Dark Secrets Of Panda Express The Employees Don’t Want Us To Know

1. They face a lawsuit for 'psychological abuse'

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During a 4-day course of 'self-improvement' for staff members, they had to participate in a variety of seminars which were sold as 'confidence and trust building' exercises. But, a 23-year-old girl revealed that during one of these seminars, she was told to get undressed. A male was then also told to do the same, and they were then told to hug whilst both undressed. The girl found herself being filmed and stared at by people at the seminar and she described it as a deeply disturbing experience and went on to file a lawsuit against the employer.

2. It's been described as a cult-like atmosphere

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Ex-employees who worked for Panda Express have claimed that the whole atmosphere was very cult-like which felt inappropriate and at times, intimidating. Panda Express is known for having an 'unusual management style', yet some ex-employees state that this is not just an unconventional form of management, it is almost like they turn their employees into followers of a cult. There are unusual team meetings and activities that the employees are expected to do in order to be able to work their way up the ranks.

3. You are always being watched

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It was revealed that cameras were pointing to every single station where there could possibly be cash handovers. There wasn't any space for employees to have any kind of downtime or time feeling as though they are not being observed. It creates a highly austere environment where workers do not feel trusted and instead feel like they are being treated as thieved. For every void transaction for example, if a customer cancels or doesn't have enough money, they then have to explain for this and provide a reason.

The 'fresh' food is sometimes microwaved...

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Panda Express does pride itself on serving out fresh, good-quality food and cooking it right here and then. This is one of the the beauties of wok cooking, it's quick, but it's delicious. However...not all is as it seems. Because there are former employees who have revealed something that Panda Express definitely does NOT want us to know. Sometimes the food is thrown into the microwave and leftovers may be saved till the next day and heated up for you to eat. I guess it's less wasteful at least!

Employees have experienced worsening racism

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Since the pandemic workers at Panda Express have faced increasing racism. The majority of this racism wasn't coming from fellow employees, but it was coming from customers or random people coming to the store to hurl abuse at employees. In fact, Panda Express had to release a statement to fight back, writing publicly that at Panda Express they are 'unapologetically American Chinese and unapologetically made of people of all colors and backgrounds'. Having to face racism at work or anywhere is totally unacceptable!

The dishes contain MSG

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If you're into health and food you'll probably have heard of MSG - Monosodium glutamate. It is something that is put in dishes to enhance flavors. It makes states stronger, so the intention is to achieve tastier cooking. USA regulation authorities may have deemed MSG a safe ingredient that may not harm us. Yet, there is a lot of controversy and there are studies that suggest that MSG can stay in our system forever, with our bodies unable to break it down. Some people claim that we should stay away from MSG!

The ingredients aren't exactly fresh

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So, a lot of Panda Express employees won't want us to know that some of the ingredients are definitely not fresh. Some former employees have talked about how Panda Express sells itself on the basis of using fresh ingredients to ensure that the food is as tasty and as fresh as possible. Yet they have claimed that the reality is far from it. Actually, some of the ingredients are anything BUT fresh. However, this can vary from place to place and isn't necessarily the reality of all the Panda Express chains out there.

The portions have been cut, to cut costs

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When we go to a food chain often we know that we're not exactly getting gourmet restaurant quality dinner, but we want tasty food and we want a decent portion to feel full and satisfied after eating. You don't want to come home from Panda Express feeling like you're still a little bit hungry and want to eat something else. But as prices of pretty much everything rises, places are doing their utmost to cut costs. And Panda Express is cutting down on portion sizes so that they can cut some costs in the kitchen!

The orange chicken isn't really orange

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We hate to break it to you, but that delicious orange chicken that brings you back to Panda Express time and time again isn't made from orange. And, it's actually the most popular dish of the restaurant! There is actually no real orange used at all to make the orange chicken. It is a substance that replicates the look, consistency and taste of orange, and it is thought that it may contain some kind of chemicals to achieve the same appear and taste as orange. It had the majority of us fooled for a while, anyway!

They try and upsell to get your money

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At the end of the day, Panda Express is a business. And like every other business, on the planet, they want t make money. So when you are the tills ad you're placing an order and an employee seems super keen for you to also add something else to your order, or to upgrade your item, just take a minute to pause. You may be told that it's the 'meal of the week' or it's their 'personal favorite', but really it's just more costly and they want to take more money from you, not just tell you the best kinds of food to eat!

