From Indeed: Can someone tell the B&NEmployee Group on Facebook to read this?
Boston- I wouldn’t recommend Barnes and noble to anyone. They give nothing to there employees and expect more and more as the company goes down hill. Instead of cutting corners on how much the stores have in dead stock they demand the world from minimum wage employees.
South Carolina- Barista/Cashier/Bookseller (Current Employee) – Greenville, SC – July 30, 2019
Cafe and book floor are not treated equally (cafe employees are treated as secondary despite all being employed by the same company.)
They encourage us to pester customers to buy member cards and upsell to the point of annoying them. Was told we should get 3 negative answers before letting up on pushing the membership.
Company and their chosen management care more about bottom line and numbers than their employees or store environments.
Started working there because I love books and could get a discount. Not sure if it's even worth staying for that.
San Luis Obispo, CA- From day one manager knew I wanted to work in books. I was told I would be once I trained in Cafe first. They are cross training, so books can cover Cafe for breaks. Ok, so I took the job.
Months go by and still stuck in Cafe... New Cafe associates get hired and are being trained in books and Cafe????
Reno- Did a REALLY good job there. Got pregnant, had maternity health reasons, they let me go. Said I could reapply when I felt better. The job I had is not open anymore.
Loveland CO- This company was not my favorite by any means. The cooperate structure was very strict and some of the management team was s-xiest, The customer basis was easy to handle.
Omaha, NE- Very poor communication and a lack of worth. They will pull your hours no questions, including your benefits. I worked very hard for this company, though they say they'll have your back, they won't. You will be thrown under the bus if it means a manager will not get in trouble. Blame is ALWAYS being pushed on others. They do not care about their employees. Advancement within the company is a complete joke.That being said, the other employees are great. to this day I still have friends from Barnes & Noble
Chino Hills CA- My personal experience with Barnes & Noble was awful. I was never formally trained and was just thrown to the wolves. I did much more work than was reasonable for the little compensation o received. I was also promised full time and received 12 hours a week instead.
Holyoke, MA- Only care about you selling memberships
Barnes and Noble was a dream job. That's till I worked for them. Nothing else matters but the amount of memberships you sell. If you do not meet their quota for selling membership you get written up or even fired. That is their number one goal is the sale of memberships. It's a sales job not a fun bookstore job. The DM is vicious.
Tulsa OK- Manager doesnt care for you or customers at all. I would have stayed if there was a different manager and the other employees were great. The manager talks horrible about emloyees and customers. He made me cry several times at work and while i was driving home. He was disrespectful and will talk to you with an atittude in front of customers and when yall are alone. Worst management i have ever been around and i hated it. Other managers are very sweet. All the stuff you have to do there you should be getting paid $12 or more and hour but you get paid $9.50 an hour.
Roseville MN-having spent the past 20 years avoiding the threat of Amazon, B&N is scrambling to figure out how to survive. Management is overworked and overstressed. Staff is micromanaged. Compensation is lower than fast food jobs.
Metairie, LA- TOXIC MGT/ Coworkers crying in freezer
I just quit the other day because I couldn’t stand being put down for impossible sales goals and belittled over the smallest thing by a store manager who knew nothing about the food industry. I was in cafe and used to love my job. Almost everyone since I started 9 months ago has quit, usually by ghosting, as they fear being treated badly should they give notice. It’s very toxic. Would often find baristas crying in the freezer. Wouldn’t recommend.
GLendora CA- I’ll keep this short and identify the top reasons B&N is an unfair work environment. 1.)They do not pay accordingly. 2.)They will continue to hire new employees in order to avoid paying current employees (that have the availability and experience) for full-time/let them receive benefits. 3.)Many of my peers have open schedules, but they would rather ration hours. 4.)They are invasive and pushy when it comes to customer privacy. 5.)They don’t provide proper training. 6.)They have taken advantage of employees by giving them a workload they are not trained for and will not pay according to the designated pay rate for the job.
Houston TX- Management, not just at my location but others as well have a real knack for getting in the way and over-complicating things. Corporate has uninspired ideas to get people through the door, they are so slow at adapting to the times and instead of doing better and making good decisions, they do layoffs to save money yet increase hours and responsibilities for employees without increase in pay or addition of a job title.
I could complain forever about those things. However I joined so I could get work experience and I did through no one else’s power but my own. For the most part anyone who has been there for less than let’s say five years was great to work with. It was the old-timers and vets of the franchise that made it hard for everyone else.
NJ-They underschedule people at the less-performing stores, which leads to people having to do more work, and then, having to do more and more job duties in the least amount of time with minimal benefits. Great for a part-time student, awful as an actual job.
Asheville NC- Too Much Pressure on Employees but Wonderful Staff
The stress over getting memberships was RIDICULOUS for the employees. We had a daily goal everyday and all of us felt very pressured to meet that goal. They even had a board up with the number of memberships we sold daily (our names included) up in the backroom. If we didn't greet a customer the managers would make a huge deal out of it and we were always understaffed for the amount of customers. My coworker got written up on her second to last day of work because she didn't get the chance to talk to a customer. But she was the only person working the entire floor upstairs and was trying to help 4 different customers at once on one of our busiest days.
The cafe is an entirely different environment and was one of the best jobs I've ever had. The manager there is absolutely amazing and my coworkers were super patient and welcoming when I first started. You won't find a better group of people. My only problem with the cafe was the fact there is only one register and on a Saturday morning the line of customers would go past the news stand.
Alexandria VA- Not the best place to work.
I came out of retirement to work for $10.25 per hour. I figured it would give me something enjoyable to do but instead I found it stressful and poorly managed.
We were made to wear earpieces in which managers constantly spoke about getting memberships, helping customers and hourly store statistics. When not at cashier, we are expected to do recovery, find books for customers/order books and clean. While doing all this we had to keep an eye on the registers for customers checking out.
I somehow managed to work there for about 6 months and I just don’t see how people make ends meet at such a low pay rate, especially in the DC area.
My coworkers were wonderful though so that was a plus.