as we like to live up to our name.
L: Which was what again?
P: F E A R.
L: Ah yeah, that’s right.
L: What was the moment when you felt you’ve made it?
P: When our staff bought into fear management and unnecessary pressure.
L: What was the scariest encounter you’ve ever had?
P: Tribunal Judges at first, but when we lose our case in court, we just pay the peanuts the Judges order us to pay in compensation and then go back to business as usual. Our most scariest encounter will always be the customers and public pressure.
L: And the greatest?
P: All our hard working people in the shops, especially those with integrity and longevity during hard times. We really feel intimidated by them, as they show real passion which we only Pret-end to have for them. But don’t tell them, they need to think that they are not valued and their work is never good enough, so they work harder until they burn out and are exchanged with “fresh blood”. It’s like one of our main acronyms: FIFO, First In First Out or our internal acronym BPOFBI: Black Pudding Out Fresh Blood In. If they find out our tactics, it would also be the most embarrassing encounter, but that’s between us.
L: Of course! You do love your acronyms and slogans, don’t you?
L: Yes, Pret is next to nothing when it comes to PR.
P: That’s right, we are especially successful in this by employing former homeless people to confirm this when the pressure on us gets high to explain why we treat our staff so poorly. The CEO invites a group once a year to his private Austrian property, and that way we win them for our reputation to speak up for us should we reap criticism from the public regarding staff treatment. We also aim to not integrate them too much into regular Pret shops, but am working on having shops run entirely by former homeless people, as they won’t cope in the long-run in a regular mainstream Pret shop, with all the bullying and high stress environment. It wouldn’t look good on our PR.
L: Makes sense. To continue with the questions, which food item are you currently working on to be the best selling of all time, not only in Pret but in the world.
P: Well, now you want to know some secrets here, what food item our food team is working on. I can’t let you in on that one, even though I agreed to do an open and honest interview. But I will say this much: it has to do with the Hearts of our staff.
L: Interesting! Similar to dishes like Liver Mousse or Kidney Pâté, but only with Hearts? Like Hearts on a Platter? Are some Minds part of the new stew as well? Oooh, I can’t wait for the new product launch!!
P:(motions with a gesture of sealed lips)
L: What, if any, is your hidden talent?
P: Doing the wrong thing naturally.
L: On a personal level, which instrument would you like to play?
P: Hearts and Minds.
L: You can only choose one!
P: That’s not fair! I can’t choose! *biting on the coffee lid*
L: Well, strive for perfection here, a little extra mile will go a long way.
P: Okay Minds, as Hearts are often broken already and useless therefor. The Mind still needs tuning and somewhat breaking like a wild horse that is thinking on its feet too much. We are not in the horse whispering business, we break them!
L: Starbucks or Caffee Nero?
P: Pret!
L: Prosciutto or Posh Cheddar?
P: Well, since we go towards more Vegan, it would be Hearts. Organic Hearts of course!
L: Of course!
L: Mystery Shopper visits or Senior Management visits.
P:(regaining posture after the Heart vs Mind decision) Senior Management visits of course, we love to see the nervousness and fear on the faces of our managers and teams when we walk into shops.
L: Makes sense, that F E A R thing again, I really get to know you now and how consistent you are, very reliable.
P:(lifting the head with pride) Thank you. Now I am almost blushing.
L: Comedy or Drama?
P: Since we have too much Drama already, I’d choose Comedy, although they both go very close together in our company.
L: Which micromanaging rule are you most proud of and why?
P: Letting our staff sign countless training rules without having the time to really train. We just like to cover our backs.
L: Which other countries would you like to conquer for Pret?
P: The whole world of course, even jungles where the monkeys live.
L: While on the subject of monkeys, if you were an animal, what would you be?
P: A Pret-Bull.
L: Why?
P: We like to look intimidating to our staff, but they don’t know that barking dogs don’t bite. We only bite together in groups and when we smell fear, which brings us back to fear management.
