What's the company culture at Staples?

Every business has it's own style. What is the office environment and culture like at Staples?

Are people dressed in business casual, jeans and t-shirts, or full-on suits? Do folks get together for Friday happy hours and friendly get-togethers?

What is a typical day in the life of an employee at Staples?

we were a red shirt with a colored strip.. black pants, black shoes, black socks, black or white under shirt.

at my store atleast we get to gether and go out.. but recently we stoped for some odd reason..

typical day at staples = rutien..

Oh its terrible dude. This is not what you want. Run away from Staples instead of applying. People are treated with total disrespect. I worked their a year ago and still have nightmares!

Very discriminating towards single mothers that can only work 1st shift. Degrading is not the word it would be manipulaters!!!!

This position is not at one of the stores, it is the shared services center in Columbia, SC. The dress is business casual.

Working at Staples was crazy! I was a cashier,customer service,stocker,and do everything person. I heard from people who had worked there for a while that the company was going down. Sometimes we had very good people to work with-and these were 20 year olds-and right before i left they hired people that didnt know anything. I couldn't handle being yelled at by the customers because there were not enough people to help them. School time is the worst!!! All they care about now is selling Product Replacement Plans and Rewards-How many did we get a day. The managers are overworked and underpaid and have to endure "Conference Calls" to the detriment of the store operations. I did my best, but i don't like retail-SELL,SELL,SELL!!! My managers were nice to me, though. Some days the customer service is good and some days bad, depending on who was working. A lot of problems at the Copy Center. Customers want what they want and you better deliver it. We had mystery shoppers, that sucked. Customers complained about the Rebates and never acually read the signs and would then tell me about it at the register. I was in a bad mood at the end of the day. If you are a sensitive person, don't work there. If you can handle things and not care-go for it.

Yea, I don't know what they do to make thier DM's crazy, mine was too.
If you want to work there, make sure you have a smile plastered on your face! or you will be forced out. I worked my butt off for the benefits only. now they are about to be gone. they say they are for great customer service, yea right. Everytime I saw the DM, she snapped my head off. How can a person work in that enviroment??? No rednecks up here, though. I am going to end up working for myself!!!

RE: the posting about single mothers. I worked at a Staples in New Jersey, where the scheduling was totally unpredictable--a lottery rather than consistent work hours. One day, a borderline elderly gentleman asked if he could work there, and was available weekday afternoons (I no longer remember his words verbatim). This man probably had a long record of reliable work, and spoke and acted with a willing, determined attitude. He would have brought these attributes into our workplace. The manager did not want him, because the man was not available at random. An apparently excellent worker slipped right through management's fingers!

They didn't give me the uniform for a while it was like pulling teeth I had to wear my own clothes and when I was yelled at not wearing the uniform I yelled back at the manager for not giving me one in the first place.

Schedule? What schedule? The schedule changes every week - don't bother telling them when you can't work, they don't listen. 10 hours one week, 30 the next, and NO, NO predictability at all, ever. And my experience is recent AND current. For $8/hour, they expect you to be available from 9 to 9 EVERY day.

This way of scheduling is just stupid, but it helps Staples keep costs down. If you're not at 20 hours/ week consistently, there's benefits you're just not eligible for. So if you have no life, don't have friends you want to see, if you want to miss family events, and don't want to know what you're making from week to week, work for Staples.

And they really want you to push, do the hard sell. There's no flexibility once the customer asks for help, they want the really hard sell. They don't seem to care if the hard sell makes people walk away - push to sell the more expensive printer or computer, even if it means the customer walks out without buying anything. This could be a great place to work, if management just had some common sense!!!!

Try working in their warehouse.....it's hotter than hell. Sure you can wear shorts & have bottled water, but there are no fans (floor or ceiling), no A/C, and no air circulating. Most of the dock doors are closed. A virtual hothouse-would be great for growing plants and flowers.