The reasons I ultimately left were for these main topics:
- Scheduling
- Drama
- Usage of Media
- Management
Although Panda Express was a fantastic job to have an you could make great money the flexible scheduling is not entirely true. The store I worked at would not give me the dates off that I had requested weeks to even months in advance written through text and on the calendar. I had been talked to by management for missing shifts even though I had requested it off.
The drama within the environment is unreal, everyone and I mean everyone talked about people behind their backs every single shift and were extremely fake to each other when they worked together. I know drama like this is normal within the workplace but when culture of Panda is supposed to be uplifting this is extremely hard to work in, especially when your own bosses and other managers talk poorly about you behind your back and to other managers. This ties in to the social drama Panda Express has. You will receive so many texts and so many group messages a day filled with negative remarks it is unreal. I counted over 200 texts in one day all filled with negativity.
This leads me on to management, the main reason of me leaving. From the time I started to the time I quit I saw 3 different managers change. Each and every time it was more drama added onto what the previous manager had brought in. Most of the time the managers don't even arrive for their shifts or even stay to help with closing. They leave their employees to do dangerous tasks within the store by themselves without actually hiring a professional to do these tasks such as climbing up on a ladder with wet shoes to clean vents up on the ceiling of the store or to fix the Ice machine by yourself with a dirty rag pushing on the exposed ice to get it out. My favorite was being by myself with the cooks in the store, dealing with a fire that had started in the back, calling the manager only for them not to answer and to get in trouble for calling the Fire Department. This isn't even all of the things I went through with the span of my first 5 months. Management needs to be organized with what they say and do with their employees, it is not right or fair how they treat their employees or how they pick favorites all the time. You have to work all the time and basically live at Panda in order for the Managers to like you. If you go to school or have a second job this is not the place to go because with my personal experience the managers will never treat you right or fair and you will always be talked about and lied about behind your back.
