St Louis, Missouri-based Panera Bread, operator of a chain of bakery-café fast-casual restaurants, has announced a restructuring of its two support centers in St. Louis and Newton, Massachusetts, to streamline operations and improve efficiencies.
The reduction in force will impact an unknown number of support employees, including positions in customer care, IT, and project management.
According to CEO José Dueñas, “We have made some difficult decisions to reshape the structure of our support center teams, which includes reducing and reassigning some roles across the organization, As we evolve and grow, so must our ways of working. We need to be simpler, nimbler, and faster than ever before, operating with even more efficiency, and empowering our teams to win. We must change how we operate to remove silos and simplify leadership reporting lines to make faster decisions and drive more consistent execution. And finally, we must ensure our corporate teams are closer to our cafes, and well positioned to support and empower our General Managers, who are at the heart of our culture."
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something terrible hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. While many employees can read the writing on the wall, why do most assume it’s targeted at someone else? Are you now wondering, Am I Next?
