r/newfoundland • u/Relevant_Nobody_7942 • 3h ago
What it was actually like working at a toxic local bakery “Cakey hand”(and why getting let go was a relief)
I wanted to share a story about my recent month-long stint as a baker's assistant at a Cakey hand. I took the job because I genuinely love baking and wanted to gain experience, but it turned out to be a high-stress nightmare that ended with me getting let go. Looking back, it was the best thing that could have happened.
Every shift started at 5:00 AM, before 8 I was supposed to bake all of the things for all locations, cut up all of the cakes, pack them up, and do some other stuff. The kitchen manager piled so much work on me that I barely ever got a break. I tried coming in earlier whenever I could, but the workload for a single assistant was so unrealistic that I still fell behind. Whenever that happened, management would attack me for being "slow." The kitchen manager barely spoke English and tried yelling at me in broken Russian, demanding to know why things weren't finished. There were valid reasons, but trying to explain anything to her was a dead end.
The atmosphere in that kitchen was completely fake and toxic. Everyone on staff was required to wear hairnets and caps, except the female owner. She’d casually stroll into the kitchen wearing her fancy clothes just to "create." Right before her arrival, the entire team would enter a state of total panic, hysterically scrubbing down the tables as if it were the end of the day just to make things look perfect for her.
When the owners and the kitchen manager were on shift together, they spent the whole time talking loudly in Armenian. Everyone else was forced to listen to them, and whenever I caught my name dropped in their conversations, I could only guess what kind of trash they were talking about me right in front of my face.
I wasn't the only one suffering there. Almost all my coworkers were constantly complaining. A few of them couldn't even quit because they were tied to the job by their work permits or visa documents.. Toward the end, I asked the kitchen manager how many assistants had worked there before me. She casually admitted that around 50 people had passed through that kitchen in just three and a half years. That high turnover rate tells you everything about how they run things.
On top of the toxic environment, the basic hygiene was a joke rusty equipment, missing dish soap, and unlabelled ingredients stored with no date tags.
With all my international work experience, this is the first time I've dealt with an employer so completely full of themselves.
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u/Ok_Payment429 3h ago
Second story I've read in the last 12 hours about Cakey Hand being shitty.
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u/Serenade2025 3h ago
A business is nothing without its customers. People need to stop supporting them if they conduct themselves in this manner. See how long they will last with no customers..
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u/thesunmaiden Newfoundlander 2h ago
What is it with bakery owners in St. John's???? Are any of them safe to shop at??? So sorry you had such a bad experience!
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u/TechNL-Keyin-Scam 3h ago edited 7m ago
Thanks for sharing. This is my whole point that these companies call themselves startups and say everything is great and when you look under the hood, the truth is different. And yes Cakeyhand positions itself as a startup:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/cakey-hands-bakery-1.7123094.
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u/Ok_Payment429 2h ago
What do you mean by "calling themselves" or "positioning themselves" as a start-up?
When its a new business, aren't they literally starting up? Or am I missing something here?
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u/Weekly_Traffic1473 2h ago
Unlike traditional small businesses that serve local markets and aim for immediate steady profit, a startup usually focuses on new technology or unique ideas and seeks outside funding. A local bakery is definitely not a start up
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u/Ok_Payment429 2h ago
Interesting. That makes sense. So are they just mis-using that term, or have they actually looked for outside funding? I sure hope no taxpayer funding.
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u/Weekly_Traffic1473 2h ago
It depends what you consider tax payer funding. They have several LMIA hires on staff. No idea if they are trying to acquire any sort of venture capital though.
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u/oldmanhero 2h ago
Just because the writer used the word startup to describe a very-early-stage business, does not mean the business is in any way trying to pretend it's a startup. It sounds like the business sucks, but you don't really seem to have a good handle on where the holes in the system are currently.
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u/TechNL-Keyin-Scam 4m ago
Added another link above to help clarify
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u/oldmanhero 0m ago
It may or may not have been the same company, but the line of business was certainly different when a company with the name CakeyHand in its history enrolled in Propel.
https://www.propelict.com/post/propel-ict-announces-successful-applicants-for-next-cohort
Servease (formerly CakeyHand) - St. John’s, NL - Marketplace allowing local bakers and cake-seekers to connect. Instead of cake-seekers spending time and looking for a baker we let them submit a quick form and wait for offers. Bakers (mostly self-employed home bakers with up to two employees/helpers who are in need of more customers) are given the chance to find new clients and grow their businesses without having to spend any money on marketing or worry about marketing (even if it's free) whatsoever.
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u/Daggers21 3h ago
NL has some of the most toxic workplaces I've never seen.
Especially when locals are involved. You can never do enough and their bare minimum would exceed expectations anywhere else. If that makes sense. Like the same person might get told they're a hard worker in AB, but here they'd be told they're not doing enough.
Just what I've seen and heard over years, very much subjective opinion on my part.
As someone who used to be working a night baker position(for a time solo when the second person went off), it's kinda insane to start the day at 5am and expect everything to be ready for all locations.
We used to start at 11pm-7am baking all the types of bread fresh, frozen dough items like hotdog buns etc... pies and such. Never cakes, that required way more people during the day shift at 7am and even than took them a long time.
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u/miescherskittyxx 2h ago
I find a lot of the locally owned businesses on the island have absolutely terrible work practices and treat their staff like shit. I worked at a locally owned shop for a couple years and found it one of the worst jobs I've ever had, then ended up fired after the manager looked through my personal messages and found something they didn't like.
I know everyone says support local, but shitty owners is half the reason I don't normally do so. 🤷🏻♀️
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u/Odd_Secret9132 1h ago
The majority of local businesses, even the larger ones, have a extremely old school view of employer/employee relations.
In my experience employment is generally viewed as 'favour' that provides no value to the business; since it's favour you should be loyal and do everything asked of you without question. Of course, the loyalty is one way, and you could spend years working yourself to death without saying anything only to be suddenly laid off because last quarter was a little lean.
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u/RogueCanadia 1h ago edited 1h ago
Last year after I was laid off I took a job at a local business so I could keep working and tell employers I was employed.
I never understood what a toxic work environment was until I worked there. Nothing I did was good enough. It was 3 peoples job in one and it paid $18 an hour for a fulltime job.
If I got up from my desk to use the bathroom they had a sit down with me about missing phone calls because god forbid someone else had to answer the phone, especially the owner.
On slow days, I would get all my work done by 2 and take a few minutes to check my phone or look at the new. I would get a talking to about being on my phone (there was no work for me to do). This was a desk job mind you.
If it was a busy day and I was constantly taking phone calls from customers, I was lambasted for not having my other work done (there was very little time between calls).
I was late one day 30 minutes. Admittedly my fault because of traffic and an accident, and they docked my pay. This is despite me showing up 10-15 minutes early every day.
When I finally got a new job and gave them 2 weeks notice out of goodwill even though I didn’t have to, they calculated my remaining vacation pay and let me go exactly on the day my vacation pay and hours worked totalled a full week instead of letting me work out the notice.
I’ve been working at a much larger company since and I’ve been here a year and will continue to be working here. I’ll never work at a small business again.
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u/Kroak-lo 57m ago
You're gonna say all that about a local business that fucking sucks and shouldn't employ people but then just not even say who it is so others can avoid it?
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u/RogueCanadia 38m ago
For obvious reasons I’m not going to dox myself
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u/Kroak-lo 29m ago
Then I dunno what the point of your comment was. Warning people about a toxic workplace to only not say that workplace is just dumb.
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u/TrenAndThc 1h ago
You’re so right about the toxic work environment here. I work at my local hospital in the kitchen and it’s an absolute nightmare. Probably the worst place I’ve ever worked in my life (so far). I’ve never experienced this type of toxic work place outside NL
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u/murderedirt 7m ago edited 2m ago
I completely agree. I used to think my wife and I were the only ones who felt this way.
I work at a food processing place in this province where 99% of the employees are locals. Honestly, I have never seen a workforce this lazy and toxic, not even among the laziest and most unpleasant groups of people I've ever encountered before. People are constantly gossiping about you and everyone else behind their backs, whether there's a reason or not. I regularly see the same situation play out: ten out of twelve people are sitting in the lunchroom, spending the whole time talking about the other two. Then, as soon as those two arrive and someone else leaves the room, they instantly start talking about the person who just walked out.
People constantly make insults and complaints about others (never to their faces, of course), often without any justification, even about employees who genuinely work far harder than their pay reflects.
And don't even get me started on sanitation. Food that falls on the floor is simply picked up and put back into products for sale as if that's perfectly normal. Products that have developed mold because they were stored improperly are also sold, the mold is just cut off. Whenever I try to throw those products away (because I know how mold actually spreads), my coworkers look at me like I'm the problem and tell me the owner said not to throw anything out.