L: All well thought out then.
P: Yes. Are you sure you don’t want that coffee? It’s free!
L: No, thank you.
L: Final question, what was the best advise you’ve ever received?
P: Hire fast and fire even faster. Made today, gone today.
L: Thank you.
P: Well, that was fun!
L: Yeah, wasn’t that bad, was it? It must feel good to be honest.
P: Absolutely, never thought it would feel so relieving. I’ve learned a lot about myself today. Well, unfortunately, since it is lunch time I have to get back to the pub with my OPs managers for a few pints while our good and hard working people make it happen for us.
L: Of course, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule. And thank you for this imaginary but honest and open interview.
P: Any time! And let me know whenever you want that free coffee 😉
L: Thank you. But no thank you. I am on my way to interview Sainsbury’s, one of the big ones to have signed up for the Disability Confident employer scheme, I want to avoid too many toilet breaks during this important interview.
P: Disability what?
L: Never mind, you wouldn’t be interested in that.
P: I guess you’re right. We need to keep that fear thing going.
L: That’s what I meant. Thanks again. See you again soon. *not*
P: Yes, oh while you are with them, could you ask them if they would be keen to have a Pret shop inside their supermarkets, like Costa does with Tesco with those rather unhygienic automates? That way at least we could Pret-end again to be part of this Disability thing you talk about without really being part of it of course. 😉
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
NOT like this (the hearings of this “sophisticated” company are “fundamentally flawed” as ruled by the Judge, page 9 top (or page 10 in the PDF as the document has two pages 1).
and not Like This I have plenty of my own experience of “flawed” hearings.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
2. Don’t bully the bereaved as they may commit suicide, or lose their mental health, or campaign and publish for the rest of their life about you. Not to mention court if they have the strength.
3. Don’t use one employee against another when both have a similar bereavement in their lives, as this is very disrespectful, distasteful and adds to the grief. And it really shows what a company is made of and their tactics used.
Late Night Girl shift
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
1. Don’t use an OPs or area manager, especially if the grievance is against an OPs manager from the neighbouring area of the hearing manager. That wouldn’t be impartial, wouldn’t it?
2. Let 2 HR advisors do the hearing, not a manager from the operations side, as they will be in the dilemma later on when working again with the manager the grievance was against. That dilemma would force the hearing manager to not be impartial, wouldn’t it?
3. Always investigate properly and interview all witnesses named.
4. Hear the issues brought by the one who raises the grievance first before you speak to the person the grievance is against, otherwise you compromise impartiality, wouldn’t you? If you speak to the person the grievance is against first you disqualified yourself as being impartial.
5. Don’t prejudge by offering YOUR interpretation without having investigated after having heard the complaint. If you offer your interpretation of a misconduct, you show very clear that you are not impartial and are not taking the complaints raised serious. You judge the outcome already without having fully heard the complaint and without having full investigated and asked the other side and possible witnesses.
6. Decline doing a hearing when you have personal conflict. For example, let’s say you have a brother who died a while ago under unknown circumstances, and let’s really be imaginative and say your brother was dead in his flat for days before he was discovered. Yes, crazy story, I know, but let’s just go with a crazy story like this. And let’s say HR approaches you and tells you that there is an angry employee who does not stay quiet after being bullied, because… Well, let’s say that employee also happens to have a brother who was dead in his flat for days before he was found. I know, it’s one of those Hollywood stories, watched too many movies messing with the imagination.
But let’s just stick with a crazy story like this. So, your brother is dead, almost same time and circumstances then the employee’s brother. And the plan is that the angry employee who was bullied during that terrible time of grief, where unfortunately HR was involved (but keep that to yourself), and that’s where you and your brother come in. You do the disciplinary against the angry employee because she wouldn’t stop emailing. We are not concerned about her being ill or how we can really help her, we want to move towards dismissing her. The disciplinary would be the first step and we think that only you can reach her, as you have a similar loss.
