Books-A-Million – “Could Be So Much Better”

Pros

Great if you love books, associate discount is nice as well as the check-out program. Customers generally appreciative and understanding. Can be downright fun at times. Met some interesting folks.

Cons

The only things that Corporate cares about are their percentages. Booksellers must offer Discount Cards, magazine scams, store surveys, and add-ons to every customer. I try to give customers the same experience I would want in a store by sparing them some of these lectures, but for this I am disciplined. It doesn't matter if you are otherwise helpful, friendly, efficient, and industrious, if you don't sell the allotted number of Discount Cards your job will be threatened. I've had some customers driven away by the aggressiveness of the Card pitches.

It is very, very hard to get any kind of advancement in the company. I know of several employees who are doing work a pay grade above what they're receiving because the management will not give them a raise or promotion. If a new manager or specialist is needed, the store will hire a brand new employee rather than promoting one of their existing members.

Discipline is sporadic and doled out in front of other employees and customers. Complaints about the policy violations of other employees (including sexual harassment issues) are seldom addressed.

Advice to Senior Management

There is more to life than Discount Cards. Customers who are hounded from the minute they walk in the door about 8 billion different promotions is not going to want to shop at that store. Stop disciplining your employees for things beyond their control (no matter how hard you try, not everyone is going to get a Card) and start rewarding them for the good work they do. There are a lot of excellent, intelligent, hard workers in this company that are being overlooked simply because their numbers are behind.

I guess it's just easier to judge a person based on their raw numbers. You don't have to take into account whether they are helpful and friendly to customers, whether they consistently and efficiently complete their tasks, or whether they are supportive of other employees. I wish the management would take all of these factors into consideration before threatening someone's job.