r/Barnesandnoble

Is anyone else super fed up with how much theyre forcing us to keep on the customer (even after they say no) and how if your sign up numbers are low it could be a fireable thing? Also the OMPs. I get we have contracts with those and need to push the sales but I have a really hard time recommending/pushing a book i personally would never read. Half of why I love this job is talking about books I love and connecting with customers and other book lovers. These membership and OMP pressures have been sucking the enjoyment out of the job🥲

TL;DR: I have a coworker who is extremely lazy and irresponsible, frequently dodging tasks or hiding in the office, screwing over other keyholders or just the booksellers as a whole. He is not on an IP.

There’s this coworker I mentioned here before a year or two ago. I believe I called him Doug.

Doug is going to be the reason somebody in this store snaps. I would say it’d be me but I’d have to get in line because I’m the one he’s technically offended the least. And how has he offended us, you ask? Not with a slur, not with questioning our competence, but with his sheer and utter laziness.

The only real argument you can make is that he’s been working with the company for years and is probably burned out and waiting to retire. But I don’t think that that’s a valid enough excuse: We’re all burned out! There’s other coworkers who’ve not only been with the company for years, but also work other full-time jobs on top of this, yet never display a fraction of the disinterest and responsibility-avoidance this guy does.

He could be scheduled for cashwrap for only half an hour instead of the standard two hours even some keyholders get, and he’ll do what he can to pretend he didn’t see it and either relieve the cashier late or just not show at all.

If cashwrap calls for backup, his response isn’t, “Heading over” nearly as much as it is “Is anyone else available to get that?” Same with phones: Back before we had to start using portables, a phone ringing would result in him getting on headset to say we needed help on phones. He, himself, was never on the phone at the time. Or doing anything that the rest of us weren’t already doing that would require him to pass on that task to another.

One time, there was a theft and even though he was the shift lead, he dropped looking over the CCTV footage onto one of the new keyholders — who’d only barely just been trained on that stuff. Because oh yeah, by the way, he is, in fact, a keyholder himself. But you wouldn’t be able to tell based on how he behaves and how much I’ve seen him do compared to the other keyholders that have had to do more because he chooses to do less.

Doug screwed over another keyholder by leaving her as the only body on the floor while the skeleton crew was at cashwrap. Why? Because he decided that that was the perfect time to go across the street and get the air in his tires checked. It was her lunch time. She told him this. He shrugged and left anyway.

Sometimes he doesn’t even bother with assigning break times on the DAS. One time, he plopped it out with no breaks and I wound up doing them to the best of my ability. It was the last time I did it, but it wasn’t the last time he did it.

Just the other day, he let cafe get screwed over because all the backups, save for him and one other person were unavailable at that moment. The other person was already over there, but they needed a third person and even though he is technically trained for register over there and was very aware of the requests, he made no move to head over. In fact, he waited until one of the backups came back from break (most of which was spent in the cafe line) and told her to go backup cafe. (She was supposed to go to cashwrap and the line had mostly died by then.)

Another time, I had a bunch of tasks thrown on me with a deadline two days away and was given *no* allotted time for this. I eventually had to shoot straight with the SM and tell him I wasn’t going to get anything done unless he found somebody to swap out with me to do a shifting project. While he’s looking through the schedule to find somebody, I hear cafe call for backup. If I answer, that’s 30+ minutes at best. I don’t respond, I’m not even the only crosstrained person on shift anymore so why should I.

But you know who does respond and with what?

“Has anyone seen Wasteofspace?”

Doug literally. Hunts me down. And tells me cafe needs help. Reminder: He can go and ring. He may not even have to write on cups or bags if one of the baristas is expediting.

He would still do pre-paid orders to the store after we’d been told not to and consequently bred some monsters who would specifically only ask for him because they knew he’d just jump the rules for them. We would then pay the consequences when something about these orders would go wrong and the guys would blow up at us like we had anything to do with it. This was eventually nipped in the bud but the guys still ask for him so his legacy with them is sealed.

A lady we suspected of theft was in the store and I go to tell him per the MOD’s orders so we can keep an eye on her? He keeps repeating and talking over me about how “so long as she isn’t a nuisance, she’s allowed to be in here”. ??? My guy, that isn’t the point I’m trying to make here????

