I felt other employees out there are just as angry and disrespected as I am, and are probably glad that someone said what they REALLY felt about the work situation in Barnes & Noble. I am a very honest person, brutally honest, and I will not sugar-coat this because someone's 'feelings' might be hurt. This is not aimed at all of the Barnes & Noble's companies, just the particular one I work at. I always loved the store, I love books. I really do... Before I worked there and got stuck working in the god-forsaken Cafe. Which is why I applied to work there in the first place... But I quickly learned lots of things about Barnes & Noble that the customers DONT see and the prospective future employee doesn't know and won't know until its too late. So here it goes...
Well, Barnes & Noble isn't such a great place to work, especially if your new and a female. Mostly if you're new. I applied to work as a bookseller, not work like a slave girl in the cafe where everyone is such a nerd (except ashley, darnell, and abe) (and the others I haven't met yet) they dream about frappucino ingredients and the sales code for White Chocolate Mocha Lattes... And freak over a small dot of a spill of raspberry syrup... WTF, isn't that ridiculous? Lord, no matter how smart you are, or how many degrees you hold, they will STILL manage to make you feel like the biggest tard in the world JUST because you don't know all the ingredients to the perfect caramel macchiato and can't figure out how to calculate the bake log BECAUSE THEY CANT EXPLAIN THE MOST SIMPLEST MATHEMATIC PROCEDURES!!! Who's the dumbass here? Not me that's for sure. I was like " What the f*, why didn't you say this in the first place instead of making me feel like an illiterate dumb dog?" No wonder they can't keep trainees. The more experienced call in sick (they're all hangovers I bet, doesn't count as a sickness to me.) (if you know you've got work the very next day, don't drink or get high idiots! You're f*ing ruining it for those who actually are sick! Bastards...) because they most likely don't want to help train new people and are probably tired of the day after day of crap they have to deal with including customers with attitudes, and employers who treat them like asses. They don't even pay you alot. Customers told me that Starbucks would pay better, and some have offered me better jobs, but I said I was still new and I wanted to stick with this one to see how it goes. Well yesterday would be my 7th day if I went to work, and today would be my 8th but I have off. Tomorrow, Tuesday, would be my 9th. I'm seriously considering to quit, and find me a much better, more fulfilling, and meaningful job than standing for 7-8 hours straight on my feet (it feels like there's razor blades inside of my feet, sometimes it gets so bad I limp and can hardly walk without feeling excruciating pain, this is the worse its EVER felt, and i've been wearing stiletto heels everyday since the 10th grade!), people who are supposed to train you but make you feel like a f*ing dumbass and joke you behind your back (im sure they've said things about me, because I know they were joking Ashley) (even the manager, Swapna, I heard her and another person Jennifer joking the girl as I was bringing a clean trash can out of the back and they stopped as soon as i can around the corner), and if your are new and a female like me and you are a hardcore workaholic and you don't complain and do what you have to do, they ABSOLUTELY WILL give you all the hard, heavy and dirty work they don't want to do and will NOT hesitate to pile even more work on you even though its clear that you have enough things already on your hands, you're tired, you're slightly limping because your feet are in excruciating pain, you look completely burnt out and stressed out, and pissed off and tired.
This past Saturday, I think it was the 25th, was a horrible day and the worsest one I had there. I've been getting sicker and sicker since Wednesday last week, and my breathing on Saturday morning was horrible. I could hear and feel my lungs cracking. I had a migraine, and I felt nauseated. I DID NOT want to be around people's food being sick like that, but it seems they don't really care about hygiene, because NONE of them wash their hands. You can tell I do, because my hands are dry and chapped from the tap water, and that generic anti-bacterial soap they give employees to wash their hands with, and from using the dishwasher (I do almost ALL of the dishes everytime). They barely go out on the floor to wash the tables, and when they do they only clean the OBVIOUSLY dirty ones (meaning whip cream everywhere, crumbs all over the table and chairs and the floor around it, drinks and coffee spilled all over the place that a f*ing lazy dirty ass customer left for us (or me) to clean up, sugar all over the place, etc) AND guess what? THEY ONLY CLEAN IN ONE SPOT NOT THE ENTIRE TABLE!!! Ugh eew eew eew!!! And they dont even dry that one spot!!! WTF??? People eat at those tables, they put their drinks up there, they read their papers and magazines and books, they study there, they put their laptops there, they put their nice purses and briefcases, their children sit at the tables with them!!! Children love to touch things and put it in their mouths! What the hell is wrong with these people? They do everything half-assed, sloppy, and take shortcuts in everything, even the most simple things. One of the employers is constantly musty, but I don't think they know it or hopes that everyone else doesn't smell it and ignores it. One of them is a complete coffee freak and a mega nerd. Ashley called that person a 'coffee nazi'. Ha, hilarious cuz its true. Completely obsessed with coffee... Ridiculous. Then one guy is a complete neat freak, to the point of utter insanity, and flirts with the other gay men there and is a total diva, and makes all the females feel stupid and inferior, and gives them all the hard and dirty work. Bitch, I can f*ing count you little fairy! At least I won't be making coffee and frappuchinos for the rest of my life! And obsessing over scones and cookies and asiago pretzels (which are delicious by the way), and cleaning counters counter clockwise, not the other way around... Damn boy. Get a life, woman. Quit prancing around the store, flirting with the other gay guys there, build your vocabulary pass the 'teenage high-school girl' level (quit saying ' Yay!' all the time, it makes me feel like you just potty-trained me), AND QUIT pretending you're not insulting me right to my f*ing face bitch. I'm not stupid! Flabby, no ass self. Ugh. AND they all LOVE to gossip... So unprofessional. No wonder some of the Barnes & Noble employees stay to themselves.
Okay, so once I got slaving away while they're chit chatting about getting hammered and going bar hopping later that night, and Swapna wanting to murder the kindergardeners she used to teach (yet she claims she was good with them... Hmm) (having homicidal thoughts towards small, defenseless children DOES NOT make you good with children AT ALL you nutcase, and its NOT funny!), and I was walking back to the cafe with a new trashbin, I heard Swapna and Jennifer joking the new girl Ashley, they said she was real preppy and was laughing at her. Ashley happens to be the nicest person there, and the funniest there too. She may look like one of those 'OH MY GOD'*flips hair* types, but she isn't. As a matter of fact, she has a double major in art AND in criminal law, is an intern in the Art Theft branch of the FBI, and knows 5 languages. She's not lying about it either, I believe her. She's beauty, humor, brains, and fun all in one. They make her feel like an idiot too. So, Im not the only one. They stopped talking about her once I came around the corner. Cowards. Anyways, my shift has been over for a half an hour now, after EVERYTHING was completely done, I go to the back room, and get my purse and jacket. The front door was locked, so I unlocked it to get out, and my mom picked me up and took me home. Keep in mind Swapna, Geoffe, and Jennifer were STILL inside. Sunday, I decided to just stay home because I was dead tired, and very ill, my feet felt like I was walking on jagged pieces of glass and I was limping slightly. I was so damn tired, I didn't wake up in time to call in 2 hours ahead of time to let them know I will not be coming in. (Saturday I called ahead of time, and told them I was sick and everything I said above about me being in pain and ill, but they said tons of people have already been calling in sick and they've found all the replacements they could for them, and the Cafe is really stretched. So, I came in anyways as crappy and down as I felt because I didn't want anyone to have to be overworked and stretched thin trying to work and keep things running smoothly. When I got there, there was 4 to 5 people behind that corner, so it seems to me they were lying and everything was fine. Everything looked taken care of, and they weren't struggling at all.) (Of course you can see the results of that day from what I've written above) I got a call from Barnes & Noble, and they told me that I was 30 minutes late. I explained to them I was sick and in pain, and I already came in Saturday and tried my best to make it through. Then they said I left without permission which is total bull because no one tells me when to go home especially when my shift is over. THEN that one of the morning people discovered that the door was left open all night, and guess who they blamed it on??? ME!!! First off, I'm brand new at that job so I don't have a key to get in or out, to open or to close the store. Second, I was the first to leave and Swapna, Geoffe, and Jennifer were still inside. Why the f* would I lock them inside? I can't even do that because I DONT have a key!!! Why didn't they lock the door?! Swapna is one of the top 3 managers there, and happened to be the manager responsible for closing the store Saturday night. I was out before they were, I must've left a few minutes before they did. Why didn't Swapna lock the door?!? That has nothing to do with me! I'm just a damn trainee there, why would they give me a key to open and close such a HUGE store? I think that Swapna, Jennifer and Geoffe were so busy talking about getting drunk or whatever, Swapna forgot to lock the store up. Once she, or they all realized that, they were shitting in their pants because that's a MAJOR no no AND HUGE grounds for getting fired. So, to their convenience I happened to leave before they did, and I also happened to be the new girl, and I'm very quiet and I keep to myself. So, Im the scapegoat and I'll probably end up getting fired for something I DID NOT do and wasn't even capable of doing so in the first place because I'm expendable. Somehow, I'm not important enough to have a job there and they are because they've been there longer. There's more managers and assistant managers, they can be EASILY replaced dammit!!! I can't! They need cafe people, they can't afford to fire any cafe people. Managers are easy to replace there. Why are they trying to pin that on me? I've barely been there a week and a half, and they're blaming me for something THAT serious!!! I need a job, I need the money as little as they are paying me and as much crap I had to go through in just a matter of days. Dammit, I'm f*ing poor, my family struggles and that little bit of $6.75 counts every bit in my house, I can't deal with this f*ing shit when I have to help out my family with food, clothing, and helping to pay rent. They're willing to pin the blame me for not locking up the store (which AGAIN I CANNOT DO THAT BECAUSE I NEVER HAD A KEY IN THE FIRST PLACE) and get me fired in order to save their own asses. I don't think so. I don't get played or tricked like that. This is my first job, and I bust my ass trying to do the best I can and do all that needs to be done. I don't complain, I'm not lazy, I learned very quickly (I was there only for a little over a week, and I got more compliments from customers than any of them do, and I acted more professionally and like I had more experience than people who've been there for 2 years.), I did all the heavy, hard, and dirty work without complaining once, and I stood for hours as my feet experienced extreme pain, and my back was aching. Didn't complain ONCE. They kept on asking me to do this and do that, while already doing that and this, plus more and then some more after that. I feel like a f*ing slave girl! They constantly insult my intelligence like im a f*ing idiot... Now they want to 'talk' to me Tuesday morning??? F* that shit. If things don't go well, and they refuse to hear my side, and won't reason or be logical or rational... F* it. I'm gone. Good luck finding someone who would bust their ass for a joke of a wage, deal with mean and disrespectful customers, deal with ignorant and sarcastic and passive aggressive employees that make it a point to make you feel like a dumb ass and a paraplegic and won't even give you 5 seconds to think before telling you "Amanda you can't just stand there, do something.", going hungry all day (and you're only allowed a small cup of water) because you have no money and the customers DONT TIP as RICH as B&N's customers usually are and no one cares if you're hungry and won't even offer to give you a lousy dollar or 50 cents for the snack machine, being on your feet hours at a time and you know they see you in pain and that you have a slight limp and can see it in your face that you are in pain but won't offer to take your place until you feel a little bit better AND STILL pile on more work for you to do when they can CLEARLY DO IT THEIR DAMN LAZY ASS SELVES but don't want to work too hard or get their hands dirty, they pretend like you're invisible and you don't exist other than to do something for them or do their job while they take a break, AND THEN they want to lie on you and set you up to get you fired for something YOU DIDNT do;because you're a very hardworking person, you don't complain at all, you're quiet and keep to yourself and therefore they feel they can walk all over you and you'll do anything they tell you to do because you're trying to be a good worker and want to make a good impression because its your very first job and you want customers to be treated right, eat and drink and study and read in a CLEAN environment, and you want them to be comfortable... I hate people who take advantage of hard workers to make their jobs easier than it already is. No wonder they can't keep new people, and new people are constantly quitting and hate that place.
I refuse to be treated like this, and then they get away with it... There's GOT to be laws against this or unions out there that could help me... I don't want trainees or unsuspecting people who want to work at Barnes & Noble to get duped or tricked into working there without knowing what its really like. Know your rights, don't let them shit all over you AND let them get away with it. Get as many opinions as you can get. Don't just quit and let them just forget about how you were treated, and all the hardwork that was nothing to them. Barnes & Noble is NOT cracked up to what it seems to be. Its just for show. They treat new people like their own personal slaves, and like dummies. I won't stand for this, and I won't let them get away with this, and I won't allow them to continue to treat new people like this.
Amandanorfolk, Virginia
U.S.A.
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