And of course you can get into contact with that employee, but unofficially as you are not allowed to be in contact and we of course don’t know anything. If something goes wrong, we will dismiss the employee fast, you just lose your face for a while, but you will protected. And to add to our crazy imagination we would even dismiss the employee, let’s say if her father would be in intensive care, just out of a coma.
And let’s add something more, imagine you also happen to be a Hypnotherapist and let’s say even NLP practitioner, you could use these manipulation tools and maybe even get some information for your therapy studies and our own Training Material.
So, since we have no tools, no resources, no courage and plainly we don’t care, but we want to stick to our slogan that we do “the right thing naturally”, we thought that you were kind of sent from heaven to be the perfect hearing manager. …
So, this would be just an example of course, but it would be an opportunity for you to decline being the hearing manager as you would have personal conflict, stuck between a rock and a hard place, pleasing HR or with integrity helping the angry employee in the open. Would be tough, wouldn’t it?
7. If you are not impartial and HR goes along with dishonest hearings, and someone in the future raises a grievance against you, you will always have to compromise and play games to have the hearing in your favour. That means, you will always have to “kiss the butt” of HR. If you don’t, you know that any grievance raised against you will be at the mercy of HR. So, you are in a bigger dilemma, if you follow the truth and make difficult decisions based on facts and not on lies, you won’t cater to HR and they will “pay back” when the time comes. But you will have a clean conscience in the long term, and people will trust you when they need to.
It’s a simple principle many people don’t pay attention to, that when someone who is vulnerable, in need of help, and someone misuses their position (strength, power, wealth…) to not help the vulnerable, when the vulnerable get strength back they will tell their story. And when the person who abused their position is in need of help, they may find themself alone without help as people always remember who helped them in time of need.
Doing the Late Night Girl thing naturally.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
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.
“I don’t want the area to feel sorry for me anymore.”
A sentence a line manager at Pret A Manger said to me in December 2015, when I was transferred to his shop after I was openly bullied in another shop, while I was in my darkest time having lost my brother. Grievances were raised and I was in the middle of stressful grievance and appeals hearings. He meant he didn’t want his management colleagues of the area to feel sorry for him because I was “thrust” into his shop from the other shop, and after reaching out to HR for almost a year I finally contacted the CEO. I was traumatized and constantly assumed that management was out to find the smallest mistakes I made, as I just came from a shop where I was targeted and penalized for absolutely nothing.
Pret, as any business, has shops placed within areas of around 10 – 15 shops each area, with his area having had 10 shops and regular managers meetings, and as my story went around like wildfire, they had a laugh about my “poor” boss because I was there.
My grief and mental state deteriorated, and even though I always understood their helplessness, they just had a laugh. I still did my job well, on autopilot, functioning extremely well under the circumstances, although I was in a lot of physical and mental pain. I developed a roaring tinnitus, my head literally felt like breaking apart, but I tortured myself after my brother’s death and entered into what they call “Sibling Survivor Guilt”. But this does not give anyone the right or a free ticket to bully and take advantage of someone in an extreme vulnerable state!
I can understand that everyone who didn’t know me was confused, because here I was with this mix of completely out of sync, starting to write countless of emails out of trauma, at times under the influence trying to cope. And on the other side I was this very strong person who had very clear standards and work ethics who, during work was highly professional! I cared for my team passionately as well as for the job and changed the atmosphere where the team were not shouted at anymore, but rather encouraged, and it showed in the numbers and success of the shop. I was off the rails, and that I even have to explain myself, even now, is just another upset that I was an easy target to be gaslighted throughout my ordeal.
I will never stop saying that discrimination is only possible because leadership has no concern, nor a strong zero tolerance policy in place to protect people who are in bereavement, mentally ill or traumatized, be it physically or mentally.
My story is spread throughout this website in different articles, blog entries and open letters to Pret A Manger, which eventually will form into one chronological book or story online. At the moment the reader has to sieve through this blog unfortunately. If you are stumbling through my website, I sincerely thank you for your time. I am not taking anyone’s time lightly!
I was transferred to a shop with the above manager, I call him “Mr. Eagle” here, as the building of that shop has this name. Mr. Eagle was not happy at all that I was dropped onto his lap as another team leader, adding to his payroll expenses. The look on his face, his body language when I entered his store the day before I was to start there, to introduce myself, “a picture speaks a thousand words”. His face was like saying, “Who on earth are you? What are you doing here? Why are they sending you to my shop?!”
This was the beginning of an almost two year discriminating working relationship. And again you as the reader may ask, ‘Why did you stay so long there?’ as a friend once said to me “You need to get the hell out of there!” But I was traumatized, lost in a cloud of grief, paralyzed in my heart, my savings wiped out after the expenses surrounding my brother’s death. I blamed myself for everything. I felt like a burden to everyone. I couldn’t sell myself in a new job, even a trial day where I worked didn’t help, whereas before I always found a job!
I felt abandoned, with my back to the wall. I lost 35kg, 25 of it within 6+ months as I couldn’t eat. I had no confidence with new opportunities. And I was not able to know who to trust, as all the grievance hearings were a joke, the way they were conducted. I raised grievance after grievance after grievance, trying to deal with discrimination internally, so much so that the Head of HR later said that I “exhausted the HR department”. Well, I wouldn’t have done so in my trauma if there would have been a clear zero tolerance of bullying in Pret, especially towards the bereaved.
I was like in a Twilight Zone, felt like a person going through a country full of aliens where I tried to figure out who is the human and who is the “zombie” about to devour me! To the reader, this may seem like complete stupidity to you, but for me the emotional roller-coaster was unbearable and very real. Only a traumatized person will understand what I am sharing here. And no, don’t make it too easy on yourself by looking down on my situation and dismissing my turmoil as just another “basket case” whose fault it is to let others treat them like this. Nope, not that easy, and bear with me as I keep ranting this injustice away.
As I am writing this, I have about 9 months of hindsight and distance to Pret where my mind is clearing up and seeing things more rational on what actually happened to me.
On the subject of Discrimination:
If I would have had a physical disability, I may just be a little slower than others, but other than that I am fine. If Mr. Eagle or any line manager, would have told me that because of my physical condition that he doesn’t “want the area to feel sorry for him anymore”, we all know what a clear discrimination this would have been and how quickly he would have gotten into trouble. My disability was a mental disability after the combination of grief and trauma + bullying = mental illness.
I even mentioned this to the Head of HR shortly after the line manager told me his “sorry story”, and the Head of HR with an embarrassed look on his face only replied, “Did he say that?” Yes sir, he did. And that was all. HR may have spoken with Mr. Eagle then, but no sanction. Mr. Eagle went on to discriminate in very subtle ways from then on.
Bullying has many faces, and much of it is hard to prove when it is done behind closed doors, in very subtle ways where a person is held low, or not being given information they need, to do their job, or they are not invited in meetings and even Christmas dinners. This kind of bullying is actually very common. It is epidemic to be frank, because it goes under the radar, hard to prove without clear evidence and witnesses. Most people don’t even know or understand that they are being bullied, they just feel off, they feel like something “yuk” is being attached to them, but they cannot put the finger on it until often much later when it is too late to raise the issue.
My experience in being bullied was more clear, but still hard to prove as Mr. Eagle always said these things in the office without any witnesses, very clever and calculated. And he had a ride with me when I was irrational, hysterical and emotional. He loved it. I left his shop raising a grievance against him, but the investigation was not done properly and witnesses that I named were not interviewed. I gave up then, didn’t even appeal anymore because the HR department would again not have an impartial hearing as so many times before.
