Fresh Market Employee Review

Former Employee – worked at Fresh Market part-time for less than a year

Pros – generous (almost generous?) employee discount extended to spouse/immediate family. Non-managerial co-workers are generally excellent people who try hard to make the best of a bad situation. Pay was not bad, however, salaried employes (department heads, et cetera) had a terrible compensation plan. Insurance benefits appeared average as well. . at least I rarely heard employees complaining about them. "Fresh Market" products are generally high quality products,

Cons – I felt that store and assistant managers were decent people constrained by a "upper-level" corporate culture and policies that were astoundingly ill-logical, disrespectful, and just plain horrible.

Even as a part-time employee, I found that Fresh Market made zero attempt to work with me re: schedulling around outside activities like school or second jobs. Some examples: weekly schedules were released 2-3 days in advance (at best). Time off requests , even for small things like doctor appointments, were *never* honored. On multiple occasions I found that my schedule was changed mid-week, and no one would bother to notify me in advance, let alone ask me if that was okay. In effect, Fresh Market simply assumed that all of its employees were on-call, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No one in my department was allowed to have a constant off day or time (for example, I cannot work every monday afternoon due to . . .)

the job was simply . . .boring.

Fresh Market posted notices all over the back of the store stating the employees were not allowed to have cell phones, even on break, were not allowed to store personal items such as coats or sodas anywere in the store except for the break room, and other petty policies. These sort of policies were rarely enforced by management except when a regional manager or someone from corporate was visiting.

Advice to Senior Management – Follow the golden rule. . .treat other people (employees) like you would like to be treated yourself. Address issues in a professional manner, do not yell at employees, loudly discuss or evaluate personal issues in non-private settings.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend