Pizza Express
Fun place to work
Pizzaiolo Chef (Current Employee) – Macclesfield – 6 October 2018
A typical day in the work place. is filled with a lot of laughter, we all try to make work as enjoyable as we can while making sure we are actaully getting staff done as well.
ive learnt how to mange a kitchen and control a team when under pressure and never to let a busy shift put you down. ive learnt when things go bad to be chilled not to panic and think of solutions instead of losing it and freaking out the team and the customers.
management has been really good before but has taken a turn for the worse with one of the mangers doing really long hours and getting annoyed with everyone, and a new assis who doesn't know what she is doing.
the hardest part of the job for me is the long hours, but I do love the long hours.
working in the kitchen with all of my pals as a we our like a family.
ive learnt how to mange a kitchen and control a team when under pressure and never to let a busy shift put you down. ive learnt when things go bad to be chilled not to panic and think of solutions instead of losing it and freaking out the team and the customers.
management has been really good before but has taken a turn for the worse with one of the mangers doing really long hours and getting annoyed with everyone, and a new assis who doesn't know what she is doing.
the hardest part of the job for me is the long hours, but I do love the long hours.
working in the kitchen with all of my pals as a we our like a family.
Pros
free lunches, good friends, family based place.
Cons
lot's of drama
gossips and horribly ran
Cleaner Operative (Former Employee) – Belfast, County Antrim – 3 October 2018
was lied to was promised more hours then underpaid for the hours that i did do
horrible company to work for
this store in particular was not ran properly stupid things were getting prioritized at the end of the night rather than the cleaning which made my job harder i will always warn people of this company as i could not get over how i was treated people would talk about you and you could hear it when you have been in that place since 10 that morning with no 11 hours rest people wondered why you were tired.
horrible company to work for
this store in particular was not ran properly stupid things were getting prioritized at the end of the night rather than the cleaning which made my job harder i will always warn people of this company as i could not get over how i was treated people would talk about you and you could hear it when you have been in that place since 10 that morning with no 11 hours rest people wondered why you were tired.
Pros
free pizza with minimal toppings
Cons
underpaid long hours and no breaks
every restaurant difirent
Waitress (Current Employee) – Edinburgh – 2 October 2018
cant cmplain had ups and d0wns , but genaral all g00d. every restaurant diferent but standarts the same, w0rked 6 years and will n0t change a thing meet s0me nice pe0ple and made friends. salary always 0n time
Fun work environment full of friendly people
Pot wash/trainee chef (Former Employee) – Northallerton, North Yorkshire – 25 September 2018
Started working there when I went back to college to retrain, met my life long friends there and the company gave me all ge hours where they could accomadate me, had late nights but it was a great job
Pros
Staff food
Cons
Late nights
Chef newcastle dean street
pizza chef, I did work as a cleaner (Former Employee) – Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear – 24 September 2018
Management don't look after thier staff and rude worked.at dean street Newcastle for six years didn't even get a thankyou for my service not the company I started with and would never go back got really bad depression coz for this place
Pros
Free staff food
Cons
Long hour bad managerment
Management system taught within the company is not effective for happy work environment.
Full time Chef (Former Employee) – Surrey – 24 September 2018
The management system taught creates a 'them' and 'us' approach to staffing. Chefs are not properly looked after. Restaurants are constantly understaffed.
Pros
Free lunches
Cons
Understaffed constantly.
Disgusting management, ops managers
Asistant Manager (Former Employee) – Warwickshire – 15 September 2018
Stay away from this place, it’s a joke really. I worked here for 2 years, the worst job I ever had. No appreciation at all, upper management are a joke and they really do talk to you like dirt!! Disgusting
Pros
None
Cons
Everything
1 in a million company but...
Assistant Manager (Former Employee) – Guildford – 10 September 2018
Good company but external assistant managers get paid more than internals who have showed their delegation and loyalty. Good benefits but make sure sometimes there is no personal life.
Pros
Free lunch, good training, good money as a waiter, prideful
Cons
Long hours and no personal life, upper management can be a pain and useless on many occations
A big mistake
Assistant Manager (Former Employee) – Warwick – 4 September 2018
Joining Pizza Express was a big mistake. As an assistant manager, I was paid £20k for 40 hours a week.
I found that I was working 45-48 as I felt bad leaving the staff and handover manager if it was busy, you'd have great difficulty trying to claim these back from area manager as it "expected as a manager" to quote his words.
Head office gave very few hours for you to put into the business and they had unrealistic expectations.