My father was found in his flat on the floor, was submitted to hospital, induced into a coma and I had another round of my ill emailing, which was re-started again after the development manager giving me a disciplinary for my ill emailing (which I understand only since recently was “gaslighting”), played her game as well. She entered into solely electronic communication with me because she was used to discipline me as she (supposedly) lost her brother very similarly to mine. Yep, sounds really messed up, like a cheap Hollywood script gone bonkers! Written prove upon request! So, she sanctioned me for electronic communication and yet she entered into electronic communication gaslighting me. This confusion kick-started another level of ill emailing again, and I got dismissed, three days after Christmas while my dad was in intensive care, just out of his coma. I share this in these pages in more detail.
I can only say that if you are mistreating a person who is vulnerable in bereavement, illness or any kind of disability that makes them vulnerable, the time will come when this will get back to you. If I would have been treated with respect, empathy (not pity!) and had the time and space to grow and heal, I would be writing a completely different blog and would go out of my way to brag about Pret, instead of writing a painful story at times in tears.
If Mr. Eagle would have said to a pregnant woman who was slowing down due to her getting along in the pregnancy, “I don’t want the area to feel sorry for me anymore.” …
or if a person of their own sexual orientation working for Mr. Eagle and him saying to that person, “I don’t want the area to feel sorry for me anymore.” …..
or a person of another skin tone, culture or religious belief, “I don’t want the area to feel sorry for me anymore.” ………
or a person who had an accident, losing a finger which may slow him down a bit, or he would be able to do certain work needing to be placed in another area of the business… “I don’t want the area to feel sorry for me anymore.” …………..
it would be a clear case of discrimination and people would heed quickly, as everyone knows that there are laws to protect people against this kind of discrimination. I wrote this somewhere else already, but the only way to describe my ordeal is, that I was like a sheep up for slaughter on the shop floor. And I was fair game for “leaders” like this!
I may have no mental capacity to go to court, even though the preliminary hearing judge allowed me to raise a second tribunal claim after I closed the first claim due to stress, my father dying, still coming to terms of what happened to my brother…
I still have a voice, a pen and a paper, and social media accounts to say to Clive Schlee, CEO of Pret A Manger, that calling me his “late night girl” was not just disrespectful, stepping on my dignity again, but Pret better live up to the slogans that fool the public! I gave Pret the benefit of the doubt one too many times, those benefits went unaccounted for now.
Sincerely,
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 “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
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.
If you are being told that I am just ill, a person who is off the rails because of my trauma losing my brother, than read my story here carefully.
I was traumatized when I heard the news of my brother’s death via an email, not knowing for five weeks that he was gone, including having been cremated without our knowledge and consent.
What made me ill is having worked in Pret A Manger and being bullied on top of it under the guiding of HR. I was tricked and trapped in my vulnerability.
Sounds unbelievable, yes, to me too. If I wouldn’t have all of this in writing, especially after I made a full access request according to the Data Protection Act 1998, I wouldn’t believe it myself in hindsight.
I was traumatized and vulnerable, and in many cases plain stupid to have stayed in this for so long, trying to “help” a multi-million pound company to improve working conditions while they don’t care.
Many people have been used to “control” me, to make me silent. The last thing they did, which topped it all, was to use a development manager from head office, who supposedly lost her brother the same way I did, to give me a disciplinary.
She then entered into personal contact with me, while I stupidly thought she was put on my case to support me. Six months later she finally admitted that she wasn’t “technically” allowed to be in contact with me. Then she lied to HR, who in turn later still protected her anyway, as she was used to get me under control.
No need to say how tasteless and disrespectful it is to be using someone’s tragedy against someone else’s. If they would have asked her if she wants to get in contact with me due to our similar loss, that would have been true support and care. But they used her to sanction me. This is especially disappointing because she let them use her.
And people are happy to remain in this kind of system, as it is within their comfort zone, while other people become sick, suicidal, someone even committed suicide last year.
