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Powell's Books

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Powell's Books reviews

3.1

38% would recommend to a friend

(117 total reviews)

Emily Powell

1% approve of CEO

14% positive business outlook

Powell's Books has an employee rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, based on 117 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Powell's Books employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

117 reviews
2.0
Sep 9, 2016

Buyer

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people are the best. Skilled, hard working, friendly. The books. Its wonderful getting to be around the books. The union will do everything in there power to have your back.

Cons

Management is disconnected with actual operations and the managers that do care or advocated for their teams get punished or forced out. HR actively watches and jumps on any and all opportunities to add notes in your files about misconduct of any variety, so if the opportunity arises they can discipline you enough times to fire you eventually. They have a bad habit of firing people or disciplining people for small infractions. Anyone who has been there the longest can now tell you of the fallen coworker who were driven out to make way for new part time employees. Cameras watch your every move.

2.0
Jun 5, 2021

Worse all the time

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good discount on used books, health insurance is pretty good

Cons

Actively go out of their way to screw over union employees. Cannot be trusted to their word. They blamed their money troubles during the covid shutdown on the employees, saying they paid us too much. After they started reopening they did everything they could to cut our compensation back to what you get when you first get hired, even for people that had spent decades with the company. They really like to look like a fun indie bookstore, but Ive worked for giant corporations that cared more about their employees

2.0
Oct 2, 2018

Skip this place, not worth it

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Co-workers, book borrowing policy, location

Cons

Upper management is insane and can't even clarify their own policies

Viewing 1 - 3 of 117 Reviews

Glassdoor has 123 Powell's Books reviews submitted anonymously by Powell's Books employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Powell's Books is right for you.