And so freaking on and so freaking forth.

And yeah, this sounds like little whining stuff but it trust me, it does add up — and quickly, considering how often this happens.

And it constantly happens because he’s never on an IP. Complaints have been lodged, “talks” were had. If we’re lucky, he maybe might do better for about a week. Then it’s back to normal. Maybe it’s to do with seniority; maybe it’s lingering sexism since the store is mostly women but one of our old SMs clearly favored the guys more than the girls and let them get away with murder.

I would*** ***almost consider seeking advice but I don’t even know if there’s really anything to be done that matters. I don’t trust We Listen to really do anything, and I know store management is unlikely to suddenly do something after all this time. And reminder: I’m the one he’s screwed over the least, trust me. The complaints have been made, but progress hasn’t, and it’s burning people out while still expecting them to do better than him.

If I tried to do even half the stuff he does, I’d get pulled to the side and scolded about how they “expect better from me” or “hold me to a higher standard than this”. Well, hold Doug to a higher standard!!!

We keep hearing that Kids and YA sales are down for the company. Any thoughts on why that is? And is there anything your stores are doing to combat that? we’ve been beefing up our backlist, adding BOGO tables and updating displays. But just curious to see what other stores are doing.

I’ve tried posting the link 5 times but it keeps removing it but it’s on the Today show. 3 minutes in Daunt effectively says he’s okay selling AU slop. You know the machine that’s many writers say is stealing their job and work.

Replace the u with i.

I just got a long lecture from my SM about how much other stores have worse staffing issues than us but keep "getting it all done", keeping on top of shelving and projects and hand selling too.

Any time I tried to talk about how hard it is to chase down customers to hand sell things when we're never caught up with shelving or projects and we have nobody to help with anything, he just kept saying that we needed to "figure it out", that "other stores were doing better with less".

So...how is your store doing? Really? Are you caught up with shelving? Projects? Are you making sales? Are you hand selling?

xoxo

Each time I clean the dust from Hardcover Shop or ETG, I feel it coating my lungs and changing my mind.

I dream in Nee-Doh's and bumper boxes. I can see a customer rush minutes before it'll happen, and call for backup at Cashwrap before it can ever get out of hand. I look at a shipment truck, and I know instantly from the way it goes over the potholes in our parking lot if it has Pokémon cards or not. I can tell from a customer's gait whether or not there's a Rewards/Premium Card in their wallet. Pyramids, Endcaps and Gift displays resort themselves with a thought, customers know where to locate books with a word. My coworkers keep tally of all the V-Carts I've emptied, and wonder at how fast I manage to do it.

Me headed into the store for my shift today

(I may be going crazy)

Scifi, Manga, Toys and self-help keep growing and the Fiction/Literature sections are dismal at B&N now. Is it because everyone wants childish reads or doesn't read these days?

Take the B's for example, no W.S Burrouhgs, No J.G. Ballard, No Djuana Barnes, No Samuel Butler... and on and on. Yet Young Adult keeps growing and I see kids in their 20's shopping that section. I call them kids because they're looking at books that were traditionally middle school level or lower.

And yes, there are smaller independents I can go to but I'd like to pick up a book worth reading occasionally at B&N.

In the 90's when I supervised at one we had a rich literature section and a fantastic art section, none of the toys. We had a Books-In-Print system that we could order anything from and stock the shelves. So if this new move for more independence has done anything it sure hasn't taken it back to a literary hub for towns.

To preface my question, my store is very hot, both Cafe AND Bookfloor. For the last couple of weeks now it hasn't mattered what me or the other Booksellers wear because we just wind up sweating and uncomfortable by the first hour of our shifts, and it's getting to the point where we're starting to sweat just standing at Cashwrap ringing customers out. I don't know if it's that the heat is still on, or the AC just isn't yet, but it's going to be near 90 this upcoming week and I'm dreading it.

I have a few compression tops from working out, and I was wondering if there would be any issues if I wore one for my shifts? They're plain-colored, with no graphics on them, and I have a few that are a size too big for me so they don't look overly tight. I can't think of another solution to keep me cool until the AC in my store finally kicks on.

