Decline in Company Values; Inadequate Compensation; Deteriorating Benefits
TYPICAL DAY
Begin the day by getting the cashiers out (with cash from safe) and initiating start-of-day in main server.
Resolve server and register issues, if any.(Troubleshoot/replace CPU's, receipt printers, pin pads, keyboards, scanners, etc. and coordinate with corporate product support, if needed.)
Check email.
Check voice mails.
Check/edit employee punches from previous day.
Assess employee absences/resolve staffing issues, if any.
Reconcile unmatched invoices listed on online wizard by corporate AR.
Apply account payments posted in online AR application.
Initiate wire transfers for university direct deposits, if any.
Submit billing to internal/external customers, if any to submit, and manage files.
Process payments from internal/external customers in online application, if any to process, and manage files.
Set-up internal/external customer accounts on daily basis.
Assist university departmental customers with merchandise selections for P.O. purchases.
Manage files for shipping & receiving documents for all (7) store departments.
Manage cash office: issue cashier change; visit bank for change, when needed.
Resolve customer and employee inquiries, complaints, and work issues.
Execute various spontaneous tasks and issues for store manager.
Cash out cashiers at shifts end.
Prepare end-of-day deposit, when closing.
Initiate end-of-day in main server, when closing.
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED
1) A successful retail business primarily requires efficient
ProsA post office branch is in the building, restaurants and dining facilities are in the building, free parking available (sort of; I park on the street safely), business casual attire.
ConsPay is not the best, workforce is not very diverse, must travel to advance, benefits not the best.
2.0
Anonymous Salaried Worker | United States | Aug 12, 2013
Big talk about values, poor follow-through
The cluelessness of the people at the home office is staggering. They come up with impossible-to-implement initiatives, or ideas that are so poorly conceived that, if executed as designed, will destroy customer trust
The amount of pointless paperwork and projects is so great that it is impossible to concentrate upon giving attention where it needs to be: serving the customers and doing your job.
Everything is a crisis. There is so little actual, real long-term planning. It is all reacting to perceived situations by people in the "ivory tower" of Oak Brook, people who have either never worked a day in a store, or have been in place for so long they have not had to work with the current cumbersome systems.
Home office people have no concept as to how much time it actually takes to do work in the stores. They have no idea of the intensity of research needed to cut through the cluelessness of professors ordering books which are several editions old, or the amount of finesse it takes to persuade someone to NOT try to sidestep the bookstore and go straight to some publisher who promises to line their pockets.
Home office holds us accountable for markdowns and discourages them, but announces initiatives which increase markdowns.
Home office holds us accountable for the amount of inventory in our stores, but demands we bring in more books earlier AND cuts staff while increasing pointless hoops to jump through so there are not enough people to get the returns done by th
An established business with significant chalenges
Follett is a good company with a long and established history of running college bookstore across the nation. In the past several years they have faced significant pressure from online competition and even though they have launched their own answer to this disruption their brick and mortar stores still face significant competition that they have yet to answer.
The college textbook market place is changing with new textbooks increasing in cost faster than the rate of inflation for oil, gold, and almost any other commodity, and competition for the secondary market driving the retail price of books ever down the publishers and brick and mortar stores are struggling to make sales. Largely the students using the campus bookstore are freshmen who have yet to discover the availability of cheaper online sources or student using financial aid who can least afford to purchase books themselves.
Since 2014 Follett has seen two major lay offs and a significant reorganization of store location staff. and even though they have made several acquisitions of businesses that will support their general merchandise divisions they still face significant threat to their original mission, selling books to students.
If you do decide to work for Follett as a store manager be aware that the environment will be one of diminishing returns. Fewer store resources, and personnel to make the same sales goals. Their computer applications are specialized and, frankly will take a lot of time to learn
ProsEstablished, company with a huge pool of experienced people to draw assistance from if needed.
ConsHighly disrupted market with declining in store sales.
Working for Follett was the worse time of my life. There were no raises, no insurance, no hours, no benefits what so ever. The manager would give the hours to his "favorite employee".
I have a disability and he told me that " I needed to get my head on right for the next few weeks of rush"(in-front of other employees that could hear what he said to me). That really made me feel embarrassed and ashamed. I literally was in tears and made an excuse to go outside for a minute.
He also whine about me taking my medicines for my disability because they made me groggy and would "make my job performance poor". I felt like I couldn't do anything right.
Every time I would make a mistake he would huff and puff and always address me in-front of other employees. One time I was helping a lady with her online order, there was a mistake the manager made ( he put the wrong books in her bag) I went to tell him and he snatched the paper out of my hands and huffed and puffed and was like " always confirm and make sure the order is right before sending them out the door" I said " I didn't send her out the door, I noticed the books in her bag didn't match the books on the order form". " That's why I am coming to you with this" He just rolled his eyes at me and said "whatever". So every time he made a mistake he would take his frustration out on me or somehow blame the mistake on me saying I did it. The manager also showed a lot of favoritism toward one employee,he wouldn't get mad at her for t
ProsDiscount
ConsNO raises, no benefits, no paid breaks, no career advancement, hardly any hours
(McHenry Follett) - - - leads will toss you under a bus for not meeting unfair goals every day with mandatory OVERTIME and Saturdays 6 Hours or 8 hours long. I got warned once but a few minutes passed and not even a day! I get a wright-up. people started getting the same and they were still trying as hard as they could. (A lot of people left of course.)
Some people work so hard, they could barely solve a small math problem at a 4th grade level. Bathroom breaks will ruin your goal rate, You hold it and hope your kidney doesn't fail or ware brown pants because they want to see those numbers even if the place looks like a mess for animals with books in places no one can reach. (This place is more like a labor camp.)
(Elgin Follett) - - - We were taken into a small room to get briefed on the hours for this location but nothing was printed and we were expected to remember EVERYTHING while we stood there. We were promised things like new this and that, instead on arrival from McHenry we used these scanners that would crash, freeze, and give us the wrong digits while still on rates.
Leads are not too well suited for the job, one of them looks like a high school girl pretending to be a strict secretary. occasionally rules are spoken and then broken more than once by the leads. I guess they are above the rules, everyone has their employee persona unique to them.
the job is easy for sure but these people are autistic in some way or just really uneducated. we have a kid who
I think working at Follett is a good short term job to have, especially if you are looking for work or student employment. When I worked there last fall,I had worked at least 37 hours. At the time, I was unemployed and I was desperately looking for work. There was a student employee who worked with me. But I believe she left before I left.
I think the most enjoyable part of the job was that I was able to work at the college I had graduated from. Yet, I did not get to work with any people that I knew when I went to college there. I did not realize at first that you do get at least a discount percent discount on the clothes and accessories.
The job got me excited about returning to college, which I was able to take some classes in the Fall but at a different university. It would have been great if I could have bought the books I needed while I was still working at the bookstore. Regrettably, but the position in the Fall ended before I ever got admitted and registered in the classes. (Then again, I am not sure if the discount would have applied to buying books from a different college either.)
Please note: You always want to make sure you are always on good terms with your fellow coworkers and managers. Make sure you are on time and never say anything negative about the workplace. Make sure you wear a mask and get a Covid-19 test before going to work.
It helps if you pretend to be docile or act like you do not know anything. Rather than being a strong supportive worke
ProsBecoming familiar with the textbooks and merchandise, which is useful if you are attending school
ConsLow Wages, Short job assignment, Working with some negative or toxic customers, Low Wages, Sometimes No Breaks or Lunch, You have to buy a parking permit or find your own transportation to get to the workplace
During my work at the bookstore, management was very friendly to its employees, to the point of even some of the floor supervisors going by their first names. That, however, did not mean that little was accomplished in the field; every day was a busy one in its own way. Books were always in need of shelving; before the rush, this concept was paramount on the sales floor. Any books that were overstock would then go into the stock part of the store, in the back. Book wrapping was also important, and thus from even the smallest tasks in the business I learned that those "little things" had to get done, or they could potentially have a huge effect. At one point, we had negative inventory on a very important class' book, and I'd guess that this would have set us behind in revenue in that manner. The harder parts of the job were during the rush, or rather, when all of my fellow college students would get their books most often. At one point I waited for another fellow employee to help me with bag check-in (as they couldn't bring a large bag in as a precaution against potential stealing), while I checked them in as quickly as I could. It was not the company's negligence that caused this, it was my insistence that I could do it and the ones who needed their lunch break could indeed go as scheduled; the job needed to be done. This experience was the hardest and most enjoyable experience during my working there.
However, this is not to say that I did not value my co-workers; far fro
ProsRelaxed, effective, and approachable management, friendly employees who help out with any and all questions, small and easy-to-learn facility, and emphasized customer support.
ConsSlow during non-rush days, relaxed management style occasionally affects employee output, and quick and mild training leads to some employees having to ask many questions.
Follett College Store Massasoit and UMass Boston GM positions
I worked as GM at the Massasoit Follett Store (Rated B+ within Follett) from March 2008 to August 2009, when I was promoted to the University of Massachusetts Boston Store (Rated A within Follett)
The reason for my promotion was that I was successful both financially and through excellent customer service (rated by client's comments to my RM). My Regional Manager once told me that I was the "most professional manager in all of his 25 store region".. something I was particularly proud of.
My typical day was a balance of various tasks. Part of the enjoyment of these two positions was that I was not stuck in a job rut. I could pick and choose what I wanted to accomplish on any particular day. which I did first by priority, then by choice. There was always something to do in these jobs. I would take three things off of my list and three more would appear via corporate email, through the necessity of monthly scheduled tasks or through store need.
I felt that I was accomplished in having a happy productive team in both stores. I am the type of manager who gives more than I expect and am there for my staff when they need me. I provided a strong ethical basis to staff about the importance of efficiency, productivity and communications. I was able to bring my store, through the use of great customer service (and an online customer comment reporting system called "SMG"- Used by Follett), to #3 in customer service in our entire 950 store company. I maxed out my bonus for FY14 a
ProsHours Monday through Friday - Occasional Saturday, given strong reign and decision making by my RM who had strong trust in my abilities
One of the most significant factors to the enjoyment of any career is the environment in which you work in. The relationship you uphold with faculty, staff, students, and fellow employees for this particular job has a great impact on your outlook of this job. Believing in company policy and entertaining the thought of stability and upward achievements is an another factor to keep in mind.
Throughout my experience, I was able to create lasting relationships with different members on campus. The support and outlook of the college community on the services that the bookstore provides will only increase the faithfulness between the employees and the copious amounts of people they provide services to. I can proudly say that I will walk away from this experience with more a greater understanding of the business in Higher Education. With that being said, I would not recommend working for Follett.
Last year, after less than a year of my employment, the company had significant cutbacks with no warning to the hundreds of employees who had been cut from positions that they have upheld for years. Many of those people had established relationships on campus. It does does not shed a positive light on the company as an entirety to remove someone from a community, because that's what working on a college is supposed to be: A COMMUNITY. Follett fails to address this establishment. Understandably, this is a business (and one in dire need of attempting to uphold footing as technologic
I worked mostly as a cashier and therefor spent most of my time behind the register. I tended to work in 4 different locations of the 7 our region occupied. Three of these were retail, working face-to-face with customers. The fourth was in our catalog's warehouse, filling orders. I liked that area the best since everyone seemed to get along well and the schedule was regular. Breaks, lunch, and hours were always exactly the same, which was not true in the stores. Also it was consistantly busy. The stores could be intensely busy or seriously dead. Also hours for the stores were regular. There was no guarantee that you would get a break or if it would even be on time. It seemed also that you would be in trouble equally for doing too much or too little during the day. Hours were always distributed unfairly. The company preached equality and said that family and friends working together was not allowed yet managers hired their children, neighbors, siblings,etc freely without a word being said. These people and those that would suck up to management would be able to get away with a very easy guaranteed job and plenty of hours. Recently some management in my area of the company has been switched around. Some of the people who have gotten the best reviews and are the best workers were unreasonably reviewed negatively to make room for those favored employees. All this being said, I do generally enjoy the people I work with. I frequently do things with them outside of work. Also I work
Prosco-workers can be great
Conspolitics prevalent, favoritism shown
Questions And Answers about Follett Corporation
How often do you get a raise at Follett Corporation?
Asked Jan 20, 2021
Every Year
Answered Mar 21, 2023
Rarely
Answered Mar 17, 2023
What is the promotion process like at Follett Corporation?
Asked Apr 21, 2022
Non existent unless you are in Management
Answered Mar 17, 2023
none
Answered Jan 29, 2023
What is a typical day like for you at Follett Corporation?
Asked Apr 16, 2020
Usually come into work at 6 am but I assume that depends on what college or campus their bookstore is located in and after restocking or settling in you assist students to who visit the store with purchases, cap and gowns, fasfa payments, etc.
Answered Mar 14, 2023
Very hectic although part time
Answered Feb 7, 2023
What is the best part of working at Follett Corporation?
Asked Dec 9, 2019
Working with managers
Answered Jun 29, 2022
Flexible hours
Answered Jun 2, 2022
What tips or advice would you give to someone interviewing at Follett Corporation?
