Barnes & Noble Reviews

Pros

Decent health insurance, fair discount program.

Cons

low salaries, below poverty line in most cases. lack of support from district, regional, and corporate offices. lack of feedback. resistant to make updates/repairs/etc to save bottom line money.

Pros

Benifits are top rate.Hours required to work are very good.Can borrow books to read for two weeks at no charge,Discount for employees,

Cons

Upper management is only worried about there own standing with company.They are very two faced and clickish.They give very little help to booksellers.Will take credit when all is going well and give you a lot of grieve when not.

Advice to Senior Management

You should treat your employees with respect.If you say you are going to do something,follow thru.Positive re enforcement would go along way.

Pros

Good environment and very likable coworkers.

Cons

Managers could be terrible at times.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more articulate

Pros

You are whats going on in Media. Barnes and Noble knows technology is ever changing and so they constantly change and inspire new readers and tech people

Cons

Salary is low, and raises are few and far between

Advice to Senior Management

give reviews and raises according to personal performance not store performance.

Pros

Free snacks, Free fruits, Free coffee
Still has a recognizable name

Cons

The group is led by the two most disorganized and clearly unfit mangers I have ever seen. The main one comes from Time Inc, and looks about as able to run a concession stand, much less a dynamic digital newsstand. The other is just in over his head.

Between the two, communication, organization and just about anything else of professional process and dynamic management shrinks to almost infinitesimal sizes. The staff has been a revolving door, most unable to even deal with the giant chaos that is around the group. Magazine publishers have slowed from a dynamic start of 100 publications to a trickle since the new year for the NOOK Color and other devices. They have a poor intern in charge of bringing in magazine materials and dealing with the outside vendor digital process.

The two left, since everyone else has escaped or simply been cut, have no cohesive management processes nor the charisma of perhaps a coffee can. So what is left is a chaotic vacuum and heaps of confusion due to the lack of basic business structure, principles and personnel to handle the workflow and load.

Both tend to support one another, and nothing else, so what is constantly left is the daily dysfunction as these two enablers continue to deride the NOOK Color's big introduction in 2010 by failing to get a constant flow of publications onboard, and in a timely manner. Short-staffed, they operate with managers stuck doing menial tasks or with others to fill the void they are sucking out of the division.

A constant meeting culture, with terrible time and personnel budgeting and strategy leaves one unable to do their job till after 5pm at times.

Sadly, the upper-management, after over a year of these two running amok, do not pay attention to the overall malaise of morale and schisms in the daily workflow. They are out of touch, and a big enablers of these problematic issues that do not just include the Newsstand, but many other BN.com divisions or verticals, as the overall atmosphere is chaotic, disorganized, and dysfunctional.

It is a terrible place to work, they basically do not care about employees or careers, just about bottom-lines, as they hemorrhage.

Advice to Senior Management

Fire the Digital Newsstand and hire managers and directors who can manage and direct people. These two couldn't manage their way out of a paper bag.

Pros

Great discounts, cool people around me that I work with, we all can hate our jobs together, relaxed with piercings and hair and is ok with people being individuals .

Cons

Working there isn't about a love of books or coffee, it's about selling memberships, nooks, and upselling people to a bigger size of drink or more food. It's not about helping the customers, and management barely cares about the employees. My store is severely understaffed and yet they are still trying to cut peoples hours. Managers don't do their jobs, general manager often just takes personal calls while at work or just isn't at work when she should be. Not very supportive management team, the two good managers don't have as much say as they do. People aren't properly trained, managers hang out with lower employees and the work place is incredibly cliquey. Promotions are based on favoritism. Often schedule people outside their availability. I work 35 hours a week and don't get full time benefits.

Advice to Senior Management

Actually be helpful towards your employees, keep work and personal life separate, and actually learn how to train and don't cut hours in a way that holds back productivity.

Pros

- Health insurance is fantastic
- Fellow employees are (usually) great, interesting people
- Can be a lot of fun, helping customers
- Keeps you on top of current events
- You can meet some of the best people, working there
- Discount is great for employees
- Flexible scheduling
- Some of the managers are incredibly kind and willing to help out both old and new employees

Cons

- Minimal manager support
     - Managers often spend their time in the office, not helping out on the floor
- Will bend over backwards to make an angry customer happy, but not stand behind the employee (there is no "customer is always right" policy at BN)
- Those that work the cafe are not allowed tips
- Promotions are rare, and though they say they hire within, many times, they interview people that have never worked with BN before
- They start at minimum wage, and ask a lot of their employees
- Focusing too much on the member card, threatening demotion or firing if a certain number of cards not sold
- Not recognizing those who have been there longer, and have worked harder
- No punishments for those not carrying their weight
- I am personally disappointed to see that they don't promote from within based off of who is the most qualified, who would do the best job. It's all about who they like more.
- Management has been known to slowly shave down the hours of an employee they don't like

Advice to Senior Management

Cool off with the member card. Making the credit card a required item turns off a lot of customers, and loses a lot of sales. Make sure the managers you hire actually enjoy books, and know to respond to employee calls for backup. Also, paying more would encourage employees and supervisors to care more about their jobs (as a manager, $10 an hour is hardly enough to live off of in this area) and ensure better morale and productivity.

Pros

If they follow the company guidelines, excellent place. Great benefits. HR definitely backs the employees. Not a lot of unreasonable customers. They go out of their way to give great quality of outside life.

Cons

Sometimes office politics get in the way. Some of the managers can be too office based versus floor/work based. Retail.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what you are doing. It seems like you are trying everything you can to keep the company working in such a tough climate.

Pros

Great people to work with. Everybody is good about helping out when it gets pretty busy. The benefits are pretty amazing as well. I love the books.

Cons

The starting salary was not that good but over time it got increased. It takes a while for the company to implement change.

Pros

book discount for avid readers

Cons

retail outlook for actual books will suffer as more e-readers hit market -poor job market

Advice to Senior Management

how will the CRM position fare as e-readers take over