I’ve worked at two Cobs locations. The first was one was alright. I was a pastry student and took on a full-time job as a junior baker for my summer in between semesters. It was my first baking job so I was very excited. I’m very passionate about bread but Cobs Bread never taught me anything except that more is better. There is no value in quality, just quantity and how much and fast the products sell. Owners of the bakeries jam pack 16 hours worth of work and expect you to be done in 8 hours. A lot of bakeries do wholesale-which is fine- but sometimes owners take huge orders with less than 24 hours notice and don’t change schedules accordingly. The first location wouldn’t let us take breaks. If we were hungry we’d have to crouch down so customers wouldn’t see us eat a croissant. I was paid minimum wage for a job that physically burnt me out and on top of that, my schedule was always Fridays through Tuesdays so I would t be able to do a single thing on the weekend. I don’t mind the early mornings, but seeing bakers that started after me get Friday’s and Saturday’s off? That hurts.
After baking school I returned to a different location hoping it would be better. This location offered me better pay, a break and benefits just after 3 months. I was promised a pay raise after my 2nd month or whenever I was done training on the mixing bowl and ovens. Flash forward 4 months, fully trained,
and I’m still working barely over minimum wage. Not only that but the breaks at this pl
Can be a great experience if you have a good franchisee, but it can be a nightmare if you don't, or are at a corporate store. Unfortunately most bakeries fall into the latter category.
Expect a lot of lifting... You'll be putting away about 800 kilograms of flour and scone mix by yourself twice a week. Without any scheduled extra help or a break from baking stuff. Carrying them down stairs too in a couple locations.
Corporate pushes for around a 15% increase in sales and baked product over last year every single promotion. But you're not given 15% more storage space or baking equipment... not given 15% more time in the day to get things done... not given 15% more staff to do things with (on the contrary, head office constantly wants staffing hours slashed, and the high turnover rates mean you never have a fully experienced team)... and certainly not given a 15% raise each year. If you don't have a franchisee willing to help, make sure you're staffed properly, or set realistic goals, your work day just gets longer and longer. Several locations I've worked at have treated "9-10 hours with no breaks" as a standard day for bakers. Or if you're "suppose to" take breaks there's no infrastructure for it. No one to cover for you before ovens are ready to unload, or you're alone most of the night and can't leave production unattended, or you try to take a break near the end of your shift after cleaning equipment just to get yelled at to go back in to make more scones because the
Interview process is extremely easy. You go in, the interviewer might comment on how overdressed you are, and you are granted an opportunity for a working interview. If you are a sales assistant and show up in uniform, you will most likely be offered a job the next day. Your wage is not negotiated upon initial interview and minimum wage may be in your contract depending on your location. I did not receive an employment contract. In fact, I did not receive one until 2 months into my employment because the store manager had “forgotten about it”. You will begin doing extremely mundane daily tasks such as scrubbing dirt off the floor while customers step over you, and probably expect responsibilities to eventually become less trivial the longer you work here. However, they do not. This is what the job is. You slice bread, heat things up, make the product look nice, and if you have nothing to do, management comes over like a leech and says, “don’t just stand there, do something!” Besides entertaining management, the customers and the product are actually the best part about this job. My location happened to have some awesome regulars and phenomenal product, so it’s a shame I had to write this. The environment was decent until there was a turnover of half the staff, at which point I began to appreciate what I did here much less. Near the end of my employment, I was being watched like a hawk for every mundane task they told me to do. I didn’t expect questions to be encouraged any lo
Horrible management made what could have been a fun job highly stressful.
