Fear and Loathing in Borders Books
Due to the non-blogging contract, some Borders employees don’t feel like they can speak up for fear of being fired. I recently received an email from an employee at a store in Florida regarding a newly installed supervisor who posted the following by the time clock on July 4th.
Read Me
The past NO longer matters. It doesn’t matter who you are, how long you have worked here, or what your position is. If I do not feel that you are working hard meaning (selling make titles, shelving carts, cleaning the store, borders rewards, customer service, etc.) You WILL lose your hours and others will get them. I have people calling every day asking for jobs that I can hire. I do like the crew that we have and I do not want to cut any ones hours, I do not want to lose anybody BUT no more mister nice guy.
There’s a lot wrong with this ‘letter’, but perhaps the biggest is the fact that it was done on July 4th. The fourth of July!
All major chains have employee issues. Not every employee is a model employee. Yet, a disturbing pattern seems to be emerging. Any advertising or eCommerce veteran knows that a small pattern of complaints on an issue may point to a greater problem. For every incident reported, there are often 10 more that are not.
Borders does not seem to be investing in their employees during their ‘turnaround’ attempt. So, Borders employees are angry and I hope that the non-blogging contract doesn’t squash the normal type of commentary that anyone should have about their life experiences.