Everyone warned me about working here, but about the wrong things. I love working by myself. I don’t mind cross training. What I hate, hate,HATE are these know it all stuck up assholes. Barnes and noble must have a recruiter with a talent for finding people who can’t let an opportunity to correct someone pass. People who take their stress out on others. People who only want to hear themselves speak about something no one cares about. Don’t get me wrong, I do have some kind, amazing coworkers, But I’m shocked at how one store could hire so many assholes. Sorry to vent.

Hi!

I want to move to another state. I would really love to transfer with BN since I like my job and I've been here a few years. I'm in a management position, so how soon should I start calling around to the stores in that area to see if they have a position open and when should I tell my current SM about my plans? I want to move by last week of July.

Hey just curious if this has been a thing for every store and my store is just catching up or if this is new.

Does your store have an hour to open or a half hour and is that recent or has that been the case for a while? A while being over a year.

TIA

I’m interested in applying to Barnes & Noble, but I have bulging discs in my lower back that cause pretty significant pain with prolonged standing. I do have medical documentation/a doctor’s note for it.

I can still work and move around, but standing in one spot for long periods is what really causes issues. I was wondering if B&N is generally accommodating with things like stools at register, extra sitting breaks, modified tasks, etc.

If anyone here works/worked there and has experience with accommodations or chronic pain/disability at B&N, I’d really appreciate hearing about it. Thanks!

Hi everyone! I apologize if this will be long, I will try to sum this up as best I can. I debated posting in here because I don’t want to give away my location and such, but I’m also not going after the managers or my coworkers involved. This is more about me feeling bad about myself I suppose.

Long story short, I’m in a smaller store. We haven’t had an SM since about March. So a lot of nearby SMs have been coming into our store to help with whatever needs to be fixed or done, especially on book floor. I’m a CTE, have been since 2019, and before that I was two years on book floor.

With this in mind, my review (well all of our reviews haha) were done with another SM. My review was great overall. Nothing to be personally ashamed about. Last year we had two very very awful health inspections back to back. The inspectors (yes we had two together and it was a nightmare 😭🤣) with quite a few critical marks. Both times. Both were also during season. They were late with our first inspection by about 4 months, so when it was due for our second inspection, they showed up a month later to keep their schedule. Anyway, i took full responsibilities for these bad inspections. Even told my SM at the time to write me up, and she did. And then I made it a point to do better. I felt awful for being a terrible leader and even came up with my own personal plan to do better as well.

Our last inspection was in November. The lady said the place looked so good that she had to FIND things to mark us off for. I still got two critical marks which were corrected on site. And a few Non-critical marks. Sent it to corporate. Great. Everything was good.

Come this time around we just had our inspection earlier this month. The inspector said we have the cleanest place in our county, said he could tell we take pride in our store, and again had to FIND things to slash us for. Which he did. Two critical marks which were corrected on site. And a few non-critical. First critical was my barista didn’t use a paper towel to turn the faucet on and off when washing her hands. Second was our red sanitizer bucket didn’t say the word “sanitizer” on it. The non-critical marks were bracelets (which has never been addressed to me in my seven years), the papers we have on the back of the beverage case (need to be washable and also never been told this before) and there were some food certificates missing in our binder for the baristas.

We automatically took care of everything. I get an email from one of the corporate guys asking what my action plan was for the follow up inspection visit. I was SO confused because the HI didn’t say anything about a follow up nor did the form say a follow up. I emailed back, said we didn’t have a follow up, told him what the HI said and what we took care of and he emailed back and said oh good! Okay great to hear!

At this point me and my two baristas are utterly confused. My one barista during her review said she was told “well after that lengthy health inspection…” and we’re all like what? We thought we did good. We reorganized the entire cafe. Took months reorganizing and cleaning and doing deep cleanings every single day because obviously we weren’t sure when the inspector would be in.

Come to my review, I knew this was going to come up. I got a D for the health section and honestly i wanted to cry because I KNOW how much work me and my girls put into keeping the place clean. And I explained the critical marks and even the SM said they were silly, and I fought for a C and he said he would vouch for me. A year ago I would’ve given myself an E. But i know the work I put in. My entire store knows. They saw it. They heard me on the daily for months “health inspection this, health inspection that.” I was scrubbing floors and detailing the freezers and fridges. I wanted a perfect score on my inspection but our county has the strictest health inspection process in the state.