I worked at the Cobs in Vernon, BC and from the get go it was one of the most stressful jobs that I have ever had because of the awful management. I'm sure there's some good Cobs out there, but mine was not. While the New Zealand based company that heads Cobs, Baker's Delight, has a strict 'no bullying' policy, the management at my location were verbally abusive and frequently lied. Several times they changed the schedule without informing me (or anyone else,) so that I came into work when I was not supposed to, or almost missed shifts when I was. I found this highly irritating and unfair, as it was setting me up for failure. The management also frequently left passive aggressive notes around the establishment rather than kindly and respectfully approach us on matters that needed improvement. I found the manager to be a very threatening person and towards the end of my stint working at Cobs I could hardly bear to be in her presence without nearly breaking out into tears. For the good parts of the job, I got free food (the perishables that we couldn't donate at day's end such as the foccacia rounds we could take home and we were also given a $10 allowance so that we could take home whatever we wanted within the $10 so I never ran out of bread while I worked there,) I had some nice coworkers and the customers were absolutely wonderful, many of them very loyal patrons of the store. I think this job would have been great, had the management been a lot better. As it is, I cannot r
Pros$10 daily product allowance, free food, often mindful scheduling, great customers, leftover bread donated to charity at end of night, fast paced environment made day go by quickly
ConsHORRIBLE bosses, inconsiderate scheduling, endless cleaning, annoying mandatory unpaid online job training program, fast paced environment could get very stressful at times
It's a go-go-go environment(at least for me) - teamwork is very crucial coz if one team member slacks, another one should pick up and the chain reaction goes till the last person on shift. Lots of stuff to learn and must always on your toes - different problems occur daily and encounter different customers so we must be very diligent and be tactful on resolving issues as they arise. Management was very poor-never see the good qualities of honest, trustworthy, loyal, reliable, dependable & responsible staff and notices more from staff who bluffs, gossips, takes credit for other peoples' work, lazy but shows off when owner/manager was around. Asks staff to do way too much work hence staff are very exhausted especially those who tries to get things done everytime due to other staff slacking. Gossiping became like a contagious disease at one point to the extent of damaging another staff deliberately and management didn't do anything to resolve it. Very disappointing. Hardest part of the job is trying to maintain the pace at work to get all stuff done which always require covering up for someone elses' slack otherwise, there's really nothing hard about the job. I enjoyed working here even there's a lot of stuff to deal with like uncooperative manager who is not at all concerned on giving 100 % customer satisfaction, rude staff members, chronic absentees, complainers, etc.
The most enjoyable part of the job was meeting and talking with daily customers and being able to deal
ProsFlexible schedule
ConsConstant changes on duties/responsibilities, adding work not on description and not compensated for it, unpredictable changes on scheduling being imposed on selected staff, company policies not being followed at times
To be quite honest, I believe that I did my job to the best of my ability. However, there is always high turnover, and the inability to keep staff long term is very indicative of a larger problem. There is no real advantage when you are a baker you may start slightly above minimum wage but the hours you work may send your personal life awry. I personally enjoyed the hours but it was very clear that most people did not enjoy it. It was very obvious that once you gave your all you were held to a completely different standard until more and more things were piled on you. While others were lacking if you did a good job you would most definitely be doing most of the work. If you worked sales, you would be expected to do some bakers jobs without any added pay raise and be blamed for anything that the bakers missed at the end of the day. The management have an inability to work together and lack cohesiveness as a whole, they seem to sometimes pick single people out and have them carry loads on their shoulders that are simply too much. New employees beware, this is a great job for a high schooler but also a job where your time can be taken advantage of as they will not hesitate to schedule you during an exam or during another job. Managers also have unrealistic expectations of at work duties and an inability to properly train newcomers to be able to perform adequately. It can be incredibly stressful as absences are not filled so you may either have to work late or be expected to ful
Started off as a great job was a new bakery coworkers were great we all got along had so much fun then it became awful long hours no breaks days off scattered sometimes you’d work 10 days without one, working 10-12 hour days when scheduled for only 8 also getting no break for those long hours if you left on time you would be spoken to about it
Management is awful they don’t care about your personal well-being at all they work you until your physically drained, asking for certain days off forget about it holidays are never allowed to be booked off you’ll probably have to work a night shift or start at 3 am most holidays. The work load is way too much for the amount of staff you’ll be running back and fourth for hours with no stopping if your shift is over but product is low you’ll have to stay to make more there are no other bakers coming in and if you run out of product you will be spoken to about the numbers .
you can’t make any plans after your shifts are supposed to be done you’ll rarely leave on time all I did was work and sleep never got to see friends or family. Even calling in sick is impossible you’ll be bombarded with calls and texts saying you must come in no one can cover especially in the covid 19 pandemic that was absolutely ridiculous everyone always came into work sick because we were afraid to call in, overall not a good place to work it could have potential and be fun and a great job but management definitely knows about the issues but chooses not to fix t
If you like being belittled, ridiculed, lied to, yelled at and more by management as well as being so stressed that you have a pain in your chest then maybe this is the place to work for you.
