Pros
The atmosphere at the corporate office is very young and upbeat. There are many opportunities within Staples to try various roles and gain different experiences, which is great. There are also several perks in the huge corporate office building: on-site food court, sundry shop, exercise classes, ATMs, Post Office, child care, etc. They try to keep the overall atmosphere fun and energized. Management does a good job of keeping all employees informed about new initiatives. The company also involves employees at all levels in contests for creating new products, appearing in advertising campaigns, making suggestions for improvements that are actually implemented, which helps boost morale.
Cons
The average age of Staples corporate employees seems to be about 28 -- people who are driven, competitive, single, and dedicated to working all hours of the day, night, weekends, holidays, to get noticed or stay on top of things. The down side of all those handy perks is that you start to feel like you're trapped in that building, never really able to leave! Middle management, in my experience, tended to be full of people who were promoted too soon -- very weak people-skills -- the focus is on the bottom line, not on keeping employees happy. If you give 100%, Staples wants 110% and so on. Some employees "drink the Kool-Aid" and seem to love it, others, like myself, who think more independently or want to bring in ideas from past experience, just never fit in and start to feel unwelcome after just a couple of months.