I know this shouldn’t bother me as much as it does but I just feel so distraught. I didn’t get any hassle on my last inspection in November with the two strikes. Even my awful back to back ones didn’t require an action plan.

I don’t know what I’m asking for here. Maybe I just needed to vent to people in the same work environment. I’m not upset with the other SM. He and all the others are working double duties to help our store while we don’t have an SM and I truly appreciate them so much. And I appreciate even more that he was willing to hear me out. I just feel so defeated because I know I went above and beyond and still got bit in the end 😞

So sorry for the long post and I appreciate anyone who read this.

Hi, I'm having some anxieties about something that's been ongoing at my store with a fellow bookseller. I'm going to keep it vague because I don't know if they use this subreddit.

To keep things simple, I have an issue with my fellow coworker. We'll call him "Archie" for simplicity. By issue, I mean several issues that range from him crossing boundaries with jokes that I don't feel comfortable with to talking disparagingly about other booksellers to me (and I would have to assume about me when I'm not present). Archie has also actively attempted to gaslight me during a sit-down with our SM to the point where I started sobbing during the conversation.

Recently, Archie brought up an "issue" to our SM regarding gossip. However, the example given to me was one from at least six months ago and is not a joke I have made since then. This is not the first time Archie has seemingly brought forth issues that aren't really issues. He tends to do it when our SM is out of the store and he often monopolizes the time of our ASMs to the point of it being detrimental to the store.

After this specific conversation, I have become uncomfortable and paranoid around Archie to the point of being unable to be alone with him while working. He recently did something that sent me into a full on panic attack, which has not happened in a long time. I now feel anxious being around Archie and going into work altogether when he is present.

Other employees have expressed similar sentiments and distaste for Archie but are unwilling to come forward about it. One of my fellow employees literally said they needed to to transfer out because of him.

I put in a WeListen about him and my SM is supposed to have a conversation with our HR cluster support. But I'm worried about the outcome. I have expressed that if Archie isn't transferred or let go, I will be transferring. But I also don't want to have to move as I like my store in every other regard and have no issues with anyone else.

Has anyone had a similar situation to this? What was the outcome? I have been assured that I won't be fired but I am still anxious about the entire situation.

I know everyone had been talking about reviews lately. I’m a lead bookseller and my review honestly went really well. I have been working so hard, constantly going above and beyond, and my SM has acknowledged that many times. My store only has an SM, a lead, and three senior booksellers on our management team. After my really awesome review, I really thought I was going to get promoted. I have worked really hard to try and make that happen. Well, a week after my review my cluster leader took me aside and told me that I will never get promoted again because I just graduated with my masters and they know I don’t want to work at Barnes and noble forever. I didn’t have any plans on quitting anytime soon. Now I’m extremely angry with the company and I honestly just want to walk away. I hope I can get a new job soon. (I made a throwaway account so no one at my store knows this is me, even though they can probably figure it out lol)

Yall im so over schedules. Just myself (a lead who will be at CW), my receiving guy (hi, I know you’re here), and a cafe person are all we will have in our store until just about noon. How are we supposed to keep up on shelving, on project, on shelf talkers, when we can’t even get people into the store? We’re maxed on people we can call to help because everyone works the closing shift (SHELVING STILL DOESNT GET COMPLETED) and it’s driving me up the fluffing wall! It’s like this more often than not now and… I don’t even know if the discount is worth the stress anymore. I love this job but what I’m doing isn’t what I signed up for.

Why is it every time I need to use the bathroom in our store, some person in there is moaning and grunting while they poop?
I can't leave to use the bathroom often, so when I'm rushing to go and someone else is in here panting and grunting like their life is ending I feel repulsed!
Why are customers like this???

Hey I’ve been working at barnes part time for i think four years now? normally over the summer my hours go up since im not in school and im more available than the 20-25 hours im averaging a week but every schedule posted since school let out has me working nearly 40 hours and well over 30. I get our store is understaffed but is this normal for a part timer to be putting in full time work? Also it works out that i work everyday but thursday and friday and then have been asked to come in on those days anyways. Normally i would say okay (hence why I average a decent amount of hours) But frankly i feel like if I say no they’ll be mad and if i say yes i’m working 2 weeks in a row.