Paper Source Reviews

Cons

Retail hours aren’t always preferred

Cons

Not offering benefits for those who work part-time.
The pay is decent but could pay a bit more.

Cons

Salary, management, rigidity, lack of training

Cons

Holiday hours were long (to be expected in retail). It was sometimes challenging to manage staffing as the majority of the staff is part-time.

Cons

Under paid and too much asked from part time help

Cons

As the company grows, they have cut hours with higher pressures on staff to complete tasks. Also, depending on the general manager, you may be well trained and empowered or the complete opposite.

Cons

It being part-time and retail, it's nearly impossible to rely on a consistent schedule or even a schedule more than a week in advance. Even though it's a creative environment, there are so many creative restrictions when it comes to making samples and teaching workshops. Little room for creative exploration outside of the specified curriculum.

Cons

It feels like no progress was made to help stores run better. The company needs to streamline the way the stores operate. They ask us to be customer focused. However, the amount of manual work that needs to be done (window builds, floorsets, workshops, ENTIRE custom print process) just to operate overrides the customer's experience.
It's often confusing to know what to focus on... helping customer's in a way that makes them want to buy more... or making sure a stockroom is spotless clean on top of recutting window vinyl (on slow machines that must be manned by an associate) because communication was last minute and often times, incomplete.
Yes, we realize that operations are important. We just wish the company would do more to make the process of operating easier. It's very archaic and doesn't seem that attention has been given to the processes.

Cons

Some of the systems are old but are now getting improved with technology upgrades

Cons

The pay does not account for all the other duties one may have to do, such as:
- custom print (the amount of time and effort definitely calls for some form of commission-based compensation)
- teaching workshops (oftentimes a small handful of employees are the main workshop teachers while others have never taught a single one; this plus the new $ 50 workshop fee should be more than enough to pay teachers extra for the classes they teach, which they are often volunteered for rather than asked)
- giftwrapping, which is a $ 6 charge to customers but the money doesn't go to the employee who wrapped. wtf?
- inventory, stocking, and heavy lifting, though that is included in the job description as a requirement (while the first two aren't!)

Hours can be very scarce and corporate has taken it upon themselves multiple times to reduce the amount of hours given to a store while also failing to provide merit-based raises (cutting our budget) OR not enforcing to the store managers that merit-based raises are mandatory after a certain amount of time worked (I have worked here since Nov 2015 and have not received a single raise or employee review besides the increase of minimum wage).

There is little training for custom print and, again, no commission for placing orders no matter how many hours or shifts one has worked to complete said order. One of my coworkers consistently places orders for $ 800+ and spends several hours, phone calls, emails, and even uses her personal time to communicate with the custom print headquarters and the customers but still makes minimum wage.

Certain employees are expected to teach workshops with little to no notice in advance. I also feel that certain employees rarely receive shifts unless they are for teaching a workshop. Workshops / private parties can include over 10 guests, which goes beyond the limit of only 8 participants, and oftentimes they are young children and only one employee to wrangle them all while keeping track of time and teaching the material at hand. It's very unfair and, again, there are employees who have not taught a single workshop while you are made to teach several a month despite your wishes of toning down your number of classes.

Gift wrapping costs $ 6+, but the money goes straight to Paper Source's pocket, not the employee who actually wrapped the gift. This makes no sense, moral or otherwise, as a human is doing the wrapping and should be paid for their service. It does not get added onto your paycheck, so there is no compensation fo doing a giftwrap, no matter how large or cumbersome the package is. If you're lucky, a very generous customer may give you a couple dollars as a tip, but that's it.

There is an (annoying) emphasis on customer registry, even though the interface has changed and makes it more difficult to enroll customers onto our email list. Many times customers simply don't want to get our emails, which is beyond our control, but employees are reprimanded anyway if their registry numbers are low.