They add a lot of additives

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It feels like we cannot escape chemicals, additives, and preservatives in today's world. Often even when we think we are making healthy choices, we find out that some of the ingredients may be detrimental to our health. For people who choose Panda Express, yes they are indulging in a treat. But, they probably believe that they are eating fresh food which isn't bad for their health. But because of all the additives and preservatives, they may add to extend the shelf life of the food, it may not be what it seems!

Some employees were told to report on each other

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When you ask employees to tell managers or senior members about the actions of other workers, you create a huge environment of distrust and employees will feel like their privacy is being invaded. Nobody feels comfortable talking because they feel like they are being spied on. But, according to one person who worked there for some time, they told the internet that employees were told to report back if they knew somebody intended to unionize so that they knew what their employees were talking about in private.

It's physically really demanding

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Working at a fast food chain you expect to work hard, yet some people found that they physically couldn't manage the job. Panda Express is more extreme than many fast food chains in what is really required physically from their employees. Aside from running back and forth fulfilling orders, their huge woks and vats of noodles were extremely difficult for some people to handle and some people who tried the job found that it was taking too much of a toll on them physically and that they could not keep up!

It can make employees super miserable

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One ex-employee said that 'working at Panda Express made me the most miserable I've ever been in my life'. They said that the work-life balance as well as the atmosphere made the theme extremely sad. The entire time that they worked there, they felt at a kind of low point that they had never felt before, in any other kind of job. It resulted in them having to quit as soon as they were able to find another source of income but they absolutely hated their time working here and couldn't wait to quit.

There are false promises

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One employee of Panda Express took to the internet to claim that they had been waiting for the pay rise they had been promised a YEAR ago. To be promised a pay rise and not have it actually happen is totally immoral and also illegal to make promises as an employee about pay, and not actually carry these out. Sometimes there may be delays, yet a year and counting are unacceptable and this person had heard no news as to what was happening with their situation. And so, they were continuing to wait for more money not even knowing if it would truly happen or not!

Panda Express started out as a couple and led to a separation

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The beginning of Panda Express is an amazing story of two people, Andrew and Peggy Cheng, who moved to America in the 1960s and fell in love! After their college graduation, the pair moved to Los Angeles. When the two of them fell in love, they ignited a spark and passion for Chinese/American food. And so they set up Panda Express. But, there were huge disagreements about the food and the business and so Andrew Cheng ended up going it alone! Sadly, the family business led to separation, despite leading to huge success.

It's Chinese food designed for the American palette

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There are a lot of questions about whether Panda Express is authentic. Panda Express claims to be Chinese American cuisine and so for this reason, it is authentic because it is Chinese food with American influence and doesn't claim to be anything that is isn't! Therefore, it isn't meant to solely replicate Chinese cuisine, rather take inspiration from Chinese foods and tastes and combine them with American elements. It was designed for the American palette, which is often a lot sweeter than other cuisines and so the food of Panda Express reflects these preferences.

There's a 'toxic work environment

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Toxic work environments can be detrimental to people's mental health. Our working life is the majority of our time and so if we are a part of a toxic environment it will undoubtedly take a toll. Multiple employees have admitted that they found working at Panda Express to be an extremely toxic environment n many different ways. One of the ways was how it was managed, how the staff was treated, as well as the workplace politics that can really affect the environment and happiness of the employees in a business.

They are against unionization

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Unionization means that staff is protected by laws and regulations. For example, things have to be done in accordance with certain laws. And, it means that a change in one branch of Panda Express cannot happen alone, it either happens across the board or it doesn't happen at all. For example, some people cannot get paid more or less than others, for doing the same job. Unionization is there to help protect the workers. Yet, Panda Express's top bosses and employees didn't want to become unionized as they wouldn't have as much freedom.

The wages are low

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Working at Panda Express as we know, as we know is no easy feat. And so, the minimum wages do not reflect how hard the staff is having to work (as is the case sadly for the majority of minimum wage workers in businesses). Staff was finding that work was taking over their life and that they had a terrible work-life balance, yet they didn't even have the money to show for it. They were still struggling to maintain and manage their finances or put food on the table and pay rent, despite how hard they were working.

