r/Barnesandnoble

Why is it every time I need to use the bathroom in our store, some person in there is moaning and grunting while they poop?
I can't leave to use the bathroom often, so when I'm rushing to go and someone else is in here panting and grunting like their life is ending I feel repulsed!
Why are customers like this???

Yall im so over schedules. Just myself (a lead who will be at CW), my receiving guy (hi, I know you’re here), and a cafe person are all we will have in our store until just about noon. How are we supposed to keep up on shelving, on project, on shelf talkers, when we can’t even get people into the store? We’re maxed on people we can call to help because everyone works the closing shift (SHELVING STILL DOESNT GET COMPLETED) and it’s driving me up the fluffing wall! It’s like this more often than not now and… I don’t even know if the discount is worth the stress anymore. I love this job but what I’m doing isn’t what I signed up for.

Someone asked me to do a preorder for a parade of horribles but i was unsure on how to do it, but when I looked at the stock in our store there was a lot of them but obviously we can’t sell it yet until its release date, right? So I just did a customer hold instead but now I’m thinking I did it wrong. If I click on hold doesn’t it print out a paper and you would have to find it? I’m a little confused on how to do it since I’m a little new to it. I just thought of this after work the other day and I don’t go back until later this week so I’m scared I made a mistake. Also, what does reservation mean? I never had to choose that option but idk if I was supposed to click that

I don’t know when managers will start divvying up the register shifts but i’m salty af about being by myself on the register for 8 hours on MOTHER’s DAY where everyone with a mom in a 50 mile radius is swooping in on us.

i know by like hour 5 on a regular day i’m burnt out on getting told no on memberships and just stop asking.

Just thought I’d put out a reminder to anyone new or anyone who hasn’t taken advantage of the Edelweiss benefit that we get access to hundreds of free DARCs for being booksellers! The website is absolutely unusable on mobile, so I recommend using a desktop. It’s still clunky, but at least it’s navigable. Just be sure not to download too many without reviewing them before they come out because some sites ding you for that.

You can’t get anything that’s mega popular like the new ACOTAR, but it’s insane how many books you can just download for free.

Does anyone have any good tips/tricks for keeping up with FOS shelftalkers? My store has had a hell of a time trying to keep up with these things. Got any good filing systems or tech/apps that can help us keep up?

So tomorrow I have my job interview.

I have a bachelor in creative writing and I do have epilepsy which my doctor says no working in the kitchen etc what are my chances of getting the job it’s part time and I have always been a hard worker at my one job I was supposed to be trained to be a manager but the guy was sexist and didn’t train me. I need advice and warning lol

Just did my self evaluation and ranked myself mostly A’s unlike last time where I graded myself C’s and was demolition and given mostly D’s. My coworkers think I’m bold and courageous.

The way I see it, when I sit down with my SM, she will already have my grades locked in so why not shoot for the stars and have the full confidence of a middle aged white man?

Curious to know how others grade themselves as this review processes has now been in effect for a year.

You guys basically bullied her into removing her post because of your own internalized fear about what homophobes would think of a spicy gay romance table.

And because of your own questionable (and certainly subjective) takes on whether a book is "fetishizing" or not.

Your comments were pretty harsh given at the very least she had extremely positive intentions.

Are yall even actually gay irl?

I am disappointed 😞

Hey I’ve been working at barnes part time for i think four years now? normally over the summer my hours go up since im not in school and im more available than the 20-25 hours im averaging a week but every schedule posted since school let out has me working nearly 40 hours and well over 30. I get our store is understaffed but is this normal for a part timer to be putting in full time work? Also it works out that i work everyday but thursday and friday and then have been asked to come in on those days anyways. Normally i would say okay (hence why I average a decent amount of hours) But frankly i feel like if I say no they’ll be mad and if i say yes i’m working 2 weeks in a row.

Hey guys! I just accepted a job as a lead barista at a BN cafe and could not seem to find any insight on tips. Do the tips make a noticeable difference on your check? I’m hoping it adds like a dollar an hour to my check honestly

When the former Target exec--now Head of Stores at Paper Source--first visited our Los Angeles store, she came in on a mission: to talk us out of unionizing.

Whether employees reading this post are pro-union or not, I think most of us can agree that it's a best practice to be careful about how we discuss sexual orientation in our stores.

Eager to demo her sales skills, our new Head of Stores dove right in when a customer came in looking for an anniversary gift. The only thing this customer said that indicated his orientation was that the gift was for his husband. Myself and the staff heard the entire interaction, since our store is really just one big room.

