PE is starved for managers so you have some people getting paid $10/hr while doing the work of a 45k salaried GM. Area managers and higher speak to store managers and associates like we are children. They promote growth opportunities in cryptic riddles sometimes and they dictate how everything should be done; including how you should fold a towel (first fold by three and then in half and then in half again, or roll it up after the tri-fold if you are going to clean the steam table).
Hours are a bit overwhelming. Managers should not have 2 days off in a row nor should they have more than 2 days off in a week. Managers should open at least twice a week, close at least twice a week, and must work Fridays and Saturdays with little exceptions. Requesting holidays off is heavily suggested against and must go through two levels of authorization. Manager hours should be around 50 hours per week, but often float around 60, and can get up to 70 or more if you are expecting a store visit.
I feel a little cheated. I was told, in the beginning, that bonuses were almost guaranteed, including hefty quarterly bonuses of $1000 or greater. However, I was put in charge of a store as an Assistant Manager after 5 weeks of training and quickly learned from many mistakes. Those mistakes led to no bonus. It's a bit embarrassing when everyone else around the table is handed a check and you get skipped. Often, we are goaded into passing our measurements and audits with a grave message spoken slowly and hesitantly "you will get a written warning which means... you will lose your quarterly bonus..." but I've never gotten one, so I don't really know what I'm missing out on.
Regardless of how much work you put in, you will only ever get a courtesy "thank you" after an hour or two has been spent telling you everything you have done "wrong."
It's food service, so you will slowly lose your respect for much of humanity with all of the unnecessarily rude and entitled people. I could only shrug off so much before it really started to bug me. With a bachelor's degree making less than 30k/year, I don't want to say I'm above all of this, but I've been exhausted of my ability to cope with it. This inability to cope is also affected by my personal life (what little is left), but that personal life is strained because of all the time I'm spending at Panda.
This job is definitely not for everyone, but those that stick with it really love the company, the pay, and supposedly what they do.