They have inconsistent schedules

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Another problem amongst Panda Express is that the top employees set out inconsistent and variable schedules for the staff. This means that staff wouldn't know if they were coming or going and had no time to plan. Anybody with a family or any kind of commitments and responsibilities found this very difficult as they would unreasonably expect staff to be able to be at work at short notice and work variable hours at the last minute without having enough prior warning to be able to sort arrangements or prepare.

It's super intense

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If you have ever met anybody who works or formerly worked at Panda Express you may have heard that it is SUPER intense. Intensity can come in many different ways, from being micro-managed to the sheer amount of workload, to rushing around in a fast-paced environment and having to manage your time when there feels as though there isn't enough time to be able to do everything. It's super intense and these kinds of things really affect how happy or satisfied employees are working at a place...not that Panda Express would want us to know this!

There's favoritism in the workplace

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Someone else who worked at Panda Express also found that when they worked there they saw first hand how favoritism operated in the workplace. Favoritism isn't a legal practice in the workplace as preferential treatment is an act of discrimination unless it is solely based on work performance. But this was not the kind of preferential treatment one ex-employee said they witnessed. They apparently saw friends of the managers getting perks that nobody else did, even if they hadn't performed any better at work than anyone else.

There may be inappropriate relationships in the workplace

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One Redditor came out anonymously to write about their experiences once they worked at Panda Express. This person claimed that they witnessed all kinds of shocking things whilst being an employee. One of which was that one of the managers who had a wife and four children, was having a relationship with one of the workers who was actually underage. Not only was it highly inappropriate and unprofessional but it was also illegal and unethical. Apparently, neither one of the employees formerly reported the matter.

One ex-employee claimed that one of the workers may be underaged

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One ex-employee of Panda Express revealed something that employees would definitely not want anybody to know. They claimed (and so this cannot be certifiable by any means) that there was under-aged staff working for the restaurant. Now, if this is true it is not legal to employ under-age staff. Children under 16 are only allowed to work a limited amount of hours weekly and anything over this is not allowed by law. This ex-employee suggested that this was happening as Panda Express wanted to save money on adult wages.

The presence of illegal substances

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Another former employee also shared secrets of their time working at Panda Express - again, employees would definitely NOT want the public to know about this. They claimed that during their time working at Panda Express, many of the staff and employees were using illegal substances whilst on duty. They said that they witnessed it a number of times. They claimed that they felt super uncomfortable working in that kind of environment and felt as though it was going on all around them and they had no control over it.

Even the veggie and vegan options aren't suitable

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So it turns out that when we look at the menu and see some options which may seemingly be suitable for vegetarians or vegans, e.g. they seem to contain all of the right ingredients....they are still not classed as vegetarian or vegan. This is because according to Panda Express employees, they can ensure 100% assure that there is no cross-contamination with dairy or meat products for example, and so they prefer to class nothing as actually vegetarian and vegan to assure that they are safe from criticism. But, this is not in line with the increasing demand!

The break shifts are unreasonable

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Some Panda employees actually are required to sign a waiver. Basically, some employees only get a ten-minute break for every 6-hour shift. Unless you specifically request 30 minutes together, using all of your breaks in one go, you will be given 10 minutes per 6 hours. Which, is the very minimum breas amount. Considering it's such a high-energy environment and requires a lot from the workers the breaks seem very measly in comparison to what the employees actually need.

Free food...at a cost

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Okay, so one of the perks of Panda Express that you may know about is that when you are an employee at the restaurant, you get free food if you are on shift. Sounds great, right? But there's a catch. Because the break times are so short (and you are only allowed to consume food on your break), sometimes there isn't enough time to eat! So when they say you can have the free food, often within these 1 minute it is not even possible to get the food, never mind to actually find the time to e able to sit down and eat it!

There's no room to grow

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One problem with Panda Express is that there are not many or any, opportunities to grow once you are an employee there. Many found that there weren't the positions to be able to progress and that if they couldn't move up to management (which they often were unable to do), then there wasn't any other way that they could actually develop with Panda Express. So, many people after a few years felt stuck without any kind of opportunities to grow available to them, even if they wanted to!

The food is tasty, but not so healthy

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Panda Express has become a favorite for Chinese-style dishes. And while they may claim to be nutritional dishes, some employees claim otherwise. They have revealed that Panda Express uses a LOT of oil to cook their dishes - which can be common in stir fry, and high-temperature wok cooking. And there is reportedly a lot of sodium too which can be very detrimental to our health and may contribute to heart problems when sodium is consumed in excess.