After the customer purchased a journal and gift wrap service, he stepped outside the store, while an openly LGBTQ staff member began working on the gift wrap. Less than 2 feet away, our Head of Stores began congratulating herself on the sale, following up with: "He [the customer] told me his husband was a big ole gay boy, so I chose the bright colors and rainbow paper because THEY like that." She said this with an emphasis on the word “they” and a condescending tone.

None of the 3 of us present ever heard this guy say anything remotely close to "big ole gay boy" to describe his husband and frankly, he looked uncomfortable when she pushed the rainbow paper on him. 

Now, I'm sure some people will say I'm being too Californian, but to me, this is not appropriate. The majority of our staff and a significant portion of our customers are openly queer. What would you guys do in this situation?

I'm trying to post here anonymously, because I know my SMs and several senior booksellers read here.

Lately at our store things have soured. I love working at Barnes and Noble. I love my fellow booksellers, working with people, and I'm obsessed with books.

But things are bad. Customers are rarely in a good mood, and take things out on our booksellers. And it feels like we have no recourse - we're just supposed to stand there and take it like good little boys and girls. I've been cussed at, ignored, talked over, and hung up on by customers lately, and when I report it to anyone in charge I'm not really given support. I'm just expected to maintain my cheery demeanor and keep going even though I want to cry most of the time these things happen to me.

Then there are my fellow booksellers. I love working with everyone - most of the time. But there are times that some booksellers display a great deal of passive-aggression. Tossing books with violence onto the tables, rolling their eyes when I ask for help with something. A perfect example is when a senior bookseller came in recently, passed me on their way to the break room, and straight up ignored me when I greeted them. It feels icky, even if it's not personal. I felt disrespected. It would be one thing if this behavior was only once or twice, but it's consistent, and across the board from multiple booksellers.

Our SM is also fairly mercurial. We know when they're in a bad mood, the whole store can feel it, and we try to evade them when this happens. They tend to nitpick on us about the smallest things, and nothing we do is right or seems to appease them. It feels really shitty to be given consistent negative, not even constructive just plain negative, feedback constantly.

Our SM recently pulled us aside to remind us that we are expected to maintain a good attitude and professional behavior, but all I wanted to do was ask if they were beholden to the same standards, as much of the problem is their own attitude. It's one thing if customers abuse us and make us feel like we're incompetent, but it feels like it's coming from all sides. We're also stretched incredibly thin, expected to keep standards up while being bombarded by tasks that are impossible to complete in the time we're allotted, while giving customers our undivided priority.

I'm surprised it's gotten this bad. It makes me dread coming to work. I used to love my job, and I am hopeful this is just a blip, and that it will pass soon, but for the first time in 6 years I'm really contemplating quitting.

TLDR; Customers, SM, and Senior Booksellers all have negative attitudes that are pulling the rest of the store down. Feel underappreciated and overwhelmed. Used to love the job, really hopeful this will change, but afraid if not I might have to suck it up and find somewhere else to work. and I really don't want to leave. ;_;

Hi everyone! I’m sadly leaving B&N in a couple of weeks to pursue a new opportunity and one of the things I’ll miss the most (besides my incredible coworkers 💛) are the daily updates and “looking ahead” posts. I love to keep up with new and upcoming publications and find that Booktok and Bookstagram don’t really cater to my interests (history, political epic fantasy, literary fiction award winners, translated works, etc).

Do you guys have any tips on how I can keep myself aware of upcoming and/or trending books? I follow my favorite authors on Instagram, but that hasn’t helped me diversify my interests lol.

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you!

Any idea if we'll be getting raises this year? Or a bonus like like last year? If so any idea when?

whenever i work cashwrap (which isn't that often tbf) during my shift I always get atleast one *usually* older person who made up their own title of a book that they want me to find for them. From there on it's just a new edition of a guess who game where I ask information that they most likely don't know (author, release date, etc) so then I have to get creative and ask things pertaining to the book like maybe a small synopsis to help me narrow it down. This time this lady knew next to nothing about the made up book she was looking for! With a line behind her I lucked out on my SM being next to me so we traded places so I could dwindle the line down. Checked out an entire line and I hear my SM dealing with this now pretty rude lady, my SM was able to deescalate from what I heard and just told her we don't have it in stock (or something along the lines), the older lady now upset just leaves, grabs a card, cuts the line coming back and throws the card at the counter and with the cash she puts it at the furthest most corner to her so I have to reach over and grab it lol. Even the customers in the line were pretty baffled with her behavior. Maybe look up the book you're trying to buy to make sure it exists?

I know at least someone from my store is going to see this and I genuinely don’t give a fuck because I already put my two weeks in and got a new WAYYY better paying job.

