Pros
They give out candy bars on payday. They let you listen to music while you work. They're pretty good about being flexible with schedules. They brought food for the employees once a week, though that stopped during the pandemic and I don't know if they're doing it again.
Cons
While I was there, Jenson Online had a systemic communication problem. For example, in 2017 there was a software glitch that ruined people's book scanning numbers for a few weeks. Management gave me a production warning the first time my numbers were too low, but never followed up with "Oops, sorry, disregard that production warning because it turns out there's a software glitch." Management never mentioned it to me at all. I only knew what was going on because I kept asking quality control people about it. Apparently they were important enough to be kept in the loop. Jenson Online a policy that you got three warnings before they permanently suspended you from forklift driving. In my case, I got zero warnings. In 2018 management just stopped assigning me to drive the forklift, and when my team lead friend put me on it, another team lead took me off. After *three months* management sent a team lead to inform me, within earshot of other employees, that I was suspended from forklift driving. He gave me a paper explaining why. Much of it was from a manager who had conveniently quit some time ago, and much of it had to do with me not following a new gaylord-stacking policy that management had not communicated to me. I complained, and ended up in a meeting with members of management who determined that they had, in fact, treated me unfairly and violated company policy. I was reinstated to forklift driving. Responding to a remark I had made about intending to quit as soon as possible, one of the highest managers said he didn't want me to quit because I was such a good employee. This part isn't a complaint, but I provide it in the interest of full disclosure because of what comes next. In 2020 I met with management again and got a written warning for using the wrong timecode. Basically, one time when the shipping labels stopped scanning and I had to type them all in manually, thus bringing my numbers way down, management told me to use time code 11, which normally was used when looking for lost books that someone's ordered but we couldn't find. So after that I just always used timecode 11 when the scanner stopped working. On this occasion, management assured me that they liked me and were pleased with my performance, and that if they thought I'd been deliberately dishonest they would have just fired me. I was also under the impression that management liked me and was pleased with my performance. For a while, at least, I was consistently scanning books fast enough to hit the highest pay grade, and my error rate was almost always very low, and management told me I was very fast at picking (getting books from the shelves after they were ordered), and when they started giving out candy bars for finding title mismatches (when a book gets listed wrong so that someone will order it thinking it's a different book) they marveled at how many I found and jokingly asked how I stayed so skinny with all those candy bars. I'm not very outgoing, and I kept to myself as much as possible and listened to my music while working, but I thought I had good relationships with people. The first time I quit to focus on school, management told me I could come back whenever I wanted. So I did. Then I quit again last August to start graduate school and working as a graduate instructor. Management was sad to see me go again. I had every expectation of coming back for the summer, but when I tried I was told, "I have spoken with the other members of management that you have worked with in the past, and due to your past behavior and lack of respect towards team leads and members of management we do not wish to continue a working relationship with you." I was blindsided and devastated by what is very difficult to regard as anything but a barefaced lie. "Past behavior"? I can only think of the two incidents mentioned above, both of which were resolved amicably, the first of which was management's fault by their own admission. "Lack of respect"? I have not the slightest clue what this refers to. In my 44 months working there I never deliberately disrespected any team lead or member of management, and if I did so inadvertently, not one of them ever mentioned it to me in my 44 months working there. I did what I was asked to do like any other employee. I'm on the autism spectrum - a fact that I disclosed to management when I first applied - and used to being misunderstood, but even so, I can't fathom where this came from, or why management chose to pretend they liked me and were pleased with my performance if they had a problem with me. I vented to a friend who used to be a member of management. This friend said, "The management there is literally the worst management I have ever worked under between the 7 different jobs I've had in my lifetime. I honestly don't know how they haven't gotten in more trouble by now." That sounds about right.
