I can’t express this eloquently, but this payroll situation is absolutely abusive. How do we lay you off without laying you off? Surely nobody expects anyone to stay when told they can’t work for a month. No, nobody is that stupid. This is deliberate and I can only surmise that this is the “new normal.” We are being exploited as poor people are in society. Tell me this, Follett. With your sh---y technology, how do you expect us to constantly train our temporary workforce?
21 replies (most recent on top)
@6hkj+1kS0D3L7: I started looking for another job about 2 weeks ago and it's not going well. I've worked at Follett for over 20 years, have tons of experience in retail and yet, they see an "older" women. I get glared at, like how dare I apply for a job there? Shouldn't I be retiring by now?
Please stop with the Stockholm Syndrome. Some of us have been applying for jobs but live in areas where it is hard to get hired.
Post ID: @5dhe+1kS0D3L7
WHY would you stick around?
New manager that doesn't know what they are doing but WILL NOT work weekends - why would you care? How did they get the job?
Run away. For 10 hours a week what are you losing?
If you stay and support the failure you truly are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
JCR just sees you as a fool.
@5iwi+1kS0D3L7: Exactly! It's not just the top level managers. rMs are higher anybody to fill store manager positions. We have a new store manager that started about 6 months ago and they are completely useless. Due to the cutbacks in labor, they have been unable to learn how to do their job as a store manager and are basically a salaried cashier. Our operations manager does everything and has to listen to this person, who just started, micromanage every second of her day. She has been unable to set planograms, markups/ markdowns have not been done, The sales floor hasn't been stocked in months and gets yelled at because we're out of notebooks on the sales floor. She's literally stuck doing soda orders all day while GM just piles up in the back of the store. This person will constantly tell her, get the clothing out, stock off-site areas, work every Saturday because I don't work weekends because I have kids. I want to help but I am only a team lead and get 10 hrs a week if I'm lucky and that time is spent hanging clothing we have no room for. Our other team lead and text manager are basically ignored while our new SM goes all in the one person keeping the store running. The person who's been here for 25 years. I don't want to put my notice in because I'm the only support she has but it just boggles the mind how abusive the stores have gotten.
What's the point of having a general if you have no soldiers to fight the war????
Easy, your generals are your buddies and you want to show them what a big shot you are by giving them high paying jobs.
Run the company into the ground, declare bankruptcy, write the loss off on your taxes to offset taxes on your high profitably companies and move on.
You folks at the store level with, 10, 15, 20 years of dedicated service - NOBODY at James River cares! It REALLY sucks!
The textbook industry is dead, and has been for a long time. Pushing digital, waste of time-better pricing for students elsewhere.
Maybe if the honchos would realize g.m. is where you make your money, gross margin, roi, stores could survive, otherwise, lots of stores will be closed shortly.
I run a heavy gm store and I will tell you, gm is a lot more work than books. You need people to manage gm, all year, not just temps at rush. They need to change their focus-support stores that can sell merchandise throughout the year, improve F.O.D. (should be immediate response for quotes, and prices to compete with online sources).
This whole thing with payroll-laying off or cutting your lowest paid employees? How does that make sense? Making your highest paid person do the job of an entry level person? How about calculating 1 VP salary, cut them, and see how many on the front line can be saved that contribute to the bottom line?
What's the point of having a general if you have no soldiers to fight the war????
Project Move Forward… Just going to keep saying it. We are a number, not a person with a family.
this is the absolute WORST company to work for. I am beyond caring about this company or their cr-p ownership. these people sit in their ivory towers and look at numbers. NUMBERS! they don't give to craps about their employees or their work schedules. They have no idea what it is like to run a store.
I would love for them to come to our store and try to do their daily work only to wait on customers and not get their stuff done.
Run... they are a sinking ship.
@2qpa+1kS0D3L7: true, we can file for unemployment but that doesn't mean the powers that be won't fight it. I know of several team leads that filed for UE and they were denied because Follett said they weren't "laid off".
They can still file for unemployment during that time off.
What they're doing has to be illegal in some kind of way. They can't cut you off the schedule for a month/2 months and not expect you to file for unemployment. You're not "officially" laid off, but also not scheduled. How does that work?
Well everyone in my region is doing the work of 5 and no one feels supported so that’s a hard gauge to us
How do we know if our contract is on the list?
How are you being supported? Do feel like you are being thrown under the bus?
One person doing the work of 5?
Call corporate - maybe someone will spill the beans...
How do we know if our contract is on the list? We make money but not a lot. Not in negative but not a top performer
Project Move Forward in full swing… Just saying… I told you so. Oh, and $77M off plan… Let that sink in.
It won't be quick but eventually all these schools will go back to being independent and hopefully the better jobs will return. It doesn't help in the short term but the future will be better
So it appears that Jefferson River Capital has a plan. Default on non profitable contracts and operate profitable contracts with minimum overhead (labor) to maximize ROI.
Follett, a job not a career.
Yeah this is never going to change. I hope people aren't expecting that it will. You're not all of a sudden going to get more payroll. Soon most stores are only going to have an SM, and that's it. Smaller, non-profitable stores will have their contracts canceled. Folks need to understand this.
In November we were told this is short term. Enter month 4. It’s absurd. They also aren’t replacing FT roles as they are r”re-evaluating” do the staff I have leaving aren’t getting replaced or hours for the PT to even do the job.
I am sending support to all of you to find new jobs. I have some interviews lined up and as an experienced SM my departure is only going to hurt my RM not the higher ups. But I’m ok with that. He is a horrible RM who is defending these as-----s
Right?! Just use the godda-n temp service for all employees if that’s what you’re going for. For fu-k’s sake. At least they’d know what to expect
And let's be real. It's not going to just be February. We will have the same short payroll budgets, if not less, in March and April.