This job was genuinely fine last year aside from a few misunderstandings and drama with our old CTE which resolved fairly quickly and wasn’t a huge deal compared to what’s been going on since last October-November ish since our new store manager started working here…

I only work in the cafe, so let me just explain what has happened. It’s genuinely so much I have to do bullet points.

-Schedule went from having 3 people on the weekends and two people 9-5:30 and 12-8:30 on weekdays (this is fine we are a low volume store) to having the ABSOLUTE BARE MINIMUM schedule (usually 9-5 and 4-8:30 most days. Absolutely unacceptable even for a low volume store)

-Extreme hour cuts to the point where I can barely pay my rent each month (I am literally getting 9-13 hours some weeks)

-People just allow another bookfloor manager to straight up target and harass me for small minuscule things that NO OTHER MANAGER gets on me for when I close (she literally got on me for TINY crumbs that were genuinely MELDED into the ground and claimed the lobby was dirty, accused me of not sweeping and mopping WHEN I DID BOTH ANTICIPATING SHE WOULD SAY SOMETHING AND SHE STILL FOUND AN ISSUE)

-i confronted said manager on this and actually started arguing for once and going at it with her because mind you, I’ve spoken to numerous people in the store and they all agree she targets me… yet no one says anything even when they are directly witnessing it. I was getting into it with said manager the other day and another manager that was present just stood silently and witnessed it, like the spineless bastard they and almost everyone else is at my store, and got mad AT ME because it escalated to me calling her a schizo for imagining things LMAOOO. If anyone from my store is reading this they’re gonna know its me and again I don’t give a fuck, most of y’all deserve to be fired or demoted!! Yall are incompetent as hell and putting everything onto well meaning people who just want to go to work and go home.

-Sorry I have trouble condensing my thoughts but I already had to go to HR about her and another manager regarding an incident where I was sent home for not completing my job duties fast enough when I informed the managers when I came in I had slept literally 0 hours that night and was having severe period cramps.

-Said manager that I was talking about straight up had accused me of lying about my health problems when I literally have documentation of everything except for the condition causing my period cramps. She literally has such a privileged and entitled attitude and has said multiple times that she doesn’t feel bad for people with no/bad health insurance. Mind you I’ve explained to numerous managers including the store manager that the nature of endometriosis (which is what I probably have) is difficult to diagnose and with medicaid and no car I will not be able to get a diagnosis at this moment (i am literally extremely low income and have to pay rent to my mom just for us to survive). They still let said manager go around and openly call me a liar.

-i have accommodations for my other disabilities/mental health issues that I LITERALLY HAVE DIAGNOSED AND ON FILE (mainly PTSD which is what causes me terrible debilitating insomnia especially when unnecessary unjustified things are happening in my life like this..) so why the fuck would I be lying about period cramps?? I literally have my other stuff documented. When I called out a few months ago said manager went on and on to me about how I need a doctor’s note in the most rude and inflammatory way possible. I tried to explain my situation and she was extremely unsympathetic and
was boasting about how fast she got in to get her uterine issues diagnosed. Girl not everyone is as privileged as you!! Mind you this is a grown woman ONLY A YEAR OLDER THAN ME

-Obviously I reported her to HR for the first incident among other things with her disgusting unprofessional attitude towards me. Whenever I point it out she writes passive aggressive notes in the communications logs poking fun at how i feel “targeted” and “offended” all the time. Girl maybe its because you are targeting me and acting dense when I call you out on it, then you run away into the office and hide and refuse to sign off on all the closing tasks I CLEARLY DID if you weren’t having those schizo delusions. Mind you, I was raised around genuinely schizophrenic/bipolar/psychotic whatever you call it people… I promise I’m not being ableist.. SHE blatantly is and no one says anything. I did not call this lady a slur! And i could’ve. I could’ve said way worse (mind you we’re both lgbt white women… but she seems to CLEARLY be the more privileged one.)

-I’m going to try and condense my points about her more succinctly because just typing this out is infuriating me and the fact I still have to work with her up until my last day… but I reported her to HR a second time because she was talking shit to my coworker who I’m actually cool with about how i’m “lying about my health issues” so I have them as a witness. And it completely tracks considering when I called out that one time she said “I could be lying” TO ME ON THE PHONE

-She also misgenders my barista coworkers that go by they/them all the time. She doesn’t care… also her and that aforementioned spineless manager kicked out a black homeless guy for asking people for food and reprimanded me for offering to buy him some!! You people are genuinely racist as fuck. Mind you there is a singular POC bookseller and I feel soo bad for her. She ACTUALLY apologized to me in the past. No one else has. If she’s reading this girl I’m so sorry what the managers here especially our store manager has put you through!!