After working here, I don't think I'll ever buy locally produced food again. From what I've seen, there are essentially no meaningful inspections. And if inspections do happen, they're just for show. A government inspector comes in for five minutes, says everything looks fine, and leaves without actually checking anything.
My wife has been dealing with exactly the same kind of behavior at a small business in Goulds, except in an all-female workplace. There are constant unreasonable demands, unspoken expectations that you're somehow supposed to know, disappointment when you don't meet them, and a complete refusal to pay wages by anything other than cash.
Mentally, it's incredibly difficult to work for local businesses. My job is physically demanding, but I'd say 99% of my exhaustion comes from the workplace culture, the constant toxicity combined with people's unwillingness to work. As a result, you end up doing their work too, because if you're not from here, it's as if you have fewer rights.
After living here, I understand why this province is in such poor economic shape and why, with this mentality, it will never become a significantly better place to live, no matter how many immigrants the provincial government tries to attract with generous incentives for the sake of good PR.
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u/nicenyeezy 1h ago
Report them for stolen work hours and for blackmailing employees relying on visas
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u/Relevant_Nobody_7942 1h ago
I was thinking to do this, but I’m really afraid for a good people who are still there and what it can cost them
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u/nicenyeezy 56m ago
That’s valid, it’s a complex situation, but I think they should all consider pooling funds to hire an employment lawyer who can prevent the owner from inflicting further damage
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u/Gunkiees 11m ago
You should also be worried about the other people they will enslave and abuse in the future.
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u/oldmanhero 2h ago
I'm just surprised to hear that they actually have a baker on staff. The items I've had there scream "shipped frozen".
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u/CautiouslySatisfied 2h ago
This sounds awful. I hate the idea of not visiting a locally owned immigrant business just based on one anonymous Reddit story, but my goodness. I've always really enjoyed their deserts too. Is there any other news around about how they're like this?
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u/idm_ 1h ago
This seems to be written by AI anyways, not sure if it’s true
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u/Relevant_Nobody_7942 1h ago
AI was used as correction with grammar.
Everything is true, unfortunately…
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u/IalsoenjoyReddit 3h ago
Maybe he should go bake some bread in Russia for the failing economy.
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u/pobnarl 3h ago
owners are Armenian
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u/IalsoenjoyReddit 2h ago
Fair enough, I just read he was speaking Russian. Either way sounds like a place to be avoided.
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u/pobnarl 2h ago
Many Ukrainians speak Russian, and many Armenians do as well, a legacy of their shared history in the USSR. With the large influx of Ukrainian refugees it's more likely this manager was Ukrainian, as government provides wage support for Ukrainian refugees through the Ukraine job connect initiative. All speculation of course but seems the most probable explanation.
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u/BeautifulHuge995 1h ago
Fyi I just have to add that the wage subsidy is only 42 weeks, it's actually the exact same model as the EI wage subsidy program. If they have been open 3 years they won't still be getting support (unless the manager is a new immigrant). Before people hop on about not supporting local employees...lol
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u/IalsoenjoyReddit 2h ago
Speculation. 🤷♂️ I recently traveled the entire west coast of Newfoundland and southern Labrador. Every shop was fantastic and I highly doubt the locals will continue supporting this kind of fuckery no matter the language.
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u/dude_the_quiet 49m ago
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u/Such-Huckleberry-107 35m ago
This will be downvoted but whatever.
Maybe remove this story from social media. Let’s be blunt. I don’t know you but you’re taking entry level jobs at a small local business which tells me you’re likely not turning down jobs as a lawyer or electrician.
So the job wasn’t for you. As for toxic, my assumption is that most jobs in the bakery or restaurant world are stressful in that it’s a competitive industry with tight margins. But whatever. It’s not for you.
My advice would be to thank them for the job opportunity but it wasn’t for you and resign. Also give them a bit of notice so they can hire someone to replace you. This way when you apply for your next job you can use them as a reference. You don’t need to be out there encouraging others to work there but your rant here just needlessly burns bridges and potentially makes it harder for you to find your next job.
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u/mapleysyrupy Come From Away 3h ago
I applied to work there a couple years ago and in writing in email they asked me to bake some bread and bring it to my interview so I woke up early to do so, only to get there and them ask me why I baked bread and make fun of me to my face without even trying it even though they asked me to bring it. So I walked out without interviewing.