OfficeMax Employee Review

Current Employee – been working at OfficeMax part-time for less than a year

Pros – - Open door policy gives you access to a plethora of information to track your own performance. Giving the lowest level employees access to 80% of the data that management has creates an environment which empowers the employee to strive above set goals.
- Management works to train you for your goals. If you were honest in what you were looking for at the job, they will do what they can to make sure you get the most out of it.
- Job is not inherently demanding. Aside from some lifting, lots of standing, and ability to multitask, you are not going to be challenged severely.

Cons – - You are expected to become knowledgeable on all products as you are not assigned to a department. Can be troubling for those who have difficulties processing and retaining plenty of detail.
- Due to the minimum wage nature of the job, often employees will be lazy and therefore the balance of work duties is often unfair. For instance, there will be situations where one employee is engaging two or three customers, while other employees are standing around talking.
- You are expected to push the service plans and high margin goods. This is standard practice in most businesses, however at OfficeMax the managers will often have a negative attitude toward you for not selling a service plan, even though you did your best and the customer simply declined.

Advice to Senior Management – The experience from store to store varies greatly. Try and create more guidelines and metrics that can ensure the experience is consistent. Use secret shoppers to ensure that all levels of the store are functioning at acceptable levels. Encourage store managers to quickly promote or otherwise compensate those employees who consistently work above expectations to prevent lethargic behavior. While SPIFFs are useful, realize that shoppers are there for the engagement rather than the products or prices, which employees will often hear are cheaper at Wal-Mart or Staples. Pushing MaxAssurances onto customers may result in higher profits, but it results in employees who give false information about products to ensure sales and add-ons. A few times per week a customer will come in and complain that they were deceived, and this is the root to a major problem.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend