OfficeMax Reviews

Pros

respect the company ethics, good work life balance

Cons

pay is low constantly reinventing the wheel to departmentalized

Advice to Senior Management

feedback would be great

Pros

Decent promotion process if you contribute.

Pay is slightly above average.

Great people to work with and the enjoyment of seeing them develop.

Cons

Hourly employees are underpaid.

Back and forth decisions on company policies.

No communication from corporate.

Not enough positive reinforcement.

Poor work/life ratio.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest a little more money in the part time associates and you would see much less turnover. Hiring and training new associates every two weeks does not let the management focus on other issues.

Pros

Your always learning about up to date technology and business supplies.

Cons

Low pay, return policies are pointless, computers and pos systems are out dated, sales associates are required to everything in the store from register,customer service,stocking,planograms to price changes and all for minimum wage.

Advice to Senior Management

Implement a team system like every other successful company in retail. There should be a separate team for stocking,signage and sales. I feel that it would also be a good idea to pay your managers more as other companies are paying so muc more for the same position on average.

Pros

Decent flextime. Nice surroundings. Co-workers very professional and usually highly skilled. Location away from downtown Chicago is easy to get to.

Cons

Management doesn't want to get involved with any of the actual work. Programmers are given no requirements or leadership. Programmers are also very low in social class, not surprising since the company is sales driven. Highly bureaucratic.

Advice to Senior Management

Get involved. Be able to at least describe what your employees are working on. Recognize and reward accomplishment.

Pros

This company has a lot of good people.

Cons

The company is slowly shrinking.

Advice to Senior Management

Value your employees.

Pros

I have worked here going on three months and I love it. It's a great little job while going to college. Pay isn't terrific but it's not bad either for a part time job (9 bucks an hour). I love the people I work with. Everyone is extremely nice! There's not one person I don't like. Management is great and the customers are not as annoying as those at my previous job. I don't know what why some people on here are stating that it is a bad job... Maybe I am just lucky and I have a great location with great co-workers.

Cons

In this job and in every retail job sometimes you feel a bit like a robot, especially when asking if the customer has a reward card or wants a protection plan. But it's not too bad. Raises are also kind of hard to get.

Advice to Senior Management

As long as you are treating your employees with respect, are allowing flexibility with our schedules, raises, ect you should be good! Main point: Don't treat your associates like robots, not every customer is going to want a protection plan and the associate cannot control this or force them to buy something they do not want to buy. I know when I'm checking out (I am the customer) I purposely will not buy a warranty or anything extra is someone is trying to cram it down my throat.

Pros

- SPIFFS
- The people you work with
- If you enjoy helping customers.
- Friendly, clean and bright environment
- Easily trained to work in every department if you want.
- big Yes environment for customer purpose

Cons

- ctrl center tech bench=BIG Mistake, not good enough training or tools to satisfy the technician or customer.
- Company with great over head, pays its "specialist" a few cents more then the daily part time associate.
- depending store, job duties are messed up and unclear.
- Some "senior" management needs to be put through a better MIT program.

Advice to Senior Management

- Rethink the ctrl center solution, its poorly thought it leaving many of us associates issues with dealing with the customers. Officemax needs a true tech bench where we can actually fix stuff in store and not use a remote support solution.
- Pay your fantastic associates that have been there 5+ years better. Seniority, leadership, and experience are 3 aspects its hard to come by in people now days. Take care of those who pad you wallets.

Pros

Fun and energetic atmosphere.
Meeting great people.
Pretty laid back retail job.
Always around the latest and greatest in tech devices.

Cons

Forcing customers to buy protection plans by using fear tactics.
Being pushy to customers to find out if they need help.

Advice to Senior Management

Let customers FIND US if they need help. We shouldn't have to run around the store chasing customers down, only to hear them say that they are "OK".

Pros

Good flexibility with the schedules.
Good job for a college student.

Cons

Poor benefits, specially for part-time employees.
Too much pressure to achieve oftentimes unrealistic sales goals.

Advice to Senior Management

Get more feedback from the store employees, they are the ones that knows each store strengths and weaknesses the most and so what and how to improve.

Pros

Time off when you need it
Off on major holidays eg. Thanksgiving, Christmas & Easter
Close at 9 pm

Cons

Loads of work put on you always threatened about your job..OfficeMax pressures their team into selling warranties

Advice to Senior Management

Stop being so spineless to the corporate and district mgrs & treat your employees with respect. Stop selling your soul to this job and realize you're employees that make you are being mistreated in poor work conditions.. unhappy employees =unhappy customers!