I lost my holidays after coming out of training as I was transferred to my base restaurant another, where the managers there already had holidays to take (despite them having had the entire holiday calendar year to have taken these before my arrival). This cost me around £450.
On the upside, the foods very nice and they offer a pizza to all staff on shifts longer than 4 hours.
Waiters can also make a killing on tips, often making more than their wage. However, managers are excluded from the tips - often meaning you were walking out with less than your waiters and pot washers (I kid you not!)
I found that I was working 45-48 as I felt bad leaving the staff and handover manager if it was busy, you'd have great difficulty trying to claim these back from area manager as it "expected as a manager" to quote his words.
Head office gave very few hours for you to put into the business and they had unrealistic expectations.
I lost my holidays after coming out of training as I was transferred to my base restaurant another, where the managers there already had holidays to take (despite them having had the entire holiday calendar year to have taken these before my arrival). This cost me around £450.
On the upside, the foods very nice and they offer a pizza to all staff on shifts longer than 4 hours.
Waiters can also make a killing on tips, often making more than their wage. However, managers are excluded from the tips - often meaning you were walking out with less than your waiters and pot washers (I kid you not!)
Pros
Free meals, nice food
Cons
Long hours, no tips for managers, working over your salary hours, lost holiday days, unrealistic expectations, short staffed
Stressful and unorganised place to work
Waitress (Former Employee) – Petersfield, Hampshire – 14 August 2018
I began my job and loved it. However the friendly front of higher staff quickly worn off and i couldn't wait to leave. Hours were all over the place and management were not understanding of any issues outside the job itself - eg family funeral.
Pros
Free pizza
Cons
uncertain hours, poor management
A good place to work.
Waitress (Current Employee) – Glasgow, Glasgow – 14 August 2018
A good place to work, tips are great however hours are uncertain. Can have full time hours one week then dropped down to 4 hours the next week. Free food is good.
Pros
tips, free food
Cons
working most weekends, no guaranteed hours
A loving and caring place to work
Assistant Manager (Former Employee) – Cribbs Causeway, Bristol – 7 August 2018
Pizza Express is a company that offers a fabulous work life balance, really cares about it's employees and spends time and money investing in training. My only complaint is the low wage for management positions, if you paid more you'd be slaying the whole industry because it's such an enjoyable place to work but the wage for Assistant Manager's simply isn't competitive.
Pros
Free food, great work life balance, simple straight forward systems
Cons
Pay uncompetitive with the rest of the industry
Productive and Fun Worklace
Waitress (Current Employee) – Macclesfield, Cheshire – 7 August 2018
Fun and social workplace with flexible hours willing to work around your schedule. Management is not particularly consistent between managers however.
Pros
Free Staff Food
Not a good company to work for
Assistant Manager (Current Employee) – Uk – 6 August 2018
Worked there for over a year as an assistant manager on a basic salary on a 45hr no over time bonus don't happen and people higher then you don't care as long as they see money the amount of discuss that they do kill your overall sells and your management higher then you will tell you to cut staff want here no where to cut. I won't go back and trust me don't apply
Pros
Staff food (just pizza)
Cons
All of the above
Not amazing, but the tips make it worth it.
Waitress/ Pot wash (Former Employee) – Buxton, Derbyshire – 1 August 2018
Working here was a good experience but I was not happy with the training and the management at all. I got kept as a waitress for basically the whole time I was working over summer and then as soon as management changed over to someone much nicer, they immediately make me a full paid waitress - the only frustrating thing was I was back at Uni the week later, so I was only getting full pay and tips for a week, the rest of the time I wasn't allowed tips and was paid minimum. At pizza express you are required to do almost everything other than putting the food in the oven, this can be challenging and very stressful as you have to run your section, take orders, prepare drinks, desserts and run food, and in my case also do the pot wash. I think as I was getting the minimum pay I should not have been expected to do all of those tasks nor should anybody. I'm not too sure whether it was just this branch that had the waiters/ waitresses doing absolutely everything but it isn't good. They should allocate people certain job roles. I gained a fair bit of experience from this job and the other staff members were kind but I also felt out of place when I arrived because everyone knew each other and they were not very welcoming at first. I would work here again as long as I was put as a fully trained waitress because the training was appalling and pay was rubbish. The most enjoyable part was being able to have some great conversations with customers and engaging with them, and gaining a big tip by the end of it for being so genuine, that is what kept me going.
Pros
free pizza, 50% off food, Keep your own tips.
Cons
Free pizza became too much and no options for healthy eaters, sometimes sent home after 10 minutes, breaks could be 2 hours long unpaid.