Office Depot Reviews in Detroit, MI Area

Pros

If you work hard you will be noticed

Cons

the customers are very needy

Advice to Senior Management

Support your worker bees they bring in the money

Pros

Flexibility, decent bonus opportunity, great website, decent salary and benefits. They seem to have made some good decisions to save us from CHP 11...so far

Cons

Things are going downhill and it frustrating working when things change every quarter. Always new initiatives and once you get in a groove it changes.

Advice to Senior Management

Simplify everything and get over to Oracle already. Lets focus on basics and do them well. Once we're doing them well why don't we elaborate.

Pros

The customers and co-workers are great. The products that we sell (when we have them) are fun to sell. Office Depot does believe in customer service but unfortunately does not believe in the hours to get it done.

Cons

Hours to complete task and still be able to focus on customers. Focus is totally on selling services and warrantees no matter what.If you sell a customer a computer,printer,bag and a cable you just did yourself a disservice because you didn't sell a TDS or warrantee. The company would rather have you sell a laptop with a tds than sell someone $500.00 in binders and paper.

Advice to Senior Management

Can we please get back to the basics of selling our core supplies and keeping them in stock.Understand this is still a operational business and it does take associates to put freight out do plano's etc. Stop with the price changes everyday it is insane. If you want to sell tech and all the services remember it takes time I have been with customer for up to an hour setting up the laptop, printers and the service. The only one in that Dept while the other 4 associates 1 cashier,1stocker,1Dps and 1 manager run thier ass off trying to do thier job and wait on the customers. Oh yeah and heaven forbid the manager leaves the front end to wait on someone between 10-5 you might miss our ficticious shopper who spends 10.00 while not being able to wait on a customer who is ready to spend 100's

Pros

Great co-workers, flexibility to create your own schedule.

Cons

POOR management. Constantly changing the focus, always adding more to-do's to your list with no recognition for the time required to complete. Managers not consistent with follow through and never held accountable. Un-necessary training that would take up days at a time, wasting good selling time! There was no recognition except for the same few people all the time. Management would constantly be-little and make the same people feel de-valued on a consistent basis. No cpmpensation for home office costs, even when you are required to work from home.

Advice to Senior Management

Trim the correct fat....too many layers of management, not enough reps!

Pros

the best part of working with Office Depot is the people. We have a great crew and it helps when corp keeps putting more demands on us.

Cons

Corporate has no idea what it is like to work in the store. They keep cutting hours and keep giving us more tasks.

Advice to Senior Management

I would like to see someone from senior management work in a store for a week and see how many TDS & PPP's they sell while trying to do everything with no associates because hours are cut. They need to remember that the stores are why they have jobs at corp.

Pros

every store is diffrent, so this might not apply in all cases. 1. when things get clearenced you are offten the first to know and depending on how sick managment is of seeing it you can get a sweet deal like 75% off or more. 2. if you can talk to people then you will have a blast "providing excelent customer service" untill the store closes. 3. if you are willing to learn (or can sit at a computer and retain/regurtate all that you have seen) then "train track" training will teach you alot of practial info. 4. because office depot sell's a wide varitity of technology items you have access to supplier promotions like microsoft expert zone, take a bunch or test's and only pay S.H, on x-box 360 games. sony has one that you get 75% a 50+inch plasma/lcd tv. dell you get deep discounts on computers and laptops(you need to find someone that really usesthese things). 5. with what i learned there I WAS ABLE to GET A BETTER JOB

Cons

1. managment will sandbag you so be ready to play politics and buddy buddy. 9 times of 10 at least one manager will not like you and one more will pretend to like you. 2. you will not make enugh to take advantage of the discounts and suplyer promotions. 3. training is "hack and slash" managment gets graded on how many people are done with the computer part, but nothing for real world problems. i.e when the "XEROX CERTIFIED" promotion rolled out i could not keep up with the new train tracks. weeks went by i could not come in (off the clock) and i could not find time in my shift because no one could cover me. i ended up just letting it run while i worked. 4. you cant live in the same area that you work unless you room with many other people( this includs buying a house). 5. the schedual is very wishy washy i would have 16 hours one week and 38 the next, one week i hade 8.

Advice to Senior Management

reallize the burdens and loads you send down your lines. your front line people can only do so much. 2. stop pushing blame down. 3. BE REASIONABLE. 4. do not be a hypricite