Office Depot Reviews

Pros

The management is very easy to work with for a schedule when you are a student or have other commitments.

Gives breaks and lunches more often than some state laws require.

Cons

Associates and management often end up dumping their work on each other.

New management that is hired is often from outside the company and has very poor performance.

Bias against associates that actually voice their concerns.

Never enough time to get required tasks done at closing.

Customer oriented strategies are reminiscent of those of a used car salesman.

Students and part-timers have little opportunity to advance and rarely recognized for their accomplishments.

Advice to Senior Management

Corporate needs to stop with the smoke-and-mirrors (the customer service strategies, Depot Time, etc) and start listening to their employees and understand what is really causing Office Depot to fail.

Pros

Tasks are very structured. A lot of growth opportunities. The environment is very relaxed. Everyone is treated fairly and stores are good size.

Cons

There is nothing specific to the company. In general you come across lack of communication, lack of direction sometimes. It is more related to ones manager than the company

Advice to Senior Management

The company should spend more time on training. They should look at the roles of the department managers and either reduce their responsibilities or increase their compensation.

Pros

If you are willing to voice your needs and find the right person to voice them to, you will eventually get satisfaction.

Benefits are better than average overall.

Management very supportive of personal time off requests

Cons

Management quality is very uneven--some are fantastic, some are beyond poor.
Upper management is generally reactionary to outside influences instead of focused on innovation or using ideas of "line" employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Review your hiring criteria for new managers. Do not trade off talent for those willing to work for a lower salary or who fit a certain general expectation of what you think a "good" manager is. take some risks already, don't play it safe or hire people who will just follow your orders or seem like they will be easy to control

Pros

fellow employees some managers
lunch hours close to home

Cons

corporate has know clue.Another new program. How many in the last 10 years?
micro managing from scheduling to programing us with what we are allowed to say to the customer. Keep cutting hours that will keep the customer coming back. DM's always negative and always with the threats.

Advice to Senior Management

get a realality check
get on undercover boss and get in real world not test stores

Pros

Retail expeirence
If you like to talk and boss people around - this is the job for you.

Cons

All part-timers (some exceptions) act like wannabe managers. Constant quizzes cause brain lapses. Squeeking on radio while with customer.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop giving permission to low level associates to be mini-managers. Pushy sales a problem - No means NO.

Pros

Decent pay. Chance to make bonuses.

Cons

Benefits not great. Way too much responsibility for one person with no help from upper management.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop with all the ridiculous tasks! 3000 price changes in one day!?! Pogs that don't really need to be changed!?! It's pointless and stops associates from helping customers.

Pros

Great place to work.- green energy, clean and pleasant work envrionment
Corporate culture improvement
Focus on customers (finally...)

Cons

The top heavy structure issue has not been changed, unless it's getting worse even after the new CEO.

Advice to Senior Management

Except the IT division, almost a half of the employees are Senior Managers and above. Too many chiefs and not enough warriers.
Try to re-evaluate what they are doing on a daily basis and what values they have been brought to the company. Gather feedback from the entire corporate citizens, not just from your corporate friends. Work on your poor self-awareness before you talk about "leadership".

Pros

Some of the employees are fun to work with.
Benefits are decent...they are slowly being taken away.
Managers are fairly flexible if you need time off.
Rarely have to work more than 43 hours a week.

Cons

It is a hypocritical company
Unrealistic expectations
No consistency
Lazy employees
Managers are horrible
No communication
Negative energy
Low company moral

Advice to Senior Management

Manage!!
Hold everyone to the same standard!
Make a decision and stick with it!
Work as hard as your hardest worker
Step up to the plate and hold people accountable

Pros

Fast paced clean environment. Potential to increase your income from personal effort on the sales floor with some limited commissions. Advancement opportunities available for those interested in the long term..

Cons

Might not be a good fit for those used to commission based sales. Sales events tend to be consistently underestimated so extra income opportunities tend to be limited to "stock on hand".

Advice to Senior Management

More overstocking for some of the sales might be a good idea for those customers who come to late for a sale who are more interested in the item and not just the sale price.

Pros

Associate discount.
The co-workers are nice.

Cons

On your feet all day.
Poor training.
Too few hours, too many employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a good hard look at your policies. Seventy percent of the people at this branch are "In Training', but you have no leaders to adequately train the employees.