Previous to Franchise Management Inc takeover of all the Canadian Panera Bread locations, Panera was generally a wonderful place to work regardless if you were a minimum wage associate or a store manager. Panera under the USA corporate direction had fun atmosphere. Since FMI’s takeover in September of 2016, they degraded the Panera Bread name in an unbeleivably short time -with employees and customers. The US head office seems to have no clue to the extent of the damage done. Massive turnover, has been the result. Bakers last all but a few months. Shift supervisors leave as soon as they see how rotten to the the core the leaders (investors) of FMI are. The smarter General Managers of stores start looking for work as soon as they realize their pay is unfair compared to the industry standard. FMI successfully cut all the employee perks and benefits. Cancelling the co-pay health plan was the worse blow to employee morale. (FMI promised not to change any of the insurance plan after the “takeover” but like everything else lied about their true intentions). Toxic employee / FMI management relations. FMI Head office only interested in cost saving and not concerned for employee welfare whatsoever. No benefit plan. Zero perks. Expect low grades on annual reviews. - all designed to avoid paying more than minimum wage. Depressing atmosphere and continuous stress. What head FMI head office says and what they do are two opposites. New potential hires should stay away! Panera Bread in Canada will die a slow death under the miserable regime of FMI.
