1. The pay is terrible. Part timers start at minimum wage, even if they're going to work in areas of the store that require some expertise such as technology or copy center. Office Depot loves to take advantage of not paying their employees but demanding things from them like they make $50K. Not only that, but raises are often a joke. After an ENTIRE YEAR, people will get a 2.5% raise as a maximum. So if you make $8.05 (minimum in FL), after a year, you can move up to ~$8.24. As a full-timer, I was making $10/hr working in technology. I left the company, things didn't work out with the new job, and my manager asked if I wanted to come back since I left on good terms. I didn't want to, but came back and was told that I'd be starting back at $9.55.
2. Management, in-store and corporate. In my time at Office Depot, I've seen several managers get cycled through. Most of them are lazy and sit in their office talking on the phones with their friends. You get a couple good ones here and there who truly care about the people and the job, but most suck. Corporate is a joke. They too cycle through CEO's and VP's and DM's, each thinking they know what will "fix" the company. They send down new focuses and goals and edicts, but it never works because it's always something that seems like a stupid sales psychologist came up with. Recently, they've started sticking people with scripts to promote the free PC Tune Up (which is a borderline scam), and to sell the extended warranties. If they catch you not saying EXACTLY (word for word) what they tell you to say, they threaten to document it and put it on your record, which will prohibit you from getting a raise for the year and with 3 documentations, results in termination. This is held over your head constantly.
3. There is little to no upward mobility in this company. I worked as a part-timer for 4 years before I received an opportunity as a full-time employee. I was told 2 years in that they were looking at me as management material, and trained me on management duties for 6 months. Nothing ever came of it. In 6 years, I've seen 1 manager promoted from a regular associate to management and it came out of pure desperation.
4. At Office Depot, customer service is key. The prices and selection of inventory are terrible, and management knows this, so they need something to fall back on. I think this is the right way to do things, but the message from corporate is mixed. We recently implemented a more strict return policy, which was needed because Office Depot is a high theft store. The return policy was simple: for most high-dollar tech items, a receipt is required and there is a term of 14 or 30 days for returns, depending on the item. A couple weeks into this new policy, one of our assistant managers denied a return on a $200 printer because the customer had no receipt. The customer called our corporate hotline and complained. Corporate sent her a $200 check for her printer, let her keep the printer, and demanded that the assistant manager get written up. I guess the message is that we have a return policy, but if you stick to the return policy, you get written up. Great. This creates a culture where we get a lot of repeat customers who know they can game the system and get whatever they want. They will whine and cry if they don't immediately get what they want and push buttons until they do. For example: customer buys a box of 100 envelopes. 2 weeks later, returns them with 50 envelopes missing. We have to do it, because if we don't, we will get in trouble. Seriously. There is no accountability placed on the customer. Office Depot literally goes by the old creed "the customer is always right," even though that is a wrong-headed approach to serious business.
5. You can make some commission at Office Depot, but it's minuscule compared to the amount that you actually make for the company. We make commission based on extended warranties and tech services. I usually try to hide this fact from customers because it downplays the importance of those things and makes it seem as though we're only selling them to make money. We're not. We do it because EXTREME pressure is put on selling those things and in certain cases, they can be worthwhile. Still, we make 5% flat commission on those types of things, which is an absolute joke. As stated, the company puts undue pressure on it's underpaid, overworked employees to sell extraneous items because it's almost always pure profit. So, if I do everything I can to sell a $200 warranty, I make $10. If the customer never has to use the warranty (which I have to imagine happens in most cases), the company makes a massive profit on a $200 piece of paper. Store managers and district managers have bonuses tied to these things. So, if the store makes a certain percentage of it's goal, the store manager can get a $2,000+ bonus for doing NOTHING. Is that shared with the people who actually do the job? No, of course not.
6. Scheduling issues often arise for full-timers at Office Depot. Sometimes, you get reduced hours because your store is doing poorly. Other times, your schedule will be changed on a day off, and you'll come in on your next day only to find that you're an hour late or three hours early. Not only that, but you rarely get weekends off or even consecutive days off.