-our store manager has been reported a billion times to HR for retaliating against our senior barista (I FEEL LIKE HE MIGHT READ THIS HI KING I FW U SM!!) (we had no CTE for like 6 months) and making him do stuff out of his job description then reprimanding him on his performance review for it as well as putting him on a PIP unjustly (she tried to do this to me too but I got a new job and put my two weeks in so she literally hasnt made me sign off on shit. I’ve been threatened with a PIP twice yet i’ve never had to sign off on shit. She’s all bark no bite.)

-She has also been reported a billion times for being a racist and a bum who retaliates against the part timers if you say anything speaking out against how toxic and horrible this workplace is!!

-Her and other managers such as the one that harasses me constantly nitpick anything that goes on in the cafe and they are constantly telling us to do something different every week, not even kidding. The manager that harasses me got mad because one of my coworkers put two different scones on the same plate when our store manager literally told them to do that. Thats literally a standard at different stores

There is literally more I could get into but I’m about to make myself even angrier if I go more into detail😭😭 In short… FUCK this store, ifykyk and idgaf, FUCK you to the manager I’m talking about if she reads this she’ll know who she is and immediately throw a fit and gossip to all the other managers who.. mind you.. are in their late 20’s-30’s yet are too scared to tell this hoe that she’s targeting me yet THEY ALL SEE IT. YALL SUCK TOO!! Not every single one of yall, I fw the bookfloor manager that cussed our store manager clean out and never got fired. She is a queen and is ALWAYS kind and helpful.

I’d actually like to give another fuck you to her. I really hope she reads this and I know she’s going to cry and say its harassment and try to flip the narrative on me and say im #triggered, BITCH FUCK YOUUU none of this is a threat, its just shining light on your true character!! This job has caused me sleepless nights, made me physically sick with stress, all for less than $200 a week some weeks and horrible hours and performance reviews no matter how much my work is praised TO MY FACE by CUSTOMERS AND MANAGERS?? YALL ARE HYPOCRITES!! Yall are miserable. We got a new CTE and she’s actually wonderful but she’s barely been here for a month and is already fed up with the scheduling and higher management.

When I leave I know that place is gonna crash and burn and rightfully so… yall stay petty, conniving, hypocritical and dense and I hope me and all the other good workers leave too!!!

I’m posting this A) cuz i want people from my store to see it B) because I want anyone else possible to see it! After all the fucking mental strain they’ve put me through KNOWING I HAVE DIAGNOSED PTSD ON FILE??? LOLL yall can suckkkk it. Have fun covering the cafe 😂 I wish I was in a financial situation where I could up and walk out. I called out yesterday even when I can’t afford to because thats how PHYSICALLY SICK the job has been making me because NOBODY CARES TO STAND UP FOR SHIT!!

Ive come in to work on 0-3 hours of sleep and been forced to deal with so much there ALONE even for a low volume store its ridiculous and I’ve worked a high volume barista job alone before and it was awful, but something about this store is uniquely sinister.

To reiterate for anyone from my store who may be reading, SOME OF YALL BE RACIST AS FUCK, TRANSPHOBIC AND SPINELESS AS FUCK TO THESE ISSUES!! THERE IS NO REASON TO NOT SAY ANYTHING I AM ALSO WHITE AND SAYING SHIT LOL

and if the shoe doesn’t fit it aint about you.. there’s plenty of decent people and managers at my store but the toxicity of the store manager and the one conniving bitch I’m talking about outweighs it sadly.

Some of you guys should be in MAGA hats but disguise your ignorance with blue hair and piercings. I am a socialist and I never trust any sort of “woke” workplace. There is no such thing lol.

I really hope at least someone reads all of this. In all seriousness I do need the mental health support right now as all of this caused me to have a mental breakdown yesterday. I am so grateful to have been hired at a higher paying barista job that will actually pay me properly and give me proper hours for the almost two years of experience i have.

I know this is super long but this is literally the condensed version. Its so bad.

So right at the height of the holiday season I had to go on FMLA for severe mental health issues and ended up having to resign about a month later without ever returning in person. I really liked pretty much all of my coworkers (minus my manager) and would love to stop in and see them but I'm not sure if they would want to see me considering to them it must seem like I just quit with no warning. I haven't been back since I left, even as a customer but I was wondering what those of you who have or are working there would think if an old coworker that left like I did stopped in. Would it irritate you or would you be glad to see them? Any thoughts would be appreciated because I really don't know.