And the top leadership put on a nice front, mingle with customers on Twitter and everyone buys into this system. How it is behind the facade, only those know who burned out or were paid and bought out by this system. Too exhausted to speak up. Too afraid and conditioned by fear management. I declined 4 settlement offers as I don’t “prostitute” myself to a system like this.
So, if you really think I am just a sick person, who has nothing better to do than create a website and social media accounts with a huge amount of text because I am just sick? Yes, I am sick alright, but I was bullied during bereavement and than fired while ill and while my father was in intensive care, just out of a coma.
When you are in bereavement, you are an inconvenience to a company like Pret. And whatever they have in place now to help the bereaved or mentally ill, it is because of my 3 year struggle to improve work conditions. And Mental Health seems to be a “trendy” thing these days.
Gluten Free is so yesterday, Mental Health is just it today.
And Pret likes to keep a nice front and will advertise this in time if they aren’t advertising now already.
To Pret,
I was with you for the most darkest time of my life, to which you have added pain and grief. And when you finally came up with this “Ace” in your sleeve by using LW, the development manager because she lost her brother the same way, but you just used her to give me the disciplinary but she wasn’t allowed to speak with me? First of all, shame on you. And secondly, you put the final drop into the barrel with this.
Yes, I was angry, I still am, but anyone reading my story would be surprised that I am still writing and campaigning, and not completely be gone!
Pret, you absolutely went too far with LW! And @LW, I really feel for you. I still respect you, but it is the basic human respect everyone deserves.
I wasted 10 years of my life, and yet it wasn’t a waste, because I have found a cause to live and work for.
Regards,
“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 “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review.
Thank you for reading/listening.
On 12. January 2015 I woke up and checked my email while still in bed blurry-eyed. Bed, the most vulnerable and safe place to be in. I had late shift that week and thought I quickly check my mail before turning around to sleep some more and later go to work.
I found myself making the fastest jump out of bed I’ve ever made, but that jump felt like slow motion, as if I got stuck in mid air and my room was moving by me in an eerie pace. The light painted wall became fogged up like someone just poured a dust-like grey powder over it. When I landed on my feet, I felt like a deformed cartoon character out of a Tom & Jerry fighting scene, who got whacked over the head and entered into another world. But it was more like a shotgun hole in my gut, something ripped life out of my system and left a huge crater behind.
My bedroom wasn’t my bedroom anymore, my apartment wasn’t my apartment anymore, my mind wasn’t my mind anymore. It was just like it feels when you return from a two or three week trip to a different country and culture, returning home and your place has a different feel to it, a stale atmosphere because you’ve gotten used to a different place, food, impressions, language.
Of course your apartment or house is still the same, it’s just you who has to readjust to the familiar and safe place you know so well and fill it with life again. But for me it was like I’ve come “home” to hell. It was the beginning of a very long and dark time in that world, which I am still standing in with one foot, while the other foot is trying to venture out to find green pastures.
In a 6 or 7 sentence email the sender went down a quick and short route to inform me that my brother has been found dead in his flat on the 15. December 2014. Next of kin could not be found in time (in a country as efficient as Germany!). Cause of death not clear, no autopsy, he lay dead for an estimated 6 days plus/minus before he was found, and then they just cremated him before finding us!
[After I flew over the next day to personally – not over the phone! – bring my mum the death of her son she gave life to, we arranged for his urn to be brought over from the city where he lived in. To our utter disbelief they sent his urn via post to the city’s council where my mum lives, so we can bury whatever was left of my brother close to my mum. Another German procedure I didn’t know was even done like this, sending an urn via post?!]
Furthermore I was advised to reject the inheritance as his estate was highly in debt, which also meant I learned later that I could not retrieve any of his belongings and was informed later that any belongings with no financial value has been destroyed…
The email ended with some other instructions. Kind regards.
My phone became like a curse in my hand that I could not understand that this was a phone I was holding, just starring at it, reading an electronic mail giving me a message of death.
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.
Bullied during bereavement in Pret A Manger 
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