beware of the orlando locations - Assistant Manager Nothing Bundt Cakes Employee Review

This is specifically for the Orlando locations. I worked at the Waterford Lakes location and had an awful experience with upper management. The manager at my specific store was extremely childish, rude, petty (their words), and plain bad at their job. My team brought our concerns with our manager to our higher manager, who oversees all stores in the Orlando area. The higher manager seemed to be taking our concerns seriously and assured us as a team that our concerns would be dealt with. That was until the manager and the higher manager gathered us all up to have inappropriate conversations within the bakery in front of each other - basically lined us up in a firing squad. Upper management are all great friends it seems, and the higher manager - despite promising confidentiality- told the manager that we were having issues with everything we had disclosed to her in confidence. This, of course, made every employee uncomfortable and unsettled. Management had assured us that there would be “no punishment” for coming forward with our issues, but the work environment went from toxic to unbearable. Not to mention, hours are distributed unfairly between staff (this is coming from a former manager) - your availability is not respected or upholded, you will not be paid more than slightly above minimum wage, and despite promoting “growth” within the company - there is no growth opportunities more than becoming an assistant manager (speaking from experience). Getting raises at these locations is almost a competition, as they rarely provide them - but when they do don’t you dare ask for more than a dollar or fifty cents. Doesn’t matter if you’re working way above and beyond your pay grade. The environment is not professional with upper management - with the manager and upper manager talking badly about guests and even employees to my face. They are constantly discouraging gossiping but fuel the fire themselves with no second thought. The Waterford Lakes manager was easily the worst person I have ever worked for in my life, making myself and my coworkers run errands for her while we weren’t on the clock - she still owes me money I will never see for buying her contact lens - on my own dime but promising to pay later (spoiler alert: she never paid me back). The manipulation and inappropriateness used by the manager is something that shocks me to my core, and I am baffled that upper management trusts and allows her to continue this behavior. I changed her name and any real defining clues, thanK you shELLY!! I would say it’s a pleasure working for you but it was not!