The owner sent me paperwork to sign as a Full Time Employee and when I returned everything signed, she said that she had made a mistake. This was also after telling me that I would not have to worry about hours as well. The owner said that she would honor the paperwork, that she had to, and then she did not. I had shifts cancelled by text the day of or day before a shift which is not allowed. According to the Labor Board at least 48 hours must be given or be paid for 3 hours minimum. The owner also cancelled shifts or shortened them by redoing the schedule multiple times in a week. This is also not allowed. I am still owed 3 hours that I will never see.
The owner plays favorites and it is blatantly obvious to everyone who works there. The owner has friends working for her who can do no wrong and don't even work half the time they are there. They are also given breaks that others are not.
If you make even the smallest mistake then look out, BUT the owner makes them ALL the time! She has ruined whole batches of dough on multiple occasions. She fails to remember that when someone else makes a mistake though.
The owner is also rude to customers and I had many tell me that they thought she was "so rude". I apologized for her behavior many times.
This is one of the worst, if n
My day would either start at 6:00 am or at 8:00 am. I would open the store by myself, managing my workplace as to set it up for the day. This uncluded the cash register and food displays in the store. Our opening our was 7:00 am and customers wuld slowly start arriving. I typically would slice bread, package other food items, take orders, answer the phone, and maintain a clean environment.
I learn the value of community in my work place as well as the value of a high end prodect. I also learned time amagement and orginizational skills when it came to the fast pace and high volume of orders we would recieve around holidays.
My co-workers were great. The other staff who were front end were easy to get along with and helpful when it came to my asking questions when I first started. My management was also good, although at times somewhat unorginized. My boss was someone who you could come to when you had a problem with your scheduel and needed it to work with your personal life.
I think the hardest and also the most enjoyable part of the job was working with customers. You aim to please everyone to the highest degree. Although, realistically, some people will not be happy with the job that you do, even if it is the best that you can give. I love working with the public, and I think people are the best. With being able to talk and relate to customers, I think that you give more to the business by being something that people are familiar with.
A typical day of work for bakers would be getting into work at 2, 3, or 4 in the morning, working for 8 hours straight. And then also maybe working overtime. Breaks were 'encouraged' but if you sat down to rest or had to work overtime because you took a break, management would get upset with you. But when solutions to making it easier/better for bakers were brought up, nothing came from it. Or was told that 'it wouldn't work'. When mentioning how everyone is entitled to breaks and they can't be forced to do overtime as per labour laws, management implied that it doesn't apply to them.
Multiple staff members requested raises or benefits because either a) they gained new responsibilities or b) became full-time. However, reminding management that you hadn't gotten a pay raise or benefits yet would be met with an irritated response of 'I'm working on it'. Yet weeks or months passed without anything happening. Attempting again would have them tell you that you're not patient enough.
Multiple staff members also commented about how they were afraid of one of the managers. Personally was threatened to have hours cut, told to 'be happier' at work for my raise, and mocked when I got upset that the manager once again displayed double standards. When complaints were brought up about it. Everyone was told that 'maybe it was them' and not said manager.
Health and safety issues weren't dealt with or ignored and when attempting to bring it up it was also met with 'I'm working on it' and m
Questions and answers about COBS Bread
If you were to leave COBS Bread, what would be the reason?
Asked Oct 30, 2018
Only called in sick 3 times out of 1 year but was made to feel like a huge inconvenience for doing so. Management tells your personal issues to other coworkers. Extremely toxic environment for my mental health
Answered May 12, 2021
Cheap, dissrespectful, never satisfied, rude, would rather put self on schedule than pay an employee, no pay increases in years, talks horribly about employees behind their backs, calls employees names, tells them they're stupid, watches everyone work on the security cameras, a horrific employee turnover rate, no one is good enough, franchise owner/manager
Answered Jul 17, 2020
How often do you get a raise at COBS Bread?
Asked Nov 21, 2022
maybe once a year
Answered Mar 1, 2023
Once a year
Answered Feb 7, 2023
What benefits does COBS Bread offer?
Asked Mar 21, 2019
Dental and health
Answered Mar 13, 2023
None
Answered Feb 22, 2023
How often do raises occur at COBS Bread?
Asked Jul 3, 2021
Very very rarely. The owners care more about their money than they do of the employees health
Answered Mar 20, 2023
Rarely ever. You have to confront them a few times before your given the mandatory raises.
Answered Feb 23, 2023
How is feedback from management delivered at COBS Bread?
