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Panda Express reviews

3.6

60% would recommend to a friend

(5,255 total reviews)
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Andrew and Peggy Cherng

81% approve of CEO

54% positive business outlook

Panda Express has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 5,255 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Panda Express employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Restauration industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

5K reviews
2.0
Sep 10, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They pay was above minimum wage and you get free food during break, but that's about the only good thing.

Cons

Panda Express seems to have good company values, but they didn't practice them, at least not where I worked. Of course this isn't about all the Panda Express' but I moved around a couple of stores in the Southern California area. First off they were totally unorganized, on my first day I was trained by someone who was also on their first day, so no training for me. They are very uptight about doing things their way (which didn't make sense, like cleaning windows with soapy water instead of window cleaner) and if you didn't do it their way you would get yelled at. The problem with that was everyone had their own idea of what the right way was, so every one of my coworkers would come up to me and tell me I was doing something wrong and show me their way of doing it. This happened everyday for the month I worked there. If you're thinking that it's probably because I'm incompetent, no, I can assure you I am good at following directions, they did however make me feel very incompetent. I got blamed for not doing things I was never taught to do. I was reprimanded for doing one thing, told to do another thing and then reprimanded 5 minutes later by the same person for doing what they told me to do and then told to go back to the thing I was first doing. All the new employees complained because we were being picked on by pretty much all our coworkers, it's one thing to tell someone they are doing something wrong and to help them, but when you feel the need to talk down and make people feel stupid you have no right to even have a job until you learn to treat your fellow coworkers like a human beings. I have a lot more I could talk about, but you get the gist of it. Needless to say I quit, I knew if I stuck around it would only get worse. I called corporate to complain anonymously, a few days later I got a call from my manager (who was not a nice person) she wanted me to repeat everything I knew she already heard so she could have a 'talk' with the people who were being rude. A week or two later when I had to go in to pick up my last check, the two girls that I had the most complaints about approached me and said they wanted to talk. I asked to be anonymous...Anyway my main problem was the way I was treated by my coworkers, which of course can happen anywhere. A lot of it had to do with the lack of organization and proper training which a lot of the employees said they had none of.

5.0
Aug 3, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Values have some merit and can change the way you live life both professionally and personally.

Cons

Zero work life balance. Penny wise mentality leaves you with minimal staff to support business and you will work like a laborer to meet demand. Company mentality is to bring young inexperienced people into the business because they are easier to manipulate. The premise is that they bring fresh new ideas but the reality is that they are easily brainwashed into the cult like culture. Typical staff of fast food industry with young or uneducated unskilled labor will leave you with regular need to fill in for associates who call in because they hate their jobs too. You will end up working as a cook, dishwasher or FOH associate on a regular basis. If you are not Asian forget about any chance of advancement past ACO.

1.0
Oct 11, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent pay but expect to be overworked and stressed out most of the time. People that work here are not happy although they may be forced to say they are. Employees have very little family or personal time. Weekends are often spent at work or in a "learning session".

Cons

Company is run not unlike a dictatorship and freedom of expression and thought is not encouraged or rewarded. They tend to hire people who will follow their rules and fit into their oppressive culture. Be willing to attend mandatory "self help" classes like Landmark if you decide to apply for a job. Don't trust their leadership - they will say one thing and do the opposite.

Viewing 37 - 39 of 5,255 Reviews

Glassdoor has 5,398 Panda Express reviews submitted anonymously by Panda Express employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Panda Express is right for you.